tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66575757435487140592024-03-20T07:05:42.664-05:00Wit and Wisdom of an EngineerCovering the environment, engineering, technology, and economicsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.comBlogger7446125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-59646115813203357762018-01-05T10:02:00.002-06:002018-01-05T10:04:20.533-06:00Genius of the Genius BarA good paragraph to ponder - <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/playing-keeps-what-toys-r-us-needs-do-now-ashley-gorrie-1/">link.</a><br />
<br />
"When talking bricks and mortar in the electronics space, it’s impossible to overlook Apple stores. Now, the magic isn’t in the stores' simplicity. Or necessarily in the newest devices. The genius is, of course, in the Genius Bar. Apple stores are constantly overflowing because consumers don’t fully know what they are doing with the expensive, high-tech items they're gripping. They need advice, guidance, and education to further their experiences. Apple’s ability to upsell consumers through the Genius Bar is remarkable largely because it isn't technically on display."Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-55297990314219445182018-01-04T10:12:00.001-06:002018-01-04T10:12:46.073-06:00Guest Viewpoint: STEM is Good, But STEAM is Better<a href="https://www.enr.com/articles/43686-guest-viewpoint-stem-is-good-but-steam-is-better#.Wk5ScMOEFL4.blogger">Guest Viewpoint: STEM is Good, But STEAM is Better</a>: As a renowned Scientist, Technologist, Engineer, Artist and Mathematician, Leonardo da Vinci set the standard for using the whole brain to propel innovation.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-81882937823087475172017-11-30T13:11:00.004-06:002017-11-30T13:14:11.264-06:00Are Engineers Just Bad Political Managers?<div id="S82QrG">
From <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2017/9/20/16330028/rex-tillerson-secretary-state-trump-failure">Vox:</a></div>
“Tillerson would be at or near the bottom of the list of secretaries of state, not just in the post-Second World War world but in the record of US secretaries of state,” says Paul Musgrave, a scholar of US foreign policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.<br />
<div id="pgm58a">
The former Exxon Mobil CEO — whose nomination was initially greeted warmly by <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2016/12/bob-gates-praises-tillerson-for-secretary-of-state-232555">prominent foreign policy hands</a> — has failed to wield any significant influence in internal administration debates over issues like Syria, North Korea, or Russia.</div>
<div id="E76kDO">
His push to slash “inefficiencies” in the State Department and seeming disinterest in working closely with longtime staff were <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/07/31/how-the-trump-administration-broke-the-state-department/">even more damaging</a>. By failing to get people into vital high-level posts and actively pushing out talented personnel, he ended up making America’s response to major crises incoherent and weakening the State Department for a “generation,” according to George Washington University’s Elizabeth Saunders.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-29942077861871179112017-11-09T12:54:00.001-06:002017-11-09T12:55:41.438-06:00Engineering in a World of Wizards and ProphetsFrom the new book by Charles Mann - <a href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/charles-c-mann/the-wizard-and-the-prophet/">The Wizard and the Prophet:</a><br />
"A thick book featuring two scientists unknown to most readers is a tough sell, but bestselling journalist and historian Mann (<i>1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created</i>, 2011, etc.), a correspondent for the <i>Atlantic</i>, <i>Science</i>, and <i>Wired</i>, turns in his usual masterful performance. Nobel Prize–winning agronomist Norman Borlaug (1914-2009) developed high-yield wheat varieties and championed agricultural techniques that led to the “Green Revolution,” vastly increasing world food production. Ornithologist William Vogt (1902-1968) studied the relationship between resources and population and wrote the 1948 bestseller <i>Road to Survival</i>, a founding document of modern environmentalism in which the author maintains that current trends will lead to overpopulation and mass hunger. Borlaug and Vogt represent two sides of a century long dispute between what Mann calls “wizards,” who believe that science will allow humans to continue prospering, and “prophets,” who predict disaster unless we accept that our planet’s resources are limited. Beginning with admiring biographies, the author moves on to the environmental challenges the two men symbolize. Agriculture will require a second green revolution by 2050 to feed an estimated 10 billion inhabitants. Only 1 percent of Earth’s water is fresh and accessible; three-quarters goes to agriculture, and shortages are already alarming. More than 1.2 billion people still lack electricity; whether to produce more or use less energy bitterly divides both sides. Neither denies that human activities are wreaking havoc with Earth’s climate. Mann’s most spectacular accomplishment is to take no sides. Readers will thrill to the wizards’ astounding advances and believe the prophets’ gloomy forecasts, and they will also discover that technological miracles produce nasty side effects and that self-sacrifice, as prophets urge, has proven contrary to human nature."Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-56500237003607306632017-11-09T12:45:00.001-06:002017-11-09T12:56:34.724-06:00A Paragraph to PonderFrom <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/better_life_lab/2017/11/09/the_stem_paradox_why_are_muslim_majority_countries_producing_so_many_female.html">Slate:</a><br />
