Sunday, July 6, 2008

Solving Our Enery Crisis - Free Enterprise and Competition




Solving Our Energy Crisis - Free Enterprise and Competition

The United States is poised to solve its energy issues quickly if it shifts the drain on res0olves to the Middle East and redirects it into clean energy alternatives. We already have extra industrial capacity to begin mass producing new products quickly once promising alternatives are found. It should feel free to offer prizes as DARPA has already proven to be an effective strategy. As energy prices increase a premium will be put on fuel effeciency for various jobs. It should encourage completions in schools and communities to raise people's individual awareness. When viable alternatives are found the free market should determine their use and the inventor should retain their royalties. While government regulation is necessary for safety's sake, it is imperative that Governments across the country begin to rethink their traffic systems. Often it might be possible to begin to allow a lane system based on half lanes. Some roads might be open to half lane vehicles only. Consider a mini would be a half lane car, about the biggest. I’m sure Escorts and Corollas would soon be adapted. Depending on the size of the Road, more lane configurations are possible as is the possibility of separate highways for lighter traffic:

Light Walkway, non polluters only:

Pedestrian High speed walkways with benches that move. Along the Lake, Walkways move progressively faster as you move inside. (Electric Moped and lighter friendly) 15 MPH in the fast lane though, however that speed is guaranteed until you step off onto the 10 MPH path then to the 5 mph path to the sidewalk. (Relegated initially to commercial and tourist areas)

1 Half lane each way: Bike Path Expresso 20 MPH


Mini or lighter Skyway light polluters:

3 half lanes each way, on and off ramps, limited access 35 MPH speed limit in inner lane, 25 in second and 10 minimum in slow lane.

2 Half lanes each way. Middle lane 25, slow lane 5 min. Density every other street, excluding major streets which would remain unaltered.


Meanwhile, some traffic would require 2 and some time in the future, even 3 lanes.


Air Traffic:


Even a modest town should boast an ultralight Airport, and Chicago should be no exception installing 7 within the city inself and 27 More in collar counties, inculding Indiana.

Hydrogen and electic powered Lighter than Air (or Lighter than half) vehicles should be allowed to land in even more areas.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Solving Our Enery Crisis - Giving America a New Backbone

In order to secure our energy independence it is critical that America have a High Efficiency Electronic Backbone, this could be used to allow communities and individuals to sell electricity across our country preventing the need of communities to create greenhouse gases with inefficient power generation. The current Internet Backbone Map would be a good starting point. International connections at least to Canada would probably be needed. Wind power from the shores of Lake Eire could be sold to New York City. The Sun's power could to captured in Arizona and the wave action of the Pacific could be harnessed and used to power Los Angeles. Further, as we have already gone down the nuclear road, and are left with spent fuel rods it makes sense for us (U.S.) to develop the breeder reactor under a joint government - private utility company project in association with Canada and with the aide of French advisers. (the French already have developed and are using breeder reactor technology. The idea of this venture would be to develop one example smaller size breeder reactor in the southeast (which would still be the largest reactor in the country) and then build 2 larger reactors in the Midwest and western parts of the country, all on our new backbone, this would give the whole country access to dependable electricity which will be needed as we continue to see fuel prices rise. This power can be used to create hydrogen or to power electric and hybrid plug in vehicles. Finally nuc
lear batteries are already being developed which could be buried to power outlying communities at reasonable prices and quite safely, though the Department of Energy still need to develop rules for thier use as this is new technology. These two uses for spent fuel rods will help reduce, but not completely eliminate America's need for a Nuclear Storage Facillity.
Photos courtesy of http://www.cameco.com/uranium_101/fact.php, OSHA and Natl. Geo. Soc.

Friday, May 16, 2008

The Verdict on MSNBC

Regarding your "Obama should offer the VP job to Hillary" segment and panel: A couple of your guests seemed to have it right, but failed to articulate. Obama needs to think outside the box and not pick merely to win as has been done in the past, not pick to unify the party, as has been done in the past, but pick a VP that will help to unify the country. Chuck Hagel would be an excellent example of this, but I'm sure there are others.

