Tech TV?

http://techtv.mit.edu

Beth's rat made the spotlight!

woooowww video

MIT Student Cable

I am starting to learn how to do cable broadcasting and stuff like that. i think it could be a good way to spread ideas. me and some people are going to be broadcasting today 5-7pm.

Flashback

Sniff

MIT Media Lab startup that is making a wireless sensor for pets that interfaces with the interweb. hmmm!!! ???

Energy Star

This is an article from EDN (Electronic Design News) about what Energy Star is up to. It's about how make standards that are not necessarily mandatory, but help to build a brand so that consumers demand products that meet these standards.

I Think Clinton Hates America

picture of obama looking muslim is going around, allegedly being circulated by clinton staffers. obama campaign is pissed. clinton campaign says there's nothing wrong with the picture and pls obama ppl stop distracting us. this is for those of you who think clinton isn't "that bad."

Peter Bjorn and John

Young Folks

it's a hit!

The Breakthrough Insitute

LSC is cosponsoring an event with SfGS bringing these two activists to come talk about new strategies for environmentalists.

We're calling the event
More Effective Better Results
Investment and Development Approach to Environmentalism.

Featuring Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus. They also wrote a book that came out recently called "BreakThrough."

Jesse Jackson

Black State of the Union



Man, I can hardly understand him. He says Obamarama! hahaha

also, Al Sharpton

Noam on NAFTA

This is audio from a talk by Noam Chomsky on NAFTA, the winners and the losers.

Mr Green

blog about energy efficiency standards on electronics.
http://www.powerint.com/wordpress/

Learning

Yesterday, I was thinking about how I learn, and it seems that I tend not to do well when the teacher uses power points. (Well, unless the power points are all pictures and graphs). It actually really helps to see the words being written out. I think it's because of how memories actually get stored. Seeing things being written out gets the words related to a motion of writing that one is already familiar with. That's also why writing down notes helps instead of just getting a copy of the notes. The notes gets put in muscle memory as well as visual memory, and it helps when recalling the memories. And that's why I think I should get a tablet next.

Clinton Clinton Clinton

Sucks, says Frank Rich from the New York Times

Clinton... Such a Plagiarizer

If you haven't heard yet, Clinton attacked Obama for plagiarizing because he used Deval Patrick's words, but Deval Patrick is Obama's national co-chair, and he told Obama he could use his words. And Patrick knows that it's not about the words, it's about the ideas and the point of the words. Anyways, it's not like Clinton doesn't recycle old ideas: click me! However memorable her closing statement, it's an age-old line of thought. No one can "claim" it because it's an idea. And Hillary isn't amazingly special because she managed to say that in her closing.

Maybe I'm cynical, but I read that Daily Kos article, and if anyone understands the significance of that article, then everyone would be in support of Obama.

Oyster Diaries

Last night, Toby and I went to dinner at Central Kitchen. It was really good! And the oysters we had were Beau Soleil, New Brunswick. They were small and flavorful.

bubbles!

I'm taking a heat transfer and phase change class, and we talk a lot about interfaces and surfaces, and bubbles! It turns out the shape of a bubble can be approximated pretty well as a function of the density and surface tension of the bubble liquid, the density of the medium it's in, and the curvature at the top of the bubble. With those, you can plot the entire shape of bubble!


For bubbles sitting on a surface there's also something called the contact angle (theta), which is different for each combination of liquid+surface, and how pure the liquid is and how clean the surface is blah blah. It's basically the interior angle the liquid drop forms with the surface, and it can go from almost 0 (the liquid spreads out on the surface) to almost 180 (the liquid balls up on the surface, but isn't quite spherical because gravity squishes it a bit). For example, the same bubble, but with a contact angle of 130 with the surface:


It's the same shape as the full bubble, just cut off when the interior angle reaches 130. For a contact angle of 40, you get:

Anyways, I thought that was pretty cool.
-jenny.

Maximum Power Transfer Theorem

is wacky

it's not the same thing as efficiency.

Citizen Journalist

comparison of legislative accomplishments of clinton vs. obama

Energy Star

ooo...efficiency rating system for server power supplies?

is Energy Star cool? i don't really know

Propaganda Campaign

Something I am thinking about doing in the future is to do media advertising to promote things I think are important like sustainable energy. I'm not sure, but I think this is a graphic design company that does that, although I don't want to just make media but design campaigns like political campaigns. That's what real advertising companies do, anyway. Everything is very coordinated.

Obey Giant Propaganda

They made an Obama poster.

Greatest Strengths and Weaknesses

This is from a debate in Las Vegas on Jan 15.

RUSSERT: You said each of you have strengths and weaknesses. I want to ask each of you quickly, your greatest strength, your greatest weakness.

OBAMA: My greatest strength, I think is the ability to bring people together from different perspectives to get them to recognize what they have in common and to move people in a different direction. And as I indicated before, my greatest weakness, I think, is when it comes to — I’ll give you a very good example.

