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EUROPA - Research and Innovation: What's New in Innovation

Monday, October 30, 2006

WEDGE-A-WAR: Corrosion- Nothing lost nothing gained?

Corrosion:
"Nothing lost nothing gained?
A degrading, dissipative world
or a slice of cake to take?”

Once again, the topic of corrosion has been brought to my attention.

Of course most people are familiar with the macroscopic sort in the form of common rust.

Some of us, who were privileged, to live near the seaside, coupled with an important industrial and research employer the nearby chemicals & research plant, -ICI's Nobel Division no less, have early experience of corrosion in other materials than steel.

However it was upon reading news in the field of nanotechnology size comparison between atoms and common objects-Link ) and more specifically nano-corrosion that I finally retained an indicator for the magnitude of the cost involved

"The effect of corrosion has an impact on about 3% of the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). From a positive point of view, however, chemical attack of metal surfaces may result in surface nano-structures with very interesting technological applications such as catalysts and sensors. Therefore, a better understanding of corrosion processes is required to both prevent it and make the most of it." quoted from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) based in Grenoble, France.

Previously I had learned that such was the loss of durability that whole industries have grown around this field. One must do a thing or two to generate a 3% world GDP. In fact I probably knew this for a long time, but since variety is the spice of life, I may be pardoned for some forgetfulness. )More on Economic Impact of Corrosion


It is common today either in the specialised technical or business or in the main general, economic and financial press to enquire whether this fight is being won or lost?

This is not just a philosophical question. It has a particular significance when the question in the technological, innovative sense:

"Can this industry; from research to market, constitute-or contribute to, a Wedge (in the Socolow sense?) This is a timely question since now infamous, CO2 is known to contribute to rust, corrosion in iron and steel.

(So too does the elder infamous, brother sulphur dioxide [SO2 forming sulphuric acid of notorious for its acid rain, referred to earlier in the poem "Open sky coal mine")

Now, one may wish to ask the "Who, how, why, when and where?" that classical unbeatable holistic search series.

The last question is particularly pertinent. Where?

Murphy’s law (entropy-exergy analysis) will tell you that places of most concern will be those which are difficult to get at and therefore costly.

We are not in outer space though!

If this was a marginal issue one could sort of live with, it is mostly not lethal. But when it concerns the worlds most used metal in terms of tonnage; carbon steel and some of the important things “wrapped in it” carbon steel corrosion, cannot be brushed aside.

Yes, I do mean common ordinary rust, hidden in some structure, which we know will rust sooner or later!

We can do some smart modelling to allow us to buy time. We can calculate and even measure thickness change, which allows us to estimate if there is safe structural strength left.

How on earth can it be detected, reliably, precisely, preferably without taking the "set-up" to pieces? We want it to be a NDT, a non-destructive test, as non-intrusive as possible.

For want of a catch phrase we could call it the "Wee-wiki peek Spy-Shy method"

I am not talking about some mineral on Mars.

No, just that common physico-chemical compound called rust: Ferrous, or Iron Hydroxide, Fe2O3.xH2O, where x is variable. [If x=3 Fe2O3. 3H2O is equivalent to 2Fe (OH)3.]

Yes, even common rust can be a real bugbear to detect when it is in some difficult to access-costly to repair place!

From Macro - to nano to macro &....? Link

Nothing lost nothing gained?"
A degrading, dissipative world
or a slice of cake to take?”

Serious, but not vulgar, even amusing, for innovative; comments, questions or suggestion very welcome, but "don't be evil" (In French or English.)

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

WEDGE-A-WAR follows from Theory to Practice


I wish simply to draw the chance visitor's attention to my additions "Socolow Wedge Best Practice" in my field of Metallurgy, Materials & Processing cf. also Links Section. The processes (1st one) invented by Fray-Farthing-Chen (FFC) known as the Cambridge Process [UK] following its University Start-Up Co., has produced two full companies, * BTi-British Titanium and, for a full range of metals and alloys, Metalysis and, (2nd one) Geopolymer Institute, Davidovit's cement, work at 1/3 to 1/2 the temperatures used by more classical routes (promising energy economies). Lets add to the previous two initiatives: process-product-market, approaches, a stricly process oriented "inventions & innovations" that of the recently created Thermokin ,by the inventor, J. Haiun. Thanks to it's; "blade-less turbine"-thermokinetic-compressor which controls, heat and speed, using and canalising the propeties of gases during reversible -forced transitions; subsonique to supersonic and back. Thermokinetics is the name coined for this field. Thermokin announces considerable potential energy saving of about 10% at low investment and maintenance costs.

I found these developments to be encouraging therefore I shall be pleased to help readers (at least among the less specialised) formulate any comments or questions to the people directly involved.

*PS. since 1st post, I have learned, cf.link BTi, that a conflict has arisen between BTi and Metalysis together with major Tech. backer QinetiQ.

.Je souhaite, simplement, tirer à l'attention des visiteurs mes additions: "Cales de Socolow - Meilleures Pratiques" dans mes domaines de spécialisations Métallurgie, Matériaux, Procédés cf. Links Section. Les procédés (1) inventé par
Fray-Farthing-Chen (FFC) nommé le FFC Cambridge Procédé [UK] (électrolyse avec sels fondus comme électrolytes ) et après ses débuts comme un "start-up" universitaire, à conduit à la création de deux sociétés; BTi-British Titanium et, pour une large gamme de métaux et d’alliages, Metalysis puis (le 2ème) , Geopolymère: par l'ingénieur chimiste distingué Davidovit's - ciments, béton ; travaillent à températures 1/3 à 1/2 des températures de fabrication classiques. Ajoutons aux inventeurs-innovateurs précédents et leurs sociétés: "procédés – produit - marché", la société Thermokin, récemment crée par J.Haiun, dans le domaine des procédés. Grâce à sa "turbine (sans pales) - compresseur thermocinétique" exploitant et canalisant les proprietés des gazes lors des transitions "réversible forcée" ; subsonique=>supersonique=> subsonique (nommé thermocinétique). Thermokin annonce des économies d’énergie potentielles, importantes de l'ordre de 10% pour un investissements en équipement et maintenance relativement modeste.

Ces développements méritent encouragement. Je serai heureux de vous aider (les moins spécialisés entre vous, tout au moins) à formuler commentaires, suggestions ou questions à destination des intéressés.

Enjoy your visit.
Lire avec plaisir.





Monday, October 16, 2006

WORK in HAND & Glenn MacDonald's from Theory to Practice June06 post

The image (left) was taken by ESA managed satellite Proba under the Earth Observation programme.Earth Observation programme

I have tried, specifically, to avoid the topic of Coal,almost the most used energy source on earth. and have concentrated on much needed weblog clean-up & crawling, if not ramping-up the weblog learning curve. This led me to acknowledge the pertinence of Adsense and in so doing justify at more length my decision to recommend it, throught the referral plan. I posted this further down the the WLog, under the heading "Innovation - Firing on all Cylinders started in June 06. (Downs & unders; not to be confused with the Aussie's "down-under."-with the World Cup Rugby, France 2007 approaching difficult to avoid refs. to southern hemisphere, one step from the Antartic and its importance in the climate engine ! ) I also added more thought reminders to the "Pensieve", Thought-recipient or Block Note, for later sifting. cf earlier post -SCROLL -DOWN.


OPEN-SKY COAL MINE

"The European Union must maintain its leading position
in combating climate change, ensure global
competitiveness for European industry, and deliver
long-term security of the energy supply. The European
Technology Platform for Zero Emission Fossil
Fuel Power Plants has been set up to play a crucial
role in enabling Europe to fulfil this commitment,
with the development and deployment of new competitive
power plant options over the next fifteen
years." (ref. A vision for zero emission fosil fuel power plants
Aug. 2006 European Union)
The future of Coal, vision from MIT ,Boston, USA. [Link].
OPEN-SKY COAL MINE
I intended to avoid the topic of coal,
As a man afraid of "facing" the dole
Money, monies the man on this payroll,
China! Aussie's too, what's the toll?
Coal,


The most used, so abused source of energy
In much of our blue planets territory,
Mine, down-under, beneath our feet,
Can't you just touch, the feel of its heat.
Coal!


This could be, well.., the name of this street?
Mine, down-under, beneath our feet,
Not for long, in this Newfoundland
Sounds of Nova Scotia-Caledonia's band
Coal!

Wash the Pug! Close the rail-carriage window,
Children, Tunnel ahead! Heads in, bow!
Getting nearer, nearer, to our chosen home yard
Open-sky mine project, -Jeune Garde.
Coal!

Route 58, from. Sancerre's vineyards scene
Fond memories of a mining Pole, La Machine
In South Nivernais, Lucenay
Silly cause or Silicoses? Cossaye
Coal!

Glasgow-black and Auld Reeckie lang gone
The cities fathers ruled Sulphur out-right
Crying -"Grime's a Crime,
against Humanity"! , prose?
Shaking-off smog’s mildew -as a rose.
Coal!

(The song continued long after, "Acid rain, acid rain"
At the time this was a well known refrain
Today from space 5 tonnes of Sulphur, let's sprinkle
Over carbon dioxide concentrations, a grave to kindle)
Coal!