I'm sure your smug little mealy mouthed republican apologist would try to twist my words also but as I white male, I have no difficulty understanding what Michelle Obama was saying, when she said she was truly proud of America for the first time in her adult life. As children we are taught to expect a lot, perhaps to an unrealistic degree for and from America. Even if America is the best of all the countries in the world, I would still expect that America should hold itself to an even higher, idealistic standard. One of my first memories was of JFK getting shot. I was horrified what might happen to America then. Later I was horrified again and again when Martin Luther King was gunned down and Robert Kennedy shot. I was proud of America when we landed on the moon in 1969 and was in England then and let them know it. But I was only 9 then... I was not proud of Nixon, the Vietnam war, our involvement in the Bay of Pigs, Iran-contra, Guatemala, and our other not so secret enterprises. It infur iates me that Americas taxpayers dollars are spent secretly and stolen by those who have taken oaths to serve. I was not proud of America was I saw a movie about the Tuskegee Syphillis Project. I was proud of the US Hockey Team and all of Americas Olympians, win or lose, if done honorably. Perhaps Mrs. Obama is not a sports fan ... I am not proud of our mishandling our our foreign policy, the Iraq war, destruction of our economy and am deeply saddened by our impudent attempts to capture or kill Osama bin Laden.


Yet, Barack Obama's Campaign has made me proud of America again and given me new hope for America. If we are a strong enough as a people to unite over our racial prejudices and elect Barack to the highest office in the land, we can certainly solve global warming and learn to power our economy in new ways. Perhaps we can even realize that health involves the whole of a population

Saturday, April 5, 2008

What if?


Hmmmm, if Senetor Obama does win the black vote 10% and the Latino vote 13% he only needs 41% of the White vote to be elected!

Monday, March 24, 2008

Economy

The financial "gurus" said $4.00 was too much to pay for Bear-Sterns, lol, because "the President of the U.S. signed off on this" Well you could have doubled your money because Chase upped the price to $10.00. They also said to hang onto your shares when the price was $60 and falling.

They also continue to claim the market may already have reached the bottom and gold, it's peak... Try listening to these "gurus" and imagine if the opposite of what they are saying is true (perhaps equally so). I am not saying that these "gurus" are just trying to prop the markets up for a bit to get their own money back out. Or trying to manipulate the prices of certain stocks so that they can use insider information. But, it would be in their financial best interest wouldn't it?

Oh by the way, the Prez also said that Bennie's doing a great job so you know he's out within the year...

From 1/23/08:


The US economic situation is bad and will get worse. Look to shift into Euros or Juan and then buy into new technologies, especially consumer sized wind turbines, alternative fuels, ultralight technologies, solar collectors, green batteries and electronics, and hi-tech materials, especially Bucky tubes. Reinvest to result in a local and worldwide diversified balance of sustainable businesses, this will be the new economy.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Why would a conservative live in Ca, CA?


How can a true conservative live in a state that allows Gay Marriage? Wouldn't that be like sitting in a church pew when the pastor says things that violate your views and values and then instead of getting up and relocating you stay for 20 years?

Thursday, March 6, 2008

3AM Phone Call - - A Better Angle...




It's three AM. Your children are sleeping. You're sleeping, but somewhere in the world a phone is ringing. Who will answer it?
In Japanese:
Yasuo Fukuda
Pause
Why good day, Mr. President, yes I've got you're email and we're looking over your diplomatic pouch right now.
Long pause
I think this is just the kind of partnership both of our peoples can agree on. I'll be sending out a press release shortly.
In English:
When your government is peaceful but proactive you can sleep easy at night and wake up in a better world tomorrow.
(Do not translate the message - that's will get people talking)

Saturday, February 23, 2008

An ultralight airship, our next "Auto"



An ultralight airship must weigh less than 254 pounds empty weight, except for floats and safety devices like a parachute. It also cannot exceed a maximum level flight speed of 55 knots, (which is unlikely to be a limiting factor in a hot air blimp). The stall speed limit of 24 knots should provide no problem as a lighter-than-air craft should be able to sustain flight at 0 knots.
The airship fuel source that provides propulsive power cannot exceed 5 U.S. gallons. If more than 5 gallons of fuel is carried then the fuel used to propel the vehicle in the horizontal direction should be separate from the fuel providing lift.
The ultralight airship may carry any amount of fuel to power the burner that creates lift. However? the empty fuel tanks must be included in the total empty vehicle weight of less than 254 pounds.


