Web Addiction can Decrease Attention Span

I have already spoke about how TV can lower attention span but it seems as if surfing the Internet can have the same effect.

"If you are spending too much time on the internet and are concerned that it is affecting your concentration, you are not alone.

"The addictive nature of web browsing can leave you with an attention span of nine seconds - the same as a goldfish."

"'Our attention span gets affected by the way we do things,' says Ted Selker, an expert in the online equivalent of body language at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US."

See Turning into Digital Goldfish

TV Linked with Reduced Attention Span in Children

A pediatric study has found a link between watching TV and short attention span in children.

See Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children -- Christakis et al. 113 (4): 708 -- Pediatrics

How Immigration Connects with Standard Economics

I said the following to a friend: "Thinking abstractly, you moving out of your house to go shopping is immigration since nation-states are mere legal entities that have no effect on the economics."

He didn't understand me, so now I will explain this idea more clearly in this post.

Firstly, think about you going out to the mall or a shop and buying something. Why do you do this? Why buy an apple from the mall instead of growing your own apples? The answer is because of the law of comparative advantage. If I grew my own apple then it's too expensive. It's better to let someone else specialize in making apples. You buy the apply using money you get form specializing in something else, whether it's being a doctor, lawyer, accountant, etc.

This is why existence of barriers to trade can be harmful. Suppose there is a wall or border around your house preventing you from buying apples. Then the cost of getting apples from someone else rises and it becomes cheaper for you to make your own apples. Then you do something you are not specialized in, which damages your production of your core tasks. E.g. if I am an accountant then all the time I put into growing my own apples will mean I have to work less as an accountant which means my overall wealth decreases.

Just scale this concept up a bit and it applies to immigration and outsourcing. Banning immigration means drawing a line somewhere and stopping people moving.

Many people argue that immigration can cause certain groups of people to lose and this is true. Wages can change, but this is all part of the free trade process. For example, today we see many car companies, Ford, GM, Toyota, Honda, etc. Suppose only one existed. Suppose only Ford existed. Because Ford has no competition, it can lower quality and increase prices with little effect on profitability. If the Government created cars then this is communism. Now suppose other companies were allowed to compete. Will this lower wages? Yes, those working for Ford will suffer from lower wages. The same applies for immigration or outsourcing except we think not about cars as commodities but human labor as the commodity. Immigration restriction is a form of protectionism.

Volkswagon Lupo Versus Toyota Prius

In terms of fuel efficiency, the Prius is not the best. This is because although the Prius drinks 4.4L/100km, the Volkswagon Lupo 1.2L turbo diesel consumes 3.0L/100km. However, although the Prius is classified as a midsized car, the Lupo is a supermini. The length of a Lupo (3529mm) is about one meter less than that of a Prius (4450mm). The kerb weight of a Lupo is 854kg compared to the Prius's weight of 1325kg, which makes the Lupo less safe. Although the Prius received a five-star Euro NCAP rating the Lupo recieved a still respectable four-star rating.

Problems with Hydrogen Cars

One of the problems with hydrogen is the availability. If you had a hydrogen car today, virtually no service station has hydrogen available. Plug-in electric cars, however, can be plugged into a power point at home.

Hydrogen also has low energy density. Ten liters of petrol will bring a sedan 100km but 16 liters of LPG is needed to bring the same car the same distance. Even more hydrogen is needed, which means bigger tanks. This presents a major problem in terms of carrying the stuff in your car as well as transporting it one trucks from one place to another. Solutions to the problem include compression of the hydrogen, but that will create more emissions.

Hydrogen is also scarce and is usually made from electrolysis of water, which requires electricity, which usually requires coal, which produces emissions. Many scientists believe converting electricity to hydrogen, compressing it, distributing it, and then passing it through a fuel cell again to create electricity is a lot more wasteful than simply bringing the electricity straight from the power plant into an electric car.

Cap'n Awesome's Criticism of Buddhism

Cap'n Awesome criticizes Buddhism in the video above, but I will detail below flaws with his argument. I am not religious myself. I am non-religion like Captain Awesome is. Watch the video first before reading anything below.

