You Sir Are Right, Again

The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him. – Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

War on Science

Just finished the Book the Republican War on Science. It was an interesting book worth picking up. I wish the arguments would have been framed differently as to lay the ground work for a more constructive all inclusive re positioning of science in our society. I fear that arguments in this vain do more to polarize the issue than cause the discussion that needs to take place but since no one is having this discussion anyway I guess it really doesn’t matter.

Those Who Fail History

One of the things I was most acutely aware of during the last election was the plethora of business people who said that if a specific candidate was elected they were going to be forced to lay-off staff. Some notable ones included Papa John’s CEO. It seems to be walking a fine line of voter intimidation and free speech.

In catching up on my DVR I watched the whole series of the Men Who Built America. (Great series BTW). It was interesting to see the same issue in the McKinley election. As Carnegie, Rockefeller and Morgan applied pressure to sway the election.

One thing I would have liked to do is write down all the CEO’s who made statements and compare the numbers of employees at 1-3-5-10 years post election but that seemed like too much work and I have been too tired lately.

Pleasantville?

For some reason when I ever stumble along this little movie gem on TV I can’t help but sit and watch. I think it draws a nice story about a longing for a perfect and the realization that that idealized world isn’t what you think it is. There is a scene in the movie when the towns leaders are convened in a bowling where they are safe from the changes going on around them on the outside. They are plotting strategy about how to overcoming this changing world. While I know everyone is sick of politics I think this is a good representation of the current state of the republican party which is despite a lot of chest thumping is now in its current form entering its twilight. The changing demographics of America long two particular axis will continue to erode the parties relevance each year.

1.) The largest growing “religious” population in the US is non-theists -- atheists. This population will start to have a larger and larger influence going forward. As we move from a more superstitious based culture to a more rational scientific minded culture how we think, vote and handle issues will change in a way I would forecast is not going to be favorable to the party.

2.) The diversity of the country is changing. As we become more multicultural you can no longer win elections based on appealing to one segment of the population. You will need to include people or all different backgrounds and here the party has some extreme challenges and may have to change its dogma considerably.

The party strategy then becomes one of two paths; suppress these changes or the population within these demographics from voting or fundamentally change the party platform.

My gut tells me that line is too hard, that number 1 will prevail and with that my prediction is that if the economy keeps flat or marginally improving we will never see another viable republican candidate for president.

Business Idea #32123 – Business Card Vending Machine

Business card vending machine for hotels, bars clubs.  Insert a few bucks. Pick a template. Enter a few details and bam a custom card pops right out. I would be willing to bet they might even do well as a novelty item at places where conventions take place etc.. 

Dubstep

This might be a complete burst of bull shit or it is marketing genius. At the ripe old age of 34 I have come to the conclusion I have no idea what dubstep is. In the music store however I noticed that it apparently has its own section and then it occurred to me perhaps there is nothing to this genre of music other then awesome marketing. I mean your own section where you only have to compete with a limited array of artists. You pay a fee to have your album labeled dubstep and you are on your way.

PS If anyone is reading this from radio station please stop playing that Alex Clare song you are a day late and dollar short. Plus the acoustic version was ten times better when it came out like ten years ago. 

Look at that I made a hipster comment...I crack myself up

I Feel Your Pain Superman

Maroon 5

I have noticed this band is kind of like kryptonite to me. When ever I hear it I lose power my head hurts I get weak and all I can do it cover my ears and wither on the floor in agony. The louder the music the greater the impact.

Maybe Adam Levine is an evil super genius who is going to incapacitate the world with his awful sounds and hold the world for ransom until he is paid enough to keep quiet.

Screenplay Idea #5612

A young man is brutally murdered and mugged by a small gang a hoodlums who drag his body into a run down house and go through his . They take his cash and in his wallet he also has a lottery ticket for the Powerball ticket for the drawing that night as it drifts down to the ground you hear them say it is not your lucky day mother @#$%.

The next morning as they are waking up. The news is lit up by the fact that someone in their town has won the power ball jackpot of 125,000,000.00

They know where the ticket is as they go back to get it a homeless person is there with the body he gets killed.

They have to kill the owner who of th store who sold the ticket to get the video of who bought the ticket.

They start to kill each other until there is one left who is in prison.

His cell door opens

Flash of a shanks meddle in the dark

Another flash now with blood on it

Flash to a news report of a cop claiming the largest Powerball jack pot in state history.

Fade to black....

It is probably an over done concept on greed, corruption ect but might be the right time and place for a small movie project.

Pressure to Power the World - Idea #25132

Project Idea: Use of Pressure to Create Energy 

Perhaps through the use of a piezoelectric disk? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectricity) 

Another way to harvest the wind using a piezoelectric ideas. Possibly modifying the structure of the disk. The solution could provide renewable energy cheaply, solve the problem of distance with electric cars by allowing for another method of charging the battery.

In this example the wind is interacting with a slightly free hanging structure. This then puts pressure on a variation of a piezoelectric disk which generates voltage transferred to a storage device. A scenario where I could see this would be the grill of car where the faster it moves the more pressure would be applied causing the disk to distort and more voltage to be created.

A potential second scenario would be to create entire frames of objects to be piezoelectric discs.

For example here is a window frame or even better a series of windows that make up an array in an office building

In this example the entire window frame is a piezoelectric disk as wind pushes on the glass it applies pressure to the frame that causes distortion in the disk creating voltage.



You would have to make them sensitive enough and amplify the voltage.

Questions:

1.) Does the disk have reverberate contract and detract to make voltage?

If the answer if that it can create voltage under constant pressure then perhaps another application can be applied one where the primary foundation of a house is a large Piezoelectric disk and the weight of the structure + gravity applies pressure on the foundation. Since this pressure will be constant the home\office \structure would have a limitless amount of energy.


2.) Can we arrange with technology the atoms of the crystals in such a way to increase voltage, make the plates more sensitive, and more efficient?

3.) What equations do I have to know to find out if this is feasible? Who would I ask?

4.) If this is possible has it been tried before?

5.) If it is possible and has not been tried before how would I get a grant to create a prototype.

Inspirations Thread count

Can you be inspired when you are satisfied? I find myself sitting on a plateau wondering what is the next challenge. It is a strange situation to be at in life where there is no great challenge to overcome. No stress of complete destruction. It is a weird feeling to have just more than enough. Think it is time to dig a little bit deeper to overcome the inertia of comfort.

--File this under problems of the first world