"For the Tunisian women—faculty members at the school—the song was a reminder of their childhoods. For the Americans, it was a reminder that they were in the right place. They had come to dig into an emergent and counterintuitive pattern of data: There are, in many cases,<a href="https://contexts.org/articles/what-gender-is-science/" target="_blank"> a larger proportion of women studying and pursuing STEM careers</a> inside developing, Muslim-majority countries than in the U.S.—and in some countries, <a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTMENA/Resources/MENA_Gender_Compendium-2009-1.pdf" target="_blank">those numbers are rising</a> further."Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-80380733834559566392017-11-07T14:47:00.003-06:002017-11-07T14:47:38.243-06:00A Paragraph to PonderFrom the New York Times - <br />
<br /><br />
"Waymo, the autonomous car company from Google’s parent company Alphabet, has started testing a fleet of self-driving vehicles without any backup drivers on public roads, its chief executive said Tuesday. The tests, which will include passengers within the next few months, mark an important milestone that brings autonomous vehicle technology closer to operating without any human intervention."Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-66293632884392638762017-11-07T13:56:00.000-06:002017-11-07T13:57:58.992-06:00How We Are Viewed in The World<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
I've spent much of the last year in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.</div>
— Ben Judah (@b_judah) <a href="https://twitter.com/b_judah/status/927885258187591680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-20604231575455874812017-11-07T12:17:00.002-06:002017-11-07T12:17:23.527-06:00The Flying Cow<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RgxVHbQaMIE" width="560"></iframe><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-44122825976308907002017-11-02T21:30:00.003-05:002017-11-02T21:30:49.879-05:00Manufacturing Coming to Africa<div class="blog-video-embed">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" allowtransparency="" frameborder="0" height="270" scrolling="no" src="https://hbr.org/video/embed/5614339934001/whiteboard-session-africa-china-and-the-future-of-manufacturing" style="overflow: hidden;" width="480"></iframe><br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-42518465379579187392017-11-02T21:25:00.001-05:002017-11-02T21:25:34.177-05:00Water Affordability<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U69QBI6MK_A" width="560"></iframe><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-81324940624944094322017-11-02T21:21:00.001-05:002017-11-02T21:21:38.240-05:00The Politics of Mortgage Deductions<img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-528324" height="322" scale="0" src="http://www.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/blog_gop_tax_plan_mortgage_deductions.gif" width="400" />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-26883790195570065062017-11-02T15:11:00.003-05:002017-11-02T15:11:39.137-05:00A Paragraph to PonderFrom Richard Florida - <a href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/11/the-staggering-value-of-urban-land/544706/">CityLab:</a><br />
<br /><br />
"The total value of America’s urban land is astounding, adding up to more than $25 trillion as of 2010—that’s roughly more than double the nation’s total economic output or GDP in 2006, according to a<a href="http://davidalbouy.net/landvalue_index.pdf" target="_blank"> recent study</a> by economists at the University of Illinois and the University of Michigan. Nearly half the total value of America’s urban land, 48 percent of it, is packed into just five superstar metro areas: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, with land in and around the urban center being the most valuable by far."Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-61912579253054266552017-11-02T14:50:00.000-05:002017-11-02T14:52:50.770-05:00Six Political Questions for Engineers to Think About<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Provided
below are six political questions that engineers and engineering organizations
should be thinking about.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Question 1 – Polls
and political commentators have highlighted that this is the most politically divided
the country has been since the Civil War and Reconstruction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Assuming this is true – how should the engineering
communities be thinking strategically about this political divide?</span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The
graphic on the cover page is from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
annual Partisan Conflict Index.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
index was developed by an economist with the bank.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have had periods of high partisanship
(e.g., 1911/12 and current) and low periods (e.g., World War II).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our current historic high level of
partisanship started in the mid-1960s – the start of the Vietnam War, the start
of broad social/cultural change, and drastic changes on the global economic
landscape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our political paralysis has
produced an era of legislative gridlock at the national level (and in many
state capitals) marked by government of executive action and orders.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Our
current climate of extreme partisanship is linked to three issues – economic
anxiety in the middle class, broad social/cultural/technological changes, and
fringe elements on both the left and right becoming the new middle during
primary election seasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When economic
growth slows (economic growth is a demanding master – the more you have, the
more you need), society loses pace and it becomes much harder to finesse our
historic political differences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking
