The Dymaxion Car was ruled as not being at fault in the fatal accident according to the coroner’s report. The fault lay with the son of the mayor of Chicago who was driving drunk and hit the car. In terms of safety, the car was probably on par with others of the era. No doubt modern engineering could improve the safety and get better performance out of the design.
It doesn’t suprise me that Bucky inspired hippies : He traveled the world giving lectures, and received numerous honorary doctorates. Most of his inventions, however, never made it into production
Of course, the reason why most of them didn’t make it into production has more to do with Bucky being a lousy businessman than any flaws in the designs. Variations of them exist today, with Bucky not getting the credit for originating the concept. The one piece drop-in bathroom (Dymaxion bathroom) being one example. His 4-D House included many ideas which wouldn’t show up until years later.
Aside from the constructional details, Fuller’s plan included a great many novel suggestions for domestic devices that might be developed, such as a washing machine that dried and pressed clothes, and a dishwasher that cleaned and dried the dishes and then put them away. All the dusting and cleaning was to be done mechanically by compressed air and vacuum systems built into the column, and showers were taken using a fog gun.
With the self-education of children in mind, the library was to contain maps, globes, revolving bookshelves, drawing boards, typewriters, radio and even television, the prototypes of which were only just being pieced together in the laboratory in 1927.
DSeid
May 3, 2008, 12:35am
42
Back to the op (if I may) -
The UN’s Special Rapporteur on the right to food has spoken and is not pleased with biofuels.
The United States and the European Union have taken a “criminal path” by contributing to an explosive rise in global food prices through using food crops to produce biofuels, according to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food.
Speaking at a press conference today in Geneva, Jean Ziegler said that fuel policies pursued by the US and the EU were one of the main causes of the current worldwide food crisis. Mr. Ziegler said that last year the US used a third of its corn crop to create biofuels, while the European Union is planning to have 10 per cent of its petrol supplied by biofuels. The Special Rapporteur has called for a five-year moratorium on the production of biofuels.
Mr. Ziegler also said that speculation on international markets was behind 30 per cent of the increase in food prices.
I may disagree but this is a fairly powerful statement addressing the op’s question. It makes it harder for Mrs. Cake to advocate for intelligent biomass for energy use as part of protecting the world from worse hunger in the longer term.
Well, it’s not like gasoline grows on trees. Oh, wait. . .
Researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of “green gasoline,” a liquid identical to standard gasoline yet created from sustainable biomass sources like switchgrass and poplar trees.
Reporting in the cover article of the April 7, 2008 issue of Chemistry & Sustainability, Energy & Materials (ChemSusChem), chemical engineer and National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER awardee George Huber of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass) and his graduate students Torren Carlson and Tushar Vispute announced the first direct conversion of plant cellulose into gasoline components.
In the same issue, James Dumesic and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin-Madison announce an integrated process for creating chemical components of jet fuel using a green gasoline approach. While Dumesic’s group had previously demonstrated the production of jet-fuel components using separate steps, their current work shows that the steps can be integrated and run sequentially, without complex separation and purification processes between reactors.
You don’t suppose if we handed those guys the billion or so a day we’re spending in Iraq that they might be able to get it into production any time soon, do you? Nah, probably not.
DSeid
May 3, 2008, 1:18am
44
Trying to find some other source of the UN Rapporteur’s statement I’ve found that his call for a moratorium is not new (it was from last year) and not without rebuttal.
Some leading organisations, including the UN’s very own FAO, the UNCTAD, the UNIDO as well as the WorldWatch Institute, have said biofuels could help end global hunger. But this will require a major overhaul of trade rules, an active effort to engage small farmers and poor rural communities in the sector, and a rethink of the massive biofuel subsidies paid to wealthy farmers in the EU and the US (say the IEA, the OECD, the Global Bioenergy Partnership, alongside a host of other major think tanks and renowned experts).
Moreover, high oil prices can be truly catastrophic for poor countries, and are actually killing people: according to the UN’s latest inter-agency report on biofuels, some of the least developed countries are already forced to spend 6 times as much on imported oil than on health care, with obvious tragic consequences for those who need this most basic of services. Biofuels could make an end to this disaster.
Many poor countries have a very large potential to produce sustainable biofuels that do not impact food security negatively. On the contrary, in a free biofuels market, these countries would stand to benefit massively from their comparative advantages which would allow them to boost incomes with which to strengthen their food security. But again, to make this happen, trade reform and an end to subsidies in the EU/US are a minimal requirement.
And, as last September, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Program thought that biofuel production was not a major factor in food shortages.
the linkage is mere speculation and it is even unlikely that biofuels play a role. Far more important factors are bad harvests in the major food producing regions, violent weather conditions induced by climate change, and rapidly growing demand from China. The UNEP chief said some people were getting ‘single-minded’ about biofuels and fail to see the complexitities of the world’s agricultural markets.
And actually, despite that EVWorld link, there is now a new UN Special Rapporteur, and his press release today puts forth a more intelligent position.
The Human Rights Council should, as a matter of urgency, identify what actions are needed to ensure full respect for the right to adequate food. Governments cannot remain passive in the current crisis. Passivity or inappropriate reaction would, in such circumstances, constitute a violation of the right to food, whether by omission or by commission. The Human Rights Council was established as a standing body so it would be able to respond to human rights emergencies. This is one, and the Council should not remain silent.
There is a range of measures Governments and international actors should take to tackle the current food crisis. There is a need to combine short-term measures with those aimed at increasing food supply over the medium term. On an immediate basis, States should increase their support to humanitarian agencies - such as the World Food Programme (WFP) - and the provision of direct cash transfers to the neediest segments of the population in food-insecure countries. Over the medium and longer term, farmers - particularly smallscale farmers who do not benefit from the increase of global prices - need increased investment in irrigation and infrastructure and greater access to credit. Action is needed to combat climate change and mitigate its impact on agricultural production, which is expected to be particularly severe in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Agricultural subsidies, which distort markets, should be phased out as a matter of urgency. That should be a priority for the current Doha trade negotiations. The large volume of public resources freed up by elimination of market-distorting subsidies should be reinvested in agriculture – particularly in developing countries and in technologies ensuring positive human rights impact including through environmental sustainability. Freed resources should also help finance stronger social safety nets, particularly in developing countries, targetting the poor and other groups vulnerable to discrimination.** Impact on food security must be as central in discussion of agrofuel production as environmental and social impacts.**
Bolding mine.