Saturday, December 15, 2018

New Combustion Technology May Change Transportation Landscape To Remain Timeless

Timeless Machine - The new 911 (as unvieled at the 2018 AutoMobility LA - LA Auto Show Press Days) is the sum of its predecessors – and is therefore a reflection of the past and a vision of the future. The silhouette: iconic. The design: timeless. The technology: inspired by great racing victories and always one step ahead. With the eighth generation of the 911, we’re driving into the future. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

New Combustion Technology May Change Transportation Landscape To Remain Timeless

A German startup says it has the technology to give internal combustion engines a reprieve in the face of the headlong drive of government support and increased regulations, favoring electric power, to move this robust technology off the menu of options for powering transportation.

Wendelin Wiedeking, the former chief executive officer of Porsche AG, credited with reviving the iconic German sports-car maker, is a most recognizable shareholder of MWI Micro Wave Ignition AG - operative words, Micro Wave Ignition (videos).

The technology represents a microwave-based Combustion Ignition Method that can be used in all combustion-powered engines operated with liquid or gaseous fuels. Diesel, kerosene, alcohol, gasoline fuels, as well as regenerative fuels such as E-fuel and Blue Diesel are candidates. The MWI combustion ignition method technology can be relied upon to meet the latest interior engine specifications for fuel efficiency and pollutant reduction. One great advantage of the MWI technology is that legacy engine designs do not need to be modified, and that the ignition system merely needs to be replaced. Image & Caption Credit: MWI Micro Wave Ignition AG

This excerpted and edited from Yahoo News via Bloomberg -

Ex-Porsche CEO Aims to Save Combustion Engine From Scrapheap

Using pulsed microwaves to ignite fuel rather than spark plugs or glow plugs, the engineers behind MWI Micro Wave Ignition AG say they can cut consumption of gasoline and diesel by as much as 30 percent, and emissions by as much as 80 percent, because the fuel burns at a lower temperature.

The company, based in the small Black Forest town of Empfingen, has mandated Macquarie Capital to look for a buyer and international partner that can help to promote the new system and increase MWI’s financial firepower, according to people familiar with the matter. Rumor further asserts that the company has begun talks with some large automakers from South Korea and China - MWI declined to comment.

Wiedeking and a group of other private investors own about 20 percent of MWI, which is controlled by its founders, Armin and Volker Gallatz.

“I am convinced that MWI is a disruptive innovation with a huge market potential,” Wiedeking was cited as saying in a document shared by MWI.

More efficient engine technology could keep traditional cars on the road for longer, shoring up industry profits as auto makers spend heavily to ramp up production of electric vehicles in coming years. Several manufacturers are still investing in better combustion engines.

MWI’s pitch is that this technology can be integrated into existing engine architecture rather than requiring an all-new approach.
[Reference Here]

The technology developed through today can be used for mass-produced engines and is patented worldwide. It significantly reduces fuel consumption and pollutant emissions in the double-digit percentage range.

The technology in this case is not intended to compete with, but to instead enhance, electro-mobility: engines are used as range extenders in today’s and future electro-vehicles. Tankers, cruise ships, aircraft, heavy trucks: combustion engines will be used in these for decades into the future. MWI supplies environmentally aware technologies for these applications.
(ht: MWI Micro Wave Ignition AG)

Making what is already very functional and good, better for the future - all existing internal combustion cars can become ... Timeless Machines.

... notes from The EDJE




TAGS: Micro Wave Ignition, fossil fuel, internal combustion engines, Wendelin Wiedeking, MWI Micro Wave Ignition AG, Armin Gallatz, Volker Gallatz, The EDJE

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Happy Easter - Where An Emoji Meme Gets A Rite Of Spring Makeover

Emojis come to be iconic when they establish themselves quickly and without much fanfare. This particular shape, with eyes and a smile, may have originally been created to represent chocolate ice cream, but was doomed from the start for many obvious reasons. Not the least of which is found in the coarseness of Social Media communications posturing. This arena has always been the Wild West. Image Credit: Emojipedia via Business Insider (2015)

Happy Easter - Where An Emoji Meme Gets A Rite-Of-Spring Makeover

YES! It was a peg wall full of hang tag packaging Pile Of Poo 3-D emojis marked as FILLABLE EGGS in an assortment of Easter Egg colors (thank the stars none were brown).