Victor Hugo, Dumas & Zola would be proud
No Persian Letters these, Alexander endowed.
Buildings, monuments, sandblasted bright
No gas candles for them, but LED- light.
from Coal!

Its focus now on this new match


Shall we choose the tourist trade today?
Working mines as in bygone days, the long way.
Or shall innovation & invention,make their mark,
In some sophisticated scientific way, as the quark?
Through some subtle eco mix, a trail
Coal!

By non-friction super-conductive rail, race
Or pneumatic closed dust-confining tube-ace
Bring temptation's call, this coalface
To the devils melting-place
Coal!

I did not mention at any time before
Our devils burning desire is therefore
Some thermal combined harvester's drum
For Heat & Electricity to make a planet turn
Coal,


As in ancient times, black as night's mantle


Miner and mineral, indistinguishable


Memories of a Mining Pole, "La Machine"


In Never's "pastures green"
Land of "the waters still"


Psalm 23, Refreshing chill,
s' Nuclear & Coal alike.



-As the friendly greeting goes, in the heydays & hay days of coal,
"Lang may yur lum reek!" -meaning long-life and good health, ce qui signifie en français; longue vie, bonne santé. The tradition of welcoming a New Year first footer with a lump of coal as a sign of good wishes also is more debateable with regard to the global performance of coal exploitation and effective use in the current context of climate change and cheap & and easy access to energy sources.



(I shall try to remain as poetic as possible in "our project" of the century Open-Sky Coal mine with Thermal powered combined thermal electric power "plant" 1st draft 16 Oct. 06 ) and needless to say as helpful as possible eg. =>
PS. Add to mining: "Re-Investment in Renewables" & "Carbon Chemistry" with the usual ramifications, socio-cultural-economic... to use a bio/agro analogy.
TECHNICAL FIRST:
NB. FROM "BLACK to GREEN" CLEANING COAL -How it works.
Why are we waiting? Natures first response.



"The European Union must maintain its leading position
in combating climate change, ensure global
competitiveness for European industry, and deliver
long-term security of the energy supply. The European
Technology Platform for Zero Emission Fossil
Fuel Power Plants has been set up to play a crucial
role in enabling Europe to fulfil this commitment,
with the development and deployment of new competitive
power plant options over
the next fifteen
years." (ref. A vision for zero emission fosil fuel power plants, Aug. 2006 )

Post Scriptum: I am lead to believe (media TV A2 report) that immediate current best choice will be exploitation (locally) of Frances forestry (renewable energy) as a heat source in many small towns & villages?


Tuesday, September 26, 2006

CARBON NEUTRAL & THE HOTTEST FROM THE "AGE-DOT"

Object & Food for Thought:

"This survey, [the Economist's recent contribution to the Climate Change Debate] which generated about 118 tonnes of carbon dioxide from flights, car journeys, paper production, printing and distribution, has been carbon-neutralised through the Carbon Neutral Company. The cost was £590; the money was spent on capturing methane from an American mine." from
The Economist, Sept. 7th 2006

Conclusion -Commentary:
I'll start my comment by applying my own advice to readers of this "The Economist" report, free introduction on the Climate Change Debate. Start with the conclusion, start at the bottom of the page
(cf. above for ease of study).

There (cf.above) you will find some data on their Carbon Neutral Approach: Carbon Costs of this specific activity(Climate Dossier) and the monetary cost of mitigation £590.

If such activity costs so little to mitigate (roughly the lowest salary rate-could there a Zero or Two..missing?) if not why so much squabbling over policy? Or is there nothing here upon which to base an economy, and hence provide useful, meaningful,worthwhile jobs, and not just provide employment, stagnation?



Blog -Comments in full:

I did not mean to blog today,as you may see from the rest of these pages there is much page,links,lay-out cleaning-up (optimisation?) to be done. Add to this considerable paper reading material & renewed access to professional online journals, about 20 peer-reviewed journals via the Institute of (Metallurgy)Materials,Minerals and Mining to be specific. Even broader scientific news arrived on my desk from the EU-RTD (European Union-Research & Technical Development) Lads.

However,probably motivated by the radio news reporting the Hottest year it history or something (dot-age or age-dot?). I'll check the reference. There will no doubt,& fortunately so-trust a canney,concerned Scot- be good coverage of these events. One liveable planet, n'est ce pas, some liveable countries still!

I ran through some Webzine Alerts, noteably The Economist, who feature a full report on Climate Change & Free intoduction to their report 7 Sept.O6, which I am commenting on now.
I'll start my comment by applying my own advice to readers of this "The Economist" report, free introduction on the Climate debate.

Start with the conclusion. Start at the bottom of the page. There, cf.above, you will find some data on their Carbon Neutral Approach: Carbon Costs of this specific activity(Climate Dossier) and the monetary cost of mitigation.

If such activity costs so little to mitigate (roughly the lowest salary rate here & Twice minimun subsistance re-insertion rate) why so much squabbling over policy? Or is there nothing here upon which to base an economy and hence provide useful jobs, meaningful,worthwhile jobs, and not just provide employment, stagnation, stagflation?

Naturally the introduction is well written, comes to some extent after the main Climate Change Frontline "Storm(s)": IPCC-Intergoverment Panel on Climate Change 2001 building up "Steam" & Other Gases 2004-5. Economy(ies) "oblige"? The Economist although proud of it's radical tradition, attempts to remain balanced.

NB. The Economist Article was written before the Royal Society Petitioning Letter "accusing" Exxon-Mobile of biased & excessive funding to discredit good, often exellent, scientific work and conclusions on Climate Change, last week, I believe. It was also written before weekend 24-5 Sept.06 reports of Al Gore asking and being heard by (adequation) Sir Richard Branson to help by investing in Business(es) Fighting Global Warming or better expressed Fighting to Master Global Climate Change (& foreseeable Disasters?).
Post Add-on 061003: Critics have raised doutes as to the quality of R.Bransons response as "rapid scribling" on the back of [coffin nail] packet during a train journey, latter at least being more environmentally friendly reference than the equivalent (carbon) car journey!

PS. This Blog has generated almost no CO2 emmisions other than those shared by all PC, users, in particular the "no-printer-paper-ink office"s, dear to Bill Gates, who of course, can afford to annoy one or two big industrial outfits and their lobbyists.

If YOU READ THIS FAR YOU WILL FIND YOUR Patience Rewarded at Ecobusiness

Thursday, September 21, 2006

INNOVATION -THE WORTHWHILE PROJECT-Conversational styled, review of science's powerful tool "The Experimental Method" in politics and humanities

Conversation (1) on the Search for a Physics & Chemistry
of Innovation - Reward Systems.
By J. Alexander.
(First published online via ChemWeb 2004)

“The difficult, I can do immediately.
The impossible may take a little time.”
A favourite, joked by A Great Teacher.

“Let knowledge grow from more to more
and thus be human life enriched”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, founded 1768.
200 years on, Wikis invented
ABSTRACT - SUMMARY.

A fresh, and hopefully refreshing, conversational styled, review of science's powerful and indispensable tool in humanities search for truth and knowledge, namely the experimental method.
The thread followed is due to B. Labour's proposition to apply the method more generally to the case of Knowledge versus Ignorance by encouraging its use collectively by a much wider spectrum of society, which may be called Innovating Team (IT).
The treatment suggests, not without humour and humility, that the universally acknowledged power of the experimental method, may be used for greatly improved effectiveness, when confronted with problems of a dichotomic nature (mutually opposing and exclusive).
The style, sometimes humorous, sometimes caustic, even poetic at times hopes to make enjoyable, good reading.
By applying a variant of the method Kiss,(Keep It Simple Stupid) three models are described to encourage scientists and non-scientists to map their path in life, within the interacting fields of science and society, both as individuals and together in interdisciplinary communities.

ChemWeb preprint-Science Direct Achive ref. chemistry 0303001.

What others say about the Method Kiss: 1. In The Art of Effective Training,
2. In Engineering. and 3. In Business & Sales.








INTRODUCTION.
Bruno Latour in “How to evaluate innovation” (2) develops a fairly simple well argumented procedure based upon the experimental sciences which may prove valuable to those involved in making things work as best as possible. Difficult?
People involved may be but not limited to are: inventing and innovating scientists, project managers and decisional authorities such as non-technical managers or politicians in government,all, henceforth to be called the Innovation Team (IT)) whose aim must be to making things work ‘for the better’!
Impossible? Encyclopaedic certainly, as immortalised by Britannica’s Motto above.

In industrial terms such approaches may be better recognised as being within Total Quality Control or Management System Frameworks.
Herein the difficulty of making things work as best as possible is routine.
The search for excellence, six & more sigma programmes are often spoken of.
But currently, a more than often forgotten aim – to make things work for the better, appears damned well impossible!

Currently- the list is long whatever evaluation yardstick is chosen surpassing strictly industrial concerns. In the present case, I was referring to long-standing calls for proper practice in corporate governance, cf. also Footnote 1. We shall come back to this below (11).