OBAMA: I ask my staff member to hand me paper until two seconds before I need it because I will lose it. You know, the —- you know…

(LAUGHTER)

And my desk and my office doesn’t look good. I’ve got to have somebody around me who is keeping track of that stuff.

And that’s not trivial; I need to have good people in place who can make sure that systems run. That’s what I’ve always done, and that’s why we run not only a good campaign, but a good U.S. Senate office.

RUSSERT: Senator Edwards, greatest strength, greatest weakness?

EDWARDS: I think my greatest strength is that for 54 years, I’ve been fighting with every fiber of my being.

In the beginning, the fight was for me. Growing up in mill towns and mill villages, I had to literally fight to survive.

But then I spent 20 years in courtrooms fighting for children and families against really powerful well-financed interests. I learned from that experience, by the way, that if you’re tough enough and you’re strong enough and you got the guts and you’re smart enough, you can win. That’s a fight that can be won.

It can be won in Washington, too, by the way.

And I’ve continued that entire fight my entire time in public life.

EDWARDS: So I’ve got what it takes inside to fight on behalf of the American people and on behalf of the middle class.

I think weakness, I sometimes have a very powerful emotional response to pain that I see around me, when I see a man like Donnie Ingram (ph), who I met a few months ago in South Carolina, who worked for 33 years in the mill, reminded me very much of the kind of people that I grew up with, who’s about to lose his job, has no idea where he’s going to go, what he’s going to do.

I mean, his dignity and self-respect is at issue. And I feel that in a really personal way and in a very emotional way. And I think sometimes that can undermine what you need to do.

RUSSERT: Senator Clinton?

CLINTON: Well, I am passionately committed to this country and what it stands for. I’m a product of the changes that have already occurred, and I want to be an instrument for making those changes alive and real in the lives of Americans, particularly children.

CLINTON: That’s what I’ve done for 35 years. It is really my life’s work. It is something that comes out of my own experience, both in my family and in my church that, you know, I’ve been blessed. I think to whom much is given, much is expected.

So I have tried to create opportunities, both on an individual basis, intervening to help people who have no where else to turn, to be their champion. And then to make those changes. And I think I can deliver change. I think I understand how to make it possible for more people to live up to their God-given potential.

I get impatient. I get, you know, really frustrated when people don’t seem to understand that we can do so much more to help each other. Sometimes I come across that way. I admit that. I get very concerned about, you know, pushing further and faster than perhaps people are ready to go.

Haha, and then she proceeded to attack Barack as a bad manager since he has a messy desk.

Later, he told NPR

"I think Sen. Edwards said he was too passionate about helping poor people, and Sen. Clinton said she was too impatient to move the country forward," Obama tells NPR. "I was trying to answer the question 'What's your greatest weakness?' as opposed to 'What's your greatest strength disguised as a weakness?'"

"I should have said I like to help old ladies across the street," he says.

Oyster Diaries

On Saturday night, my dad took us out to dinner to celebrate me getting a job. We went to Jasper White's Summer Shack, which is known for its large selection of oysters.

Toby and I took notes.

Point Brulee, NB - big and weirdly shaped. good. mild taste

Ninegret Cup, RI - small, not that good this time, though. bland

Wianno, MA - medium sized, good overall, Toby's fav

Chef Creek, BD, more flavor, small and fishier, my fav

Strainer

Part of growing up : getting kitchen and cleaning supplies.

I need to remember to buy a strainer.

knife sharpener

Easy to Use Transceiver?

These things have been generating some buzz, and I'm thinking about using them, but I'm not really sure. I feel like there has got to be cheaper and easier ways to do simple wireless communications, but I dunno. I think I keep looking in the wrong places.



This site has a lot of info about these particular transceivers.

Michael Jackson

music video from the 2001 album

they disabled embedding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3wShd_bX8A

Dr Demento

bulbous bouffant (blubber) macademia

plethora (igloo) Hallaballooo

Big Picture Panel

We put up the slides to the talk. Check them out!

Hopefully I'll get audio, too.

飞天

This is a dance from the 2008 Chinese New Year's Gala put on by CCTV in China. It's called Flying Sky

synqor

This power electronics company called SynQor offered me a job. I think I'm going to take it.

About SynQor

The interviewing was intense. I was actually hoping to move west to CA, but this company is really cool so I guess I'm going to be moving a little bit west. Haha. It's located 30 min west of davis square. The founder and president of the company used to be an MIT professor, and he is one of the authors of my power electronics book. I was really surprised to get an offer right then and there. The veep also talked to me for a long time about the organization of the company and the rotational program they have for new employees, where they eventually train you to be an electrical design engineer over a 3-5 year period. This company is serious about mentoring and it's horizontal organization structure, which is really important for me. YAY

GPS

Toby and I had GPS while in California, and we have a lot of opinions about it. I'll have to finish this post later.

