Category: Environment

Categories
Environment Solar car

[189] Of Missouri-Rolla wins

University of Missouri-Rolla won the Solar Car Race, as expected. They also managed to break the record set by the University of Michigan Solar Car Team 2 years ago.

Congratulations but now, it’s time for World Solar Challenge in Australia. Michigan is still comtemplating on joining. As for me, I can’t risk to not attend the Fall semester.

Nevertheless, I will still be the background crew for the team.

Quote of the day
“…Consumerism in the end will leave this world nothing but a broken shell. Unlimited wants and a limited rock to live on. We better find a way to travel the stars soon.”
– wyldwulfwytch, in a forum concerning whaling industry.

Categories
Environment Photography Solar car

[183] Of torn by failure

I am currently torn apart by the failure suffered by the team and I’ve decided to to fight this failure by fighting in Green’s name more aggresively. I do not know how yet but maybe finally joining Greenpeace officially.

News by AP on ASC 2003:

Solar-Powered Car Race Opens in Chicago
Mon Jul 14,10:39 AM ET
By DON BABWIN, Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO – The grounds of the Museum of Science and Industry had the look of pit row on race day Sunday, but the cars crossing the starting line bore more than a passing resemblance to giant envelopes on wheels and their fuel comes from the sun, not the pump.

The American Solar Challenge started when a team from Kansas State University became the first from 20 U.S. and Canadian colleges to hit the road in a 2,300-mile race that will end in about 10 days in Claremont, Calif. Drivers will spend most of their time on the way to California on historic Route 66.

“The strategy is to go as fast as you can and look for potholes,” said John Blessing, a crew member for KSU’s car. “You really feel every pothole, that’s the truth.”

The race sponsored in part by the U.S. Department of Energy (news – web sites) features cars that were years and, in some cases, well over $100,000 in the making. Made of the lightest and strongest materials the students can find, including the Kevlar used to make bulletproof vests, the cars can weigh as little as 400 pounds, students said.

The cars’ sleek bodies rest just inches off the ground, allowing them to slice through the wind efficiently. The vehicles are powered by the 3,000 or so small solar cells that cover them.

They can easily travel over 50 mph and can climb past 70 mph under the right conditions, students said.

News from the American Solar Challenge by ACS 2003:

REPORTS FROM THE ROAD – July 11, 2003

Last year’s winner Michigan fails to qualify
By Richard King
U.S. Department of Energy

BURLINGTON, Wis., July 11, 2003 – Since I know a lot of you will be going home for the weekend soon, I wanted to share some breaking news.

The University of Michigan, last year’s winner and defending champion, did not pass scrutineering and is out of the race. The servomechanism that powered the steering failed and the car is unable to turn safely out of traffic.

Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal also did not pass scrutineering. That team’s car has stability problems and poor brakes.

As of 2:30 p.m. , teams are frantically driving laps as they try to complete the 140 miles (61 laps) necessary to qualify. Yale, McMaster, Iowa State, and Western Ontartio look “iffy” and might not make it.

I dedicated this post to the University of Michigan Solar Car Team.

Some rights reserved. By Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams

We will come back stronger.p/s – Another one of my works published in the Mirror Project.

Categories
Environment

[162] Of 2003 Earth Day

HAPPY EARTH DAY.
Like what Greenpeace has always said, it’s time to take back the planet.

Categories
Environment Humor

[156] Of winter in spring and April Fool’s

Once when I was small, I’d read this one book published by Reader’s Digest. It was a book with black, hard cover. I couldn’t remember what the book was about but it had a picture with the Sphinx covered with snow. Seeing Egypt covered in snow is impossible back then that even I who was a nothing but a kid dismissed the picture as an impossibility. Now however, seeing the scenario in the real world is not really science fiction. Cairo may well be seeing snow if the climate continues to change as drastically as it is now.

Ann Arbor has the reputation as a town with notorious winter. All people that I’ve known off always sigh about spending the wintertime in the Tree Town. Upon hearing all the complaints and the sorts, I had waited my first winter in Michigan complete with almost all the winter gears. Later, turned out that my first winter was not so bad at all and I pushed all the words I had heard before as merely exaggeration. Yet, I heard chatters among the local residents on how that winter was fairly easy compared to past years.

This year winter, the truth is now known. The snow fell but it was late. But it fell anyway with a vengeance. By the time it took a halftime break, the snow was more than ankle’s deep. After halftime was up, the snow fell again well into February. By that time, the snow in some parts of Arboretum was groin’s deep.

February passed slowly and winter with it, or so it seemed. March was pretty much getting warmer although it was still cold by any standard. Then, on St. Patrick Day, the Sun finally came up and everybody declared spring was here to stay. Unfortunately, right after the warm green St. Patrick, God decided, let it be snow rather than light and the next thing I knew, the snow was ankle’s deep again.

Afterward, April sets in so did spring, or so it seemed again. The temperature was still below the 20s nevertheless (and this I mean degree in Fahrenheit of course).
Currently. the Sun is high up the sky and it is tempting to go outside and smell the spring air. Today is spring indeed but it is going to snow again tomorrow, like it was yesterday.
To some people, this might be God’s way of playing enjoying April Fool’s. Like how Nue put it, I was dumbed.

If snow in spring is not impossible, then snow is Egypt is possible too sooner or later.
This is the reason why we need to change our mind set. We cannot continue to pollute when the result of pollution is right in the air that we breathe. How much longer do we need to be convinced that something is wrong?