Notions of innovation and experimentation may not always be of popular appeal, judging from jobs and salaries. There are no such job titles in the boardroom or in government, in spite of the abundant managerial press reports and book titles. Perhaps these two words have appeal in management circles but still remain too cerebral and fearful for widespread application and acceptation?

Latour by defining Innovation, simply as a new and worthwhile project, goes a long way on the path he set, to determine a powerful protocol for effective action and as a consequence on any path designed to make things work as best as possible (routine project) or to make things work for the better (a continuous project ever in need of new projects-innovation).

Why such knowledgeable disdain of –‘Le changement dans la continuité’? - ‘ Change through continuity’ or more commonly ‘ the more the change the less.’
The less!
Could the latter be the clue?
Indeed I first learned of these notions not in my physics, chemistry, nor even in my mathematics classes, but upon head changes, within the organisation or strategic (undefined) organisational changes in view of unknown projects, seldom on defined project or concerning project aims, although head counts are common practice.
So much for difficult-to-grasp concepts & unwittingly in defence of common sense -wide spread, by definition and fear pretty well universal. E.F. Schumacher "A Guide for the perplexed"A Guide for the perplexed (3) calls this mapping.
We find strategy and mapping associated in R. S. Kaplan and D. P. Norton’s The Balanced Score Card
(4) included in Harvard Business Review’s Fifteen Key Concepts (5). Strategy, and wait for it, the currently much discussed Sustainability, are defined by Porter also in Key Concepts (5) Project managers and IT candidates please read on. (IT remember stands for Innovation Team and not the more restrictive Information Technology).



PRE-MODEL DESCRIPTIONS.

According to Prof. Latour, the basic problem that all innovators must face is known as “The Innovators Dilemma” which goes something like this: “When you know you can’t and when you can you don’t know!”

“At the start of the project, the Project Manager knows nothing or next to nothing
of the reactions of the public, the financial people, suppliers, colleagues, all of whom together with machines must be brought together in order that the project may take shape. He can, however, very quickly modify, from A to Z, the nature of his plans in order to respond to his new found clients requirement.”

Latour continues, “at the end of his project, he will know all he should about the resistance of materials, the reliability of components, the quality of sub-contractors, the loyalty of bankers and the passion of his clients, but he can no longer change his plans: Too late, they are moulded in bronze.” The relevance of the situation struck me; pardon the metallurgical references, I am a metallurgist & physical chemist, like the work piece by the forge master to such an extent that the innovators dilemma is again hammered home in Poster 0 – A ‘Zeroth Law’–taking the temperature.

So true! Then I got my wits back.

This dichotomy (two opposing mutually exclusive propositions) is typical of what E.F. Schumacher (3); author of "Small is Beautiful", calls divergent (or open ended) problems.

The best-known divergent problem concerns educational methods of common knowledge to everyone but the most unfortunate under developed regions deprived of this experience:

By opposition, convergent problems can be solved, the more intelligently one studies them the more the answers converge, whoever you are, according to the physical and chemical laws of inanimate nature (3).

The conflicting opposites (an understatement if ever there was one), Knowledge and Ignorance are obviously in the divergent category. Other examples are:
Authority, discipline and obedience versus freedom
Freedom versus order
And relevant to our models:
Growth versus decay.

But lets see, it may be instructive to liken the project manager to the young candidate seeking his first job? He has been confronted from a tender age with parents, family and relatives, friends, relations mostly teachers- not real people-to which most youngsters, at least in adolescence, will readily testify.

At this point it is worth recalling that, teachers apart, this is the very group singled out as ‘THE’ life-long, high priority group of people; Family, Friends and Relation, by management Guru, Stephan R. Covey. Covey is a Harvard graduate and Founding-Director of the Covey Leadership Centre in his very well structured, well illustrated, full of common sense, book (6). By the way, Covey is a teacher.

If this sounds bad for the professional classes, Latour’s world of “financial, industrial, commercial people” not to mention the anxiety confronting the project manager, for the candidate job seeker, this is a disaster.
The learning curve can be made to be very painful and depressing indeed.

Funnily enough and perhaps a trifle cynically, salvation for both project manager and the job seeker, may have similar roots. Fortunate the enterprising youngsters, who have within their family circle some or all of the necessary experienced professionals with the necessary power and inclination!

Now we could be accused of failing in our aim of setting up and evaluating projects which make things work for the better, individually and collectively. The latter when elevated to the level of a strategy is known as a WIN/WIN strategy – a dichotomy in disguise.
The WIN/WIN strategy is the most recommendable challenge in the eyes to Covey (6) who states that high personal qualities of courage, strength and respect of others are pre-requisites necessary to rise above, to transcend (3), the contradictions in order to achieve such an ideal. These qualities are developed through necessarily long, deep, self-knowledge, conscience, imagination, moral integrity and free will. For our purpose, it is sufficient to underline the values of gaining experience and independence.

MODEL TAKING FORM

In the model just outlined:

“The innovator is faced with two intersecting paths or curves, one rising, representing knowledge acquisition, the other descending, representing the degrees of freedom or number of options open to the innovator. Naturally a good environment for innovation consists of a rapid learning curve of the world awaiting the innovator, as rapidly and as inexpensively as possible while closing the options available as tardily as possible.”

Fortunately this is likely to correspond to the natural human desire for freedom and a rewarding life. “The inspired innovator will try to learn as much and as fast as possible while maintaining all options open as far and as long as possible.”

On the basis that a picture is worth a long speech, it is fairly easy to draw up a universal framework (model) for the ideas exposed in (2).
Life being what it is, Time representing Age can be conveniently traced from the beginning, (Zero) to end (1 or 100%) and is represented by the horizontal X-axis.
The Learning and Degrees of Freedom curves can be equally represented qualitatively in the same way from Zero to 1 on the vertical Y-axis.

Thanks to Pareto, now over 150 years of age who bequeathed us the 80/20 Rule and Napier et al’s early worker on ‘Natures natural logarithmic processes’ (400 years ago!) it is possible to draw up the first ideas approach to innovation shown in,
Graph-Model: 1 a ‘ very Classical Model’.
Assuming the same logarithmic evolution (and coupling -dipole bonding, for the chemists among us! Lennard-Jones potentials and such...) for both learning and degrees of freedom and smooth progression slowing but no loss in total learning experience due to age- conveniently ignoring any Bell shaped clangers - it is an incredible coincidence that for an estimated life span of 100 years the 80/20 Rule describes pretty neatly our current formal school education systems in the EU and further a field!

From this it would appear that innovation is distinctly a young persons game. To a large extent this may be true and if so further exaggeration –such as Bell shaped normality- is likely to increase the incandescent nature of the human existence (7) or dare I suggest, experiment?

However either the desire for eternal youth or the pleasure of seeing things work “for the better” would induce one to graph a more “Ideal Innovators Economy” (Graph-Model 2.) whereby all one’s ‘Faculties for Learning’ together with one’s Freedom are conserved throughout.

Wishful thinking or a programme - political objective and agenda? Answers to such questions in fact constitutes the central theme of Latour’s well-referenced exposé.

The ‘Life – Long’ time scale extrapolation in Model 1, may be restated as; How can one make a good thing last? And as such is the sole responsibility of this author’s, dare I say it, ‘Inventive –Unconsumed- Spirit’ further encouraged by selected refs. (3 – 7)

To ensure a steep learning curve (freed from the excessive pressures of and complimentary to…the modern education system) Latour proposes the experimental method. Latour recalls that “this is not as easy as it sounds since it goes against ‘common sense’ embodied in the concept: ‘know before you act’ –not to be confused with the still highly relevant ‘look before you leap’!

“So the good project manager is one who puts into action with the least deviation a plan prepared in the most minute detail. In fact the latter method can only be applied in the most routine cases rarely encountered in real project management. One does not acquire ‘confirmed’ knowledge without action, one acts in order to gain knowledge, preferably in a profitable manner as he justifiably recalls for the benefit of Apprentice Sorcerers”

If I had read the book, I would use the Harry Potter (HP) analogy. I am deeply ashamed of this omission. (corrected since & confirming my intuition)Harry Potter books are an undoubted source of new (universal) models and (global) project ideas by all media reports including financial statements.

“The experimental scientist confronted in permanence with the requirement of confirming or infirming theory and improving upon models (idealised or simplified representations of real phenomena including some witch craft difficult to attribute exclusively to HP) resolves the Knowledge versus Ignorance dichotomy by designing and carrying out an experiment. This is the true sense of the word DO (an experiment) in what is known by industrial engineers, project managers, quality practitioners and administrators as the ‘Deming Circle or Virtuous Spiral’: PLAN => DO =>CHECK=>ACT repeat continually.

Deming was one of the early statisticians who brought quality to the Japanese Economy (8).
A First Law – Post. 1 underscores the “Knowledge vs. Ignorance Dichotomy & presents a modified Deming-Latour Circle,” to include Latour’s protocol.