Banner labeling marked as "Fillable Eggs" just under a pair of bunny ears to the left side of the label. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

Seasons and celebrations come and go throughout our lives. The ebb and flow of our family and social experiences allow us to have a life filled with the excitement of anticipation.

On a recent trip to a local 99 Cents Only Stores, the seasonal aisles, which were previously filled with the red and green colors of the Christmas season, sported the rich red of Valentines Day cards and decorations as well the beginnings of the muted pinks, blues, purples, greens and yellows of Easter.

Once confronted with these displays one is drawn to the typical fare such as cards, centerpieces, and candy gift enclosures of the season ... like eggs, fillable eggs.

Typical plastic eggs folks use to hide candy and gifts in during Easter. Image Credit: Busy Body Kids

Being early into the Easter season, heck, Fat Tuesday hasn't even taken place, the selection was not as robust as one might anticipate.

One hang tag packaging section was quite attention getting, in that, it featured something that was, at once, current in shape, but just a bit odd. This is not an everyday egg!

Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

Lest one think this might be inappropriate messaging for outside of the common Social Media platforms where we all may be exposed to this kind of light-hearted coarseness, consider that Apple Corporation has recently been airing a commercial in heavy rotation using a song by SOFI TUKKER titled Best Friend (click link) that features, momentarily, this same Pile Of Poo emoji.

Apple's Pile Of Poo emoji as it appears in Apple's commercial introducing the new iPhone X to the world. Image Credit: Apple Corporation via YouTube (2017)

One can almost imagine the discussions in the product planning boardrooms ... in China. Can anyone sense the disconnect here?

A glasses festooned face with a tooth style grin. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

Then now, after the decision had been made to develop a product to be sold during the Easter celebration season in the West, the order goes down to the modeling department to create a mold that would be the right size, to be split in half, so that a parent, grandparent, friend would be able to insert an inclusion, a candy or other small object, for gifting purposes.

What goes on in the mind of a person with the engineering degree/training and crafts background to create such a thing so it would become ... a THING?


A laughing expression with drool coming out of one side. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

Meeting after meeting, where the tests prove that this is now a product, until the next step where the other decisions have been made on differentiation, such as color(s), screened graphic faces, packaging considerations are applied.


A surprise "Oh!" expression. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

Small groups of graphic designers come up with an assortment of face configurations. Each by each are approved and moved forward into the production process.

Faces include a surprise "Oh!" expression, a laughing expression with drool coming out of one side, a glasses festooned face with a tooth style grin similar to a Bugs Bunny (apologies to Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Mel Blanc) graphic, each coming to being approved and moved forward.


A squinty eyed, raspberry tongue expression. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

Some of these screened faces are quite sophisticated requiring more than just one pass due to color and other considerations. Each face being applied, some with color first then the final pass of black.


A sad, "Woe is me!" style expression. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

Each face having to go through a final inspection to make sure the registration of the application met minimum standards of graphic representation. Does the face impart the emotion it was originally designed to achieve?

A happy smile-faced wink expression. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

Through all of the process of preparing the product for sale and ... profit. The culture continues to shape the environment socially and politically.

Here in America, we have been confronted just this past week with an account of communication and expression found in our political discourse that boiled down to just one word ... s***hole. This word, similar in meaning to fecal-cavity, was picked up and used during the course of one full day of broadcasting by a cable news service about 195 times.

The term was used to describe countries that clearly operated politically and culturally with a complete lack of standards in cleanliness, building codes and aspiration to become operating at a higher level of standard through individual, family, and political governance conviction.

A bookworm-style pile of poo in shock expression. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

This may be a clue how this product, which was designed, developed, and finally produced for sale to a needy public, ended up at a close-out lots merchandising king, the 99 Cent Only retail store chain.


A Mmmmm, yum, yum expression with tongue. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

All Symblogogy can surmise, with the production and sale of this rather odd display, once we bring these Pile Of Poo emoji memes home, fill them with treats to celebrate Easter, when given out and used as intended - does this act make us participants in a cultural rite-of-spring ... Turd-World Country?

Jus' askin'!



TAGS: Pile Of Poo, Emoji, Easter Egg, Easter, Egg, Rite-Of-Spring, SOFI TUKKER, Apple, iPhone X, Emojipedia, China, Shithole, 99 Cents Only Stores, Symblogogy