Seb on engineering

Engineer as celebrity in India?

I loved the headline in the first newspaper clipping below the article: "Engineer hits out at 'embarrassing' India". I could imagine subcontinental sportswriters deferring to the clearly superior analytical capabilities of their country's engineers, nodding sagely as they reported the wise musings of a randomly selected Quality Engineer from Mahindra and Mahindra, in the same way that our media slavishly report the utterances of a newsreader...

Alas, a quick Google search tempered those imaginings: it turns out that Farokh Engineer was an Indian wicket-keeper during the 1960s and 70s.

Who is still entitled to his opinion.

And his great name.

G'day (for) sport

Emirates Team New Zealand take to the skies... or something

From the relative safety of landlocked Heidelberg in Germany, I've been keeping tabs on this year's Americas Cup sailing race. With a whole pile of relatives in New Zealand I was of course rooting for Team Emirates New Zealand, who just came up short after leading so convincingly and for so long. Ultimately the rapid development of both the boat and the sailing team of Oracle Team USA led to the kiwis being overhauled and the Auyld Mug being retained by the Americans.

But whoever won, just look at those boats! They're incredible, from their hydro- and aerodynamics via the hull and structures all the way through to each pump and winch... these are incredible floating and flying feats of engineering.

So for all the talk of your Ellisons, Ainslies and Spithills, let's give a big engineering shout out to the design and development teams of Emirates Team New Zealand and Oracle Team USA. Kudos!

Now then, back to work...