That rich countries on average have higher happiness than poor countries does not prove that more money makes you happy. Correlation does not imply causation.

Also, many poor people may be unhappy with their poverty because they have an attachment or desire for material goods. They may witness richer people and envy them. Had they not had any attachment to wealth they wouldn't be bothered. Captain Awesome simply assumed that all poor people were not attached to wealth.

Captain Awesome says that in Cambodia the state religion is Buddhism. He then says that Cambodia is filled with war, etc. But of course this does not prove that Buddhism caused those wars. Remember the Simpsons? Homer sets up a bear patrol and observes no bears in the neighborhood. Therefore, he concludes, the bear patrol must be working.

Captain Awesome then says that Thailand is well known for its child sex trade and then says "Buddhism is doing so well to suppress that." He seems to be suggesting that the presence of Buddhism causes the child sex trade. Once again this is confusing correlation for causation.

Then Captain Awesome says that some people in Tibet can't get medicine and says that Buddhism is the cause of this. It could be many other reasons, e.g. lack of ports, influence from China, etc, yet he just points the finger at Buddhism. Once again, using the Simpsons, it's like saying some rock lying on the ground is the reason why Homer's bear patrol works.

He then goes on about Buddhist theocracies. This argument is pretty much: Here are some evil Buddhists. Therefore, Buddhism is evil. Quite simply, he hasn't made a distinction between Buddhists and Buddhism. Anyone can call himself a Buddhist. For example, I may be a mathematician who claims that 1+1=2. Then all of a sudden I go into a milk bar and shoot innocent people. Then someone says the following: "Mathematicians are evil and wrong. The mathematician who said that 1+1=2 went into a milk bar and murdered innocent people. Therefore, mathematics is evil and 1+1 is not 2." My point is that the actions of a mathematician have nothing to do with mathematics itself. Likewise, the actions of a Buddhist don't have anything to do with the philosophy of Buddhism.

Prius v. Hummer

"If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way."
- Bertrand Russell

An average sedan consumes about 10 liters of petrol per 100km traveled. A small car does about 7 liters. The Toyota Prius hybrid car, however, has a rated fuel efficiency of 4.4 liters per 100km. Even though it has low fuel consumption, the Prius in Australia is priced at $37,000. This means that it is about double the price of a Yaris. The Prius then is not exactly a mainstream car like the Corolla is. Research by J.D. Power shows that the average Prius buyer's income is over $100,000 and this suggests an intention by Toyota to sell the car as a environmental status symbol for the wealthy.

The Prius has been popular among celebrities. Titanic star Leonardo Di Caprio says, "I own a Toyota Prius; it's a step in the right direction. It's a gasoline-electric midsize car that gets about 50 miles per gallon. We have the technology to make every car produced in America today just as clean, cheap and efficient." Cameron Diaz says, "It gets 52 miles per gallon. In the city. Isn't that exciting?" Other celebrity Prius drivers include Alicia Silverstone, Billy Crystal, Billy Joel, Brad Pitt, David Duchovny, Ellen DeGeneres, Ewan McGregor, Harrison Ford, Jack Black, Jack Nicholson, Larry David, Kevin Bacon, Kirk Douglas, Kurt Russell, Patricia Arquette, Prince Charles, Robin Williams, Salma Hayek, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Ted Danson, Tom Hanks, and Woody Harrelson.

Some time ago, a study by CNW Marketing Research claimed that the Toyota Prius hybrid car is more environmentally harmful than the Hummer SUV. The study claims that the Prius only lasts for about 100,000 miles whereas the apparently more durable Hummer lasts over 300,000 miles, meaning its environmental costs are spread out more over its lifetime.

According to the study, the Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles while the Hummer costs $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles.

This is all very perplexing because I remember reading a paper in which Toyota expects the batteries to last the life of the car and to date not one battery has been replaced.

"Toyota claims that not one has required a battery replacement due to malfunction or 'wearing out.' The only replacement batteries sold--at the retail price of $3000--have been for cars that were involved in accidents. Toyota further claims that the nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery packs used in all Prius models are expected to last the life of the car with very little to no degradation in power capability.

