20% of Calif. high-school seniors won’t graduate

The AP is reporting that A fifth of California’s high school students expected to graduate in 2004 won’t receive their diplomas because they have not taken all the math classes they need in order to pass the mandated tests.

So why are the politicians and administrators and school boards responsible for this mess allowed to remain in power, and cover their asses by delaying the requirement for another three years?

—by Peter Sheerin at 1:17 PM {PermaLink}

Using materials efficiently

Page 17 of the July 2001 issue of Popular Science shows a metal can with a honeycomb pattern of indentations on it, formed by water pressure. Invented by Frank Mirtsch, this technique is claimed to provide enough strength to allow 20–40% less material to be used. So why hasn’t some smart government bought the patent, and then given the technology away to anyone that wants to use it? It seems to me that doing so could greatly aid the environment.

—by Peter Sheerin at 12:57 PM {PermaLink}

Disaster communications breakdowns

I’m not convinced that our government is doing the right things to make sure our public agencies have reliable communications that will work in a disaster. The trend towards fancy trunked radio systems in the 800MHz band may simply be making already incompatible systems even more incompatible and far more unlikely to work during a major disaster.

Articles on this topic that you should read include “Interoperability Of Public Safety Communication Systems” (Popular Communications, November 2002), Fixing A Communications Breakdown, and Lessons Learned After September 11th.

—by Peter Sheerin at 11:51 AM {PermaLink}