[Review] Wool socks

I cannot believe that I am writing a review about socks. Yes, believe it or not, this post is a review about a pair of wool socks.

I bought a ridiculously expensive pair of wool socks ($17.99 at Dick's Sporting Goods), but now I can tell you that they are really worth the money. The pair was made by Smartwool, which makes new generation of wool clothing. Wool apparel is a new trend of outdoor apparel. After long experiment with synthetic fabrics, finally researchers realized that wool is the most ideal fabric for outdoor activities. Wool is superior to other synthetic fabrics in (1) moisture wicking (2) thermal insulation (3) ventilation, and (4) odor control.

Some of you may say that you do not like wool clothing because of itching. Old wool sweaters cause itching. But new generation of wool clothing is different. They are made from fine wool fiber and processed to be soften. Smartwool is one of the companies that make the new wool apparel. I have known this news but did not have a chance to try on. When I received a discount coupon from Dick's, I decided to give a shot on this luxurious socks.

Product info:

• Model: Men's Heathered Rib (light cushion. There are various cushion types. I picked light cushion because I thought that fishing trip typically does not require much cushion.)
• Contents: 72% wool, 23% nylon, 5% elastic (different models have different contents)
  
• Price: $17.99 (made in US)
• Treatment: Machine wash (warm) and machine dry (tumble dry low). Turn inside out. No fabric softener required. Do not iron. Do not dry clean.
  

Feeling of the socks was very soft but a little bit itchy at calf part. At first, I felt slippery in the socks. I am not sure whether it was because of oil residue or the nature of wool fabric. Anyway, I wanted to put this pair on an extreme test: I wore the same pair for 5 days and nights. I wanted to see whether it can ceaselessly make me comfortable during the time.

Results: the pair well passed the test. Moisture wicking was excellent. My feet didn't get wet or cold by sweating. I could not feel over heated while walking. To be honest, odor control was my major interest. Amazingly, the pair didn't stink after five days. Mild smell sweat, that was it. Um, in order to make it sure, I asked my wife to test it, and she agreed with me. Smartwool claims that their wool socks can keep feet cool when it is warm, but I could not test it at this time.

After five test days, I found that surface of the socks were a bit shaggy. I turned inside out and machine-washed them. Shags didn't look troublesome, but I am not sure after repeated use how shaggy it will become .

It is real irony to me that we didn't realize that wool is the best fabric for outdoor activities for long time. If you have your uncle's old wool sweater, why don't you wear it for your ice fishing this winter. You may want to wear cotton inner shirts first, though.

Really intuitive graphs about climate change

I found these graphs of European Climate Foundation very intuitive and helpful for anyone. Fourth graph shows probability that we could stay inside 2 degree Celsius limit. When we reduce more CO2e, then we can clearly increase our chances to be cool. But that does not necessarily guarantee our achievement of the goal. Well, everything depends on a chance.




I found these graphs at BBC web.

LED bulb

Last May, I went to a summit of Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP). It was not an academic conference, but I was interested in energy saving technologies, which are commercially available, and energy efficiency policies of local governments. There was exhibition, and the most popular item was LED bulb and floor light. Here are some pictures that I took:









You might notice that they all have large metal heat sink. I didn't know that LED emit strong heat. I asked an engineer friend at RPI, who is majoring in LED technology, and he told me that single LED emit ignorable heat, but when condensed for brightness, total heat cannot be ignored. Well, that's common sense. At an exhibition booth, I heard that their company was developing water-cooler for LED bulb, which could significantly reduce the bulb size but was not easy to make at that time. I have not heard whether they have succeeded in the development.

LED is much energy efficient. That's true. But one question that I wanted to ask is total energy use of LED in its life cycle. How much energy is needed in producing metal heat sink? Does anybody know about life cycle analysis of LED? If you let me know, I will appreciate. Energy efficiency is never easy to assess.

Simulation tools for climate action planning

I had a chance to search and review simulation tools for climate action plan. Climate action plan requires to assess future effect of carbon reduction efforts on energy and the environment. These tools are used to compare various policy scenarios. Here is the list of tools.

• Climate Rapid Overview and Decision-support Simulator (C-ROADS) is a user friendly simulation tool that provides climate simulation (temperature and sea level change) along with emission and energy demand simulation. C-ROADS is an accounting type model. With accounting model, users can fully control coefficients of the model. IPCC endorsed the methodology of C-ROADS. Note that instead of C-ROADS, I reviewed C-LEARN which is an on-line evaluation version of C-ROADS. C-LEARN requires only three sets of data, but C-ROADS may require more data.

• Model of Energy Supply Systems Alternatives and their General Environmental Impacts (MESSAGE) was developed by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). It also provides climate simulation in link with another model called MAGGIC. However, MESSAGE requires high level of skills and expertise to use the tool.

• Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning (LEAP) is an extensive simulator for GHG emission and energy demand forecast. LEAP is used by 85 countries for their official UNFCCC GHG inventory report. LEAP provides default data set for countries, however it does not provide default data for U.S. states. LEAP is an accounting type model.

• Energy and Power Evaluation Program (ENPEP-BALANCE) was developed by the Argonne National Laboratory. ENPEP-BALANCE is a simulation type model, which uses historical data to determine model coefficients. Thus, it requires more detailed time-series data.

• MARket ALocation (MARKAL) model was originally developed by International Energy Agency (IEA) in the late 1980s. Nowadays, its variations are broadly used. Northeast MARKAL (NE-MARKAL) was developed by NESCAUM for the U.S. northeast states including New York. MARKAL is basically an optimization type model which assumes optimization activities of market participants in economies. MARKAL requires a separate procedure for GHG emission estimation.

