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Re: collision detection: The Humboldt squid beak: Diamond-sharp mystery of the briny deep

Alexis Madrigal — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 23:06:10 -0000

Awesome post. This reminds me of the materials science work in the dental field. Teeth have a similar kind of gradient. You've got the enamel and then the dentin underneath, which has a fascinating structure too, kind of like adobe. If it weren't for this layering -- and our teeth were much more like ceramic plates -- we'd bust them far more often.

Re: Prints Now Available And New LA River Photos on eecue.com : Dave Bullock / eecue

Alexis Madrigal — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:07:03 -0000

Wow, Dave. Those are incredible!

Re: http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/10/amory-lovins-and-president-jimmy-carter.html

Alexis Madrigal — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:50:55 -0000

@Soylent: Nobody seriously argues for a renewables-only grid. Also, the "renewables destroy the natural world" argument is another red herring. It's been a long while since unaltered "nature" existed on this Earth. The amount of land dedicated to farming (industrial and otherwise) far outstrips what would be required to bring massive amounts of green tech online.

It's worth pointing out, too, that nuclear high-miss created a much larger chain of bad decisions and bad modeling than Amory's low miss.

And I'd take someone arguing what the world *should* be like over engineers clothing their opinions about the world inside technical analyses. Better to have everyone's assumptions, normative desires, and biases out in the open. That way, democracy can happen.

Re: http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/10/amory-lovins-and-president-jimmy-carter.html

Alexis Madrigal — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:22:21 -0000

I would file that report under "not serious," I think. But point taken.

Rhetorically, the big problem is that the perfect becomes the enemy of the hybrid. I'd rather have combined heat and power plants in the places it makes sense than almost anything else.

Re: http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/10/amory-lovins-and-president-jimmy-carter.html

Alexis Madrigal — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:51:37 -0000

I think that solar and wind will displace some coal and fossil fuels. To act as if they will never do so seems a bit strange, given the relative amounts of R&D spent on them versus other types of power. Re: cement and steel, sure there are tradeoffs. We swap out materials, we make better designs, etc. The technology improves once the capital and resources are focused on it.

As for my statement about the nuclear high-miss being bad. I've written fairly extensively about it online. My main critique is that the projections that showed very low electricity prices drove energy planners to overestimate the demand for the product. If electricity was going to be nearly free, it made sense to use tons of it. (Too Cheap Too Meter is one book on it; another is Alvin Weinberg's autobiography.) In cases where you could spend a little more up front for a more efficient product or just use a little more energy, people picked the latter. Bit-by-bit, we locked ourselves into a higher energy society, even though we didn't have to, and it doesn't make sense. (The Bulldozer in the Suburbs is very good on the way that utility executives drove energy usage up intentionally, particularly in residential housing. Demand didn't come from nowhere, it was stimulated by humans.)

Another problem: the projections that were made were so high that they made any use of renewable energy seem silly. You seem to think this is true. I don't. I'd say such critiques are based more on technological aesthetics than any hard system engineering limits. It's a values-based argument hiding in a call for a very particular kind of technical rationality.

The benefits of energy usage beyond 110 GJ/person/year are minimal by any quantifiable standard, Vaclav Smil has found (Energy at the Crossroads, 2003). Closer to that range, Americans could meet a large percentage of our electricity — if not energy — needs with green tech.

I'm not opposed to nuclear on moral grounds. I just think that the R&D cycle for nuclear reactor designs got cut short by greedy Westinghouse and GE. More money for next-gen nuclear designs seems like a good idea, ones that are technically safer and that can be deployed faster at lower up-front cost.

Re: Haibun for Bill Higginson

Alexis Madrigal — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:41:55 -0000

Glad to see tinywords back. I hardly knew the original, but the new version looks terrific. Congrats on the relaunch, DT.

Re: First Solar (FSLR), Enbridge (ENB) To Quadruple Size Of Sarnia Solar Project | Solar Feeds News And Commentary Network

Alexis Madrigal — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:04:22 -0000

Well, it'll be the the same size as the two largest Solar Electric Generating Stations that Luz built in the Mojave in the early '90s.

Re: http://faketv.tumblr.com/post/361985007

Alexis Madrigal — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:00:27 -0000

Dude. He looks WAY more like Leo.

Re: http://48hrmag.com/blog/39-post-game-wrap-up

Alexis Madrigal — Mon, 10 May 2010 15:54:19 -0000

Ayden: I'm more than happy to offer feedback on your story, if you're interested. It was a strong submission. Do know that your story got 5 reads (I checked the reviewing system). Feel free to email me: alexis.madrigal[at]gmail.com.

Re: http://48hrmag.com/blog/39-post-game-wrap-up

Alexis Madrigal — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:05:58 -0000

FYI, the list above has been updated. It now separates out the edit staff and contributors.

Re: http://48hrmag.com/blog/39-post-game-wrap-up

Alexis Madrigal — Tue, 11 May 2010 18:03:24 -0000

Thanks for the feedback, Brenda. Next time, we'll be making a bunch of tweaks to the process. I'd only note that we didn't actually take anyone's rights, just the license to publish it first. Everything that everyone created belongs to them and can be used for any purpose.

And let's be honest: we had NO IDEA how many people would end up submitting. Only 6 people knew that this was even an idea 14 days ago.

Re: http://48hrmag.com/blog/39-post-game-wrap-up

Alexis Madrigal — Wed, 12 May 2010 18:01:22 -0000

We have mentioned that Magcloud is a sponsor, Bryan. They got an ad on the backpage of the magazine and on the site here in exchange for a discount on the printing. All of that has been out in the open. The printing cost is $9 and we're marking it up $1.

