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

What's wrong with our banking system.... and nation

One of the big things that's wrong with our country--the bankers, running it.

Check this out:

JPMorgan Executive May Escape Penalty

This is a real beauty.

On top of all else JP Morgan has done for themselves but against the American people and against the country, here's one of their executives who a) apparently lied to a court, under oath then, b) said she did (lied to the court) so that c) "the nation's top energy regulator is poised to extract a record settlement from JPMorgan Chase over accusations...it manipulated power markets" but, voila!, d) this JP Morgan Chase executive is going to apparently get off, scott-free from any charges.

JPM Chase will no doubt pay a huge fine, a penalty, then disavow any guilt and again, the executive will walk.

Isn't that just a nice, neat little package?

I'm sure the same would happen for you or I, even though we're middle- or lower-class and have no such millions or billions of dollars behind us.

Right?

Quote of the day

“What is a man born for, but to be a Reformer, a re-maker of what man has made; a renouncer of lies; a restorer of truth and good; imitating that great nature herself, yielding us every morning a new day, and with every pulsation a new life?” --Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist and poet (1803-1882)

Tired of high gas prices?

Want to do something about it? Write your Senators and Representative in the House of Representatives and tell them you want and we need oil and energy speculation curbed as it used to be here in America, before the rules were changed, back in 2000.

A no-bid contract??!!

Kansas City, Missouri and yet another no-bid contract?? Are you freaking kidding me? There's an article in this morning's Star, telling of yet another of these things: Energy auditor angry over no-bid Green Impact Zone contract Why is this even legal let alone allowed? How much hell do taxpayers have to raise until this kind of ridiculous, irresponsible, unfair, biased practice is no longer allowed? Why is this even still legal, on this, local level or on national, public purchasing? Why does the Federal Government get a pass on it? The Pentagon and Department of Defense do this with abandon, from what I read. I ask again, why is this allowed? Why is this legal? It's long past due that this should be done away with. If anything needs an initiative so we get it on local, state and national ballots for election, it's this. Link to original article: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/12/12/3338975/dispute-over-weatherization-grant.html

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

On Solyndra and that 535 million dollars we "loaned" them

About those two executives of the solar panel company, Solyndra, and the $535 million we loaned them. Remember they were taken before Congress and asked questions about the money and all they--we--got in answers to the questions were "I'll take the fifth"? Yeah, well, I have to say, I hope this is being pursued to see if those two--or anyone, really--did anything remotely illegal with and/or about that half-a-billion dollars they got. I hope this is being pursued. I see where the Department of Energy official who set this debacle up is leaving the agency. I hope our government isn't just walking away from this episode without seeing if anything illegal was done. I'd like to look into getting some--most?--of that money back. I hope SOMEBODY is looking into this. Link: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2011/10/energy-department-official-involved-solyndra-controversy-resigns/43431/

The latest from Japan's reactor

Out today:

Japan sets new radiation safety level for seafood

And I would hope they would, yes, but it wasn't necessary until now, when water from the Fukushima nuclear reactor started pouring out.

Details: 

By YURI KAGEYAMA and RYAN NAKASHIMA, Associated Press

TOKYO – The government set its first radiation safety standards for fish Tuesday after Japan's tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant reported radioactive contamination in nearby seawater measuring at several million times the legal limit.

The plant operator insisted that the radiation will rapidly disperse and that it poses no immediate danger... 

Naturally.

...but an expert said exposure to the highly concentrated levels near the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant could cause immediate injury and that the leaks could result in residual contamination of the sea in the area. 

But here's the real catch, here's what we need to know and watch:

Experts agree that radiation dissipates quickly in the vast Pacific, but direct exposure to the most contaminated water measured would lead to "immediate injury," said Yoichi Enokida, a professor of materials science at Nagoya University's graduate school of engineering.

He added that seawater may be diluting the iodine, which decays quickly, but the leak also contains long-lasting cesium-137, which can build up in fish over time. Both can build up in fish, though iodine's short half-life means it does not stay there for very long. The long-term effects of cesium, however, will need to be studied, he said.

I think what needs to happen now, and I hope it happens both for scientists learning and education and our own safety, I would hope this radioactive water will be followed somehow, if it's possible, off the coast of Japan, to see if the radioactivity stays there or just how far it does, in fact, travel.

Unfortunate but fascinating stuff.

Link:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110405/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake

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

Whither the economy?