• Climate and Air Pollution Planning Assistant (CAPPA) by International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) seemed promising, although it has not been released yet, considered ICLEI’s other products, such as Clean Air and Climate Protection (CACP).

• I-PLACE3S (PLAnning for Community Energy, Economic and Environmental Sustainability) is a GIS-based simulator. This approach is ideal because the nature of GHG related issues are spatial. However, it requires GIS data encoding, which is time and budget consuming.

• URBEMIS, and Sustainable Communities Model (SCM) are commercially available simulation packages developed by private companies. URBEMIS is tailored to California, using emission factors of California Air Resources Board’s EMFAC model. This simulator is specialized in estimating effects from construction. SCM builds and compares sophisticated scenarios with nine variables including socio-economic ones.

It is hard to tell which model is the best. Each model has specific use. C-ROADS seems useful in general cases because it provides climate simulation and requires low level of data.

D.N. McCloskey and Predictability

Could economists predict last year economic crisis? Can economics predict the future? Should predictability be a hallmark of good science? McCloskey raises questions about economics' methodology at his 1983 article, Rhetoric of Economics.

When I read McCloskey's article first time a couple of years ago at Microeconomics class, I didn't really appreciate it. Writing my dissertation, I am re-discovering this article, which is and should be a milestone of economic science. This article has not been seriously accepted or reviewed in economic literature, as far as I see it. McCloskey is rather famous of his sex change to female. That is unfortunate.

Rhetoric of economics basically reviews methodology of economics from the view point of post-modernism. McCloskey criticizes “modern” methods of economics. Economists claim prediction is what economic science has to do. But can economists predict? How about economic crisis last year? After the crisis, some asserted that they had predicted the crisis and warned about it without proper credentials. But whole community of economists failed in predicting without any doubt. McCloskey clearly says that it is not possible to predict within economics, and prediction is not the task of economics.

Prediction is a job that guarantees honor and power. For example, shamans of pre-historic age were highly admired by fortune-telling. So, every scholar wants to give a shot of prediction. Or at least they pretend as they know something about future. Let's be honest. We cannot predict. In particular, at social science, there are so many variables. We, social scientists, even do not know clear causal relationship among variables. It is really hard to claim causal relationship. When we do not know causal relationship, how can we predict with full confidence?

Then what economists have to do? Rather than trying to predict something, let's try to provide better policies with our knowledge. About the last year economic crisis, I will blame economists not because they could not predict the economic crisis but because they did not provide proper policy options and manage the related risks. Economists should not have stuck on their limited forecasting chart, but imagined and opened to all the possibilities of economies. They failed both.

Economists should take efforts in scenario building. They should be good in fiction writing. I would rather trust economists' guided fiction than their "scientific" forecasting. Scenario analysis was originally developed by military. Military strategists first considers all possible moves of enemies. Then they set up their defense plans according to the potential moves. These stories compose scenarios. Economists' job should be like the military strategists.

McCloskey is still alive and still productive. I should follow up on her when I have a time to do. She really opened up serious discussion of economic methodology.

[Review] DiCAPac (Digital Camera Pack)

This season I bought and tested some new gadgets. DiCAPac is one of them, and I found this is very useful for fisherman. It is a waterproof plastic case for digital camera. This product was originally invented as a cheap alternative of waterproof camera for skin scuba. You can put your own digital camera into DiCAPac, and that is it.

I bought model WP-510 for my SONY Cybershot DSC-P8. It was $30 at a internet shopping mall. I tested it under water at a pool. Waterproof was perfect, but it was not easy to take a picture under water. I needed to get used to control my camera inside the case.

This product is ideal for fishing trip rather than skin scuba, I think. You may have experienced to hurry to dry up your hands in order to take a shot right after catch. If you don't have towel, you hesitate to pull out your expensive camera with your wet hands. This simple case can get rid of your worry. I used this case for this season and am quite satisfied. Here is my review:

Pro

• Being ready to take a picture anytime. It enables you to take a picture of your catch with wet hands.
  
• Peace of mind! You can protect your camera from water damage wherever you go, shore or on boat.
• Picture quality does not really affected by the case.
  
• Cheap: $30 is way cheaper than buying a new waterproof camera or original waterproof chase. You can still use your camera.
  

Con

• Lens part is a bit bulkier
• Lens ring can interfere into your picture. You might see that some of my fishing pictures have black ring on them. Because the case and digital camera do not perfectly match, lens part can mess up pictures. It takes some time to get used to it. I hope that they will make the lens part more customizable. I want to adjust length of the lens part.
  

Here are pictures

Without camera in it.


With camera in it.

News Junkie

Yup, I am a news junkie. I guess many of you are, too, especially nowadays. I read four Korean news papers, New York Times and CNN on-line everyday. When there is an important issue or developing stories, I have to search for updates all over media world because of my uncontrollable curiosity. I know it is a waste of time. Why bother to know somebody was stabbed to death in Malawi. I try to subdue my time to read news papers, but it is not easy. My curiosity always win.

But I cannot stop reading news. There are useful information, too. The problem is wasting my time to read unnecessary gossips and trash articles. When I visit a news website, there are so many interesting things that catch my eyes. Pictures of half naked models, mal-shaped animal, and war scene. I try to read only significant articles, but I cannot resist to click on the curious pictures.

One solution that I am testing now is to use RSS feed. Not using reader, such as Google reader, but just use xml as bookmark. I can determine which kind of news I will read, too. When you bookmark xml file, you can only see list of articles with brief summary. No pictures or inflammatory gossips. It does not automatically update unless I refresh the page different from RSS feed. So far, it helps.

If you suffer the similar problem, you can try it.
Here is a NY times xml
http://www.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/GlobalHome.xml
You go to the page and bookmark it at your web browser. Then click on it at your book mark. It will show you only the list of up-to-date articles.