Alternative Energy Source Definition Problem

I think the current administration’s definition of an alternative energy source is getting oil from a different oil well.

Solution to Fossil Fuel Depletion Problem

I don’t know why no one has thought of this simple, five step solution to the looming fossil fuel depletion problem facing the world. It’s simple, sustainable and I’m going to share it with the entire world right here, right now … for free.

1. Gather up all plant and animal matter currently living on the earth and in the oceans.
2. Bury it all between 7,500 and 15,000 feet underground, preferably beneath an ocean.
3. Wait 300 to 400 million years.
4. Drill down to it and pump it all back out of the ground.
5. Repeat.

Follow these five simple steps and we will have a never-ending series of 150 year supplies of cheap, abundant fossil fuel.

Ad Astra Special Report – Space-Based Solar Power

Ad Astra ("to the stars"), the award winning magazine of the National Space Society (NSS), has recently published a special report covering space-based solar power (SBSP). This richly illustrated special report explains the technologies behind SBSP in an easy to understand way. Included is a fascinating conversation with Dr. Pete Glaser, now 84 and considered the father of the space-based solar power concept.

A large portion of the special report details the efforts of the Space-Based Solar Power Study Group who, in conjunction with the National Space Security Office (NSSO), published Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security – Phase 0 Architecture Feasibility Study in October of 2007.

This special report includes the following five articles which discuss the potential for space-based solar power, with looks at its history, its current strategic importance and ways forward to make it a reality.

• ENERGY FROM ORBIT – John C. Mankins
• AN ENERGY PIONEER LOOKS BACK – William Ledbetter
• STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE – Space-Based Solar Power Study Group
• A NEW COALITION – Arthur Smith
• ON THE MOON – Al Globus

Related Links

• National Space Society (NSS)
• adAstra – the magazine of the NSS
• Additional information on Space-Based Solar Power from the NSS
• National Space Security Office (NSSO)
• Space-Based Solar Power Study Group
• Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security
  Phase 0 Architecture Feasibility Study
• Citizens for Space Based Solar Power

Dr. Randy Pausch – Husband, Father, Professor … and One Brave Guy

Randy Pausch, 47, is a Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In September 2006, he was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer. He has pursued very aggressive treatment but in August of 2007 he was told that the cancer had metastasized to his liver and spleen. The doctors gave him three to six months to live.

In September, Pausch said goodbye to his students and the Pittsburgh college with one last lecture called “How to Live Your Childhood Dreams”, on his life’s journey and the lessons he’s learned along the way. Now referred to as his “Last Lecture”, Pausch has attracted the attention of the world with his amazingly positive outlook in the face of a nearly certain death sentence. The only part of his ordeal that he will characterize as "unfair" is that his wife and three young children will have to go on without him.

Listen to Randy Pausch in the video below (and watch him do some one-handed pushups) and learn more about this courageous and inspirational man at the links below the video.

The “Last Lecture”, given at Carnegie Mellon University (76 minutes)

Randy Pausch’s Web Site at Carnegie Mellon University

Randy Pausch’s Update page

Randy Pausch – from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Quality I Want in Our Next President

The divisive political rhetoric of the current campaign season is destructive to our nation. Playing “corporate America” against “everyday working folks” or “rich Americans” against “those less fortunate” to gain votes and political power is manipulative and insulting.

I want the next President of the United States to be equally concerned about all American citizens at every socio-economic level.

Support Our Men and Women in Uniform

Here are some great resources to show our appreciation of what the brave men and women of the U.S. Armed Services do for us around the world, every day and night.

Let’s Say Thanks by Xerox – send a thank you card

Give2theTroops – donate or send much needed items to the troops

Soldier’s Angels – may no soldier go unloved

United Service Organizations (USO) – support for the troops

To Our Soldiers – post a message to our soldiers

New WordPress Home for MWW

The particularly observant of you might be wondering why all of my previous entries share a common posting date. After being stymied one final time attempting to publish a post on another weblog hosting service, I decided to make the move to WordPress.com.

The good news is that I really like all of the new functionality and the ease of using and changing themes. The bad news is that, since I was using FTP to publish to the other hosting service, I could not import my entries directly. Cut and paste was the best I could do. (Sorry that I have lost any comments you might have made previously.)

I hope you will come back often and leave comments whenever my thoughts move you in any particular direction.

A False Hero and A Real Hero

False Hero

A high profile professional football player with a contract potentially worth $130,000,000 and an 18 page indictment filled with allegations of animal cruelty so horrible it almost made me throw up.

Real Hero

A firefighter named Timothy S. Haskell, who died on September 11, 2001 trying to save total strangers in a huge burning building that was about to collapse. He was one of many who were off duty and reported anyway when they heard about the first plane crash.

Timmy was a Corrections Officer before he became a fireman. He and his trained Dalmatian, Blaze, volunteered many hours educating children on fire safety. His father and two brothers are also firefighters.

It would take all four of them more than 30 lifetimes of risking everything to earn $130,000,000.

Joe Venable Day in San Francisco

When just about every news story these days evokes one negative feeling or another, this one just made me happy. Here’s my retelling:

Joe Venable is 71 years old and has been the custodian at an elementary school in Durham, North Carolina for many years. He has always had a quick smile and a kind word for students and teachers alike while going about his daily duties. All his life, Joe has dreamed about seeing the Golden Gate Bridge with his own eyes. He shared that dream earlier this year while being interviewed for an article in the school newspaper.

One of the 5th grade classes at Joe’s school decided his dream should come true. They held fund raisers and probably kicked in out of their own pockets, too, because they raised $2000 to send Joe and his wife to San Francisco so he could fulfill his lifelong dream. Once word of the gift got out, another $3500 in unsolicited donations poured in from the surrounding community.

The news of Joe’s trip reached San Francisco before he did and the city received him with open arms. A bridge supervisor personally escorted Joe to the top of the bridge, where he could see the whole city stretching out before him. When he came back down, he said, “You could see over the whole city and it looked just like a map. I’ll never forget it. Never forget it.”

The mayor even proclaimed July 13, 2007 to be Joe Venable Day in San Francisco.

I’ve had the good fortune to see the Golden Gate Bridge many times and it is always a breathtaking sight. Today I saw it from a fresh new perspective … through Joe Venable’s eyes.

The Ecology of Dune

Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. This is as true of humans in the finite space of a planetary ecosystem as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive.-Pardot Kynes, First Planetary Ecologist of Arrakis