A captive audience in Irvine
Yesterday I gave the astrophysics seminar at UC Irvine - a captive audience! I took the opportunity to fulfill NYR#2 ("Explain why I am replacing flights with videoconferences") and hit them first with this slide:
and then this one:
It generated 25% of the questions! Yes, there were only 4, but still - just the fact that I turned up on the train gave them something to think about, and we spent some time talking at lunch and dinner about flying, beef, solar power etc etc. I left them with an emailed link to David MacKay's book, so we'll see if any of the Irvine astronomers decide to fly less (and perhaps donate some of their saved air miles to me...)
James Bullock, the head of the group, got quite excited actually - he thinks it's silly that we keep flying to Hawaii all the time, and was suggesting things like paying the observatory to hire more support astronomers instead. He might be a useful ally if I decide to take on the W.M. Keck Observatory!
and then this one:
It generated 25% of the questions! Yes, there were only 4, but still - just the fact that I turned up on the train gave them something to think about, and we spent some time talking at lunch and dinner about flying, beef, solar power etc etc. I left them with an emailed link to David MacKay's book, so we'll see if any of the Irvine astronomers decide to fly less (and perhaps donate some of their saved air miles to me...)
James Bullock, the head of the group, got quite excited actually - he thinks it's silly that we keep flying to Hawaii all the time, and was suggesting things like paying the observatory to hire more support astronomers instead. He might be a useful ally if I decide to take on the W.M. Keck Observatory!
posted by Phil at 8:46 PM
4 Comments:
pretty freaking sweet. the only problem i can see is that the "price of this seminar" slide is slide #80. you're a slideaholic: you're addicted to slideahol.
yeah phil! i will buy you a pizza if you get my roommate to take the train roundtrip to irvine just once when he visits home.
(ken H is becoming a pizza ambassador between the two of us, i see...)
Phil, I just saw this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7851038.stm
From that
"A 2007 law required that new cars and trucks produced by 2020 obtain 35 miles per gallon of fuel (about 15km/litre).
However, then-President George W Bush did not put in place the regulations to enable the law to be carried out."
35 mpg by 2020 is pathetic for cars. 35 mpg by tomorrow is reasonable, rising to 50 or higher by 2020. Does David's book say anything about this?
Yep - it says cars need to be electric!
It does talk about what sort of carbon tax we would need in order for CO2 production to decrease - it turns out to be comparable to that passed through congress last week! We'll have to see how well that law sticks...
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