The Professor's Notes

I have to admit, I am a water junky. I drink most likely gallons of water a day. I have all but abandoned sodas, and only drink coffee in the morning. Otherwise, it’s all water. Of course, having such a water addiction means that I, like most junkies, want my “fix” all the time. And I want my “fix” to be the purest possible. For me, this means a reliance on filters at home, and bottles of water when I am not home.

I tell myself this is healthy. This is a good thing. That I am keeping my body healthy. And yet, I can’t help but wonder about the efficiencies of a system that makes clean and pure water available to drink, out of half-liter bottles.

There are a number of concerns here, almost all of which touch on environmental issues, but are also at their heart “supply chain” issues. For instance, if we are shipping cases of water, we are moving tons, literally tons, of water by truck. Read the rest of this entry »

A while back I wrote about the abiogenic theory of petroleum production. According to Wikipedia:

The theory of abiogenic petroleum origin holds that natural petroleum was formed from deep carbon deposits, perhaps dating to theformation of the Earth. The ubiquity of hydrocarbons in the solar system is taken as evidence that there may be a great deal more petroleum on Earth than commonly thought, and that petroleum may originate from carbon-bearing fluids which migrate upward from the mantle.

The theory thus challenges the view that petroleum products are “fossil fuels” created over millions of years by the decaying of dinosaurs and ancient pre-historic plant life. It argues that petroleum may be a renewable resource that flows up from the magma. In fact, it is a theory that has had a recent resurgence to popularity with the release of the book “The Deep Hot Biosphere” by Thomas Gold.

Why do I bring this up? First, my daughter is a geology major, and so I have renewed interest in all things “rock.” Even more recently, I have been reading the book “Omnivore’s Dilemma” in which the author, Pollan, constantly refers to the use of “fossil fuels” in the production of food. It struck me, after reading this over, and over again, that he has “bought in” to the traditional view completely. He rarely if ever refers to this as “petroleum products.” I have since noticed that the use of the term “fossil fuel” is quite prevalent in the media–far more so than the non-value statement petroleum. Read the rest of this entry »

I have a few technology items to write about over the next few weeks. These include the Sony Portable Reader, (and I may mention it’s competitor, Amazon’s the Kindle), the Zoom H2 digital recorder, and Grand Central. Today, it’s Grand Central.

First off, it’s a free service offered by Google!

Grand Central simply makes your telephonic life simpler. They will provide you with a phone number, and then allow you to enter all your various phone numbers into their system. Home… Cellphone… work… vacation home… neighbors…Why do this? Well, when someone calls that “one number” Grand Central will then ring all the phone that you have entered and selected. (yes, you can turn them on and off.) When your phone rings, you answer it, and a polite recorded voice tells you that you have a call, and all you have to do is press 1 to accept the call. You could choose to not accept the call at that time, and it will go to the Grand Central voice mail system. In addition, you can listen while the voice mail is being recorded, and decide whether you need to pick up the call.

And of course, you can also press 4 during the call, and record both sides of the conversation–just be sure to check the laws in your state!

How do I see using this? It is certainly a great way to let students contact me, without giving them 4 or 5 different numbers to call.

Additionally, it is a boon when working as a consultant, or traveling. Just give your clients and colleagues one number, and they can reach you at any time–and you can get to your voice mail from any computer with internet connection.

I have only scratched the surface of Grand Central–visit the website and see what else this service can do for you!

Oh–did I mention it was free?Let me know what you think, and how you envision using it–or already are!