Best E-mails of the Week 6/8/03

 

 

 

Kevin and I enjoyed Dean's Day at the Engineering School at Columbia University this week.

Dean Zvi Galil said that a new breakthrough in the electrical engineering department by a professor who works on flat screen technology will mean that the price of laptops will be coming down to about $300 in the near future. 

We toured the civil engineering lab where a giant centrifuge arm is being constructed.

Mary and I earmark our annual contributions to Columbia for this project. The arm will allow soil samples to be subjected to 12 g's for accelerated separation of particles, and allow simulation of pollutant travel through soil medium.

Our guest speaker was Santiago Calatrava, whose Milwaukee Art Museum design received our ASCE's award for best project last year, and Time Magazine's award for "Best of 2001".  It appears to be a giant concrete bird soaring into Lake Michigan.  The video he presented showing human forms transformed into structures was the best Engineering as Art display I have ever seen.

 

During the Spring term, I enjoyed being an alumni mentor and judge of the Gateway Labs engineering team Community Service Projects for Freshman.  Our team of Luke, Karmen, Tracy, David and Brandon prepared a new web site for the Morningside Senior Citizen's Center in Harlem.

http://www.mrhsny.org/

 

The picture below is not our team at work!

 

 

Keeping with this week's theme of engineering related topics that were emailed to me:

News Flash

At Heathrow Airport today, an individual, (an engineer?) was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a compass, a protractor, and a calculator.
Authorities believe he is a member of the notorious Al-gebra movement.

He is being charged with carrying weapons of math instruction.

 

 Keep up with college life by reading student newspapers for free on line such as:

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/

 

Every year the Columbia engineering students compete in the annual Rube Goldberg competition.  Jim just sent me this video of a great Rube sequence that is now a cool Honda commercial.  Can you view it on your broadband?

http://home.attbi.com.~bernhard36/honda-ad.htm

 

Hi Pete
 
How are you doing.... I came across this video on the computer...
i wonder if you have seen it???
i don't know how to make it clicky for you,,,, so just type in the following and see if it comes up... Ok let me know if it worked...
 
 
jim

I saw it through http://home.attbi.com.~bernhard36

and then found honda-ad.htm   (Keep sound on.)

It might take some navigation through Google, but keep trying, it's worth it!

The video ad ends with the question: "Isn't it nice when things just work?"

 

 

 

Funny Traffic Engineering Signs

 

 

Here is an email that's a little longer than needed.  It's not required reading for the semester.

The story behind the letter below is that there is this nutball in
>>Newport, Rhode Island, named Scott Williams, who digs things out of his
>>backyard and sends the stuff he finds to the Smithsonian Institute,
>>labelling them with scientific names, insisting that they are actual
>>archaeological finds. This guy really exists and does this in his spare
time!
>>>
>>>Anyway...here's the actual response from the Smithsonian
>>Institution.  Bear this in mind next time you think you are challenged
in >>your duty to respond to a difficult situation in writing.
>>>
>>>
>>----------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>
>>>Smithsonian Institute
>>>207 Pennsylvania Avenue
>>>Washington, DC 20078
>>>
>>>
>>>Dear Mr. Williams:
>>>
>>>Thank you for your latest submission to the Institute, labelled
>>"93211-D, layer seven, next to the clothesline post...Hominid skull."
>>>
>>>We have given this specimen a careful and detailed examination, and
>>regret to inform you that we disagree with your theory that it
represents >>conclusive proof of the presence of Early Man in Charleston County two
>>million years ago.  Rather, it appears that what you have found is the
>>head of a Barbie doll, of the variety that one of our staff, who has
>>small children, believes to be "Malibu Barbie."
>>>
>>>It is evident that you have given a great deal of thought to the
>>analysis of this specimen, and you may be quite certain that those of us
>>who are familiar with your prior work in the field were loathe to come
to >>contradiction with your findings.  However, we do feel that  there are a
>>number of physical attributes of the specimen which might have tipped
you >>off to its modern origin:
>>>
>>>1. The material is moulded plastic. Ancient hominid remains are
>>typically fossilised bone.
>>>
>>>2. The cranial capacity of the specimen is approximately 9 cubic
>>centimetres, well below the threshold of even the earliest identified
>>proto-homonids.
>>>
>>>3. The dentition pattern evident on the skull is more consistent with
>>the common domesticated dog than it is with the ravenous man-eating
>>Pliocene clams you speculate roamed the wetlands during that time.
>>>
>>>This latter finding (No. 3) is certainly one of the most intriguing
>>hypotheses you have submitted in your history with this institution, but
>>the evidence seems to weigh rather heavily against it.  Without
>>>going into too much detail, let us say that:
>>>
>>>  A. The specimen looks like the head of a Barbie doll that a dog has
>>chewed on.
>>>
>>>  B. Clams don't have teeth.
>>>
>>>It is with feelings tinged with melancholy that we must deny your
>>request to have the specimen carbon-dated. This is partially due to the
>>heavy load our lab must bear in its normal operation, and partly due to
>>carbon-dating's notorious inaccuracy in fossils of recent geologic
>>record.  To the best of our knowledge, no Barbie dolls were produced
>>prior to 1956 AD, and carbon-dating is likely to produce wildly
>>inaccurate results.
>>>
>>>Sadly, we must also deny your request that we approach the National
>>Science Foundation Phylogeny Department with the concept of assigning
>>your specimen the scientific name Australopithecus spiff-arino.
Speaking personally, I, for one, fought tenaciously for the
>>acceptance of your proposed taxonomy, but was ultimately voted down
>>because the species name you selected was hyphenated, and didn't really sound like it
might be Latin.
>>>
>>>However, we gladly accept your generous donation of this fascinating
>>specimen to the museum. While it is undoubtedly not a Hominid fossil, it
>>is, nonetheless, yet another riveting example of the great body of  work
>>you seem to accumulate here so effortlessly. You should know that our
>>Director has reserved a special shelf in his own office for the display
>>of the specimens you have previously submitted to the Institution, and
>>the entire staff speculates daily on what you will
>>>happen upon next in your digs at the site you have discovered in your
>>Newport back yard.
>>>
>>>We eagerly anticipate your trip to our nation's capital that you
>>proposed in your last letter, and several of us are pressing the
Director to pay for it.  We are particularly interested in hearing you
>>>expand on your theories surrounding the trans-positating fillifitation
>>of ferrous ions in a structural matrix that makes the excellent juvenile
>>Tyrannosaurus Rex femur you recently discovered take on the deceptive
>>appearance of a rusty 9-mm Sears Craftsman automotive crescent wrench.
>>>
>>>Yours in Science,
>>>
>>>Harvey Rowe
>>>Chief Curator-Antiquities
>
 


 

 

Pete

 

 

 


 

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