"According to Toyota, the life of the Prius battery pack is determined more by mileage than by time, and it has been tested to 180,000 miles. Supporting this are first- and second-generation Prius taxis in Canada that have reportedly traveled more than 200,000 miles without suffering any battery problems."

Source: http://consumerguideauto.howstuffworks.com/...


"Toyota have lab data showing the Prius battery can do 290,000km of normal driving with absolutely no degradation of the battery’s performance. To give some real life examples, there is a Taxi driver from British Columbia, Jatinder Parhar, who has done over 410,000km in his Prius Taxi and has had to do nothing to his Prius other than standard servicing. Toyota has sold over 500,000 Generation II and III Prius worldwide and say they have never had to supply a battery pack for replacement due to wear and tear. Given all this, the price of a replacement battery is probably irrelevant, however in the extremely unlikely event you needed to replace the battery in your Prius, current cost, at time of writing (Oct 2006), is NZ$3900.00 for a Generation II Prius and NZ$2700 for a Generation III Prius. However this is coming down all the time."

Source: http://www.cleangreencar.co.nz/page/faq-prius


So of course we'll just have to wait and see whether some taxi can clock more than 300,000 miles. The Prius taxi in Canada has done 410,000km, which is 254,901 miles.

The CNW Marketing study stated that the Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles and the Hummer costed $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. Assuming that the Prius taxi with over 200,000 miles on the odometer was not an anomaly and that its results are representative, then the initial reported cost of the Prius of $3.25 per mile assuming 100,000 expected lifespan would now be $1.63 per mile assuming the Prius can last till 200,000 miles (which it has done). At $1.63 the Prius is better environmentally than the Hummer. However, if the Hummer lasts longer than 300,000 miles then the results change.

As I said, the study that claims Hummers were greener than Priuses was done by CNW Marketing Research. The study did not have any peer review and had no support from mainstream scientific papers. The results of the CNW Marketing Research firm contradict data from MIT and the Argonne National Laboratory (see the Pacific Institute paper).

According to Gleick from the Pacific Institute, "A quick re-analysis with peer-reviewed data leads to completely opposite conclusions: the life-cycle energy requirements of hybrids and smaller cars are far lower than Hummers and other large SUVs."

The CNW study provides no explanation for where they got the assumption that the Prius only lasts for 100,000 miles, so it could be that they just plucked it out of the air or, if you are cynical, selected it to artificially skew the results and conclusions.

The Prius taxi in Canada clocked 410,000km, but I don't know anyone who drives a car until 410,000km. When the RACV does analysis on car operating costs they use 15,000km per year as the number of kilometers done by the average driver. So if we assume that the Prius taxi in Canada is representative of all Priuses then a Prius should last you over 27 years (=410000/15000).

Some people, like Jeremy Clarkson, claim that diesel is better than hybrid. But according to HybridCars.com it is not an either-or situation: "It's technically possible to use a hybrid drivetrain with a diesel engine. In fact, PSA Peugeot Citroën recently showed a diesel-hybrid prototype: the 307 CC Hybride HDi, a compact convertible that gets 70 miles per gallon, about 30 percent better fuel economy than the existing diesel version."

A diesel hybrid truck has been made by Hino and will be available in Australia.

While a diesel's fuel economy is similar to that of hybrids, there are health worries associated with diesel. Studies into pre-1990 diesel engines have found a link between diesel emissions and cancer. Modern diesel engines, however, are cleaner but more stringent regulation from the US EPA means many diesel-engined cars will be banned in the US and maybe other governments will pass similar laws in an effort to improve air quality.


Further Reading:

• The Anti-Hybrid "Dust-to-Dust" Cost Study that Just Won't Die, But Needs To
• Prius Versus Hummer: Exploding the Myth
• Oh, So a Hummer is Not Greener than a Prius
• George Will Promotes a Denialist Report
• Hollywood Loves Hybrid Cars
  

More on the Prius Taxi:
Cab Driver Passes 400,000km Mark in Prius
Hybrid taxi paid for itself in no time