Engineering challenges for the 21st century

The Grand Challenges for Engineering was determined by a committee of the National Academy of Engineering. From an In Depth article in The Melbourne Age on Feb 24th 2008:

The panel consisted of 18 leading scientists, including geneticist Craig Venter and Google co-founder Larry Page, and was chaired by former US secretary of defence William Perry.
...
The list below was presented to the annual conference of the world's largest scientific organisation (and publisher of the journal Science), the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in Boston last week.
...
Sydney-based futurist Mark Pesce believes there are some usual suspects in the list. "It's a good list. It's funny; when I saw the fusion one I laughed. I was born in 1962 and people were saying then that fusion was 20 to 50 years away. I'm 45 now and they're still saying it's 20 to 50 years away."
But he says there are some puzzling inclusions. "Nuclear tension and safety in cyberspace are absolutely sociological problems and they don't easily admit to any engineering solution."

What do you think?

• Make solar energy economical
  Solar energy provides less than 1% of the world's total energy, but it has the potential to provide much, much more.
  
  
• Provide energy from fusion
  Human-engineered fusion has been demonstrated on a small scale. The challenge is to scale up the process to commercial proportions, in an efficient, economical, and environmentally benign way.
  
  
• Develop carbon sequestration methods
  Engineers are working on ways to capture and store excess carbon dioxide to prevent global warming.
  
  
• Manage the nitrogen cycle
  Engineers can help restore balance to the nitrogen cycle with better fertilization technologies and by capturing and recycling waste.
  
  
• Provide access to clean water
  The world's water supplies are facing new threats; affordable, advanced technologies could make a difference for millions of people around the world.
  
  
• Restore and improve urban infrastructure
  Good design and advanced materials can improve transportation and energy, water, and waste systems, and also create more sustainable urban environments.
  
  
• Advance health informatics
  Stronger health information systems not only improve everyday medical visits, but they are essential to counter pandemics and biological or chemical attacks.
  
  
• Engineer better medicines
  Engineers are developing new systems to use genetic information, sense small changes in the body, assess new drugs, and deliver vaccines.
  
  
• Reverse-engineer the brain
  The intersection of engineering and neuroscience promises great advances in health care, manufacturing, and communication.
  
  
• Prevent nuclear terror
  The need for technologies to prevent and respond to a nuclear attack is growing.
  
  
• Secure cyberspace
  It's more than preventing identity theft. Critical systems in banking, national security, and physical infrastructure may be at risk.
  
  
• Enhance virtual reality
  True virtual reality creates the illusion of actually being in a difference space. It can be used for training, treatment, and communication.
  
  
• Advance personalized learning
  Instruction can be individualized based on learning styles, speeds, and interests to make learning more reliable.
  
  
• Engineer the tools of scientific discovery
  In the century ahead, engineers will continue to be partners with scientists in the great quest for understanding many unanswered questions of nature.
  

Firepower, bogus fuel additive maker, threatens to sue over (true) claims that their fuel additive is bogus

Have you heard of the Streisand effect?

After Atomic magazine columnist, blogger, and all round good bloke, Dan Rutter blogged many times about bogus fuel additive maker Firepower in 2007 & 2008, he was sent a PDF of "summary of our results" by Stephen Moss, CEO of the above-mentioned bogus fuel additive maker, accompanied by this charming text:

Dear Dan,

You are an idiot.

I suggest before you make claims regarding a product, you complete all your research correctly. Maybe you should try a product before you talk about it.

I have attached a summary of our results.

You can remove your defamatory statements regarding our product within the next 48 hours and post an apology and reference our results or we will commence legal action immediately.

–Kind Regards,

Stephen Moss
Chief Executive Officer
Firepower International

On 12 Feb 2008, he kindly complied, but added his usual, thorough assessment of their claims, which wasn't at all flattering to poor old bogus fuel additive maker Firepower. It said things like "not backed up by science", and "not tested by reputable, contactable organisations", and "their claims don't even make sense".

Needless to say, the bogus fuel additive maker Firepower were unhappy with this, not least because it's all true - their product hasn't been tested in an actual lab, or by an actual scientist, or... um... at all (in an english speaking country) as far can be told.

So, they did what any self respecting bottom-feeder would do. On 19 Feb 2008 , they anonymously ordered Blogsome, who host Dan's blog, to force him to cease linking to this PDF file, FP_Pill_07.zip of their bogus "evidence".

As a direct result, and in keeping with the fine tradition of anti-censorship, bogus fuel additive maker Firepower's brochure can now be found all over the internets, including on this site - FP_Pill_07.zip.

Funny that.

The above text is based on this one from AdamHelp, thanks Adam!

---

From dansdata - mirrors so far:
This one at Tantryl Technology, this one at Purdue University, this one at David Lumley Design, this one at Manitu Group, this one at Tinfoil Music, this one at WinForums, this one at nepis.net, this one at egginton.net, this one at Practical Devices, this one at GamersNation, this one and this one where the PDF link currently constitutes pretty much the entire content of the site it's on not to mention this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, and this one and this one on OptusNet accounts, this one and this one at TPG, this one at WestNet and this one on a Versatel account in Belgium. Also mirrored and blogged about on Colombo Critic, and bjoreman.com, and ILikeJam, and ipsidixit.net, and The Thrill House, and Wyse Guys, and ItGlo.ws, and TechDomain, and TechNFun, and AdamHelp, and The Dord of Darien.

And the torrent's been downloaded a few hundred times.


How's that censorship workin' out for you, anonymous Firepower guy?

World's Funniest Being - Eddie Izzard

Is responsible for this blog's name, from Glorious - Flight of the Volkswagen:

We got there, the pilot was right by the plane, and it was just like going on holiday with your Dad, he’s going,

“Come on, come on! Come on, you don’t need that!” (mimes throwing away something)

“It’s my bag! Bloody hell…”

“Come on, get in! We’re gonna miss the clouds! Come on!”

Thanks to cake or death.