Wit and Wisdom of an Engineer: September 2015

A good report from the USDA.

Link to their classes and programs.

From an outstanding article in the New York Times:

"New high-end cars are among the most sophisticated machines on the planet, containing 100 million or more lines of code. Compare that with about 60 million lines of code in all of Facebook or 50 million in the Large Hadron Collider."

Good article from Vox.

From The New Yorker:

"How would one discover ownership of $1.2 billion and seventy-one institutions? Casey explained that the management of Vatican properties has been extremely fragmented. The Catholic church is estimated to own twenty per cent of all real estate in Italy, and a quarter of all real estate in Rome. The hills of Rome hold scores of curious religious institutions, monasteries, convents, seminaries, foundations, confraternities, institutes: hidden treasures with beautiful gardens, frescoed palaces, gurgling fountains, and breathtaking views, many of them family properties—each with its own complex history—donated by some rich Roman to the Church centuries ago."

Good article from The Telegraph.

From The Guardian - - who knew what and when in terms VW engineering will be the next step.

From the New York Times today.

From the current issue of Harvard Business Review - How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Companies by Michael Porter and James Heppelmann:

"Smart, connected products require a fundamental rethinking of design. At the most basic level, product development shifts from largely mechanical engineering to true interdisciplinary systems engineering. Products have become complex systems that contain software and may have as much as more software in the cloud. That's why design teams are shifting from a majority of mechanical engineers to a majority of software engineers, and some manufacturers, GE, Airbus, and Danaher, are establishing offices in software engineering hubs like Boston and Silicon Valley."

From The Daily Beast - - not a good day for the interface of STEM students and the liberal arts. The one positive note - - when Mohamed writes this college essay to Stanford or MIT or Cal-Tech - - he needs to include this story. Really cannot get more unique than this!!!

"In the past, Mohamed had built his own radios and even a Bluetooth speaker for a friend as a gift. And now he wanted to impress his teachers at his new school with his self-designed clock.

“Here in high school, none of the teachers know what I can do,” he told the Morning News.

Mohamed was in English class when his clock made a beeping sound. After the teacher asked what was that sound, Mohamed proudly unveiled his homemade clock. The teacher’s response stunned Mohamed, “She was like, it looks like a bomb.”

Mohamed explained it was simply a clock, but the teacher confiscated the clock. Soon after, Mohamed was summoned to the principal’s office, where he was met by not one but five police officers."

Link to the article.

From the Texas Tribune:

"“Region D’s allegation of an interregional conflict is an attempt by it to use the water planning process to thwart, rather than encourage, the development of adequate water supplies for the state of Texas,” Jody Puckett, the chair of the Region C Water Planning Group, wrote in a brief to the water board."

From the Texas Tribune:

"As El Paso prepares to open new toll roads, officials' inability to mail bills to Mexican drivers means only U.S. drivers will be required to pay."