at the 2016 presidential results, 49% of all voters felt their lives had gotten
worse over the past 50 years, while 49% felt the lives of the next generation
would be worse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The election also
highlighted the political divide between rural and urban voters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our global economy takes the best and
brightest from our small towns and plugs them into the global economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Globalization has produced an environment of
“The Left Behinds” and “The Cosmopolitans” – global cities surrounded by rural
communities of resentment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How engineering
organizations position themselves in cities (blue) and the surrounding
communities (red) will be important.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">This
negatively has a profound impact on our industry and business (our souring mood
is more about the psychology of dashed expectations rather than the decline in
material comforts).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When people lose
faith in the future and have long painful memories of the past, they are less
likely to invest in the present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Government infrastructure spending during the second quarter of 2017
fell to 1.4% of GDP, the lowest share on record.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to Thomson Reuters, investment by
municipalities in the first seven months of this year, at $50.7 billion, was
nearly 20% below the same period in 2016.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Not long ago optimists were expecting an infrastructure spending boom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are we still optimistic?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Engineering is faced with addressing a
difficult question – Have we hit rock bottom in terms of infrastructure
investment where bipartisanship spending is around the corner or have we tipped
over into political, economic, and societal decline?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Question 2 – Growing
global populism (i.e., support for ordinary people and suspicion of “elite”
individuals and institutions – where the unequal benefits of globalization has
produced the “Left Behinds” vs. the Global Cosmopolitans) has produced a
political dynamic focusing on challenges and opportunities within individual
countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The strongest social glue is
economic growth and the current populist insurgency is partly fueled by the
deep problems of middle class income and wealth stagnation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we look inward as a country and society,
what opportunities and challenges does this produce for engineering
organizations?</span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Growing
populism in the United States stems from a middle class that is falling further
behind upper-income households financially.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The gaps in income and wealth between middle- and upper-income
households widened substantially in the past three to four decades.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although incomes are generally higher than in
1970, all households experienced a lengthy period of decline in the 21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup>
century thanks to the 2001 recession and the Great Recession of 2007-09.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The greatest loss was felt by lower-income
households, whose median income fell 9% from 2000 to 2014, followed by a 4% loss
for middle-income households and a 3% loss for upper-income households.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Populism is rooted in a simple idea –
persistent economic disappointment demands a new political narrative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have entered an era in which societal
disappointment and anxiety is shaping a new global political narrative in the
developed world.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Populism
takes many different regional forms across the various engineering service
areas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nationalism and isolationism
sentiments could shift money and resources into domestic problems and
challenges – including increased investment in infrastructure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we
do enter the era of “reshoring” or de-globalization and shorter supply chains,
the critically of infrastructure will change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If more focus is placed on domestic capabilities, domestic markets, and
domestic consumption – do you really want additional investment in ports and
globalized infrastructure?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A populist
revolution could produce many positive opportunities for civil engineers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It could also produce new risks and
challenges.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Question 3 –
Globalization has produced societal and regional winners and losers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A current national political theme is the
desire to ensure that the large majority of Americans once again benefit from
global trade and changing technology, rather than see both as a continual
threat to their economic activity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Politically
shifting winds seem to be changing the dynamics of globalization – the old
economic and trade architecture put in place after the Second World War is now
showing severe signs of subsidence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How
should engineering think strategically about new sets of winners and losers in
a post-peak-globalization period?</span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The United
