Energy

Light Diesel Pickups Coming to America

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Surprise. How many people expected the first company to re-introduce a light diesel pickup in America would be Indian? Mahindra and Mahindra has scheduled the arrival for the end of 2009:

From the onset, the company will offer a diesel-powered pickup truck in two- or four-door versions. This will be a completely federalized and revised (for the U.S. market) version of the truck sold which is known as the PikUp in India. The U.S. naming for that vehicle has yet to be announced nor has pricing information except to say it will be competitive to others in the small pickup class.

The Mahindra site is already taking sign-ups for a test drive. They should also take suggestions for the name.

Hope they include a 4×4 or an AWD version. Maybe they can name it something like Cobra, which comes to mind when thinking of snake charmers in India. A bit of irony could come from a name like Taloa, which is the Choctaw Indian word for sing. Even more irony? They could name it after the Muskogean Indian word for Red — Humma or Homma…

How could American automakers have missed this opportunity? I guess that is a silly question, given the lessons illustrated in the movie “Who Killed the Electric Car”. These marketing blurbs are exactly what we should have seen five years ago from Detroit:

Forget everything you thought you knew about diesel engines.

Turbocharged Mahindra clean diesels provide a power-packed 30 miles per gallon creating benefits beyond any other vehicle in its class.

Mahindra’s common rail diesels are cleaner, quieter, greener and more efficient than ever. Our new generation of clean-burning diesels emit 97 percent fewer sulfur emissions than old-school diesels and virtually no sooty particulates. They produce 30 percent fewer greenhouse gases per mile than gasoline engines – while getting 20 to 40 percent better fuel mileage. And they do it all while maintaining the traditional diesel advantages of more torque and greater durability.

It’s a six speed. They could call it the sixer, or the 30.6. That would really pull in the NRA crowd. Maybe they should name it the bail-out, or the stimulus.

Security

Somalia Begs for Invasion

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The New York Times reports that Somalia’s Parliament has asked its neighbors for military intervention.

Somali lawmakers pleaded Saturday for international military intervention within 24 hours to help fight Islamic insurgents in the lawless African nation, where fierce fighting has resumed in the capital.

The Parliament is clearly losing its grip to violent opposition, but the question is whether their call for intervention makes any sense in terms of security.

US policy there, as I have mentioned before, seems to have been about unfettered aim at anti-American groups and targets. Air and missile strikes in Somalia, as well as clandestine operations, might be seen by Washington to be a great way to illuminate the shadowy pockets of Al Qaeda, but it motivates local populations to be even more anti-American (like Al Shabab) and fuels lawless profiteering (piracy). The Ethiopian incursion, which was supposedly requested by the parliament at that time, not only failed to stabilize the situation but led to a failure of government. Ethiopia’s occupation and then withdrawal (arguably more about U.S. anti-terror operations than nation-building) ended with another vacuum of power and the loss of government, not preservation…which brings us back to today’s question.

The U.S. military strategy in the Horn has failed, Ethiopia’s invasion failed, Kenya is unlikely to want to take on unilateral action and an even greater refugee situation, and I can not see Djibouti officially involved in anything (although it is quietly involved in everything related to French policy in Africa). The African Union (AU) mission in Somalia, however, seems to have been successful enough for the United Nations to call it sufficient. This is something the Somali government should not dismiss lightly. A call for greater AU involvement would make the most sense for defending the country’s government. Perhaps the reason for calling upon neighbors for invasion instead of increased AU presence is related to regional politics. A test of the AU is whether it can navigate through Eritrea’s influence on the Horn. Nonetheless, given U.S. and Ethiopian examples, the AU seems like the best option at this point to help stabilize the city and state.

History, Poetry

Three Riddles

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by Jonathan Swift

In Youth exalted high in Air,
Or bathing in the Waters fair;
Nature to form me took Delight,
And clad my Body all in White:
My Person tall, and slender Waste,
On either Side with Fringes grac’d;
Till me that Tyrant Man espy’d,
And drag’d me from my Mother’s side:
No Wonder now I look so thin;
The Tyrant strip’t me to the Skin:
My Skin he flay’d, my Hair he cropt;
At Head and Foot my Body lopt:
And then, with Heart more hard than Stone,
He pick’t my Marrow from the Bone.
To vex me more, he took a Freak,
To slit my Tongue, and made me speak:
But, that which wonderful appears,
I speak to Eyes and not to Ears.
He oft employs me in Disguise,
And makes me tell a Thousand Lyes:
To me he chiefly gives in Trust
To please his Malice, or his Lust.
From me no Secret he can hide;
I see his Vanity and Pride:
And my Delight is to expose
His Follies to his greatest Foes.

All languages I can command,
Yet not a Word I understand.
Without my Aid, the best Divine
In Learning would not know a Line:
The Lawyer must forget his Pleading,
The Scholar could not shew his Reading.
Nay; Man, my Master, is my Slave:
I give Command to kill or save.
Can grant ten Thousand Pounds a Year,
And make a Beggar’s Brat a Peer.

But, while I thus my Life relate,
I only hasten on my Fate.
My Tongue is black, my Mouth is furr’d,
I hardly now can force a Word.
I dye unpity’d and forgot;
And on some Dunghill left to rot.

The “slit tongue” reference might seem odd today, but it comes from an ancient theory about making some birds “talk” as explained by John Marzluff and Tony Angell in the book “In the Company of Crows and Ravens”:

Security

BaaCode for Icebreaker Clothing

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Icebreaker is a company that makes wool clothing. They provide a page where you can enter a code from your clothing to find out all kinds of information about its “source”:

Your unique Baacode will let you see the living conditions of the high country sheep that produced the merino fibre in your Icebreaker garment, meet the farmers who are custodians of this astonishing landscape, and follow every step of the supply chain. We’re sure you’ll find the experience as inspiring as we do. Enjoy your journey back to the source.

“Traceability” seems like a really good way to get a handle on the information that has to be displayed on packaging like sulfur, or nuts, or types of sweeteners. The use in garments is nice too, but seems more like a novelty than a necessity.

I wonder if anyone has invented a device that could scan a barcode, identify the product and then immediately advise whether the contents and/or source is suitable for purchase. That could save shoppers significant time/effort and help drive change in the market.

On the flip side, I wonder if Icebreaker monitors who checks their BaaCode and from where.

The demo code they offer for testing is 213C3F390 and the URL seems to support automated/scripted testing, like this:

https://www.icebreaker.com/site/baacode/trace.html?language=en&baacode=213C3F390

How long before someone runs every alphanumeric and downloads their database? Maybe there’s no threat. I mean what could anyone do with a database of wool fiber supply chain information? Could suppliers use it to reveal competitive info and set prices?