Thursday, March 15, 2007

Federal law vs. State law

Ohh boy, where to begin? I had never thought about this issue before, because I used to have faith in our federal government, but ever since the election in 2000 I have begun loosing faith.

So to the point; states, as described in the Constitution (ever heard of it?) States are supposed to have the right to make and enforce their own laws, and yet the federal government is always sticking it's nose where it doesn't belong! Here's a for instance i just read about where the federal government is preventing a woman from taking the medicine prescribed to her by her doctor! The federal government is KILLING this woman and therefore it HAS FAILED.

We are very close to the end. I am not a doomsayer but I am saying it now. We are going down quickly, all hands on board.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Barren worlds: opportunity

What will happen when we discover other worlds with no extant life? Will we be able to tell that there is not life enough to justify bringing our own? Assuming the answer to that question is yes the next steps will be just as difficult. Will we bring plant and animal species from earth to populate a barren world with life as we see fit? Will we try to copy the successful bio system established on earth or will we experiment and make a new world in our own image? This begs the question of genetically altered species being a viable solution if there is no native species to harm.

All questions, and no answers yet... but maybe soon.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Solar utility

What is the biggest problem with solar? Real estate. So here's my new brilliant idea that will make me millions (of gigawats). A new form of electrical utility based on distributed generation and short distance delivery. So here's the pitch:

Lease from home owners and building owners roof top space wherein Solar PV cells are installed on leased roof space, the payment for the space will be in discounted energy rates, but the surplus energy will be distributed to the grid.

Prospective problems: Currently a pv array on your roof is too expensive to get a big enough array to fully power your own house, let alone surplus energy to share with the grid, but with the buying power of a utility (Publicly or privately owned) this problem can be overcome. PV arrays are notorious for being outdated quickly, but with a utility there can be a constant level of replacement and repair, and with this degree of investment technology will progress faster and the cells can be swapped out and updated more frequently.

What do you think? Are you ready to invest? Send me a note and I'll get us all started!