Cf. Footnote 3-Cautionary note: Four principles of Do-Ing.
(Cultural note: ‘Ing’. is the french abbreviated equivalent of ‘Eng.’ short for engineer)

“Between Ignorance and Knowledge everyone in the laboratory knows the value of an unsuccessful experiment. It can be bungled. It can be non-representative. It can force us to abandon a research route” or even a whole discipline. “Nevertheless it would never cross any one’s mind to act (experiment) without reporting according to a carefully pre-established protocol, the effects of the difficulties encountered,” cf. 2nd Law Post. 2 & 3, Wrong 1st Time, Deming-Latour energy conservation – car-not cycle Then, as if to give unwanted substance to my allusion to thermodynamic entropy in my playful poster title, the Bell Labs. scandal loomed to mind - a unique case? I knew it would be difficult to avoid the Bell shaped curve:

The Bell Shaped Curve:

Not the one of dreams, actually,
With all its ring of normality,
And background skewed tonality,
Neither justifiable of necessity,
Trying so to avoid all criminality,
Oft’ far from proper musicality.

copyright © J.A.

Prof. Latour continues to enquire:

“ Where, in administration, in government or in large companies, are the experimentalists designated to report continually on the results positive or negative of the difficulties encountered by projects in progress, difficulties to which projects are subjected?”

“Who defines the protocol?” “In military terms, who defines the mission debriefing?”

To answer these questions can I tell you that I was one of these experimentalists and my superior(s) carried out the debriefing. It is a delicate task. Like the Mediator(s) on the French TV channel (A2) which offers such a service, the only one of the big 6 in fact, it requires strong, firm and fair support (6) of senior management.
(since extend to all public service TV in France 2006)

It is wise to let negative results speak for themselves as far as possible and rather to seek cooperatively the ‘elementary facts’ - scientific policing distinguishing facts from personalities and highlighting the positive.
The expert in industrial… quality, research and development, quite a portfolio, requires discretionary judgement not to let the situation get out of hand. This may help put the ball back in the court so to speak or put an end to hostilities whatever.

For the still unconvinced, Latour enquires rhetorically:

“Can one imagine a research scientist who never learns any lesson from his mistakes”?

I… often ask myself?

And less unequivocally: “a laboratory which never records it’s results,” unless…?

The crimes of Bell Labs, extremely serious as they were, did not take place in the medical field, I trust?

“Stranger still, what does one do when one does not know, when the certitudes are lacking? Will we design a protocol for ‘serious fiddling and fumbling’?

Fiddling and fumbling with variations,
Mixing and muddling and even juggling
With Time and Temperature and Space,
In order to learn, bit by bit.

Adapted from “From Entropy to Poetry” © J.A. 2002-3

If I may use such technological – terminology as, ‘bit by bit,’

“By working on reduced models, carrying out pilot studies, simulations, representative samples, how can one anticipate the results of future actions?” “No”, concludes Latour, thoroughly disgruntled, “We shall take a decision, a surgically clean cut, a surgical operation.”

Here I add my voice to Latour’s,

Surgical action often costs a bomb, big spender.
Your attitude is ever present, 2003 still tender.
The situation calls for a Life Saver
Could this perchance be a banker?
I do not mean cash hoarding, I thunder,
You looting, plundering, warmongering murderer.


(Notice the curves dreams are made of? “Bell shape curve” rotational transformation, gyrations) Copyright © J.A. Dolphins@) ADA Grp.

In the surgical approach, common sense cumulates both inconveniences: it imagines an engineer who knows before he acts and a politician who decides without knowing. From any ensuing results, nothing is learned. And a new combination of the Innovating Team (IT) will recommence without the necessary cumulative experience. And time goes by, nothing sustainable or durable is achieved.”

Does entropy’s ∆ quantum wave(s),
Universally durable by its very Nature
Require sustainability, my brave(s)?
One can just imagine Dirac's conjecture


Fully realising the requirement for speed in “ fumbling” ones way forward my very brilliant and literally poor sighted, boss for many of my formative years, frequently would pull a coin from his pocket and addressing the protagonists in our admittedly more stressful (for costly) industrial situation. “Heads or tails?” he would calmly enquire.

Left to my own more modest capabilities, I became an adept of the laboratory experimental approach (3) as tentatively exposed herein.

Oh! I must tell you this story. The same chap, my boss, was about 6 feet tall. His short sight gave him naturally enhanced microscopic vision when he removed his spectacles. Well, I shall let you imagine the scene when he stuck a sample, 1cm. distant from his eye, but at least 25cm. above the rest of the team’s heads, then pointing a finger to the sample and exclaiming it’s obvious, look! Then, satisfied of his comprehension of some strange feature was gone before anyone knew what we he had observed. (Footnote 2.)

Scaling up has always been a considerable problem in engineering.


Latour proposes “the creation of a new power which is no longer defined by knowledge, or aptitude for incisive decision making but rather by it’s capacity to follow experimentation underway and to judge the value of the exercise by the quality of learning” In sort of new observer capable of effective management, pragmatic not as a principle but in practise, when need be?

I hope I got that OK.

In this system “a bad (poor) experiment, is not one which fails but one in which nothing is learned (& if possible gained –reported to re-invest) for the next one. Conversely a good experiment is one in which the difficulties appear early on disturbing the apparent evidences upon which the project is based.”
In plain english this is called “cutting one’s losses”.
Cf. 1st & 2nd Laws Posts 1 & 2. (TBD)


Latour calls upon a higher authority to support his proposition in the form of Karl Popper according to whom “the search for falsification is not the prerogative of the laboratory but should be extended to all collective experiences (experimentation) in which one is seriously engaged.”

“This power does not constrain one by decree (laws and orders) to do this or that but by documenting obstinately the learning and which one accepts voluntarily.”

I can add my own strong preference for Auto-discipline, then I am a veteran tried and tested as the aerospace ad-age goes:
“there is no such thing as a good or bad driver only old drivers!”
But the story does not tell whether these old drivers are sending their future students, employees, younger colleagues, and readers, into the wall?

Latour hazards “where angels fear to treadv”, adding his voice, to others, criticising the “Techno-crane” a variation on the Techno-c-rat, “capable of cumulating political ills with scientific and administrative ones with no apparent virtues ”

Latour rightly considers that “there is something intolerable in seeing such capacity to ignore! Technocrats neither pay the price of popular representation nor that of the difficult process (abnegation) of scientific research nor the uncertain follow-up of the evaluation process”.

“However this techno-corporatism, in France at any rate, has the enormous advantage of being powerful. Latour recommends we discard this strange view of the engineer as someone who knows and the politician as someone who disposes and in doing so perhaps forge ourselves a master tool to reform the State.”

BATH - TUBS, CORNED – HATS and CHIP – POKES.

PRELUDE TO MODEL 3:

It strikes me that Model 3, the Bath-Tubs Model of failure rate for integrated circuits (IC’s) taken from the semiconductor industry, (9) and inversely, the Corned – Hat model of success rate images rather vividly many of the ideas just expressed. Should anyone feel over offended, I hasten to add that in earlier times in Scotland, I too wore something similar. It was familiarly was known as a ‘chip poke’ hat, from the shape of the carry-out recipient for French fries, word discouraged by a certain ‘Oh so certain America.’


Until now he concludes “the French,” Latour is French (and from all reports much of the European Union) “have been inspired by the certitudes of science. It is time that we all find inspiration in the uncertainties of research.”

May I repeat something, which is obvious for the scientific community and the scientifically aware?

The century which has come to a close is one in which a major revolution in science took place; that of quantum physics and chemistry synonymous to some extent, with the famous Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

The word uncertainty was out, but paradoxically it brought certitude despite it’s name – certitude through Nature’s lower (nano) limitation around Planck’s Universal constant (h) added to the Speed of light (c) more certitude in the form of an upper limit.

Theory and incredible powers of prediction came from experimental verification and widespread indispensable product manufacturing and much gadgetry.
Both the certitude of boundaries infinitely large and small and ‘for ever and ever’ were being defined, from difficult to grasp theory and experimentation, of great power (nuclear) and finesse, quantum theory, where the speed of light reigns and it’s messenger is a particle called a photon with wave like properties.
Mien Gotte!
Such a situation leads, perhaps even more predictably, to an increasing sense, of individual human helplessness and fragility.

To add slick oil to the fire, quite mature information technology has produced exponential acceleration and shows no sign of any serious technical obstacle.
The power to chose to change has seldom been so potent and yet, so too are the corollaries, conservatism and inertia.
Worse the shadow of change in English is Chop (‘to chop and change’)– Project Managers and Job Seekers - when common sense would dictate action to the contrary, Latour’s main criticism of the powers that be, lack of experimentation and the experimental method.

The innovation team, through information technology and communication is more global, apprenticeship still rife with corporate fear, arrogance and in some instances some megalomania.
Latour’s “power must first gain awareness of experimentation underway, understand and explain and moderate” neither freeze in some death like inertial ignorant bliss
Cf. 3rd Law –Crystal Clear Post 4,
nor hurtle head long into a the predictable, wall or precipice-a mechanical view is illustrated by the famous joke as follows:

“Last year we were at the edge of a precipice!
This year we shall take a large step forward.”
–An imaginary punch line from a Presidential address in an some fictitious,
poorly-developed country or region.

Or worse become the source, the epicentre of some explosive front- a chemical view whose symbol has become, Sept 11. (9/11) and suicide bombers, so despairingly mislead, misguided. -Alfred Nobel must turn in his grave.

