For a number of years I toiled in the oil industry as an engineer, and not infrequently lessons I learned from my engineering experience return to inform me in other contexts. Recently I have been thinking of the global economy in such terms, and it fails miserably to pass the
Continue readingTag: engineering
Eclectic Lip: Wiki-immortality!
My August Canadian EV car sales stats update went up recently. Which was cool. Cooler still, I had a chance to wax poetic about sustainability, and my new-found optimism that we’ll avoid the worst of our dystopian horrors. I was invited to be a guest lecturer for an engineering course
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Roads: Why Are They Still Asphalt?
We live in an age of innovation. Using the great scientific advances of previous generations and implementing them in new and creative ways is huge part of our progress. No longer burdened by what we can do (mostly), the question for most fields now is how we can do it
Continue readingPostArctica: Strandbeests by Theo Jansen
Theo Jansen (born 1948) is a Dutch artist. In 1990, he began what he is known for today: building large mechanisms out of PVC that are able to move on their own, known as Strandbeest. His animated works are a fusion of art and engineering; in a car company (BMW)
Continue readingThe last of Nortel’s legacy sold off
Nortel’s patents sold for 4.5 billion dollars–a true indictment of the many dollars and years of R&D investment. Some of Canada’s top scientists worked there–it truly was an innovative company (unfortunately with bad management). It is also very sad that Nortel’s leadership, including Mike Zafirovski, did not know the true value of what they had […]
New Ontario Liberal Commercial
I just saw the new Ontario Liberal commercial and I must say that I really like it. I’m not sure it will help the election, but it really instills some Ontario pride. Many Canadian provinces have strong identities, and some are having a strong economic resurgance, largely based on resources. But Ontario can claim to […]
The Importance of a Technology “Anchor”
Not a long post from me today, but just a link to an article in the Globe and Mail that explains what RIM’s misfortunes could mean for the city of Kitchener-Waterloo. I doubt that they will become the next Nortel, but hopefully they won’t…
Continue readingOttawa Tech Sector / RIM
A while ago I was going to post a quick something that I saw about the Ottawa Tech Sector from the Ottawa Citizen, but didn’t post it. Unfortunately things didn’t seem to be going well in Ottawa high-tech despite some encouraging signs from some companies. Article below: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/thinning+ranks+Ottawa+tech+sector/4564755/story.html?cid=megadrop_story But now it seems we could have […]
An Aside – Engineers in Politics
Just saw an arictle in EE Times, a kind of article that started this blog!
From south of the border, a call to run for office for the nation’s engineers.