Ok, not rafting, but interesting and I’m in the mood to rant. Being a parent, I feel a fair amount of guilt at the crappy world my generation is leaving for our kids. While we aren't the only generation that caused the problem, we're the ones at the scene of the crime. Our parents were called the “greatest generation” for fighting and winning WWII. Meanwhile, the leak in the ship has been discovered on our watch. So I’m always looking for things to feel better about. Here are two technology news stories I’ve run across lately:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/04/14/solar_electric_thermal/
http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206801669&printable=true&printable=true
Taken together, these two bits of news are very encouraging. Hydrogen can be, essentially, a battery to store energy from the sun. Solar Thermal is far simpler, safer, and cheaper than alternatives, especially nuclear. What’s 92 square miles? About one big ranch in the Southwest, that’s what. So even if they’re off by a factor of 10 in estimating the real estate, what are 10 big ranches worth of land to power the country, perfectly clean and green, happily ever after? Use Solar Thermal-driven electrolysis to generate hydrogen and we’ll have wired and wireless power, from essentially, the only free lunch around. Where are the politicians on this stuff? Behind bio-fuels, that’s where. Let’s have the hungry set face off against the Mercedes set to see who gets the corn and see who wins? Jeez.
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