Arthur C. Clarke often wrote about space elevators. Space elevators (in theory) are mechanical connections between the surface of the Earth and synchronous satellites. This concept is pure science fiction – or is it? Great article in Wired that discusses some advances to develop the technology. Even with these developments, I doubt that this will happen in my lifetime.
Interesting post over at “Is It Getting Warmer?“. It is a discussion of scientists and their thirst for getting too involved in politics.
It is an unfortunate turn of events that most big scientific discussions (such as global warming, in this case) turn into political discussions. This could include other things such as abortion, stem cell research, and the teaching of evolution in the classroom. All of these things have a strong scientific discussion which implies that there is a truth somewhere. However, in these cases, the truth is not clear cut and the science is probably not solid. In most of these cases, there is some level of gray in the conversation and much of what is discussed as fact is simply hypothesis.
Scientists should only be using their scientific titles and credentials when they are discussing science. They should discuss this accurately with terms such as “hypothesis” and “theory” and “conjecture” used quite liberally. When they depart from the scientific conversation and into the political arena (which is certainly their right) they should be careful not to be so adamant that they give off an air of certainty that their scientific brethren would not accept.
Newt Gingrich wrote a great editorial in the Wall Street Journal recently that includes 7 “achievements” that he thinks should be offered as prizes similar to the X Prize Foundation’s prizes. Personally, I think the idea of prizes to drive innovation is great and wish that the government would do this on a regular basis. Newt’s list is a great first start and there are probably others but if we have too many it would dilute the importance of the targeted list.
I do question Mr. Gingrich’s 7th item. While certainly noble in intent, it doesn’t appear that it is measurable enough to warrant a big prize. Perhaps a prize for the public school system that gets 99% of their non-special needs kids to some extremely high level of attainment on a standardized test. If we use the SAT as an example, the school system that can get 99% of their kids to over 600 on the SAT test (the average is 515 out of a possible 700 and that was for college bound seniors – the challenge would be for ALL students in a public school organization).
In lieu of government funding, I am willing to help. If someone would create a fund to go after these causes, I would contribute. I can’t put a billion dollars into the kitty but I would definitely write a check for $100!
Here is Newt’s list from WSJ.com
1) A low-cost vaccine or preventive intervention for malaria — possibly the single biggest potential improvement in the quality of life in poor tropical countries.
2) A modestly priced, mass-manufacturable hydrogen engine for cars, which would be the biggest single contribution to reducing carbon loading of the atmosphere and reducing subsidies through high oil prices to dictatorships.
3) A cheap method for turning large quantities of seawater into fresh water.
4) A reusable system that could get people into space at 10% of the current cost, thus enabling genuine space tourism and launching an age of exploration.
5) The first privately financed permanent lunar base.
6) A method for reusing nuclear waste to make Yucca Mountain, Nevada unnecessary as a repository.
7) A method of learning math and science that kids like, and that enables us to leapfrog India and China by breaking out of our unionized, bureaucratic curriculum. This would enable us to replace “No Child Left Behind” with a more effective education model that could be called “Every American Gets Ahead.”
This is the type of leadership that we need in Washington. Someone should name Newt Gingrich to be their Vice President so that he could actually do something about things like this.
I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.
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My last post on this subject was about rock stars not spending enough time on today’s problems but instead they are spending time on a theoretical problem for the future – global warming.
I realize that some stars like Bono have done a great job of trying to use his status to create awareness of issues that he cares about. That is awesome! More big personalities should do this.
So here are some small facts:
HEY ROCK STARS! HOW ABOUT GENERATING AWARENESS FOR KNOW PROBLEMS THAT CAN BE SOLVED TODAY?!?!?!
Related reading:
VIEW: Live earth, deaf to reality
Eight Most Deadly Infectious Diseases
Did you know that you can have these articles emailed to you? Click on the Email link in the upper right corner Subscribe section, fill out the details, and you are set. No one will see your email address and you won’t get more spam by doing this.
Technorati Tags: global+warming, disease, rock+stars
The party is over. There were thousands of people in attendance and hundreds of people playing musical instruments. Supposedly, there were millions of people watching the show on TV but who really knows the correct number.
There was a lot of controversy, ranging from trash pickup to the lack of reality for the 90% reduction pledge. There was also some good music played so I am sure there will be a CD put out for the greatest hits (which will use more energy in creating).
Overall, I have a hard time with all of this attention. Yes, there does seem to be some validity to the argument that Earth is getting warmer but the science doesn’t seem to be conclusive that it is being caused by humans (check out Is It Getting Warmer for a bunch of articles on both sides of the subject – for and against).
However, there are a bunch of things today that we know will save lives v. a possible threat from global warming. There is no question that malaria kills thousands each year. AIDS is a virtual pandemic in Africa.
HEY ROCK STARS! SHOULDN’T WE TRY TO PREVENT PROBLEMS THAT HAVE A SOLUTION TODAY?!?!?!
More on this topic later!
Technorati Tags: global+warming, live+earth