Young Americans not buying cars

Wow. Transformational. The world is truly going to look a lot different very soon.

Kids these days. They don’t get married. They don’t buy homes. And, much to the dismay of the world’s auto makers, they apparently don’t feel a deep and abiding urge to own a car.

This week, the New York Times pulled back the curtain on General Motors’ recent, slightly bewildered efforts to connect with the Millennials — that giant generational cohort born in the 1980s and 1990s whose growing consumer power is reshaping the way corporate America markets its wares. Unfortunately for car companies, today’s teens and twenty-somethings don’t seem all that interested in buying a set of wheels. They’re not even particularly keen on driving.

The Times notes that less than half of potential drivers age 19 or younger had a license in 2008, down from nearly two-thirds in 1998. The fraction of 20-to-24-year-olds with a license has also dropped. And according to CNW research, adults between the ages of 21 and 34 buy just 27 percent of all new vehicles sold in America, a far cry from the peak of 38 percent in 1985.

via Why Don’t Young Americans Buy Cars? – Jordan Weissmann – Business – The Atlantic.

James Cameron begins solo dive to the bottom of the ocean

Film director James Cameron has the biggest balls of anyone I know. Titanic and his other hit films made him boatloads of money. Cameron never has to work another day in his life and still he chooses to dive to the most remote. most inhospitable place on our planet … alone!

I am in awe.

Film director and ocean explorer James Cameron began his one-man plunge to the bottom of the sea Sunday afternoon, Eastern Time, in a scientific and film-making quest to touch the deepest spot on Earth, a gash in the western Pacific Ocean that reaches nearly seven miles below the surface.

Seven years in the making, the descent by one of the most successful Hollywood directors of all time (“Aliens”, “Terminator”, “Titanic”, “Avatar”) was delayed for some 16 hours by choppy seas.

via James Cameron begins solo dive to the bottom of the ocean – The Washington Post.

Land once home to Raleigh baseball field now eyed for urban park

News and Observer reporter Matt Garfield wrote a captivating article about the Devereux Meadows site one day being a park again after 30 years as a trash truck parking lot.

It reminded me of Leo Suarez’s look back at the old ball park from two years ago.

RALEIGH — An expanse of land just north of downtown moved closer to a greener future this month when the city began relocating a sanitation and fleet yard to a new home outside the Beltline.

The land, which has spent the past 30 years as a parking lot for garbage trucks, is envisioned as a park and greenway that supporters hope will enliven an aging gateway into downtown.

Called Devereux Meadows, the planned 15-acre park takes its name from the minor league ballpark that once anchored the site along the west side of Capital Boulevard between Peace Street and Wade Avenue.

via Land once home to Raleigh baseball field now eyed for urban park – Wake County – NewsObserver.com.

Cheap Thoughts: buoyant disposables

With a built-in air pocket, this can might have stayed at the top of Falls Lake, not the bottom.

On my greenway ride last weekend I couldn’t stop staring at the trash floating on the surface of Crabtree Creek. The trash was mostly plastic bottles: sealed but empty plastic bottles, that is, and therefore buoyant.

I thought it would be far easier to fish floating trash out of the creek as opposed to submerged trash. Empty plastic bottles are easy to fetch, but what about empty aluminum cans? Most go under as soon as they are filled with water.

What if all disposable bottles and cans were mandated to float? What if each was made with air pocket built in that would force the empty container to float? I think it would make it far easier to corral trash that floats before it fouls our seas than trash that doesn’t float. Recycling the materials would be boosted as well, since containers which might have ordinarily been flushed into the oceans could be better recovered.

I wonder if something like this could be done.

On being a Gladys Kravitz

Mrs. Kravitz

I’ve heard that some neighbors are calling me a “Gladys Kravitz.” For you youngsters not familiar with the TV show Bewitched, Mrs. Kravitz was the nosy neighbor of Samantha and Darren Stephens who was always alerting her disinterested husband, Abner, to the strange goings-on in the Stephens household. Gladys is always right, of course, but that does not make the comparison … um, flattering.

