The Cowled Engineer

UPDATE (02/10/2018) - Updated to account for upstream CO2e emissions of fuel (i.e., extraction, refinement, and transport). A few years ago, my wife and I decided that our next car purchase would be an electric vehicle (EV).  We saw three reasons to make this decision: EVs have lower life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to petrol or diesel cars; An EV can be charged directly from our solar panels at minimal cost; and We believe that EVs are the future of personal transport and we wanted to be a part of the transition away from cars that burned fossil fuels, even if that meant that we would be paying more money up front to buy electric. A year later, we bought a fully electric Nissan Leaf.  The car has no exhaust pipe and we plug it into a powerpoint in our garage.  The car is a dream to drive.  It is so quiet, but also very quick. People seem to be interested in the car and the most common question is, "What is the range?"  We once drove 115

This is a book that takes some time to digest.  I've been reading it in short spurts over many months, allowing the deep subject matter to stew in my mind.  Dan Dennett is a Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University and he has spent his very long career seeking to explain, among other things, how the brain produces mind.  Dan's approach to this question is quite interesting.  He insists on using scientific findings to direct his thinking and he avoids metaphysical prognostication. There is a school of thought in "philosophy of mind" studies that there exists a so called hard problem of consciousness.  The hard problem of consciousness was described by Prof David Chalmers, an Australian philosopher at ANU, as the subjective experience of awareness that transcends the physical.  Chalmers uses the label   qualia  to describe this subjective feeling that arises in our minds when we experience the world.  He believes the nature of qualia  is fundamentally differen

That's my great Nanna, Amy Ridgeway, holding onto me in the chair as I squint into the sun.  My Poppy, Les Ridgeway, is standing next to my mum, Cheryl, who is dressed in that lovely yellow 70's summer dress.  Everyone I've ever spoken to about Nanna Amy has said she was a beautiful person, loving, kind, and generous.  I remember Nanna Amy and the house she lived in.  Was it Newcastle?  I remember mum and Aunty Min caring for all us kids.  I remember having fun with Aunty Sandra's kids, mostly Brad and Michael because they were close to my age.  I remember eating ice blocks at Nanna Amy's house and watching TV. Nanna Amy was born 110 years ago at Salt Ash near Port Stephens to Laura Maher, who would have been 19 years old at the time.  Laura worked as a housekeeper for an Englishman named Henry Waddingham who owned a shipping company based at Windi Woppa.  He never officially recognised the children he fathered with Laura, although my grandfather, Les Ridgeway

I have had a long fascination with tall buildings. Whenever I hear about a new building project, the one statistic I really want to know is how many storeys high the building is. On some deep level I am awed by the extent to which the engineer has beaten gravity. People were amazed and just a bit scared by the first concrete and steel skyscrapers that were built over 100 years ago.  I suppose there was a fear that they might collapse under their own weight.  It's a good thing that structural engineers know what they are doing, because almost nobody worries about skyscrapers collapsing any longer. Reinforced concrete (and some steel) skyscrapers have become the norm in cities all around the world, but they are now being challenged by the oldest engineering material known to humankind, WOOD ! The tallest timber building in the world at the moment is known as Brock Commons.  It is 18 storeys and located in Vancouver (see above and below).  The lift cores of this building are

The 'Truther' conspiracy theory claims that the World Trade Centre buildings collapsed as a result of a controlled demolition.  Truthers put forward as their evidence the speed and uniformity of the collapse.  They also claim that the steel did not get hot enough as a result of burning jet fuel to cause a collapse. My 2nd year civil engineering students know better than the truthers. Steel is an impressively strong material with excellent strength to weight ratio.  Steel also has a unique capability (compared to other metals) of being able to withstand unlimited stress cycles provided that the stresses are below a certain stress threshold.  For these reasons, steel is a great material to use in structural applications such as buildings and bridges.  But, there are three serious downsides to using steel.  Firstly, steel rusts.  Secondly, steel loses strength as it gets hotter.  Thirdly, steel expands due to heat. To ensure the structural integrity of a building, we have

It is World Environment Day, 2018.  A perfect day to write my first blog. To be perfectly honest, the rate of global warming gives me the willies.  I can't even discuss the topic with Natalie because just thinking about the ramifications of rapid climate change terrifies her so much.  She has said that she doesn't know what she can possibly do to make a difference, so why even talk about it.  I understand her reaction.  I really do.  But, for me, I need to know.  I need to know how climate change works and I need to figure out what I can do about it. Some years ago, I had a back-and-forth email exchange with my brother, Mark, about climate change.  At the time, he believed it was a storm in a teacup.  As I recall, Mark accepted that global warming was occurring, but he didn't believe humans were responsible.  I'm sure he'll correct me in the comments if I've mis-characterised his point of view. Mark also had the opinion that 'climate science' wa