To be truely "Green" our craft will contain it's own hydrogen generator, which transforms Ethanol into Hydrogen and then releases it into the BalloonWing or converts it into Electricity to power the TurboFan, which provides horizontal and vertical forces for steering, direction and even emergency lift. Experimental craft will then be tested for more practical applications.

Friday, February 22, 2008

What It Takes to Push a Single Atom


February 22, 2008 NYTIMES
Scientists Measure What It Takes to Push a Single Atom
By KENNETH CHANG
I.B.M. scientists have measured the force needed to nudge one atom.
About one-130-millionth of an ounce of force pushes a cobalt atom across a smooth, flat piece of platinum.
Pushing the same atom along a copper surface is easier, just one-1,600-millionth of an ounce of force.
The scientists report these minuscule findings in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.
I.B.M. scientists have been pushing atoms around for some time, since Donald M. Eigler of the company’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., spelled “IBM” using 35 xenon atoms in 1989. Since then, researchers at the company have continued to explore how they might be able to construct structures and electronic components out of individual atoms.
Knowing the precise forces required to move atoms “helps us to understand what is possible and what is not possible,” said Andreas J. Heinrich, a physicist at Almaden and an author of the new Science paper. “It’s a stepping stone for us, but it’s by no means the end goal.”
In the experiment, Dr. Heinrich and his collaborators at Almaden and the University of Regensburg in Germany used the sharp tip of an atomic force microscope to push a single atom. To measure the force, the tip was attached to a small tuning fork, the same kind that is found in a quartz wristwatch. In fact, in the first prototype, Franz J. Giessibl, a scientist at Regensburg who was a pioneer in the use of atomic force microscopes, bought an inexpensive watch and pulled out the quartz tuning fork for use in the experiment.
The tip vibrates 20,000 times a second until it comes into contact with an atom. As the tip pushes, the tuning fork bends, like a diving board, and the vibration frequency dips.
A single atom does not roll, and even a perfectly smooth surface is not perfectly smooth. Instead, the atom rests in small indentations in the lattice, in effect like an egg in an egg carton. The resistance — what becomes friction when multiplied by millions and billions of atoms — comes from the energy needed to rearrange the bonds between the cobalt atom and surface.
When the tip pushes hard enough, the atom hops, almost instantaneously to the next indentation. “It’s not smooth,” said Markus Ternes, another Almaden scientist working on the research. “It’s faster than we can detect.”
From the changes in the frequency of the tuning fork vibrations, the scientists calculated the force that the tip applied to the cobalt atom.
Copper is less sticky than platinum, because of differences between the underlying bonds, and hence allowed the greater ease is pushing the cobalt atom along.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

UHMMMM...


You can dress up a lump of coal with a new ribbon, but it's still a crappy present.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

America's Makeover.

Hillary says that she will remake American. I believe America is using us to realize and become its true self. The same self that bore us through the nation's birth, the wars we've fought, the depression of the 30's the recessions of the 80's. America's true self is also felt in the good times, our victories both on the field of battle and on the field of honor, Fourth of July Parades, cookouts in the park, and quiet fishing trips that are over before breakfast. Perhaps most of all, Americas true self can be seen in our service to the world's poor and downtrodden. To help those without hope and without a voice up. America is in our bombs, which are mightly, and in our ability to conduct tough trade agreements, but it is keener our ability to rebuild roads and hospitals and nieghborhoods. America is seen most clearly in a child's mind when they realize that somewhere deep down they are Free too.