States has been the primary cheerleader for the benefits of globalization (i.e.,
the global flow of goods, services, ideas, money, and people) over the last 70
years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The global search for cheap labor
pools has been an important aspect of globalization – but the combination of
enhanced capital mobility and faster and cheaper information flows changed the
nature of international economic development.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Technology has created our current globalized economy – and technology
is also a threat to globalization.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Replacing
cheap labor with robots may provide us with even cheaper goods and services,
but it may also lead to a collapse of global supply chains and, with it, a
reversal of late twentieth-century style globalization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Reshoring” – thanks to increased automation
and robotics – may lead to the rebuilding of manufacturing in terms of
production but not jobs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Satisfying the
middle class in terms of reshoring your grandparents manufacturing job is a
political impossibility.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The U.S.
recently pulled out of the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Trump administration starts renegotiation
of NAFTA this week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The president has
promised to bring jobs to the U.S. by rewriting NAFTA, but his pledge is
clashing with the realities of global commerce and supply chains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The era of post-peak globalization is going
to produce new winners and losers – and this will impact engineers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is a manufacturing win for Indiana a
logistics and trade loss for Texas in terms of NAFTA modifications?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How should we be thinking about regions and
communities given the uncertainties and changes in our globalized economy?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How will all of this impact foreign
investment in the U.S.?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The truth is
that any form of globalization will inevitably require some form of compromise
between the advantages of openness and the benefits of sovereignty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The political debate over this compromise
appears to be intensifying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Question 4 – Mayors
appear to be the new political kings/queens – leaders in new and different ways
of thinking regarding economic development, innovation, and infrastructure
investment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If our national and state
political leaders continue the path of lukewarm performance, how should engineers
react in the Age of the Mayor King/Queen?</span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">In the
book, The Metropolitan Revolution, the authors point out the top 100
metropolitan areas in the U.S. occupy 12% of the land mass, two-thirds of the
population (with forecasted growth to 75%), and responsible for 75% of the
gross domestic product.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Metropolitan
Revolution is a reminder of politics as a positive force for societal
advancement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book profiled several
regions and cities that looked at how we develop and manage cities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The profiles show common themes – pragmatism
over partisanship, innovation clustering, regional collaboration, respect for
compromise, regional/global networks, clarity of focus, diversity as a strength
and not a divider, and economic growth driven by the knowledge economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What distinguishes world class cities from
national governments is the agility to find innovative solutions and to put
them into practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In terms of change
management, agility, pragmatism, closeness to the actual problems, and new ways
of thinking, cities and regions will be seen as filling in the performance gaps
left by state and federal partisanship paralysis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The limits
of what cities can and cannot do politically will be tested – especially in the
context of blue cities in red states.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From
the Dallas Morning News on August 13, 2017:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0.3in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">“GOP
leaders have made the Democratic mayors of Texas’ largest cities (Dallas,
Houston, San Antonio and Austin, respectively), along with other local
officials, the poster boys for an all-out legislative assault on local
control.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Republican lawmakers have filed
legislation that would prevent local governments from making decisions that have
long been left to the elected officials closest to the voters.”</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Question 5 –
Technological determinism seems to predict self-driving cars and robot medical
doctors just around the corner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Studies
have indicated 80 million U.S. workers are at risk from automation/AI job
loss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given that technology and politics
appear to be on a collision course as job displacement grows, how should engineers
think about this strategically?</span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Disruptive
technology, such as self-driving cars and trucks, can also create new winners
and losers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The politics of