And a nuclear one!

“N” as in Nu-clear?
The highest state of strong order, dawning
“et de ce jour bacteries et champignons
jailirent à l’existance pour dissoudre
et un nouveau champignon est né”

(3 lines from J.Updike, Facing Nature, trad.Alain Suid “Ode à la Décomposition”)
Such is Nature – reviewed.

From ‘Entropy to Poetry’ copyright © J.A.

The increasing orders of magnitude for mechanical, chemical and nuclear reactions alluded to in poetic terms, above, are given in ref. (10).



This exposé has reach deep waters, egos perhaps over-inflated, fatigue gaining ground, confusion gaining over clarification (dichotomy a-gain!), but no going back.


MODEL 3: THE BATH-TUB AND IT’S COROLLARY THE CORNED –HAT FORMS

Please believe me, I had hoped to avoid the Bell Shapes Curve recalled in Model 3. It came to mind early on suggested by rising and falling exponential curves of our simplified idealised smooth curve Life-Long and Career Wise cycles.

–« La vie n’est pas un long fleuve tranquille,» was the title of a film,

And serious questions concerning the quality and limitations of these system conversations are only too obvious.

But would life today without a bathtub be worth living?

Graph 3 the now classical so-called “bath-tub” model for component reliability especially relevant to semiconductors and integrated circuits (IC’s) recalls our shared shaky start in life.
With the so called highly expressive infant mortality phase, the burn-in phase, representing initially poor reliability, survivors enjoying a long steady state until dropping-out or burn-out.

We have touch upon one recipe for turning failure into success imaged by flipping around a Yield and Reliability Model and complained of the residual cost involved.

This also may serve as a caution to our Innovating Team (IT).

Neither to pretend we collectively did not know… for want of an experiment. Nor to be content with easy to express pictures in guise of serious models not of reality but to help us live, experiment for the better, to enjoy, philosophise, and to share.
No getting of the hook.
Putting my above precepts (Plan) to practise, (Do) I Checked Britannica Ed.1974- 1985 (11) for earlier reports on Innovation.
I did not waste my time!
Let me share a short summary of my findings Post 4 –The 3rd Law – Crystal Clear – Britannica on Innovation.

PRIOR – CONCLUSION.

No engineer, with the knowledge of experience can be satisfied by high infantile mortality (high burn-in loss), for example highlighted, dramatically, here in France at the moment by the issues such as Road Safety, much of which is of an apparently avoidable suicidal unnaturel("contre nature") candidate- unconsciousness,’ and neglect by the most influential members of the Innovation Team.
Recent experimental evidence shows substantial improvement and should encourage reporting.
Unfortunately despite enlargement of the European Union (or because of it?) these lessons and yardsticks are not yet Pan (stick?) EU.
A particular extreme example of burnout and perhaps the ultimate fight for durability is that of Nature’s supreme in-built obsolescence, the deadly component in all of us, Cancer.

“Silence like a Cancer grows.”
From the song “The Sound of Silence” by Paul Simon.

For if these are serious issues in IC’s they must surely be even more so in life. So, “”Moore”” projects and candidates to meet the challenges. While introducing “Silence» in guise of an ‘Au revoir’ I have just received an invitation to a National Physical Laboratory, NPL (UK) to their workshop on electromagnetic noise measurement theory and applications. On the programme; Noise standards, radiometers, care of connectors, repeatability, amplifier noise, and phase noise. I wonder if phonons with photons are the good vibrations of interest in cancer care and cure? With Armstrong, Lance and Wilson, Matt’s both cyclists in the 2003 tour vanquishers of cancer, Latour de France, Centenary edition is well…on the way to success. (∆S sort of less than zero, Negentropy ?)

Dare I edit Britannica’s Motto?
“Let knowledge grow from ‘Moore to Moore’
and thus be human life (health, environment…) enriched.”
Probably not.
Gordon Moore & Associates, brilliant (IT) experimentalists in their specialised field of semiconductors and integrated circuits-rich in materials science, may find synergy with the encyclopedic approach more adapted to the needs of Latour.
.
“Let knowledge grow from more to more
and thus be human life enriched.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, founded 1768 (11).
P. -S. Additional Refs (12, 13) from “Les Echos” FT Grp. 10 July 2003. & (14) indebted to.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
The tram is largely inspired by a short essay in a series of articles “Amateur de Science” by B. Latour in La Recherche. The unusual layout for science is from Alistairr Cooke’s Letters from America (1947 to Date) on BBC available for consultation, sharing and discussion via the BBC website, http://www.bbc.co.uk/ Cooke’s letter is also a thread to the History of the immense power and influence of Ralph Nader already mentioned in Encyclopaedia Britannica, acknowledged throughout and especially in Poster 4. Not forgetting J..E. Harris for his monthly entertaining and instructive column ‘Material Matters’ in Materials World or Bob (R.W.) Cahn in Materials Today and to all committed to the sustainable and durable development of individuals and society through science and engineering, proper business practice and governance.

REFERENCES.

1). De la Conversation, Theodore Zeldin, Translation en Fraçais, E. Diacon, Ed. Fayard, Original Title in English-Conversation - How it can change peoples lives. Ed. Hidden Springs / Paulist Press.
2). “How to evaluate innovation / Comment Evaluer L’Innovation” by Bruno Latour, Amateur de Science, La Recherche, No 314, 1998.
3). “A Guide for the perplexed”A Guide for the perplexed E.F. Schumacher, Ed. Jonathan Cape 1977 reprinted Abacus 1978 and 1980.

4). “The Balanced Scorecard-Measure that Drive Performance” R.S. Kaplan, D. P. Norton
HBR. Jan-Feb. 1992. (More on the Balanced Score Card?),”More on the Balanced Score Card
5). HBR., “Business Classics – Fifteen Key Concepts for Managerial Success (1998).
6). The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey, Ed. Simon & Shuster NY. (1989) French Edition Les 7 Habitudes Ed.. Lavoisier -Tec & Doc First general (1996).
7). L’Incandescent, Michel Serres, Ed Le Pommier, (2003 in French).
8). Many good references to Deming (1900- Univ. Wyoming 1921-), his US and British contemporaries, and the battery of tools built up the by excellent Japanese pupils of the time and since. Shewart (1891-UCLA 1914 -), Juran (1904-Romainian emigrated USA –1914- ) .
The Japanese School- Ishikawa et al.
my lectures in Cross Cultural Management and Total Quality Control, The European University in Toulouse, (1992). Well researched using available local resources.
A good book in french, “La Qualité outils et methods” Patrick Lyonnet,
Ed. Lavoisier Tec & Doc (1997).
9). “VLSI Technology” Ed., S.M. Sze, (Bell Labs), McGraw-Hill Series in Electrical Engineering McGraw-Hill International (1983) In fact this is a book on materials science, materials processing (Si refining , crystal growth, wafer preparation, epitaxy, dielectric and polysilicon thin film deposition, oxidation, diffusion, ion implantation, lithography, dry etching, metallization, process simulation, VLSI process integration, diagnostic analysis and control techniques, assembly & packaging, yield and reliability) all technologies used for manufacturing and control of very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits.
10). “Skyscrapers need strong legs,” Material Matters, by J.E. Harris, Materials World, Oct-Nov. 2002 .
11). References to Innovation in the Encyclopaedia Britannica Ed. 1985.
12). “L’ Eurosclerose est de retour,” Euro-Sclerosis is back by Erik Izraelewicz, Les Echos 10/07/2003. themes related to the present Conversations. Cf. footnotes 5.
13). “Patrons, cultivez votre jardin / Bosses should tend to their own back garden” by Xavier. Mesnard and Laurent Chevreux, A.T. Kearney, Les Echos 10/07/2003. themes related to the present Conversations cf. footnote 6.
14). The 5th Discipline The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization by Peter M. Senge – Systems approach

FOOTNOTES 1 to 6.
Footnote 1:
Yardsticked as abusive corporate governance practice has been boastingly estimated as high as 66% in France, not known to be an innovator but a follower in this field. The boardroom circle still appears disjoint from accepted quality control circle yardsticks and assurance practise?
Footnote 2:
When the late Y. Honnorat left to manage materials for a leading aero-engine manufacturer, it was a challenge and an honour to defend many of the highly contested programmes initiated under his direction.
Footnote 3:
Most Scientists and Engineers: Physicists, Chemists, Metallurgists, Thermodynamicists will recognise elements of phase diagrammes, departures from ideality and much else, whether true or false, stretched, twisted and turned, hopefully it will prove thought provoking
Footnote 3 - Cautionary note:
the Four Principles of Do-Ing: (a pseudo-scientific enquiry):
1.Classical & Biblical-
Do unto others, as you would they do unto you. ‘ Security?’
2. The so called Business principle:
‘Do them before they do you’. ‘Commercial?’
3.The so called Management ModelDo it to them before they do it to you.
Defence? –Attack being the best form!
4.The ‘no-no’ Model
‘Do them in before they do you in! ‘Totally unlawful but…’

Footnote 4: Confusion possible between Brute force and Intelligence.