Sustainable Energy

The event was yesterday, and it went very well. It was very well attended, and it really seems to have gotten people interested in sustainable energy and climate change issues. One main objective for the event was to get publicity for the Focus on Climate Change Events that are taking place during the days, Tues - Thurs. Without a big publicity push, it is often hard to get people to come to smaller departmental events.

Today, I went to the talk by Leon Glicksman, who is the head of the Building Technology Program, a joint program with Architecture and Mechanical Engineering. It was packed! And it was a really good talk. My favorite part was when he talked about the prices of renewable energy and energy-saving renovations. It turns out that solar power is the most expensive, 10 times more expensive than wind power, which is apparently on par with how much oil or coal cost per kWh.

We/they'll be putting up the slides of the talks.
climatechange.mit.edu

Foreign Policy Advisors

This is an article about the difference between Obama and Clinton's foreign policy by looking at their advisers. People always say that their voting records are the same and all that, but that's because in Congress, that's the whole point of having parties. Really, they are not the same at all in terms of how they would govern.

Common Ground Similar Design

When I was in San Francisco, we found this magazine that had a similar design idea as my logo for the event! It's called Common Ground.

It was the cover of their Jan 2008 issue.

Big Picture Panel on Sustainable Energy

AHHH, the event I've been working on is happening on Monday!

Here is a poster.


It's exciting, and we have a good lineup of speakers, but I'm really worried that no one is going to show up.

Project Runway Blog

There were five finalists that got to show their stuff at fashion week.

Christian's collection

Jillian's

Chris'

Sweet P's (I think she's my fav)

Romy's

Chinese New Year

That's today! It's the year of the rat. Wow. Does this mean Hillary Clinton is going to win?

Today, I went to the first day of my last semester at MIT. It was actually the third day of school, though. I was too lame to go to school the other days. I am taking an electromagnetism class, and everything is way over my head. Business as usual!

Sew Fashion

On Jet Blue you get to watch TV! Wow. So amongst other things, I watched the fourth season of Project Runway, and of course it's all on Youtube. Actually, I think the designers are all pretty talented and it's a lot of fun to see what they come up with.

AIDS

I saw this flyer yesterday for an AIDS study. It said, "Would you take a pill a day to prevent HIV?" Or something like that. And had a bunch of phone numbers you could rip off to participate in their study. I thought it was kind of a bad idea. You could be taking those pills every day of your life. I just think pharm companies or whatever should not try to make daily pills all the time. It's not the best solution. It just seems like a way they can make a lot more money, and a way to get people to be more dependent on their stuff. Anyway. I guess it's hard to get around for certain drugs. But it seems like you could have a better HIV prevention method. But I guess each problem is different. Oh well! But I just hope they've thought about the other, non-daily methods as well.

Prejudice

Today I was thinking about how I am prejudiced against white Christians. I think it's because they traumatized me when I was a kid. Haha. Well, they tried to convert me all the time because otherwise I'd go to Hell. When I was little, before I knew what God or religion were, other little kids would ask me if I believe in God. I said 'no' a couple times but people reacted badly so I just started saying 'yes'. Later, in middle school I started telling people I'm Buddhist because people knew about freedom of religion, but you still had to have a religion.

I'm not really prejudiced against black Christians, though, because they don't try to convert me, and also they sing gospel music.

But seriously, I was thinking about recommending this girl to this company but then I saw on her Facebook profile that she was a fervent Christian, and then I didn't want to recommend her anymore because ew. I wonder if it is unfair. She isn't that Christian in person.

San Francisco and Makani Power

This is the Makani Power office.

We've been hanging around the Berkeley area, and I think it's really great. I am trying to move to the Bay area by this fall, and we're thinking about where we would want to live. The Berkeley area has great markets and shops. We went to an Italian deli today and a Persian deli a couple days ago. There are great ethnic restaurants, like Thai and Indian. I also swapped some music with my friend Lynn. And we got giggles!

Of course, I am nervous about being able to get a job here. Makani Power seems promising. At the end they asked me who else they should interview and recruit. They also asked me how to get more female applicants. Apparently they got 5/500 female applicants or something like that. I am actually kind of surprised I don't know more EE people and EE women. I know some people, but they're not my class or looking for a job. But I told them I am working on the issue because I'm going to be an EE tutor for a summer program targeted at high school girls to get them interested in math and science. Mostly, it is to boost their confidence in their own abilities and interests. At the same time, even in China, there are still more men in engineering than women even at the height of equal expectations for boys and girls. Am I saying there is a genetic difference? I wouldn't say that because then it's a self-fulfilling prophesy, but perhaps there is something besides social pressures. It may something about how girls and boys learn or something.

the lineup

View Larger Map

map and location of companies i'm going to visit tomorrow.

San Francisco

i am in san francisco right now, yay!

i am trying to get a job at a wind power startup

i guess i'm too tired to write other stuff