An interesting double came across my desk today and surely this demonstrates a twist that most would never have envisaged only a few short years ago.
An Indian car engineer and manufacturer,  Mahindra,   who most US citizens have never heard of,  is contemplating buying into the US because it sees US manufacturing as "cheap" labor.
Whilst the giants of the US auto industry,  Ford and GM openly talk about reducing production in order to survive.
Sounds unbelievable doesn't it - read the articles and you be the judges

....click the links to read more 

This page looks at 2 distinctly different areas. The first deals with how the brain works and the second looks at the old adage,  "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story"

First things first, I was taught and am very fond of telling the Archimedes "Eureka" story.  It strikes a chord which most of us and we can directly relate to this and similar situations. 

Many times I have wrestled with a problem and felt sure that the answer was staring me in the face, but I just could not see it, I felt that I could not see the "wood for the trees" - then Wham - an unrelated job or series of events and suddenly the answer is glaringly obvious. 

As they say in all the good TV program's - Why is this so ? The linking article refers to a research project at Northwestern University in Illinois and the work of Dr Jung-Beeman who specializes in “high-level cognition,” , in particular,  how the brain thinks

The second part of this page looks at the facts behind the myth.  Do we want to really know the truth if we can run with a good story.  Do we want to believe in Santa and the elves ?  Good story tellers are a valuable commodity,  so what if they stretch the facts a little.  I'm all in favor of a bit of imagination and if it makes a good story and doesn't hurt anyone,  what is the harm.  So,  keep that vision of a naked Archimedes running down the street shouting "Eureka" - It might not be a pretty sight,  but hey we all need to get a life

....click the links to read more

Hydrogen could become an important part of the transport industry in the future in the form of fuel cells as the need increases to move to alternate energy sources that are not as polluting and costly as fossil fuels.  The problem is that at the moment production of hydrogen can involve creating just as much pollution.  A group that goes by the name of the 20/2 Collaborative thinks they may have a solution to this.  They are proposing a solution that involves producing hydrogen in ponds of algae and then storing the product in large balloons sitting above the ponds.  The ponds will be able to be built directly in the locations where the hydrogen will be supplied from. 

This could be an elegant solution,  assuming it is viable,  that would bring together the skills of a range of professionals including civil and structural engineers,  chemical engineers,  through to electrical and mechanical engineers.  There are also other potential uses,  can you imagine the advertising space that this would produce.

....click the links to read more 

Most of you will probably be asking the question,   what is an earthship?   Well it is  an ecologically friendly home build from recycled and sustainable materials and are also almost completely self sustaining.  They are starting to gain in popularity.  A group in Nicaragua is taking on the challenge of building a home in 16 days.  They are also using it as an excuse to do training and incresae awareness which is a good thing.

Obviously solutions like this aren't going to work in high density populations such as cities but they still could become an important part of our future.  There is much talk about it and people are starting to experiment but we don't have anything that reaches the level of earthships yet.

....click the links to read more
 

US aeronautics engineers and rocket scientists back in the 50's and 60's developed the idea of satalloons.  Here you can see a picture of one and it looks very impressive at 100ft diameter.  Just look at it in comparison to the car.

In an innovative way,  Whisky is going to be helping keep school children warmer in a school in Tynecastle.  Well not Whisky exactly but the excess heat from the production of Whisky.  The excess heat will be used to help heat water for the school and is expected to pay for itself in energy savings in around 4 years.

Civil engineers should be looking for more ways that buildings can be designed like this to be complementary.

Pete Bitar is the creator of a new device called the Vertipod.  It works similar to a Segway except that instead of moving on wheels it flies.  It flies at about 40 Mph (Just over 64 Km/h)  and can reach a height of 15 feet (Just over 4.5 meters) from the ground.  You will soon be able to purchase on for around $10 000.  And for those engineers that like to tinker the bonus is that you have to assemble it yourself.

A lot of rubbish ends up in the ocean.  It's an unfortunate fact but it's true.  Have you ever wondered where all the junk ends up however?  Plastics take a great many years to break down,  and also tend to float.  Turns out that currents and winds have a tendance to collect all this junk in certain areas of the oceans.  One such place is in the Pacific and is twice the size of Texas.