Footnote 5: Translated exerts related to the present work.
1“Old Europe doubts in herself again. She neglects to spend for the future; on education and research and development and in so doing increases her lag on USA”. Izraelewicz reports on a conservative similarity of the recent European Managers Forun in Helsinki with the EMF in 1980. (I used as a yardstick Britannica’s 15th Edition 1974-1985). And concludes that in an ageing society the elderly impose their will in a decisive way against all spending which designed to prepare for the future “money goes to old age homes not to maternity wards & kinder garden” Decision makers today being closer to the 2nd than the 1st category this is not surprising. Also for the same reason managers and researchers flock to USA to the detriment of European Institutions. EU spends (3% PIB on future) 1.5% of PIB on Universities & 1.5% on R&D. whereas USA spends twice these rates (6%) 3% Univ. & 3% R&D.
Criticism: cf. my graphs concerning early age and formative years a period which is longer than that inferred by a quick reading of Izraelewicz. 20/80 at the very least and perhaps 80/20 is a more modern life-long approach. Model 3 is a very rough 1st approach to defining two areas where special attention is required. This needs refinement and differentiation not ammunition supply for a general conflict of generations. There is much consensus on the abusive power and unwarranted rewards practised at senior management
Footnote 6: All is in the title “ Bosses should tend to their own back garden” so too should they; the competitive advantage theme even if significant (HBR Key Concepts-ref 5 above) is incantation no longer creation and innovation. As for the quality of execution, not a popular word at this time of detestable reintroduction of military tribunals by the current US admin, (ref. written in 2003-4, even more relevant to-day when some estimates consider torture on/in IRAQ higher than during Sadam's reign)
I wonder in which category will readers class AT. Kearney directors?

A Guide for the perplexed

Thursday, June 22, 2006

INNOVATION FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS

While polishing up my previous talk "Conversations" I recieved a "new wave"
"A Tsumami" of good Innovation sites to examine.

That "infamous climate change hockey stick" all over again!?
Exponential, potentially explosive?



Can it be managed? Take time to examine this Search Tool.
Yes , I did think it worth repeating.



To-day 16 Sept 06, I am pleased to add this weblog-site, "The House of Innovations"

from Google Ads (leads) under this post Innovation "Firing on all cylinders." It illustrates what I mean by in my side bar "ADDS CONTENT-UNDERLINES CONTEXT" and why I decided to to add a new motto "More Ads Please." It features comments from specialists and mny links.


Further, in view of possible "Clan-friendship", (not exclusive) synegies between "Coat of Arms & Clan Crest" with the writings of Prof. Glenn Macdonald , at Washington Univesity in St. Louis, in line (& online) with the Wedge Strategy & opinions of Princeton's Socolow ie.

"Enought technology exists currently to combat human induced global warming leading to climate change without inventing new technology".
That is
Innovation becomes a priority: political, economic & social, business & industry, etc.
This applies to Scientists & Technologists too-no sphere,field can "afford" to ignore the lessons of GW->CC.
Naturally,
Inventions and discoveries must not, be neglected.
They can grandly make implimentations, in time, easier, smoother, better.


(Link For Editing)

Friday, March 03, 2006

MOTIVATIONS for INNOVATIONS_WHY? TWO MAJOR ISSUES_CLIMATE CHANGE & ENERGY _HOW TO INNOVATE? cf. below

HOW TO START INNOVATING -

I - Find the necessary energy_I do not mean frêt over "Freight" at the price of oil or highly pertinant...I mean, in this instance, gather your own potential internal energy.
Try for yourself, the liberating force of accepting and embracing climate changes measured facts: The two main greenhouse gas indicators, carbon dioxide (CO2) and Methane(CH4) are on a vertigenous upward exponential curve, a red alert.Methane(CH4)Up-Date
These gases are estimated to contribute 50% of the current,man-made, global warming trend, easily recalled by the so called Hockey Stick. To view, open and scroll down to Fig.6 for an International Panel for Climate Change-IPCC source Hockey Stick for CH4.(Source:IPCC TAR Fig. 4-1) For a more detailedDiscussion on Validity cf. in particular Fig.1. Roughly the "Hockey Stick" is a good representation of the correspondence between measurements & modelled results over the last 20years, by numerous independant expert teams of climatologues). Again should you wish to view a Forward Thinking Film about Climate Change? please feel free to view this link.



II. Now that the reader is convinced of the current climate change general tendancy with a proverbial clout over the head with the equally proverbial hockey stick.
The questions to answer becomes: What, if anything, can be done about it? Obviously more motivation for innovation a) by acting to test our mastery of our "collective action" ie system maximisation. This requires short & medium range action whose best policies will be built into our long-term,long-range planning not to mention life-long learning. And since there will always scepticts, they must be minimised in the system,design, decision, analysis sense. Hopefully the proverbial hockey-stick may not be brought fully into force!?


Before we go too far lets look at some more science:


Despite the above hyperlinked progress features, consider human activity as far from optimum functioning, not exactly news! ie. there is always room for improvement.

If science has established several systems limitations, mapped by universal constants:Heizenberg's uncertainty or indetermincey principle in fact fixes limits,a lower limit, to infintessimals, the quantum in the form of Planck's constant h Boltzmann's constant k too belongs to this infintesimal category ; the Einstein's equation of energy-matter equivalence E=mc^2, where c is the constant speed of light=300,000km/s, Entropy& Time's Arrow

it has certainly not examined all combinations of the known-a sort of Alchemistry for want of a better word. Click this link for an interesting presentation & list of SI units, physical & universal constants.


I shall develop, more fully, the concept of limitations and their positive power later.



Please feel free to consult my new weblog site(s) and read the short poems entitled



  • "Toe the line" or "The Prefects Prayer"

  • . It is based upon the very clear short book "Les Constantes Universelles" (Universal Constants in english) by the Physics Nobel Prize winner Gilles Cohen Tannoudji. I warmly recommend both C.Cohen Tannoudji's book for the concise,insightful account of the universal constants; G, c, k & h the gravitational constant,the speed of light,Boltzmann and Planck'constants respectively and my,hopefully mind stimulating, verses on LIMITS in



  • "Newton is Dead"

  • ENTROPY,Chemical-Thermodynamics; Gibbs, Helmholtz, J.C.Maxwell et al. in



  • "From Entropy to Poetry,"

  • LASER Light-beams in



  • "Jaggy Stuff"

  • or again on WORK & JOBS



  • "Le travail c'est la santé-a damned good job too", (scroll down to main bloc 2)

  • or even on Neutrinos in



  • "Not so Shy"

  • . These and other subjects are treated in a light-hearted but fairly sound fashion.

    As suggested above, despite such exponential increase in knowlege,(that non-trivial hockey stck crops up again) it is trivial, still,to say that infinately more is unknown than is known, even excluding the outer space & extraterrestrial exploration often involked in such statements.

    Indeed I am trying to focus my attention, certainly, and also with luck, the chance readers attention, "the more the merrier", upon our own planet. Home-in and stick around to see-the joy in it. Enjoy it! I aim to underline or much better, lets say underscore this. Take careful note of this last word and be "assured, reassured" that hereupon, it is true to say "the more the merrier" is insurance, the power of great numbers, people, their dollars, euros or even only little pennies, centimes or rupées... as we all, at least those who care, know, that this is the planet upon which we and our children and our children's children "have been called upon" to live-Natures Alchemy.

    Of course, by now, you will have realised, that I am refering to topical (and tropical) preocuppations those of durable & sustainable development, an area as vast as human knowledge and intelligence can span!

    Let me encourage you to fearlessly face present and potential futures.
    There is little choice in the the main directions but infinities of combinations.

    See for yourself, how easy consensus may be achieved, synergies reached, needless arguement avoided or transcended, and this over a huge range of issues providing much open (real systems & entropy) truthful (science's aim) communication is adopted. Can it be otherwise at least in science? (cf. Shannon & Info Theory & Entropy again)

    On the contrary see how dificult things appear when such Big Picture director remains clouded, without rain, a drought and smog out-weighing fog.

    These lines have been written specifically to describe the recent "shock awakening", I personally experience upon my own decision to consider these issues, to be truely major issues, to be true best representation of reality, to be real, tangible and in many cases amendable to change cf. Shewarts Laws of Systems amenable to Change.

    While the tools of thermodynamics have imposed limitations on work, it has also provided a manuel for the most efficient use of energy. I expect some more development is required to explain such notions but for those interested many excellance courses from high school to university level are freely available on the internet. Many, many, thanks to all involved.

    Unfortuneately thermodynamic science says nothing about using energy for the better, about what purpose energy shall be put and I and most people argue that such issues transcend petty profit (NB. as opposed to well deserved earnings, profit etc. I owe that last distinction to the memory of my illustrious compatriot Adam Smith and not to any misguided/ misinformed, lip-servivce to today's capitalist system in its worst "neo"-liberal expression. The latter comment I dedicate to the constant and considerate efforts of the late John Kenneth Galbraith (2 May 2006) and to the personal explaination by a current day french journalist JFK-Jean-François Kahn, founder-editor-in-chief of two Magazines "Les Jeudis de l'Information" & Marianne cf. also, by scolling down to the 2nd main block of my website front page my verse "Le travail c'est la santé-a damned good job too" written in the Scots tradition "Letter to" or "Address to"

    I hope to use this personal new found energy to overcome the perceived resistance by many lobbies in defence of the far-from-optimun endeavour (too much competition kills the competition), business as usual-the best thing to do? or just for want of something better to do? employment guided or mis-guided? poor and devalued employment, poor and mislead growth.

