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let’s call the whole thing off
Elvis/Beatles, Vanilla/Chocolate, Fiction/Non-Fiction… These are choices that supposedly define us. I’m not sure what it means if I prefer The Beatles, chocolate, and non-fiction, but I do. Even with The New Yorker—my devotion of nearly eight years—I skip the fiction.
I’m tempted to say that this same preference attracts me automobiles. Though tangible, technical, and apparently real, on second thought I realize that cars are equal part fantasy. They do garner a broad selection of commentary, however, in the non-fiction category, which I have collected over the years. Recently I heard of a few more books worth checking out:
Twilight in the Desert, Matthew Simmons, 2006
A comprehensive analysis of the Saudi oil reserves, ‘drilling’ into the details of Peak Oil.
Hell and High Water, Joseph Romm, 2006
The author of my constant reference The Hype About Hydrogen pays talented (and welcome) attention to climate change.
Cradle to Cradle, McDonough/Braungart, 2002
How did I not hear of this earlier? Without reading it, it looks like The Omnivore’s Dilemma for manufacturing.
Posted by Carolyn
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Back from NACAT
NACAT stands for the North American Council of Automotive Teachers, and every year it hosts a conference for its enthusiastic members. This year’s took place on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, where yesterday yours truly presented on Plug-In Hybrids as a representative of Perfect Sky Hybrid Training. NACAT members are increasingly curious about hybrids, including their frontier as the plug-in variety, and we managed to fill the Coronia Room with at least 30 people. (The audience even included one of my former (and favorite) automotive teachers, Russ Ferguson of Washtenaw Community College! We took some pictures together which I look forward to posting in another blog.) Topics ranged from basic introduction to V2G development and included technical details of the Chevy Volt concept, the CalCars’ PriusPlus conversion method, and the EV Power Systems’ Colorado pickup.
My thanks to NACAT for supporting education on such an exciting and important technology. I am also grateful to Jack Rosebro and Dominic Felix of Perfect Sky (pictured testing out the Coronia Room) for the opportunity to speak on their behalf. Both NACAT and Perfect Sky work for the betterment of this industry, including a higher environmental consciousness, and I look forward to continued collaboration in the future.