I’m sure y’all remember this tidbit. We must have learned it in second grade. That Ben Franklin, on a June afternoon in 1752, thought it would be the perfect time to go fly a kite. While everyone else was scurrying to their homes.
Continue reading A change in a ca. 270 y old protection device
267 years ago, Ben Franklin flew his kite to demonstrate that lightning was electricity. But, it really wasn’t of much use to us until some 130 years later. On the 4th of September 1882, the Edison Illuminating Company began operating the first power plant (Pearl Street) with a network of copper wires. (The problem is that our electric grid has not really progressed much beyond that mess of copper wires.)
OK. It’s rant time. But, no, I have not lost power again- yet. Although, I must admit, having bought my house some 25 years ago, I have had the “opportunity” to experience a blackout- longer and more pervasive than the one that hit the Northeast when I was a young lad- enough times that I find it amazing that we consider ourselves to live in the “First World”.
Continue reading It’s way past time to bury these items
Most of you know that I believe we need to develop alternative energy sources. That does not make me an apologist for the cause; simple a recognition of the facts as they exist.
Continue reading Solar powered cell phones- NOT