technological winners and losers can be equally unpredictably disruptive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the case of trucking, some 3.5 million
people (mostly white male with a high school degree or lower – the most common
job title in 29 states) are employed as professional truck drivers – 8.7
million total employed in the trucking/logistics industry segment – roughly 1
in 15 U.S. workers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Teamster union
membership is 1.9 million.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The trucking
industry currently has a shortage of 111,000 drivers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In many respects, the politics and regulatory
framework for self-driving trucks and the elimination of millions of trucking
jobs boils down to a race between the technological hare and political/regulatory/societal
tortoise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Job loss associated with
automation in the manufacturing sector happened behind closed doors and locked
gates – trucking job loss is going to happen on the open road and will be much
more visible to the public and politicians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Technological
determinism is always a risky business – technology revolutions, such as the robotic/AI
revolution, always take longer than predicted, but arrive faster than
anticipated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Humanity has gone through
various economic stages – from agricultural to industry to services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have been able to move generations through
the various stages – from the farm to the factory to the engineering consulting
or construction firm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Replacing vast
numbers of people with non-humans has the potential to produce a new stage or
class – the Economically Useless Class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
robotics and AI develop as predicted, the economic pressure on the middle class
will be relentless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How society manages
our next economic stage transition will be important politically to watch.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Question 6 – Politics
over the next 10 years could be a roller coaster of unpredictability and
change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How should we think
strategically about this new and different era and what new strategic planning
steps should be institutionalized that allow all engineering organizations to
be more agile during this era?</span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Political
risk analysis needs to be shaped by three elements – surprise, anxiety, and
disappointment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surprise will take many
forms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The U.S. will be minority white
in 2049.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We currently have more Spanish
speaking citizens than Spain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have
never faced a demographic change like this in our history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Time magazine owner Henry Luce coined the
term “American Century” in a February 17, 1941 editorial in Life magazine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are 76 years into the American
Century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is next?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By 2050, China’s economy will be twice the
size of the U.S. and larger than all the Western economies combined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>China celebrates the 100<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>
anniversary of the PRC in 2049.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are we
at the end of the American Century and the start of the Chinese Century and how
does this impact engineering?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are
walking down a different path for the first time in U.S. history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How will we handle the politics of surprise?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Anxiety
hangs over many segments of the middle class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The distributional consequences of globalization and technology have
left voters who might traditionally have voted for centrist parties opting
instead to support populists who claim to be more in touch with voters’
concerns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For many people, the
institutions and ideas of globalization are part of the problem, not part of
the solution (globalization lifts all boats – but some set lower in the water due
to the weight of the additional money)?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How does middle class economic and cultural anxiety play out politically
in the coming years?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Finally,
the political risk of disappointment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Although living standards in the West continue to rise on average, the
pace of increase is much slower than expected and for some there has been no
progress whatsoever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rising debt levels
are too high, and, in time, some promises societies have made to themselves –
on retirement benefits, pensions, health care, and education – will have to be
abandoned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finding a political narrative
to explain this looming disappointment will not be easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">People are
disappointed with the demand side of our government institutions, but some of
the problem rests with the supply side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Founding father James Madison was concerned that citizens of the U.S.
