From: azran@leland.Stanford.EDU (Azran Osman Rani)
Subject: Re: Malaysian transportation systems
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 92 07:31:24 GMT

In article <1992Apr15.053729.24323@leland.Stanford.EDU> rezal@leland.Stanford.EDU (Rezal Adzly Abdul Rahman) writes:

[Organic Chem. lesson deleted]

>
>What we should implement is compulsory catalytic converters on all cars sold
>after '92 and annual smog emmission checks prior to reregistration at the
>JPJ.

Excellent idea. 

>
>By public transportation, this should not mean more maniacal mini buses.
>A clean source of energy should be implemented. Monorail uses electricity
>and the state of the art monorails even use less energy due to superconducting
>magnets and wires. Buses in Germany run on batteries and ethanol.
>A student run project in Stanford is investigating a Hybrid vehicle which will
>have a 30-60hp engine connected to a generator. Drive wheels are powered by
>two motors and when the engine comes to a stop, the kinetic energy is absorbed
>into a kinetic flywheel which store the energy. While all this is happening,
>the motor engine is recharging the batteries.


A monorail system would be a great idea for KL. Any Rapid Transit 
transportation system is very much needed if we want to prevent KL
from being another traffic nightmare like Bangkok. However, these are
really big projects and require a lot of long term planning, an ability
that current administrators could benefit from aquiring. There is
a lot of "inertia" that needs to be overcome to bring changes of this
magnitude to Malaysia and it comes from being aware of the importance
and the benefits in the long run. For instance, I found it difficult
to persuade many people to switch to compact fluorescent bulbs from the
regular incandescent ones. These cost more but consumes much less energy
and last longer. The longer term benefits are relatively huge but
people were reluctant to "invest" in the initial sum. 
Trying to create a sense of responsibility for the environment in your
average Joe is very difficult, especially, people from the lower
income strata. Usually economic benefit comes before environmental
responsibility and problems arise when these clash. A collective effort
is needed. Maybe it is not enough to be aware yourself, but we need
to instill awareness in others as well. Keep the ball rolling.


>btw zam, MIT applied for the same project but got rejected by FORD.
>(sorry guys, just felt like being childish here :))
>>
>>
>>"All idealism is falsehood in the face of necessity"
>>					- Nietzsche "Ecce Homo"
>
>I shall start studying Nietzsche in a few weeks so no wily Nietzsche quotes
>here for now.

Read about his Master/Slave morality theory and see if you can
connect it with certain things the government has done - like banning
long-haired performers on TV.

>>
>>
>>Azran "Hey, Molly's in Sports Illustrated!" Osman-Rani
>
>Hoi! Wake up! Molly's probably being courted by some Stanford Stud. 

I rest my case. Thank You.  :)

>>:)
>>
>>
>>P/S - Am I the only one who gets annoyed when someone copies/references
>>another person's *long* article and then only adds a couple of sentences
>>of comment at the end. Don't they know how to delete unessential paragraphs
>>or even pages?
>
>No, you're not the only one.
>
>-Rezal 
>
>



Does anyone else get this message when they initiate a post:

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Azran "Good Golly Miss Molly" Osman-Rani