International Nikola Tesla Day

Nikola Tesla (Serbian Cyrillic: Никола Тесла; 10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian American[2][3][4] inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC)electricity supply system.

Tesla gained experience in telephony and electrical engineering before immigrating to the United States in 1884 to work for Thomas Edison in New York City. He soon struck out on his own with financial backers, setting up laboratories and companies to develop a range of electrical devices. His patented AC induction motor and transformer were licensed by George Westinghouse, who also hired Tesla for a short time as a consultant. His work in the formative years of electric power development was also involved in the corporate struggle between making alternating current or direct current the power transmission standard, referred to as the war of currents. Tesla went on to pursue his ideas of wireless lighting and electricity distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs and made early (1893) pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. He tried to put these ideas to practical use in his ill-fated attempt at intercontinental wireless transmission; his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project. In his lab he also conducted a range of experiments with mechanical oscillator/generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging. He even built a wireless controlled boat which may have been the first such device ever exhibited.

Tesla was renowned for his achievements and showmanship, eventually earning him a reputation in popular culture as an archetypal "mad scientist." His patents earned him a considerable amount of money, much of which was used to finance his own projects with varying degrees of success. He lived most of his life in a series of New York hotels, through his retirement. He died on 7 January 1943.

Tesla's work fell into relative obscurity after his death, but in 1960 the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the SI unit of magnetic field strength the tesla in his honour.Tesla has experienced a resurgence in interest in popular culture since the 1990s.

Links:  8 Things You Didn't Know About Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla Fell In Love With A Pigeon--And Six More Freaky Facts About the Iconic Inventor

Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived

The future?

The best thing about this possible future? That we'd have photovoltaic cells all over our homes, commercial buildings and even our cars so we'd create our own, clean electricity and hopefully either shrink tremendously or do away with commerical power plants and the mining and burning of coal, among other things. The worst thing about it? We'll have an attention span of the tsetse fly.

Missouri ranked one of the least energy-efficient states

This is discouraging. Missouri is ranked, as it says above, one of the least energy-efficient states, according to American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. We ranked number 44 out of 50. You can't get much lower than that now, can you? Doesn't being "conservative" translate to conserving energy as well as being for "small government"? Doesn't that make sense? We need to work on this. More bad news, too. Next-door neighbor Kansas was 48th. Geez, people. Another thing we need to work on. Links: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/23/top-energy-efficient-states_n_1025831.html#s425979&title=44__Missouri; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/23/top-energy-efficient-states_n_1025831.html#s424951&title=1_Massachusetts

Germany leads the way in intelligence and good, wise decisions

First it is the way they set up their employment laws and now this:

Germany set to abandon nuclear power for good

By JUERGEN BAETZ, Associated Press

BERLIN – Germany is determined to show the world how abandoning nuclear energy can be done.

The world's fourth-largest economy stands alone among leading industrialized nations in its decision to stop using nuclear energy because of its inherent risks. It is betting billions on expanding the use of renewable energy to meet power demands instead.

The transition was supposed to happen slowly over the next 25 years, but is now being accelerated in the wake of Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant disaster, which Chancellor Angela Merkel has called a "catastrophe of apocalyptic dimensions."

Berlin's decision to take seven of its 17 reactors offline for three months for new safety checks has provided a glimpse into how Germany might wean itself from getting nearly a quarter of its power from atomic energy to none.

And experts say Germany's phase-out provides a good map that countries such as the United States, which use a similar amount of nuclear power, could follow. The German model would not work, however, in countries like France, which relies on nuclear energy for more than 70 percent of its power and has no intention of shifting.


Then, before anyone thinks this can't be done or that we, the US, can't or shouldn't do this for one lazy, lame-brain reason or another, check out this quote:


"If we had the winds of Texas or the sun of California, the task here would be even easier," said Felix Matthes of Germany's renowned Institute for Applied Ecology.


And then there's this--this is their plan:


The Environment Ministry says in 10 years renewable energy will contribute 40 percent of the country's overall electricity production

And then there's the additonal benefits:

Last year, German investment in renewable energy topped euro26 billion ($37 billion) and secured 370,000 jobs, the government said.

At what point does America learn?

At what point does America get back to leading the world in intelligence and intelligent decisions and technology?

Now would be a good time.

Link to original post:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110323/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_germany_abandoning_nuclear_power;_ylt=AhX_iDMGyi3giJdFyiwYN.FH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTNubnUxb202BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwMzIzL2V1X2dlcm1hbnlfYWJhbmRvbmluZ19udWNsZWFyX3Bvd2VyBGNjb2RlA21wX2VjXzhfMTAEY3BvcwM5BHBvcwM5BHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDZ2VybWFueXNldHRv

On oil: In Saudi Arabia and here in the States

There seems to be a lot going on in the world of oil, news-wise, today.

First there's this:

WikiLeaks: Saudis running out of oil


By Brett Michael Dykes
 
The latest startling revelation to come via documents leaked to Julian Assange's muckraking website and published by The Guardian is should give pause to every suburban SUV-driver: U.S. officials think Saudi Arabia is overpromising on its capacity to supply oil to a fuel-thirsty world. That sets up a scenario, the documents show, whereby the Saudis could dramatically underdeliver on output by as soon as next year, sending fuel prices soaring.
 
The cables detail a meeting between a U.S. diplomat and Sadad al-Husseini, a geologist and former head of exploration for Saudi oil monopoly Aramco, in November 2007. Husseini told the American official that the Saudis are unlikely to keep to their target oil output of 12.5 million barrels per day output in order to keep prices stable. Husseini also indicated that Saudi producers are likely to hit "peak oil"--the point at which global output hit its high mark--as early as 2012. That means, in essence, that it will be all downhill from there for the enormous Saudi oil industry.