    More than doing one's best, as we all do, be it for good or for bad, but rather working for the better, as we all can, physically weak or strong! Ref: "my original paper, "Conversations on Innovations " freely available but pass word required (curtesy of Chemweb,Science direct Archive). Repetition helps consolidate one's resolve cf. the poem by Hugh Macdiarmid,with translation to french on WILLPOWER-TBD entitled
    The Nature of Will-TBD

    Change "management" defined not as some vague porridge word, change, consider the dichotomy-two opposing concepts- such as decline or growth together in life's struggle (2nd Law of Thermodynamics > 2nd Law of Thermodynamics , 20 years on de Rosnay,de Closet et al TBD)


    Growth*, the word is out, Bonsai, just picture it. Yes growth in the most literal biosherical, photosynthetic sense. If main indicators such as CO2 have not by now taught us, that one of the best, if not the best and oldest carbon sink and climate moderator is vegetation! It is also the one all humans know best even if, sometimes or often, forgotten. (NB. I have since been informed that this will not prove hugely insufficient and I feel obliged to blog further on these themes. Rather than diminish the importance of my comments it requires much stronger highlighting and underscoring)


    So lets collectively aim to encourage truely liberating energies, the most inexpensive kind, human energies; clear thinking, just a little courage to think out of the box and simply smile in the face the global nature of issues inherent in current Climate Change which more and more clearly help bring to light the many areas whereby, often simple actions, individual but much more important collective action are easily taken or adhered to, necesarry to maintain democracy. Even big issues concerning well known systems eg. transportation or agriculture can and should be taken, documented and accounted for, to pay ones way-the lightest vehicle of exchange.

    Many long standing problems facing humanity may disappear naturally and perhaps obviously under such action.

    There is no galloping demography in developped nations!
    Similar statistics & solutions may perhaps be found;
    to tap drinking Water, alleviate Food shortage, and improve Health.
    All ideas welcome Two fairly recent initiatives have been brought to my attention Nature's SciDev and France's "Reportersdespoir"
    Obviously such faith in current scientific findings, as expressind in these lines must not be considered final, but must be accompanied by parallel ongoing measurements, measurement improvements in quantity & quality, and in modeling. In fact only this morning I was reminded of the great expectations to arise from biomimicry, micro sensing, micro systems research. Reference to Bionics was made. May I suggest that an urgent sensors update approach in the form of a list of the natures known answers, "our knowledge of nature" be made widely available if only to both create the required synthetic sensors through biomimicry but also and maybe more productive,cheaper and effective to accept in more realistic time scales ie.with the proper credibility, for example through multivariable statistical computations Natures signs, Her Warnings, with more humility and use natures natural system with full enlightened respect.

    If this is not sufficient a BBC list of HOT TOPICS>

    "Thoughts from a Dumbledore Penseive Approach-respecting a chance remark made in my original paper-Conversations on Innovations freely available via ChemWeb.com Science Direct archive. Take a password and check for yourself. (cf also pre-prints on computer science, mathematics and chemistry.)

    If you still think climate change is some myth then check the references of the people involved in modifying the situation eg. Most of the Highly Reputeable Univiversities, Meteorological Centres, Numerical Analysis Companies for modeling, eg. NAG

    and last but not least, most if not all Respectable Companies....( While we are on the subject of respectability and verification; checklist those who are not involved but could and should be?)

    Friday, February 10, 2006

    Climate Change-Motor for Innovation-My J.K.Rowlings,H. Potter, Penseive

    WHY INNOVATE?

    PLANET UNDER PRESSURE

    Between October and December 2004 The BBC (reporter Alex Kirby) ran a programme highlighting six aspects of pressures on our planet:1.Biodiversity -threats to species,2. Water crises, 3. Soaring energy demand, 4. Feeding the World while preserving the planet, 5. Tackling pollution, 6. Facing climate change.


    In PICTURES



    cf. Some of the Latest Reports on Climate Change:
    Quick WebZine Round up 061016
    TIMELY LINE: http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/tiempo/newswatch/arideas.htm
    WHAT BUSINESS SAYS:


    MIXED OUTCOMES - POLITICS LAGS SCIENCE:
    Mulitlingual Window to the developping World: SciDev

    An international accountancy firm has outlined how to sustain the rapid economic growth of emerging economies without having serious effects on the climate. Read More: Cutting emissions without an economic slow-down: SciDev



    Sci Dev GLOBAL_Multilingual;English,French,Spanish,Chinese
    ENVIRONMENTAL TARGETS for YOUR GLOBAL PROJECTS

    http://www.scidev.net/News/index.cfm?fuseaction=readNews&itemid=2909&language=1
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3143798.stm

    The weather at the bar:
    - It influences public health and our general well-being,
    -It has a direct impact on numerous sectors of the economy such as;
    -agriculture, business, industry, transport and tourism.


    “Severe weather poses one of today's biggest challenges as the damage caused by weather-related natural disasters is becoming increasingly significant. Since the apparent increase in the incidence of severe weather events is thought to be linked to a changing climate, it is crucial that we continue to further our understanding of the Earth system and its processes, enabling us to better predict the effects a changing climate may bring.”

    JIT-Just-in-time: The economic and social benefits of accurate weather forecasts are huge; they give us precious time to prepare and make decisions, whether it be harvesting a crop before it rains, gritting the roads to prevent accidents, routing air traffic to avoid adverse conditions or simply planning day-to-day activities. In the extreme, knowing that hazardous weather conditions are on the way can save human life and property.


    The European Space Agencies’ (ESA’s) “MetOp” programme represents the European contribution to a new co-operative venture with the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which for the last 40 years has been delivering meteorological data from polar orbit, free of charge, to users world-wide.

    CLICK NOW FOR FACTS FROM THE BBC

    TWO or THREE QUESTIONS FROM MY YOUTH IN AYRSHIRE-
    1. IS THE FIRTH OF CLYDE HEATING DUE TO NUCLEAR PLANT COOLING?
    WATER VAPOUR AMPLIFIER ...??? QUESTION & NUCLEAR COOLING?

    2a. When will the sea level rise again to reach the level of Seagate Castle, "Sea gate" as the name implies, suggests that it was built on the shore-front, and is the Gate way to the sea and perhaps defense from sea invaders of that time. Seagate castle, in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland was built around the time of Mary Stuart,Queen of Scots and visited by Mary herself.

    2b. When was the area or town of Fullarton (Irvine & Fullarton) founded? Or re-worded, was the area now known as Fullarton, below sea level at the time of Mary Stuart Queen of Scots?

    NB. Water builds the heat in Europe



    ONE BIG PICTURE from BBC

    THE RICH and THE POOR


    CALIFORNIA LEADS THE WAY IN GAS MUZZELLING


    1999 Already - STRONG CALLS to ACT



    HOW TO START INNOVATING has been sieved, n'est pas, and re-edited in the next section .

    Here I maintain the Rowlings Penseive concept -as open block notes fr shared reading, questions or comments.

    In fact only this morning I was reminded of the great expectations to arise from biomimicry, micro-nano sensing, micro-nano systems research. Reference to Bionics was made. (TDB-To Be Done.)

    May I suggest that an urgent sensors update approach in the form of a list of the natures known answers, "our knowledge of nature" be made widely available if only to both create the required synthetic sensors through biomimicry but also and maybe more productive,cheaper and effective to accept in more realistic time scales ie.with the proper credibility, for example through multivariable statistical computations Natures signs, Her Warnings, with more humility and use natures natural system with full enlightened respect.