would be simultaneously too involved and too ignorant in the democratic process
(Churchill thought that the best argument against democracy was a five minute
conversation with the average voter).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Polarization and apathy – the unstoppable force and the easily movable
object shape our current political terrain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Madison highlighted our democratic process is an asymmetric equation
that could easily turn politics into a running circus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-78557479437782795072017-11-02T13:22:00.001-05:002017-11-02T13:22:40.074-05:00Future Railways in Southest Asia<img height="299" src="http://photos.nomadicnotes.com/img/s/v-2/p2597684792.png" width="400" />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-43210342740560079972017-11-02T08:04:00.001-05:002017-11-02T08:04:18.168-05:00Let your car tell you what it needs<a href="http://news.mit.edu/2017/software-let-your-car-tell-you-what-it-needs-1026#.WfsXxV1cpCI.blogger">Let your car tell you what it needs</a>: MIT team develops software that can tell if tires need air, spark plugs are bad, or air filter needs replacing.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-59627615281646995852017-11-01T08:56:00.000-05:002017-11-01T08:56:41.565-05:00A Templete for Interviewing Clients
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-image: none; border: currentColor; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-image: none; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 467.5pt;" valign="top" width="623">
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Name/Organization/Title</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-image: none; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 467.5pt;" valign="top" width="623">
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Date of Interview</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-image: none; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 467.5pt;" valign="top" width="623">
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What’s great about your organization/business and what are you the
most excited about?</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-image: none; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 467.5pt;" valign="top" width="623">
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What are the driving forces (i.e., social, technological, political, talent,
and economic) that impact your business the most?</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-image: none; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 467.5pt;" valign="top" width="623">
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Where do you see your organization/business going?</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 5;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-image: none; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 467.5pt;" valign="top" width="623">
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What are you changing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What do
you want to change?</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 6;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-image: none; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 467.5pt;" valign="top" width="623">
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What keeps you up late at night – what worries you the most?</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 7; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-image: none; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt; width: 467.5pt;" valign="top" width="623">
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you could ask three questions looking out to 2030, what would
those be?</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-91455771396825441082017-10-31T15:50:00.001-05:002017-10-31T15:50:08.856-05:00The Texas Way of Urbanism<a href="http://opportunityurbanism.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/TheTexasWayOfUrbanismReport-8.pdf">Link</a> to the report.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-84638335755967882012017-10-31T15:41:00.004-05:002017-10-31T15:41:30.695-05:00Map of the Week<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img class="CSS_LIGHTBOX_SCALED_IMAGE_IMG" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmOtCsAEvCubPSry95R81vKrLPn2NUD8u_BebTK30pIiveyxzWVUCBwBQS-ZXMKFJ1yyZLpaho10hE-2sTUboUh9LKR5C06wVoozMRuUvj6OeUKiLxNVqLA6A11jcHh4GMF4HI_ZrDJIDD/s320/Screen+Shot+2017-07-18+at+08.42.01.png" width="320" /></div>
<br />
<br />
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-26961371463840182492017-10-22T21:01:00.001-05:002017-10-22T21:01:11.748-05:00How to improve infrastructure project selection: Account for positive regional spillovers, environmental impacts, and job creation benefits<a href="http://epi.org/136743">How to improve infrastructure project selection: Account for positive regional spillovers, environmental impacts, and job creation benefits</a>: Infrastructure plays a key role in the economic vitality of our country. When infrastructure investment is managed inefficiently, we lose opportunities to meet some of our country’s most critical needs: maintaining the quality and integrity of our national infrastructure networks, addressing the challenges of climate change, and narrowing economic gaps across regions.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-40374502351632148892017-10-09T17:58:00.001-05:002017-10-09T17:58:32.618-05:00Automation in Everyday Life<a href="http://pewrsr.ch/2kmJ1LG">Automation in Everyday Life</a>: Although Americans expect certain positive outcomes from developments in automation, they are worried and concerned about the implications of these technologies for society as a whole.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-1880117223916140092017-09-26T14:53:00.003-05:002017-09-26T14:53:38.965-05:00Hurricane Aid<iframe allowscriptaccess="always" frameborder="0" src="https://www.bloomberg.com/api/embed/iframe?id=e861a5ea-8307-4f91-a194-f863d705b472"></iframe><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-36479529725147901362017-09-22T09:59:00.000-05:002017-09-22T09:59:00.669-05:00A Paragraph to PonderFrom <a href="http://meetingoftheminds.org/smart-cities-utilities-overlap-22922">Meeting of the Minds:</a><br />