Re: http://48hrmag.com/blog/42-we-received-a-cease-and-desist-letter

Alexis Madrigal — Thu, 20 May 2010 18:33:25 -0000

Is that really putting it in perspective? What defense is a circle jerk? Did we offer one here?

Re: Could the Offshore Drilling Ban Make Things Worse? - Science and Tech - The Atlantic

Alexis Madrigal — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 08:17:22 -0000

@arvay: The answer lies in how we build and move around our cities. No technological solution that I'm aware of is anywhere close to being able to replace a substantial percentage of the oil consumed just for transportation in the U.S. The lever is land use. The big question is whether the U.S. can muster the collective will to beat the price signals to the punch and give us some hope of building good infrastructure or .... not. Seeing as people think we can drill our way out of this, I'm sadly betting on the latter.

@Mark: Solely because the U.S. doesn't have an official national oil policy doesn't mean that other countries don't or that we don't occasionally act like we do. (Most famously, the OPEC embargo and response). Take a look at who holds the world's remaining oil reserves: national oil companies, which have a complex relationship with "the market." (Take a look at this Congressional Research Service report, for example: www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL... To wit: "The national oil companies typically do not operate strictly on the basis of
market principles.")

And last thing, re: "You should really be ashamed of making such a sophomoric claim in print anywhere, let alone in [fill in the publication]." Probably no single line has been more used (reused, abused, recycled) by comment writers across the Internet. That is to say, it's cliched bombast. Bad combo.

Re: How Does Kevin Costner's Oil Cleaning Machine Work, Exactly? - Business - The Atlantic

Alexis Madrigal — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:35:59 -0000

It says a little something about the state of ancillary oil technologies that a centrifuge — a basic liquid separation machine in use since the 19th century — has to be hailed as a major advance in the cleanup effort.

Re: Funniest Tweets on 'Bin Laden Hunter' Gary Faulkner | The Atlantic Wire

Alexis Madrigal — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:54:06 -0000

How long until there is a @GaryFaulknerSword twitter account? (I'm giving you all a ten minute head start, and then I'm making it and coming after you.)

Re: The Spreading of 'The Aspen Idea' - Politics - The Atlantic

Alexis Madrigal — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 01:04:34 -0000

I'm all for carbon awareness, but it's clearly not the only concern we can have for modern society. At times, we succumb to what Alex Steffen calls carbon blindness that make us focus on a narrow metric at the expense of really thinking about systems and how they work. Big problems are usually interconnected, and sometimes you need to bring a lot of people with expertise in different fields to find the leverage points. Does Skype allow the same kinds of informal experiences? Not so far. (Although it might make sense to argue that something like Twitter already fosters the kinds of loose social networks that tend to be built in a conference setting like the Ideas Festival.)

Re: Key Question: Can the US Innovate Without Manufacturing? - Politics - The Atlantic

Alexis Madrigal — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:59:55 -0000

Agreed -- certainly not a new idea, but perhaps there is some new(ish) research to back up what had been a more vernacular kind of knowledge. (I like 'the next bench' philosophy.)

In your current line of work, do you still get a chance to design the tools that you (or close colleagues) work with?

Re: Key Question: Can the US Innovate Without Manufacturing? - Politics - The Atlantic

Alexis Madrigal — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:01:11 -0000

There certainly hasn't been just one cause of American manufacturing growth or the subsequent decline. The history says it's much more complex than, "It's the unions fault!"

Re: The Uncouth Question at Aspen: Are Americans Smart or Dumb? - Ideas Special Report - The Atlantic

Alexis Madrigal — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:11:34 -0000

Right. Thanks. (Insert joke about the relationship between that mistake and this post.)

Re: The Uncouth Question at Aspen: Are Americans Smart or Dumb? - Ideas Special Report - The Atlantic

Alexis Madrigal — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:17:08 -0000

I think you're on to something, Ron. It's difficult for wildly different types of Americans to understand the motivations of their fellow citizens, which makes them seem incomprehensible. Los Angeles is not exactly Helsinki.

One brilliant riff on this topic is David Graeber's piece from Harper's a few years back. He reconceptualized American society as a competition to *be altruistic.* It turns out, however odd it sounds, to be quite a powerful lens. Check out this pirated copy of 'Army of Altruists': http://www.sleepykid.org/bl...

Re: The Uncouth Question at Aspen: Are Americans Smart or Dumb? - Ideas Special Report - The Atlantic

Alexis Madrigal — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 00:31:31 -0000

Yes, please return home. We need as many people like you as we can get. In fact, I'd prefer if you moved to San Francisco. so we could hang out.

Re: The New Bill Gates, Philosopher-King of the Nerds - Ideas Special Report - The Atlantic

Alexis Madrigal — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 18:16:29 -0000

Definitely both.

Re: The New Bill Gates, Philosopher-King of the Nerds - Ideas Special Report - The Atlantic

Alexis Madrigal — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 18:19:32 -0000

One interesting bit I didn't mention in the story is that he's been doing these philanthropy trainings for other extremely wealthy people, trying to train the very rich to both A) feel greater social responsibility and B) demand more for their philanthropy dollar.

Re: The New Bill Gates, Philosopher-King of the Nerds - Ideas Special Report - The Atlantic

Alexis Madrigal — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 22:54:25 -0000

I'm not trying to defend what Gates did at Microsoft, but the new Gates is interesting, whatever the sins of his past. (I actually brought up the energy question as a problem in Gates thinking, not to laud it. )