It's always the question: "Where are we going next?" in this economy? Where will it take us. Today, there are two stories out and one gives hope, the other, a bit of caution. First, the hope: Buffett, Ballmer predict bright economic future; Buffett says no double-dip, Microsoft's Ballmer enthusiastic about future at Montana summit BUTTE, Mont. (AP) -- Some of the biggest names in business said Monday that they see a bright future for the economy, with famed investor Warren Buffett declaring the country and world will not fall back into the grips of the recession. "I am a huge bull on this country. We are not going to have a double-dip recession at all," said Buffett, chairman of Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. "I see our businesses coming back across the board." "This country works," Buffett said during a question-and-answer session via video at the Montana Economic Development Summit. "The best is yet to come." So that's all good and great to hear. Let's hope he's right. Now for the caution: Oil creeps higher to near $77 as equities rise; Oil creeps up to near $77 a barrel in Europe as global stock markets bolster optimism It's the very thought or feeling that things may, indeed, be improving, economically, that pushes the energy futures stocks higher, pushing the price per barrel of oil higher. And that higher price per barrel for oil could defuse any economic improvement made. Here's hoping for the best. Links to original stories: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Buffett-Ballmer-predict-apf-1647385255.html?x=0; http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Oil-creeps-higher-to-near-77-apf-2783288406.html?x=0

We need to get a handle on energy speculation

I know the White House is busy, what with wars in two countries and health care reform and all that, but they'd better also be working on putting back regulation of energy speculation and speculators, too. If they don't, any economic recovery could get squelched quickly and simply, by rising prices that benefit a small group of those speculators.

There is a report out now, showing that gas is rising in price, due to the weak dollar and Hurricane Ida, in the Gulf of Mexico. (Good news there, at least--Ida was downgraded).

As long as oil speculation is left unregulated, people and businesses are going to try to make money on the rise in price.

This is crazy. I've written about this before and it's important.

The world economy is in a very weak, bad state but oil prices have been running up lately, prompting this observation:

"'In the real world, there is very little evidence that the underlying market fundamentals, both in the overall economy and more particularly in the oil market, are improving fast enough to justify these price levels,' said analysts at KBC Market Services in Britain."

And yet the price goes up because, again, there are people wanting to bid it up, to make money and these markets have been unregulated since 2000.

People and companies might buy up oil, counting on an increase in price, only to later sell it back on the market at the higher price, just for the gain. In the meantime, the airlines and energy companies and, ultimately, you and I pay higher prices just for their greed.

It's no way to run an energy market.

It's bad for individuals, rich and poor, around the world, but it's even bad for businesses.

This needs to get fixed, one day soon. We need the energy markets overseen, as they used to be, and as soon as possible.

If we don't, our economies the world over could come crashing back down--or even just be held back in any recovery--just because a small group of people want to benefit.

Here's hoping.

Link to story: http://www.kansascity.com/382/story/1557497.html

Ironies and coincidences

I've always thought that the irony of us wanting cooler summers, with air conditioners, bringing about global warming and climate change was one heck of an irony.

Here we all want to be cool in our homes and as we run our errands in our cars and what happens? It heats up the planet, ultimately, so the longer we try to keep it cooler, the worse it gets.

And that, then, brings me to a wonderful coincidence we can use to solve the pollution/global warming/climate change problems.

To wit, as we get warmer and warmer (it's been in the low 100's in Oklahoma and Texas this week, the more sense it makes to use all that sun and heat on photovoltaic cells to create our electricity.

It just makes sense.

And when you figure in the true costs of fossil fuels, particularly coal (the digging of it, the transportation, the burning and its requisite pollution and carbon dioxide release, at minimum), compared to the cost of these photovoltaic cells, it brings the cost of these cells down hugely.

Think of it--we would no longer need power plants, ladies and gentlemen. The truth is, you could and would generate your energy yourself, on your home. We would all generate our own power.

Think about it. Truly think about it.

NO MORE ELECTRIC BILLS.

It truly could be possible within our own lifetime--and I'm over 50!

A downside? The power companies go out of business.

Somehow, I think I can live with that.

It would free us from coal mining--a foul, dirty, hazardous and frequently deadly job. It could help free us from using Middle Eastern oil, the center of the world's oldest, longest and most heated and insane war.

With that, we should, truly be able to cut our defense budget dramatically (which we should do anyway, but that was--and will be again--another column).

It just makes sense and it's within our grasp.

We need to push our government harder to make it happen and as soon as possible.

Insanity, defined

There is an article out right now on the internet, at alternet.org, asking the question of whether or not it makes sense for California to switch to ethanol for fuel, instead of using so much oil.

Far from it.

Back in the 70's, when I was in college, my professor pointed out that it was insane--and he's right, think about it--to tie a country's food supply (corn, whatever) as an energy source.

Once you do, guess what happens?