<br /><br />
"Vegetation-related issues are a leading cause of electricity outages; PG&E has thus built out LIDAR gathering capabilities to help manage vegetation risk and now collects data within PG&E’s rights of way (capable of going down to 2-3 cm of accuracy). Such data could also be leveraged by cities themselves for asset monitoring, solar irradiation analysis on any PV facilities, or any number of other use cases potentially via options like licensing or cost sharing."Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-50920302465288429392017-09-21T15:01:00.001-05:002017-09-21T15:01:34.693-05:00Hurricanes Propel Forward Thinking on Risk, Resilience<a href="http://www.enr.com/articles/42831-hurricanes-propel-forward-thinking-on-risk-resilience#.WcQalcthsSU.blogger">Hurricanes Propel Forward Thinking on Risk, Resilience</a>: Even as hard-hit areas of two of the country’s most developed regions push for normalcy after back-to-back hurricanes in early September, policymakers and construction industry experts are weighing the longer-term implications of the damage in Houston, Florida and the Caribbean from Harvey and Irma—and how and whether infrastructure resiliency can be accelerated and how that will affect coastal development.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-64072864214988256992017-09-18T15:19:00.004-05:002017-09-18T15:19:40.286-05:00Re-engineering Lego<a href="http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/lego-can-recover-slump/?utm_source=kw_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2017-09-14"><strong><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Link</span></strong></a><strong><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> to the article and podcast:</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">"Lego sets costing $100 or more face stiff competition from cheaper alternatives for today’s kids, Robertson pointed out. “Think about what you can get now for $10 – you can get a Raspberry Pi [computer], program it with a simple visual language program called Scratch, strap a couple of sensors and motors to it and for $30 you can do something pretty cool with it.” He noted that while Lego’s offering in that space called Lego Boost also teaches kids to program, the company has oversimplified that feature. Pricing is a critical issue for Lego because “$100 will buy you a pretty nice smartphone controlled drone,” he added.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Above all, Robertson wondered if the age profile of Lego’s target market is trending younger. “There are so many cool things for 8-year-olds and 9-year olds that weren’t there even five years ago,” he said. “I just wonder whether we are starting to see a shift in fundamental play preferences.”"</span></strong>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6657575743548714059.post-63310551349821889022017-09-18T15:14:00.000-05:002017-09-18T15:14:16.380-05:00Why is Cement Exported?<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Below are the 15 countries that exported the highest dollar value worth of cement during 2016:</span></div>
<ol style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">China: US$692.4 million (7.6% of total cement exports)</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Thailand: $612.2 million (6.8%)</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">United Arab Emirates: $544.4 million (6%)</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Turkey: $494.8 million (5.5%)</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Germany: $486.3 million (5.4%)</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Spain: $477.3 million (5.3%)</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Vietnam: $403 million (4.4%)</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Japan: $391.3 million (4.3%)</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Canada: $368.7 million (4.1%)</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">India: $267 million (2.9%)</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Greece: $248.6 million (2.7%)</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Senegal: $209 million (2.3%)</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">United States: $205.9 million (2.3%)</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Pakistan: $185.6 million (2%)</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>
<li style="list-style-type: decimal; margin: 0px 0px 0px 35px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">South Korea: $162.9 million (1.8%)</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span></ol>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The listed 15 countries shipped almost two-thirds (63.4%) of global exports in 2016 (by value).</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16917474213050328965noreply@blogger.com0