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By Design News Staff -- Design News, August 11, 2008
Thanks for a moving article
I was moved by your article (“Everything Is At Stake,” DN 07.14.08, http://rbi.ims.ca/5719-518), and see a glimmer of hope for my often self-fulfilling or indentured industry, which I am so often ashamed of. There are so many rushed deadlines, ultimately established arbitrarily, at a cost of families and heart disease for lost patents, failed companies, fads and pomp. I thank you for highlighting a purpose worthy of perspiration and I look forward to your articles.
Andrew Smith
Design News Reader
A revolution is needed
I enjoyed your article in the July 14 Design News. It reminded me of a NY Times article from last year that really took me back. Both the opening photograph and the opening paragraphs made the point abundantly clear: A revolution in the thought patterns are drastically needed. I don't think that most schooled engineers can break free of their usual thought patterns.
Look at this device (http://rbi.ims.ca/5719-519): A small child can transport huge amounts of water easily. The standard engineering approach would be to design complicated devices for carrying the water.
The DN article does mention Martin Fisher and KickStart, as well as “Design for the Other 90 Percent,” so I'm glad to see multiple organizations working in this area.
John Spevacek, Ph.D.
WHITE BEAR LAKE, MN
Not what it seems
I saw Kevin Carter's photo of the vulture and child (above, right) for the first time about a year ago. Since then I learned that it is not what it appears to be. Kevin Carter claimed that the child was trying to crawl to a food distribution center over a mile away, but in reality, other reporters and photographers who were with him at the time have stated that his story is false. Just out of the camera's view, a relief plane had just landed and the child's mother left her sitting there while she went to retrieve food from the plane. According to the other people who were there, the child's mother was just a few yards away. Kevin Carter won a Pulitzer Prize for the photo and then when the truth about the photo came out, he chose to commit suicide.
Regardless of the circumstances surrounding the photograph, it is still a tragic event. However, it is not what it appears to be.
Marty Lunsford
RALEIGH, NC
Not sold on hydrogen
Great article. (“Hydrogen: A Classic Chicken or Egg Problem,” DN 06.23.08, http://rbi.ims.ca/5719-520). Let's not forget the costs and resources needed to refine the hydrogen before it goes into our cars. It requires more energy to refine the hydrogen than the energy it provides for our transportation. If we use fossil fuels for energy to refine the hydrogen, what's the real advantage? And it won't save us money at the pump? I'm not sold.
Here's a conspiracy theory for you: The alternative energy people (“the Greenies”) and Big Oil are in it together. Big Oil created their own alternative energy market by secretly supporting figures like Al Gore, Greenpeace and the liberal media. Growing public awareness has “forced” all the major players in fossil fuel to create a sector devoted to ethanol, bio-diesel, hydrogen, wind, etc.
Is Big Oil worried about shifting profit from the fossil fuel market to their own green one? Why would they? Especially when their response is to raise prices at the pump to offset any small profit shift, causing the alternative green fuels to become more attractive to the consumer by comparison. Big Oil gains margin on their bread-and-butter fossil fuel product while at the same time bolstering support for their newly created Green baby. It is brilliant.
Want to know how to fix it?
Brad Kokoski
FORT MILL, SC
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