The bridge energy future for america

Niel DeGrasse Tyson

Needless to say, I am a big fan.  And I agree to his clarion call to double NASA's budget, if given the proper mission (like say Solar Power Satellites).  Since he is in the news for his new book I'll share my favorite opinion he expressed on some talk show I saw.  Since I don't remember the show (might have been the "the Daily Show with Jon Steward") or the exact quote I'll summarize my best and please forgive (and comment) if I miss something.

Basically he starts with most of our political leaders are educated as lawyers and there are very few doctors, engineers, or scientists in political office.  He remembers from school that the people who became lawyers were the people who liked to argue and win- not necessarily be right- just win.  Is it any wonder that our leadership (or country) is in the shape it is in when the leaders are only concerned with winning an augment and not the merit of the agrument itself or even the fact the situtation more likely doesn't have a "right" versus "wrong" answer.

We cannot continue with this right versus wrong mentality.  We are ignoring too many problems.  I have a real problem when most of our leadership seems proud they don't understand the nuiances of a problem and will only respond with catch phases.

Neil, I feel close enough to him to refer to him first name only in this blog, was on Science Friday Audio Podcast last week.  I'll listen to it later on my phone, but in case you're interested this was the best link I could find:

http://www.sciencefriday.com/feeds/radio/

look along the right side under recent episodes.

More on the future: What will it be like

As I mentioned before, I listen to Doggcatcher when travel instead of the radio.  I listened to two related TED.com talks one right after the other and that have good information.  What I really love is just from there titles they seem to present conflicting ideas. (Note: I mention in one of my previous posts whether Doggcatcher is available for the iphone and like my clueless self the open screen says "podcasting for Android" so that the obvious answer I missed is that it is not available for iphone.

TED: Peter Diamandis: Abundance is our future

TED: Paul Gilding: The Earth is full

Fossil fuels are getting harder produce (or get to), nuclear power has significant grand risks, and I agree that solar has a lot of potential, but I really feel more effort should include Solar Power Satelites (SPS).  I'll write more on it in the future, but Rebecca Costa mentions it in "The Watchman's Rattle".

On the second video, it is obvious to me that we must change our economic system that is based on endless growth.  Not only should it change, or must change, but it will change.

These videos do re-enforce my belief that we can overcome the vast multitude of problems we face.

Most to follow...

A Whole new mind: Part II

I am about two-thirds the way through A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.  I really am enjoying this book and the author is referencing quite a few other books that I have read including: Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, Emotional Intelligence: 10th Anniversary Edition; Why It Can Matter More Than IQ and http://face.paulekman.com/products.aspx.


The first part the author makes argument how this have changed and will change in the future.  He makes a compelling argument about the reason of job exports to Asia. As someone who alway decried the erosion of America's manufacturing base and felt government and corporations were short sighted in allowing it to happen I am now changing my attitude and not that I am for it- I do feel many mistakes were made in the last few decades, but I now have the perspective of how ineviable it was. 

The author further talks about how knowledge works (engineers, lawyers, programmers, mostly left-brain careers, etc.) have begun and will quickly more to Asia and then be replaced by computer automation.

His direction is that it will be combining left brain logically activatives with right brain creative activities for future productivity.  For example, Japan- the traditional left brain logical based ecomonies biggest export is now pop-culture (another head smack!).

Just a few quick thoughts for now on a book I would already recommend that I picked up via Amazon.com picks.

Also, I do not take a lot of time to proof-read- and I am awful at grammar- so if I miss something I apologize.

Jeff King at http://authorsunion.blogspot.com/, a blog I love- posed a question a few weeks ago asking our biggest faults- which after thinking about it I first thought focus, but I realized it was actually procrastination.  I have 30 drafted blog posts that are not published because they are incomplete.  I also didn't get to comment on his blog since I am having some kind of issue.  So, as a note I wanted throw a shout out thank you to Jeff.

Anyway, thanks for reading!  And I would love to know what you think.

Frank

The Sagan Series:

I just found this thanks to a friend on Facebook.  I couldn't resist share it here.

Speaking of facebook:

http://facebook.com/frank.hark

I love to make new friends.

Future thought: Dreams of Flight (Children and GE engineers)

This is a great short video that asks five children and two General Electric Engineers: What will planes be like in the future.

Enjoy!

Also note: it is a sad state in the world where GE corp made more money from its investment house (no value added- just numbers games) then from engineering!

Standing Desks- other advantages

So I am on my third day with a standing desk. (Actually, it takes me about a minute to convert back so it is actually a standing/sitting dual desk (SSDD- NASA background- can’t resist). I do have a low level of fatigue and my run last night felt like I was dragging a car behind me. Of course, I have stood now about 12 hours in the last two days when I would have sat. There is no question that standing burns more calories or works my leg muscles more. Anyway, I have been thinking about the ancillary advantages to standing desks other than the health benefits. Here are my ideas on how offices may/should change in the future.



Sitting is awkward and not just for people. The design of a sitting desk wastes a lot of space. Convert to a standing desk and there is storage space available under the desk. Eliminate cube walls and most office chairs. Yes, sorry cube wall and office chair industry but you are useless. (Send your robot ninja assassins anytime.) And of course office chairs do have some use- so it should probably just be a smaller industry. That eliminates two hardware costs and frees up floor space.

The main problem is an adjustable desk height (a function now preformed by adjustable chairs). One easy solution for desks along walls is to use adjustable rail shelves. Actually there would be a difference between fixed (static) adjustable and dynamic adjustable, but it certainly is not a difficult design issue.



I was thinking about this overnight and just wanted to put this out there since most of the discussions about standing desks are about the health benefits. So in summary standing desks versus sitting desks:

-Remove cube walls – completely useless other than a place for me to push pin papers too

-remove most office chairs

-increase storage space since your legs are no under the desk



On day three and I am definitely feeling the effects of the extra standing. From what I understand it takes a few weeks to adjust and this is not something I am doing with the expectation of increasing my weight loss. Weight loss is more affected by high intensity cardio and resistance training and mostly by eating the right foods. Please let me know what you think.



I am the talk of the office since I am the only person standing all day. Someone just said I remind them of “Star Trek” where people in the background on the bridge are at the equivalent of standing desks. HahaHA! Excelsior!!