I love my neighbors and would do anything for them. It doesn’t matter who they are, what they look like, how much money they make, or anything. It doesn’t even matter if they don’t see eye-to-eye with me. If you’re my neighbor, you’re my people. It’s as simple as that.
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Cheap Thoughts: focused magnetic fields

Magnetic lines of force

I’ve been thinking that there must be a way to focus magnetic fields to very precise shapes. As I drove to work this week, I imagined my car driving through such a field in a way that my car’s speakers vibrated from the field’s effects, creating sound as the car moved through it. I think it would be a neat trick to get sound from a car’s speakers independent of whether or not they’re connected to anything!

For a while I’ve been thinking that perhaps magnetic fields could be used as antennas. Rather than have a big, metal dish to collect signals toward a focal point, a magnetic field could be generated that would invisibly reflect radio signals toward a focal point. By strengthening or weakening the field, the virtual dish could be expanded or contracted as needed, raising or lowering the gain.

Magnetic fields are circular in nature and the challenge would be how to create a parabolic shape with a field. I also have no idea if a magnetic field can even be made to reflect radio signals. It’s an interesting idea, nonetheless.

Update 25 March: I am reminded that a device exists that can beam sound to a remote location, only for this one the receiver isn’t just a speaker, it’s a human brain! Behold MEDUSA, which makes use of the microwave auditory effect.

Cheap Thoughts: pollen and rain

We all know what role pollen plays in “May Flowers,” but what about its role in “April Showers?”

It’s well understood how clouds are formed by water condensing on particulates high in the atmosphere. Certainly pollen would be among these particulates, wouldn’t you think?

Put another way, do plants have the ability to actually make it rain?

Paul Allen funds studies of the brain

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is putting $500 million of his fortune into looking for the “essence of humanity” in our brains.

I sent him an email explaining that, while the brain is indeed fascinating and worthy of study, it is nothing but the hardware. The software (what makes us who we are) is the mind. You ain’t gonna find the “essence of humanity” in the jumbled nerves of the brain.

If Mr. Allen really wants to find what makes us human, he’ll fund some studies of consciousness.

I’ve always been fascinated by the workings of the human brain. I’m awed by its enormous complexity. Our brains are many magnitudes more advanced in the way they work than any computer software ever invented. Think about this: We can teach students to program computers in a couple of years of school. But even with a lifetime of learning, at present we are far away from fully understanding the brain.

via Billionaire Paul Allen Pours $500 Million Into Quest To Find The Essence Of Humanity In The Brain – Forbes.

Rebuilding Together

Evelyn Contre (boardmember) and Dan Sargent (Director) of Rebuilding Together of the Triangle

At lunch today, I stopped by the home of Mr. John Snipes in Southeast Raleigh. Rebuilding Together of the Triangle’s executive director, Dan Sargent, invited me to see the renovation work being done on Snipes home.

Mr. Snipes, a Navy veteran of the Vietnam era, had a tree fall on his home by last year’s tornado and his insurance didn’t cover all the costs of fixing it. For 11 months his home has been covered by a tarp. Mr. Snipes’s roof and air conditioning needed replacing, too. His home had no insulation and for the past two years he heated his home with electric space heaters.
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“Your USPS shipment postage labels receipt” scam

I got this creative phishing email scam in my inbox today. The links go to a phishing website where the crooks collect your payment information. Don’t be fooled!

Return-Path: USPS_Shipping_Alert@usps.com
From: “Royce Erickson” USPS_Shipping_Alert@usps.com
To: mister cool guy at markturner.net
Subject: Your USPS shipment postage labels receipt.
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:14:02 -0300

Acct #: 0341903

Dear client:

This is an email confirmation for your order of 3 online shipping label(s) with postage. We will charge you the following amount:

Transaction ID: #6924766
Print Date/Time: 03/12/2012 02:30 AM CST
Postage Amount: $47.65
Credit Card Number: XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

Priority Mail Regional Rate Box B # 0697 5722 3716 9279 1176 (Sequence Number 1 of 1)
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