Fifty Plus (50+) - Going GREEN

The wife and I just returned from a day at a local college, Rochester Institute of Technology. Our oldest daughter graduated with Highest Honors from RIT last year. We attended their second annual Imagine Day which introduces the public to many of the research and senior design projects that are taking place on campus.

It's very interesting. So many parts of the campus are already powered by either solar or wind energy! There were several stations set up to demonstrate to the public the ease of creating electric power with simple machines, and of course the machine of choice was almost always the bicycle, I imagine because it's so simple to set up that type of demonstration with a bike

One student explained to me what his senior design project is going to be next year and though I'll not share his innovative idea here (yet) I think he's a genius. His idea will most certainly become quite popular and will be very simple to impliment. I really think he could start up a very succesful business based on his project.

All in all, it's very evident that the world is going to be a much better place as our younger generations unleash their novel, and some not so new, ideas and inventions.

Here's a little teaser, a simulation model of a two person Lunar Vehicle. I didn't catch the entire explaination as I was busy trying to figure out how to cop a ride on it!

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r152/crankyolddude/IMG_1949.jpg

I think our futures and the future of the planet will be in good hands.

I think our futures and the future of the planet will be in good hands.

Have to agree about these youngsters- but they have to be able to get it past the people that will matter in the future. The ones that will be able to run the planet- will not be the ones that will rule the Planet.


Sorry about the synical remark- but think about it.

And great to see that the Youngsters involved do have the skills to do something about it- and hopefully will be able to do something about it.

And get back to that college and give a ride report on that Moon cruiser. Looks too interesting not to have a ride on it.

So if the person on the right can power the bike to 18 mph, whilst the person on the left can only do 14 mph, then the bike will move to the right by 4 mph?? :)

I'm sure they have rigged it to channel all of the energy into a single direction. That would be a hoot to ride as a tandem. The person in the back could wave at people they pass or who are approaching them.

We all need to be more active in treating the resources at our disposal respectively. Maybe all the hype in that regard will lead to an improvement in all of us but... I sure hope it's done on the basis of wisdom and scientific truth not political & media hype etc. It seems like so much of what we hear on the subject is baseless and counter opinions are suppressed, pooh-poohed, castigated etc with out proper scientific verification. True science isn't built on consensus, which some have tried to lead us to believe exists rather true scientific advancement is based on scientifically challenging theories not shooting the messenger. For instance have you heard of the Global Warming Petition Project (http://www.petitionproject.org/)that some say challenges 'Global Warming' which it doesn't, rather it challenges the anthroprogenic causes attributed to global warming which are only theoretical notions yet to be scientifically proven. Until the proverbal 'fat lady sings' however and the real truth is known, let us all be better stewards.