I happened across a link to a fascinating blog that started publishing in March titled things worse than nuclear power. The bloggers behind the site provide a hint about their identity with a cryptic subtitle “the take from a couple of MIT engineers”.
The profile linked to the site provides more details indicating that the blogging duo includes a young woman and a young man, both with newly minted advanced degrees in engineering from MIT. Between them, Caroline and Jacob have a wide range of interests that include music, marketing, economics, and Florida Gator football.
Aside: Caroline’s profile photo does nothing to reinforce nuclear or engineering stereotypes. End aside.
Andrea Jennetta might put the writers behind this blog into a slightly different category of engineers than the ones that made her lead off a recent op-ed with the following sentence:
I hate engineers and scientists.
Unlike the stereotypical, rather inept communicators that that Andrea was railing against, Caroline and Jacob can communicate with both clearly written text and nicely selected graphics and photos. Please take the time to check out their site at things worse than nuclear power.
Make sure that you read the most recent post and take a good look at the cute baby bats whose parents were lucky enough to have avoided having their lungs exploded by a close encounter with spinning wind turbine blades.
Good find, Rod.
On the bolgger profile, Caroline says she “bleeds crimson and cream”, which puzzled me greatly. That turns out to mean that she’s a big fan of the University of Oklahoma football team. At first glance I thought she meant something else….
Since a public blog goes worldwide, this shows the danger in using a local idiom that only has meaning for a small fraction of the world’s blog surfers. And you’re right, Rod; her picture does go against stereotypes.
Ron,
What an honor that you found our blog and enjoyed our posts. I remember meeting you at an ANS conference a few years ago and have always looked up to your blog as the premiere example for communication on nuclear energy. Thank you for the post. You might enjoy the most recent post which basically says there is no Kyoto agreement without nuclear power- even with 10% conservation, Japan has almost 30% more CO2 and other emissions in the last year since beginning the nuclear shutdown which will complete in early May.
And as for the aside- maybe it would help readership if I switch the profile pic periodically with my different modeling shots? 😉 just kidding.
@Andrew- I thought bleeding school colors is a common idiom, but maybe it is a southern thing! Either way, good point and I just took it out. Even the half-joke title of the blog proves an interesting translation (for instance on some finnish sites that have been recently linking to the blog) but it does make people on both sides of the conversation do a double take.
Best regards,
Caroline