True that climatic change might be just a natural cycle but how much more living evidences do we need to see in order us to be convinced that we are actually accelerating the cycle?

How much longer do we need to confirm that global warming is being accelerated and in turn causing the climatic change to be accelerated too?

Will seeing the Sphinx wrapped in snow convince us?

If that so, it might as well be too late for us. By us, I mean you and me. This includes the industrialist and the environmentalist of course.

Anyhow, an April Fool’s joke fooled lots of gullible fools. To Nue, I believe it Poisson d’Avril. ROTFLOL.

Below are the mails behind the April Fool’s joke author and me and with Nue’s pissed and dumbed mail to Mike. The format defers since different email platforms were used. And I DID NOT, I repeat, DID NOT hack into anybody account for this.

On Wed, 2 Apr 2003, Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams wrote:http://128.84.137.192/2003/US/04/01/deport.muslims/index.html
COOL APRIL FOOL STUFF!!!
I salute you! =)

Wednesday, April 02, 2003 7:58 AM -0500

Heheh, thanks. :) I have a few Muslim friends who fell for it while some
caught it. Happy April Fools!

Cheers,
Mike

On Wed, 2 Apr 2003, Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams wrote:

hey again,
i think one of friends is pissed off and she is thinking of mailing you.
Considering she actually called home and stuff, i imagine her email gonna
be harsh. hehehehheh
Just ignore it hehehehehe.
Damn, i can’t stop laughing hahhahahaa.

Wednesday, April 02, 2003 10:40 AM -0500

LOL. One of my friends thought it was HORRIBLE but so funny at the same
time. Her first reaction was “i’m not surprised, bush is a moron” and so
forth. My friend and I were laughing hysterically!

Mike

[I then asked Mike for Nue’s mail after knowing that Nue sent an email to him. I lost this copy somehow]

Thursday, April 03, 2003 5:13 PM -0500

Hey, here you go. :) Hehehe.

———- Forwarded message ———-
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2003 12:38:40 -0800
From: nue abdul [I censored the add for privacy reason]
To: *****@*****.shafe.com
Subject: congratulations

—
a nice and productive day is all you need :)

Greetings
I don’t think any introduction is necessary
Just know that I am one of your stupid joke victims
A few things to be said,
you made me panic like hell
you made me rethink my future plans and LIFE
you made me actually spread the paranoia
you made me feel like an ass

All in all, although the joke was GOOD and INGENIUS
I just think that the topic is a bit too inappropriate
But then again, gullible me
So keep up the good work
May your other works, work like hell

regards
pissed and dumbed

Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2003 18:14:18
From: Mike Shafer
To: nue abdul

Thank you. :) I’m sorry I had to shut down the page…. the powers that be
didn’t find it funny. Oh well. :(

After all this, Nue demands me to buy her an ice-cream but hey, a really good laugh worth paying an ice cream for somebody.

p/s – The Russian HAS finally put da! server back online. I’d thought it went offline for good, which really scared the crap out of me.

Categories
Environment

[137] Of guilt of a green

Only one person found the Easter Egg. If you are the one (he/she is from the Univ. of Michigan) , please email me at mnoorsha-AT-umich-DOT-edu. =)

It is hard being a Green.

We fight for almost everything that was created at the beginning of time. We fight as if we were the conservative, trying to stop everything from changing the precious world. In that, we at the same time are fighting against the very instrument that allows us to improve our lives.

Human advancements have made them, us dependable on electricity. A not single day is spent without anyone of us riding a vehicle or even switching on the light. All these activities are making Gaia sick but ironically, even the Greens do these almost everyday. Ayn Rand, well known for her stand against the idea of environmentalism once said that the Greens live a life full of guilt. According to her, life for the Greens is a dilemma. She went on by saying that the Greens fight for a greener world but at the same time, their own existence is destroying the world. Although her stance as an industrialist is considered as demon by the Greens, nevertheless her words ring every time we switch the light on, ride a bus or watch the television.

Guilt is what I feel every day. It keeps me thinking how my actions go one hundred and eighty degree against my ideal. When I eat and if the food somehow makes my hand dirty, I will always have a debate on whether should I take the tissue paper to clean it up or not. Most of the time I don’t take the paper but when I do, guilt overwhelms me.
Another delicate issue is the idea of evolution. Most of us in this modern world accept the theory well enough. Compressed in a sentence, the theory asserts the phrase survival the fittest. Now, apply that theory to the endangered species problem. It is clear how we should not even try to help the species. Even in simulation, some of the species tend to die out, giving more space to the dominating one.

The Gaia Theory itself, if I understand properly, says that the Earth, Gaia is a living thing – ever-trying to balance up and heal herself. So, everything that is happening, the climate change (of course, the human is still at fault because they worsen the warming more than necessary), the fauna extinction – it happens simply because of Gaia herself is trying to regulate her system.

Nevertheless, every day when I face these problems, I say to myself, we don’t have to go back to the primitive. We need to live and while living our life, some sacrifice needs to be done. Industries need to be allowed to strive but at the same time, we can or rather need to preserve what are necessary. Gaia is regulating herself but like our own biological system, without the medicine, we’ll fall sick. So, we must act as the medicine.

To come to think of it, we are not fighting for a greener world. We are simply fighting for a better world, for our children, for our future. The industrialist holds the same utopia, a better world but what makes the line between us and them is pronounced so strongly is simply the method we use to reach the same goal. They are taking the aggressive approach while we are leading into the greener path.

Certainly, our ideal far surpasses our guilt.