Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Long list for fixing climate change.

CNN quoted the president-elect:

“We have the opportunity now to create jobs all across this country, to re-power America, to redesign how we use energy, to think about how we are increasing efficiency, to make our economy stronger, make us more safe, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and make us competitive for decades to come, even as we are saving the planet,” Obama said.

Reordering those priorities hierarchically:

1. saving the planet

  2. to redesign how we use energy, 

    3. to re-power America, 

  4. to think about how we are increasing efficiency, 

5. create jobs all across this country, 

6. to make our economy stronger, 

  7. make us competitive for decades to come 

8. make us more safe, 

  9. reduce our dependence on foreign oil 


recognizing global threat of disruptive climate change from green house gas emissions

  1. fix causes and effects of global warming

  - prevent worsening

    2. redesign how modern economies use energy

       - shift to carbon neutral energy use

         3a. Electricity generation for public utility grid

             - build new distribution grid

             - replace polluting coal generation plants

             - reduce then eliminate burning of fossil fuels in power generation

             - capture and store carbon dioxide

    5a. Create jobs in energy sector

3b. Industrial uses of energy

    5b. Create jobs transforming industries

             - reduce then eliminate industrial burning of fossil fuels

                 9a. reduce imports of foreign oil for industry

3c. Transport

             5c. Create jobs Changing to carbon-neutral transport systems

                 - transition to new cars

                 - expand mass transit

    - change consumer behavior in transport

             - reduce then eliminate 

                 9b. reduce then eliminate burning of fossil fuels in transport

         3d. change consumer uses of energy

    - non-energy sources of greenhouse gases

      - reverse depletion of forests as carbon sink

      - reduce agricultural methane

    4. improve efficiency of existing and future energy use

      - other chemical emissions

        - CFC's, etc.

  - mitigate immediate effects

  - adapt to near-term changes until preventive strategies take hold

  - change regulatory frameworks to deal with climate change

6. Strengthen economy

  - by removing immediate and long-range threat in 1. 

  - by taking the opportunity of the redesign  in 2. to fix other weaknesses in the economy

  7. Make economy competitive by

     - avoiding and dealing with problems like 1.

     - eliminating carbon risk industries before they become uncompetitive in a changing regulatory framework

     - take an early lead in emerging industries

8. Make nations more safe

  - by preventing the disruptions of climate change through 1.

     - avoiding the creation of environmental refugees  

     - avoiding conflicts over disrupted resources 

  - eliminating the threats to oil supply

      9a. reducing the dependence of countries on imported oil 

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

ambition: write 5 books before 2021

One reason I am going for a PhD is I want to learn to write books. My inspiration is my mother, who once she got her kids out of the house has been publishing 10 books a decade. So now I am targeting to produce 5 books a decade, and to do the first 5 before I turn 60.

I already have ideas for serveral titles: 
  1. one academic publication based on my thesis, 
  2. another a popular book on human language technology (Philippine publisher could be Anvil or Vibal) initially for a Philippine audience (see the posting on Linguistic Exploration). 
  3. another book might target language teachers in the Philippines, it could be a Kim and Sells type description of linguistic analysis tools applied to English, Filipino and Cebuano. It would try to be practical, but also attract them to contribute resources. Another theme would be the language situation in the Philippines, and the need for language development in multiple languages
  4. I would like to write a book in Filipino, probably targeting Filipino teachers (working teachers, and pre-service training) and students. One stylistic effort would be to incorporate some vocabulary that is derived from less common Proto Central Philippine words, and newly loaned Proto-Bisayan words. I would need a co-author or heavily involved editor.
  5. an HPSG description of Cebuano, with emphasis on innovations in lexical semantics. It should cover most of the constructions in Wolff's textbooks.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

thesis timeline

now - review literature, write review notes or articles
- exercise tools: NLTK, LKB, FrameNet
- dialog with Tim and Steven on 2-3 mini-proposals
- work with Larmie on Cebuano dictionary
- work with SIL on collaboration
- do something with CSLI Verb Semantics Ontology
- improve programming skills: Java, Python, XML, XSLT, Javascript, CSS

upon receiving offer
- put books in order
- arrange visa
- arrange local phase out, consider setting date or possible deferment to Feb 2010
- correspond with other PhD students
- start zeroing in on potential early work and narrow range of topic
- systematically review literature, write it up generically

Month 1
- settle into Linguistic Exploration
- make short term plan with Tim based on this
- read agreed reading list, do agreed tasks
- audit selected coursework for sem 1
Month 3
- submit first draft of confirmation proposal, have an initial draft of proposal-specific lit review
Month 5
- second draft of confirmation proposal
- audit selected coursework sem 2
Month 7
- confirmation
- set out quarterly milestones until Progress Report
- present work-in-progress at conference every quarter
Month 12
- audit selected coursework sem 3
Month 18
- complete progress report, see if it can be submitted early
- have 2/3 of 80,000 word thesis in rough draft: about 54,000 words or 140 pages.
- intensive write up for 3 months, 1000 words a day at least 4 days a week
- start looking for post-docs
- audit selected coursework sem 4
Month 21
- submit first draft of thesis for examination
- schedule examination
- make formal presentation to department
- refine search for post-docs
Month 24
- examination
- graduation
- look for book publisher
Month 26-30
- postdoc, possibly still at Melbourne
- consider moving to Taiwan, Stanford, DFKI
Month 36
- publish book from thesis
- maintain at least 4 papers a year

Monday, August 25, 2008

books to read

Java lang, JSP, ejb3, JUnit



On DevX:
Author: Leonard Richardson, Sam Ruby
ISBN: 0596529260
ISBN 13: 9780596529260
Published by: O'REILLY & ASSOCIATES
Date Published: Jun 2007
User level: Programmer - Int/Adv
Pages: 419

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Diet

0700:
  • papaya, 1 slice
  • banana, half-size
  • cottage cheese, heaping tablespoon
0930
  • orange-calamansi juice, one med-small glass
1020
  • rice, half cup
  • spinach, sauteed in olive oil with mushrooms
  • bangus, canned in oil
  • dark chocolate with hazel nuts, 7 grams
  • orange-calamansi juice, one med-small glass
1230 plan
  • pasta (spinach fettucine), 1 portion
  • tomato-mushroom sauce
  • grated parmesan cheese, 1 tsp
  • lettuce-tomato salad
dry-roasted peanuts, 10 shells