Date: August 25th, 2009
Cate: null

…of man-made fibers…

I was just browsing the Harmonized Tariff System in use by the US International Trade Commission today… you may (or, more likely, you may not) be interested to know that 6201.13.1000 is the HTS code you would use if you were responsible for the import of “Men’s or boys’ overcoats, carcoats, capes, cloaks and similar coats, of man-made fibers, containing 15 percent or more by weight of down and waterfowl plumage and of which  down comprises 35 percent or more by weight; containing 10 percent or more by weight of down.”  This category would not include anoraks, ski-jackets, windbreakers, suits, ensembles, suit-type jackets, blazers, trousers, bib and brace overalls, breeches, shorts, or swimwear.

more))

Date: August 15th, 2009
Cate: null, software
3 msgs

Convert LaTeX figures to stand-alone graphics

As I am wont to do, I’ve been frittering away the hours poking and prodding TeX to make beautiful graphics.  This is my way of giving myself the impression of working hard, and actually accomplishing things, though not things that necessarily advance my career.

I’m quite fond of PSTricks, a LaTeX package which allows the author to make use of PostScript’s extensive computational and graphical capabilities from within a TeX document.  My project for this week was to come up with a way to give these figures to my advisor, who works exclusively in MS Word. So what I needed was a way to export TeX figures to graphics files. Here’s what I came up with.
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Date: August 13th, 2009
Cate: engineering

The Chevy Volt, the EPA, and thermodynamics

So, the chevy Volt — that’s big.

The US environmental protection agency are in the process of developing a fuel economy standard for hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles, and according to a recent draft version of the standard, General Motors’ flagship entry into the “range-extended electric vehicle” market would clock in at 230 miles per gallon.

Recently I entered a debate in defense of the EPA’s rating.  It was a retaliation against the claim that GM and the EPA have entered into a conspiracy in which the standards are designed to the specific product available and politically palatable, and the net result would be consumers’ further disillusionment at the very notion of “clean energy” when they discovered that their gleefully acquired products failed to perform to their expectations.

more))

Date: August 6th, 2009
Cate: null

The perils of automatic content

I was procrastinating from work again, reading about the “Top 50 innovations” of plastics technology in the past 50 years (when I was supposed to be reading about displacement of primary production with recycled materials, but as it turns out there’s not much to read about that, which is why we will propose to the NSF that it be studied (by us). more))

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