20060825

Today the music died

Maynard Furguson, legondary jazz trumpeter, died today at age 78. Read the details here. I was in high school, only about 16 years old, when I first heard Maynard Ferguson's awesome trumpet playing magic. I was with a group from my high school. We traveled to BGSU (Bowling Green State University) in Ohio to hear Maynard's band in concert. It was one of my first such experiences, and definitely one of the most powerful for me. I don't know if it was my impressionable age, or the pure talent of the man, but I still remember with awe the intense thrill of hearing those shrill high notes. Maynard was famous for being one of the few trumpeters who could hit a "double high-C" note, and he would do it with an oddly simplistic ease. It was in moments like this I learned at a very young age that a small number of people, working together in extreme precision, with a single-minded purpose, and being lead by an inspired soul, could achieve true perfection on earth. Seldom have I been so blessed since then. I still remember the electricity. I'm getting goosebumps writing these lines. Goodbye Maynard. You will be missed.

US Energy Policy is broken

OK, let's review the current situation: Oil >$70/barrel, SUVs/sports cars all over the road, everybody drives 'cause there is no mass transit to speak of, with few exceptions. The US is the largest oil consumer in the world.

We need to change this. It will not be easy or fast. We need to start now and keep up the pressure over a period of years.

Problem is: no one wants to do it. It's hard, and no one is going to step up to do something that hard for no good reason. So let's give them a good reason. Seems to me that our government exists first and foremost to protect our citizens. There is nothing that threatens our citizenry more than the threat of terrorism, and terrorism stems mainly from our Middle East policy. Our Middle East policy is driven primarily out of our lust for oil. Remove the dependency on oil, and our problems in the Middle East become much more manageable. This is a National Security issue.

Our government needs to seed and support the following actions:



Ethanol. Today, we add a paultry 10% ethanol to most gas mixtures. We should work to increase this to 25-30% ASAP. This would go a long way to stretch our oil needs out. Brazil has become energy independent by switching to fuel entirely consisting of ethanol. We may not be able to scale our country as completely, but I bet we could make a heck of a dent. We should give massive tax breaks to anyone who locally provides ethanol-based fuels and fuel additives.

Drilling: US offshore, Anwr, Canada. When you combine the potential sources of "local" oil, we have millions of barrels waiting to be procured. We should put tax subsidies in place to make drilling for this oil much more advantageous than buying Middle East oil.

Tax reform. All energy-related activities should be scrutenized from a standpoint of tax reform. That is, we should reward any activity that reduces our dependence upon foreign oil, and tax the heck out of activities that promote that dependence. Clearly we need to strike a balance that will not cripple our economy, but we should move aggressively in this direction.


Electric cars: Look at the Tesla roadster! For years, we thought electric cars were simply an oddity. They could not produce enough low-end torque. They did not have the range. Batteries were too bulky, heavy, dangerous, and ecologically messy. So tell me, if this is so, how come a bunch of geeks in CA were able to come up with a car like the Tesla roadster? Here is a vehicle that can go from 0-60 in 4 seconds, travel 250 miles between charges, and uses relatively clean Lithium-Ion batteries! All for a reasonable $100,000. If this is possible, then with some serious effort, big tax breaks, and a little time, we should be able to get something all of us could be driving in less than 5 years!

Yes, there may not be one "silver bullet" that we can use to solve this problem. But it seems to me there are more than enough "brass bullets" we can use to combine into an effective Energy-Independence Initiative. By combining leadership, government incentives, and technology, we CAN make this happen in less than 10 years!

All we need is the DESIRE!

20060811

Hyperbolic reactions to terror threats...because that's all we can do.

It is amazing that the British and American authorities were able to detect and thwart the plot to smuggle liquid compounds onto US Airliners in an attempt to create explosives. Truly an impressive piece of police work. The reaction of US Homeland security was, to say the least, not as impressive.

Call out the National Guard, and post armed guards at US domestic terminals (this happened in Boston). Ban all liquids from carry-on luggage. This includes, but is not limited to:

Bottled water (sealed or not)
Toothpaste
Eyedrops
Hair gel
Shampoo
Kid's juice boxes

These actions are clearly an example of extreme reactionary policy, intended to show action on the part of governmental officials who have no clue what to do. True, this is a very difficult situation and as someone who flys on business often, not at all savory. However, to see our government gyrating so violently with ineffective hystrionics both frustrates the rest of us, and more annoyingly, probably amuses the heck out of the terrorists.

Hopefully, soon cooler heads will prevail. Sure we need to take steps to reduce as much as possible the threat. But banning eyedrops? What's next? Will I be forced to evacuate my bladder before boarding the plane (actually I try to do this anyway)? What if the bomb was made out of the terrorists clothing? Will we all strip down and don white bathrobes for our flights? Let's be reasonable.

If a bomb can be hidden in any everyday material, and is undetectable, and the person hiding it is willing to die, I submit we need to admit that to the public so we can all decide to stop getting on planes if we want to. We simply need to be upfront about the real risks, and let the public make their own decisions. Fact is, the risk of being killed in one of these incidents is probably somewhere around 1% or less. Good odds, unless of course you are one of the 1% :)

The smart guys need to keep fighting the terrorists on all fronts. We need to support and fund them as much as possible and praise their victories. We all need to be vigilant and help with our own observations, funding, and other support. Other than that, we need to trust that we've done our best and get on with our lives. Anything else is letting the bad guys win.