Two things, really: 1) the price of that food crop goes up, at minimum, and people don't want that--hell, can't afford it and 2) if/when there is ever a drought--and there invariably are droughts, if we wait long enough, we know that--people starve.

Not go hungry.

People starve. As in no food.

Ethanol is insane.

Using corn to create fuel for cars is in no way a good, intelligent, useful answer.

Ironically, too, ethanol also doesn't solve our problems because you're still burning things--in this case corn and/or corn stalks--to create the energy so it's both polluting and adding to possible climate change. It also doesn't solve anything because the scientists have shown that ethanol doesn't put out as much energy as it takes to create it. Finally, if those 2 points aren't enough, if you haven't seen or read anything online, on TV or in a newspaper or magazine lately, we are running out of water, folks. Ethanol adds to that use of and reduction in water supplies.

Let me say one more time--the only thing that makes sense as a replacement for oil is solar power through photovoltaic cells.

It solves all the problems and answers all the questions.

It's nearly infinitely renewable (until the sun disappears), it's almost completely clean in that it doesn't pollute and doesn't emit carbon dioxide so it doesn't contribute to either pollution or climate change, we don't get it from the Middle East so it doesn't contribute to the insanity that is the Middle East war, lo these thousands of years and, finally, it stops the transfer of wealth from here--the US and the West--to that backwards, ignorant, mostly fundamentalist region of the world.

Ethanol is decidedly not the answer.

Solar power isn't perfect but it comes darned close.

Link to story:
http://www.alternet.org/environment/137578/will_california_say_no_to_ethanol/?cID=1195532#c1195532

Since we're in a buying mode...

Now that you and I--the American taxpayers--own the mortgage companies (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) and the largest insurance broker in the nation, I thought it only right that we put the next items on our shopping lists that we want.

For me, I only want two things.

There are two things that this country needs and needs badly.

The first thing we need is to buy the health care system nationwide.

No kidding.

Virtually the rest of the free world has done this--and it works. Why not the United States? Let's buy it and then take the profit out of the industry. Again, the rest of the world has done it--and it works--why shouldn't we? Then we could all have the affordable health care and better health we should all have, as a right as living, breathing human beings.

Why should we let the hospitals, doctors, pharmaceuticals, insurance companies and all other leeches of the American health care system do their best to get rich off the rest of us, all at our ridiculously high expense?

The answer is: we shouldn't.

And the other thing I want?

It wouldn't even cost.

Let's nationalize the energy industry.

We can get rid of those leeches, too.

Hey!

It's a new day. It's the weekend. Yay! (trying not to be shallow).

And I missed a post. Yesterday was busy.

So, great news! I've been trying to put something more positive out here--something not so heavily political and yesterday I found it. Eureka!

Did you see where a "huge" solar plant--according to the AP article I saw--is planned out in Arizona? I tell you, that's good news. We, as people in the United States separately, but also everyone else on the planet, too, need to see and understand that solar power is a way to get us out of all the biggest messes on this little planet. I mean this.

If we do more solar, even this way, with big solar power plants, but particularly if we developed more, better and cheaper photo-voltaic cells (so we could put them on our houses and office buildings) then 1) we wouldn't have to stay in the Middle East, where all the ignorant, centuries-old religious battles are still going on and 2) we would have FAR less pollution. And aren't those our largest problems on the planet? It seems as though they are. A third benefit would be the reduced likelihood of contributing to carbon dioxide output. (Did you notice I avoided saying "global warming"?).

Anyway, I see this as very welcome news, especially now, at the end of winter, when we're so cold-weather/gray skies intolerant. We need some encouragement.

Can you imagine NOT needing an electric company's power plant/pollution/bill in the mail? Wouldn't that be nice? No need for radioactive waste, either from using nukular power (thanks, Mr. President). That would be possible if we create those cheaper, more available photo-voltaic cells. It would help the US's security in so many ways, if we create them, rather than letting the Japanese or Chinese get on this first.

But first we have to get this knuclehead out of the White House.

Oh,well.

More fun for us today:

Check out these websites.

The first on the hypocrisy of Senator John McCain:

http://bravenewfilms.org/watch/18252086/30016 (Thanks again, Bryce!)

The second, a terrific, tongue firmly planted in cheek riff on the "Christian gene":

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qCzbNkyXO50&feature=related

(and thanks, Bob, for this one).

The next one is WAY overdue. It's a clarification for 94.3% of Americans (you know how geographically-challenged we are, right?):

http://www.kansascityisinmissouri.com/

(Thanks, Michael!)

And finally, if you missed Dilbert today, you should go see it. It's a hoot and shouldn't be missed.

http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/


Yeah, great stuff for the weekend! Get out there and have a good time!