"According to al-Husseini, the crux of the issue is twofold. First, it is possible that Saudi reserves are not as bountiful as sometimes described, and the timeline for their production not as unrestrained as Aramco and energy optimists would like to portray," one of the cables reads. "While al-Husseini fundamentally contradicts the Aramco company line, he is no doomsday theorist. His pedigree, experience and outlook demand that his predictions be thoughtfully considered."

And while not that many people here in the States are concerned about or for the Saudis and their oil (except the oil companies, of course), what needs to be said is that for the US and the world, any decrease in what they can give in oil supply needs to be offset nearly perfectly by other energy sources so the world economies can hum safely, calmly and quietly while we transition to those other sources.

Next up and lastly today is this little nugget:

New drilling method opens vast oil fields in US


By Jonathan Fahey, AP Energy Writer


A new drilling technique is opening up vast fields of previously out-of-reach oil in the western United States, helping reverse a two-decade decline in domestic production of crude.

Companies are investing billions of dollars to get at oil deposits scattered across North Dakota, Colorado, Texas and California. By 2015, oil executives and analysts say, the new fields could yield as much as 2 million barrels of oil a day — more than the entire Gulf of Mexico produces now.

This new drilling is expected to raise U.S. production by at least 20 percent over the next five years. And within 10 years, it could help reduce oil imports by more than half, advancing a goal that has long eluded policymakers.

"That's a significant contribution to energy security," says Ed Morse, head of commodities research at Credit Suisse.

The thing is, we're going to have to bring the big, unwieldy US energy-gobbling machine in for a safe landing, transferring from Saudi oil and other fossil fuels, into a) possibly our own oil sources for a time and then, finally into b) renewable, clean energy sources like solar with solar panels and photovoltaic cells, as I've written here before.  Hopefully this drilling out West can be done with minimal damage to the environment.

It's going to take a lot of work, resources and intelligence to do it, that's for sure.
Links:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110209/ts_yblog_thelookout/wikileaks-saudis-running-out-of-oil
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110209/ap_on_re_us/us_shale_oil

Sent out earlier today

An open letter to all airline customers:

Last week, crude oil hit an all-time high of $146, and the skyrocketing cost of fuel is impacting our customers, our employees, the communities we serve, and the economy as a whole. United, and the majority of other major U.S. airlines, are asking our most loyal customers to join us in pushing for legislation to add more transparency and disclosure in the oil markets. The following is an open letter from the leaders of the U.S. airline industry.



Our country is facing a possible sharp economic downturn because of skyrocketing oil and fuel prices, but by pulling together, we can all do something to help now.

For airlines, ultra-expensive fuel means thousands of lost jobs and severe reductions in air service to both large and small communities. To the broader economy, oil prices mean slower activity and widespread economic pain. This pain can be alleviated, and that is why we are taking the extraordinary step of writing this joint letter to our customers. Since high oil prices are partly a response to normal market forces, the nation needs to focus on increased energy supplies and conservation. However, there is another side to this story because normal market forces are being dangerously amplified by poorly regulated market speculation.

Twenty years ago, 21 percent of oil contracts were purchased by speculators who trade oil on paper with no intention of ever taking delivery. Today, oil speculators purchase 66 percent of all oil futures contracts, and that reflects just the transactions that are known. Speculators buy up large amounts of oil and then sell it to each other again and again. A barrel of oil may trade 20-plus times before it is delivered and used; the price goes up with each trade and consumers pick up the final tab. Some market experts estimate that current prices reflect as much as $30 to $60 per barrel in unnecessary speculative costs.

Over seventy years ago, Congress established regulations to control excessive, largely unchecked market speculation and manipulation. However, over the past two decades, these regulatory limits have been weakened or removed. We believe that restoring and enforcing these limits, along with several other modest measures, will provide more disclosure, transparency and sound market oversight. Together, these reforms will help cool the over-heated oil market and permit the economy to prosper.

The nation needs to pull together to reform the oil markets and solve this growing problem.

We need your help. Get more information and contact Congress by visiting www.StopOilSpeculationNow.com.

Robert Fornaro Chairman, President and CEO AirTran Airways
Bill Ayer Chairman, President and CEO Alaska Airlines, Inc.
Gerard J. Arpey Chairman, President and CEO American Airlines, Inc.
Lawrence W. Kellner Chairman and CEO Continental Airlines, Inc.
Richard Anderson CEO Delta Air Lines, Inc.
Mark B. Dunkerley President and CEO Hawaiian Airlines, Inc.
Dave Barger CEO JetBlue Airways Corporation
Timothy E. Hoeksema Chairman, President and CEO Midwest Airlines
Douglas M. Steenland President and CEO Northwest Airlines, Inc.

Gary Kelly Chairman and CEO Southwest Airlines Co.
Glenn F. Tilton Chairman, President and CEO United Airlines, Inc.
Douglas Parker Chairman and CEO US Airways Group, Inc.
_________________________________________________

This, campers, follows what I wrote about a week ago, on the unlimited oil speculation that's now possible, because the American government took off regulation of oil speculation back in December, 2000, thanks to the brainiacs of Enron.

And have you seen the TV ad from, with and by T. Boone Pickens, the old, Texas oil multi-millionaire who--even he--says we should get off oil and into alternative energy sources like wind power, etc? That's pretty incredible. Think about it: for one, he's old and seemingly not likely to change. Second, he's from Texas, of all places and third and finally, he made all his money in the oil fields and even that old coot thinks it's time America got off our oil fix.

I tell you, there's hope for us yet.

(Special thanks to Tim Taylor for forwarding this letter from United Airlines to me!)
P.S. Since posting this, I've received the same email from 2 or 3 more friends. Let's hope people are contacting their Representatives!