My Turn

Bernd Larsen is a very good friend of mine.  He was born and raised in Denmark but a few years ago, after a rather lengthy process, became a US citizen.  Shortly after this occurred he sent me a copy of a letter he wrote about the experience.  I have added it to this post because it provides a unique view on US citizenship and I think all who are citicens or want to become citizens of this country should read it.

My Turn by Bernd Larsen

If you know Bernd like I do you can only smile at the visual image of him waving an American flag with “gusto” or ” going to Cuba and then getting on a raft and sailing to Miami”.

Scientia Potentia Est

“Scientia potentia est” which is loosely translated from Latin as “knowledge is power” was penned by Sir Francis Bacon in his work Meditationes Sacrae in 1597. With the rise of the Internet, many seem to think that we have all the knowledge we need at our fingertips. However, knowledge requires that the right information be available at the right time and in the right place. When it comes to categorizing information into knowledge the Internet is very poorly organized (if it can be considered organized at all).

People are needed to organize information into knowledge and librarians are best suited for this task. Click on the link below for an annotated bibliography on this subject:

Knowledge Management-Annotated Bibliography

Another Age Must Judge

Charles Babbage

Many years ago I noticed a computer store named Babbage’s at the mall. I often wondered why the name as, at the time, I hadn’t heard of Charles Babbage. In doing research on who he was I discovered he is considered by many to be the father of the modern computer. This is quite a feat considering that he lived from 1791 to 1871. To put this in perspective: He was born when George Washington was still president of the United States and died 8 years before Thomas Edison patented the light bulb.

I created the Another Age Must be the Judge Power Point to illustrate some of the ideas he came up with more than 100 years ago.

He also was an rather interesting individual.  More information about Charles Babbage can be found at the following Web sites:
Charles Babbage
The Babbage Pages
Babbage-Science Museum.org

Nuclear Fusion

A long term solution to our energy requirements is nuclear fusion.  One major difference between energy from nuclear fusion sources and fission is that there are no harmful byproducts from fusion while fission power plants generate harmful radioactive waste (think Chernobyl).  Another difference is that fission is currently working technology while fusion is still in the research stage.  The technology has come a long way in the past few decades as is described in the embedded video:

However, it still requires more energy to generate the plasma stream than you can get out from the reactor.

We need to include research and development monies in our national budget for fusion as this is the only current long term solution thought of so far that could get us completely off carbon generating power plants.

Here is a good web site describing the benefits of Nuclear Fusion:

Nuclear Fusion: Energy for the Future?