Science 2 Politics 2 Change

The world reared its ugly face again this week and the anger and frustration spilled out once more. Most people have no concept how their short term actions affect long term entrenchment of systems that have lost utility and function to promote ethical lapses.

My mechanism of building partnerships has always been to sacrifice the now for the later and i have built to the point where i have justified a laboratory to investigate carbon. I have not been paid to keep up on the carbon field, but was hooked on the premise of venture capital for the lab as a cornerstone of the business plan, which i would be a low level share owner. I developed a counting method based on chemistry and it gives results on the same order of magnitude as the current conventional calculation.

But since $ calls the shots, my four-year investment of time and effort has been superceded by corporate know-it-alls who decided that the organization was stronger on paper without the lab. I was shifted to a monkey role with a fixed (low) salary - which is still just imaginary.

Realize that carbon sequestration is a no-brain approach. It encourages the build-up and removal of a raw material in a cyclic process carbon dioxide - which is 'linked' to global warming, a phenomena that has virtually no bearing with atmospheric chemistry. The earth cycles nutrients throughout nature via many connective mechanisms, each of which is being increasingly diminished by our current approach to resources. Lomborg's The Skeptical Environmentalist and Crichton's State of Fear both go a long way in pointing holes in the arguments, but each poo-poo the idea that something is physically changing that cannot be explained in terms of modern science. However - collecting carbon in trees is a valid approach to enhancing the cyclic process of nature. If we fix the rate that nature can work at for maximum atmospheric efficiency, then earth can metabolize oxygen to take care of all the populations. Conservation Biology is where things will be happening - we need to get things correct.

So it's time to collectively check our premises. Chemistry is a superb first order approximation that recognizes a dual particle/wave nature to atoms in molecules. We can use the discipline to synthesize natural products. The wave nature is used for spectroscopy - identifying molecules by the characteristic frequency of the chemical bonds. The chemical bonds store energy. So what ever happened to the waves and their usefulness in carrying information? Consciousness can neither be explained by just particle theory, nor solely by wave theory - yet we insist on studying the phenomena separately. (Cept the militry hmm)

How is it that the investment in ethanol - a two-carbon material formed by the breaking of chemical bonds in higher order more advanced biological chemicals - is supposed to net save energy when the energy cost involved in breaking all the six-carbon cellulose chains to two-carbon chains is greater than what is left stored in the two-carbon product?

There are a huge amount of similar issues packed in the energy bill. The flood of funding from the federal government meant to stimulate the economy is a large waste of resource. In this case we get ethanol: agribusiness corn producers pay lobbyists to sell congress on the idea that they are addressing a problem, which they created to sell corn that is overproduced due to production incentives to agribusiness from the department of agriculture. Some solutions - elect no incumbents to congress, reduce the size of the executive bureaucracy, allow no lawyers outside the judicial branch, decrease the volume of laws.

But there is another solution that relies on no government at all. OSEN will begin offering basic science classes for knowledge purposes for low cost. The catch is that the work to learn the scope of material requires a significant time investment. I would put it out for free - but economics dictate that i have to make a living and i would prefer not to have to accept the last grants that i will be/have been offered. And I still want to fund a lab. So on September 1st - there will be an on-line Science Zone offerings in natural resources science. Each Science Zone will offer multiple one topic stand-alone courses. Each course will have a physical outdoors component that will be arranged in your local community (overseas interest? - contact me in the comments). Course education target level is high school freshman. Objective - learn to collect good data.

The design is for people to get the material on-line, have access to a mentor/tutor, pass timed tests, and demonstrate proficiency at an arranged field event. Once connected, these skills will allow volunteers to work with community organizations and governmental agencies to collect meaningful data. This could morph into stewardship opportunity in land management, which is why this particular area is chosen - local concern. Anybody with an interest in the science of the topic can tag along - as long as somebody picks up the costs. As we reach critical mass - more depth in each topic will become available. The system should provide access to equipment, access to the knowledge base and pure entertainment value.

A few courses will begin on October 1st, 2005 - most others March 1st, 2006. More information available after Labor Day. A preview of the Bug Zone can be made available for perusal - investors that would like to sponsor a zone class for a local high school in their community - please contact me. This school offer is currently restricted to Oregon, although once we begin to establish The Communities of Zones, there will be no geographic restrictions. It requires a critical mass of people with the knowledge to carry out the program.