    "Thoughts from Dumbledore" ref. The imaginative J.K. Rowlings Character in Harry Potter

    UNDERSTAND CLIMATE CHANGE -CLIMATE FORECASTS:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/sci_nat/04/climate_change/html/climate.stm
    UNDERSTANDING THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/sci_nat/04/climate_change/html/greenhouse.stm
    UNDERSTANDING THE CARBON CYCLE:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/sci_nat/04/climate_change/html/carbon.stm
    SOME EXAMPLES OF FEEDBACK EFFECTS:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/sci_nat/04/climate_change/html/carbon.stm
    POSSIBLE EFFECTS ON THE GULF STREAM :
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/sci_nat/04/climate_change/html/gulf.stm
    GET TO THE ROOTS OF CLIMATE SCIENCE & MODELING
    http://www.climateprediction.net/science/index.php
    GET INVOLVED
    http://www.climateprediction.net/

    GLOBAL DIMMING -not so simple but "Dr. COX is at the BAR.
    "We're going to be in a situation unless we act where the cooling pollutant is dropping off while the warming pollutant is going up. That means we'll get reducing cooling and increased heating at the same time and that's a problem for us," says Dr Cox. -GLOBAL DIMMING cf.
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4171591.stm
    ACT ON

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/sci_nat/04/climate_change/html/carbon.stm


    SOME ACTION
    http://www.greenenergyworks.org.uk/itworks.htm#jobs

    TRADITIONAL APPROACHES

    CLEANING COAL - As Fast As POSSIBLE (CC-ASAP)?
    TITLE from BLACK to GREEN
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4468076.stm

    *GROWTH - NEW: POTENTIAL SET-BACK TO GROWTH _CH4 (methane) Underestimated - Forestry
    http://www.scidev.net/News/index.cfm?fuseaction=readNews&itemid=2588&language=1



    Management Action WEDGE
    Forestry Management WEDGE action required cf. Wedge Theory below.
    MAIN HOLISTIC ACTION PLAN -WEDGES -WEDGES MORE WEDGES











    By R.Socolow, Science 13 August 2004:Vol. 305. no. 5686, pp. 968 - 972DOI: 10.1126/science.1100103

    Review
    Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies S. Pacala1* and R. Socolow2*
    Humanity already possesses the fundamental scientific, technical, and industrial know-how to solve the carbon and climate problem for the next half-century. A portfolio of technologies now exists to meet the world's energy needs over the next 50 years and limit atmospheric CO2 to a trajectory that avoids a doubling of the preindustrial concentration. Every element in this portfolio has passed beyond the laboratory bench and demonstration project; many are already implemented somewhere at full industrial scale. Although no element is a credible candidate for doing the entire job (or even half the job) by itself, the portfolio as a whole is large enough that not every element has to be used.
    1 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.2 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.

    * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: pacala@princeton.edu
    '//-->
    (S.P.); socolow@princeton.edu
    '//-->
    (R.S.)

    WEDGES EXPLAINED

    www.stabilisation2005.com/day3/Socolow.pdf

    Wedges commented, in french

    http://www.planetpositive.ch/version_2_0/news/articles/1234/_quinze_idees_pour_sauver_le_monde.html

    http://www.planetpositive.ch/version_2_0/news/articles/1234/_quinze_idees_pour_sauver_le_monde.html

    WEDGE BIOGRAPHY-LITTERATURE-PAPERS LIST

    http://mae.princeton.edu/people/e9/socolow/profile.html

    www.stabilisation2005.com/day3/Socolow.pdf

    WEDGE IDEAS from SCIENCE MAG.
    http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/sci;305/5686/957

    SEARCH - SEEK - FIND -EXPERIMENT
    (Remember the Demming Virtuous Cycle :Plan Do Check & Act)
    SEARCH FOR MATERIALS WHICH ABSORB CO2 REACT & BIND WITH & TRAP, CO2


    Water builds the heat in EuropeWater vapour rather than carbon dioxide is the main reason why Europe is warming, a new study concludes.» 83% relevance 12/11/2005 similar stories
    Heatwave makes plants warm planetThe 2003 heatwave turned Europe's plants from absorbers to producers of carbon dioxide, a new study finds.» 86% relevance 21/09/2005 similar stories
    CO2 emissions put corals at riskIsraeli scientists predict coral reefs could begin to collapse in as little as 30 years from now.» 90% relevance 01/02/2005 similar stories

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/286839.stm
    'No solution' found in more treesScientists find parts of the Amazon rainforest emit more carbon dioxide than they absorb when conditions are very wet.» 86% relevance 28/11/2003 similar stories
    Oceans becoming more acidicTwo US scientists say the pH of the world's oceans is falling, potentially threatening marine life if it continues unabated.» 86% relevance 24/09/2003 similar stories
    Land use 'alters climate'Alterations in land use may be as important as greenhouse gases in changing the climate, US scientists say.» 85% relevance 02/10/2002 similar stories
    New greenhouse gas threatScientists discover a new greenhouse gas that is 18,000 times more effective than CO2 in trapping heat.» 86% relevance 27/07/2000 similar stories
    Trees 'will not avert climate change'United Nations scientists say planting trees to absorb carbon dioxide will do little to slow global warming.» 88% relevance 20/10/1999 similar stories
    Iron helps combat climate changeAdding iron to the sea could slow down climate change, according to the first results from an international experiment.


    FROM THIS LIST ONE RECALLS THAT IRON (Fe) IS ONE SERIOUS (EXTREME) POTENTIAL TOOL TO LIMIT CO2 Fe is A FERTILISER FOR CO2 absorbing PLANKTON, BuuuT....!!!
    and Fe again, one month earlier Adding iron to the sea could slow down climate change, according to the first results from an international experiment.


    THE IPCC Special Report - Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (Pdf format)



    MATERIALS & PROCESS CHEMISTS & ENGINEERS HAVE A STRONG ROLE TO PLAY
    eg. in MINERALISATION of CO2. & Separation of CO2. Biologists Too

    GREENHOUSE GAS ONLINE - EXTENSIVE
    http://www.ghgonline.org/index.htm

    IT MUST BE OBVIOUS BY NOW THAT ALL INDUSTRIES MUST BE CONSTRAINED (TO ALLOW FAIR COMPETITION) TO TAKE A FULL LIFE CYCLE VIEW OF THEIR "MATERIALS HANDLING. NATIONS & INTERNATIONAL BODIES MUST ESTABLISH & ENFORCE SUCH LEGISLATION & CONTROL. A 10 YEAR PERIOD WITH OBJECTIVES & AIMS TO BE MET APPEARS TO BE A PROPER ROAD TO GROWTH.




    Table TS.2. Profile by process or industrial activity of worldwide large stationary CO2 sources with emissions of more than 0.1 MtCO2 per
    year.
    Process - No of sources - Emissions(MtCO2 yr-1)
    Fossil fuels Power 4,942 10,539
    Cement production 1,175 932
    Refineries 638 798
    Iron and steel industry 269 646
    Petrochemical industry 470 379
    Oil&gas processingN/A 50
    Other sources 90 33
    Biomass
    Bioethanol& bioenergy 303 91
    Total 7,887 13,466

    CO2 in the Bin (in French), source Ademe, the French Environment Agency
    http://www.manicore.com/documentation/serre/dechets.html

    MATERIALS Carbon Equivalent per Tonne(metric T), produced
    Matériau kg équivalent carbone par tonne produite (valeurs européennes)
    PROCESS-Source-Emissions
    Acier à partir de minerai - 850
    Acier à partir de ferrailles
    300
    Aluminium à partir de minerai
    3.000
    Aluminium à partir de ferrailles d'alu
    600
    Verre plat
    400
    Verre bouteille
    120
    Plastique de base (polyéthylène, polystyrène, PCV, PETÉ)
    500 à 1.600
    Papier-carton
    500
    Ciment
    250

    TODAYS SEARCH 14 Feb 2006
    GREENHOUSE GAS ONLINE - EXTENSIVE
    http://www.ghgonline.org/index.htm

    ECONOMICS :APPROACHES TO SOLVE CLIMATE CHANGE
    http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/climate_change_top.aspx?page=1036&folder=146&

    ENERGY SAVING IS GOOD PRACTICE:

    LOW ENERGY LIGHT BULBS & BANNING THE LIGHT BULBS:
    While counting or pennies and cents please note the disposal recommendations due to Mercury, Hg.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-energy_light-bulb

    THINK LED - Light Emitting Diode.

    LEDS Explained.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED

    Advantages Far Outweigh Disadvantages - Why is their adoption so slow?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED#Disadvantages_of_using_LEDs

    CHECK THESE LED IMAGES
    http://delphi.homelinux.org/gallery/ledlight

    LED IMAGES & PRICES TO BEAT
    http://www.thinkgeek.com/clearance/7aa8/



    LINKS ON CLIMATE CHANGE BASICS & ARTICLES

    Global Warming (GW) and Sudden' Climate Change Information
    http://www.visi.com/~gmatkovits/SCC%20Post-03.21..2005.html
    Who is blogging on climate?-cf.technorati
    Who is blogging on climate?
    EU_European Union "CO2 Free Trade Area"_Road to Economic Growth:Trade in your C02 emissions & especially Phase out your CO2 emissions.
    TOTAL COST EFFECTIVE CO2 EMISSIONS REDUCTION FROM ROYAL DUTCH
    Tell them to
    "Shell those CO2 Emissions"

    TBD-To Be DoneBD
    THE VERY HOTEST TOPIC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4698652.stmNB.A TOPIC-CIVIL AVIATION(Kyoto XYZ bis?)Stats-The Law of Series! cf. La Recherche(fr) Jan06, Thierry de la Rue & More Plane info @ http://www.airdisaster.com/ Blacklisted HOT TROPICS-Hurricane Events Analysis, Response and Mitigation http://www.asce.org/static/hurricane/journal.cfm Lawrence Livermore & Carnegie-TROPICAL& Temperate Climate Advice:http://www.llnl.gov/pao/news/news_releases/2005/NR-05-11-01.html more http://www.llnl.gov/ cf. http://www.scientific-computing.com/minisite/issue95/2.html 1st Reaction Tropical Forest =4X,10X? Temperates-STRICT MANAGEMENT of Tropicals & Plant both Trop&Temp Forests in proper species & proportions.