Tinker Bell; USDA's 4-H; National Energy Independence

The new Math, Science, Engineering, and Technology poster child.

SCIENCE, ENGINEERING, AND TECHNOLOGY CAREER CHOICES

Good news for the generation that are pre-schoolers today, the message is that ”building things is fun.”  A beloved roll model for that generation is a cute, perky, blond haired, blue eyed, magical, pixie named Tinker Bell.  Tink is the star of the Tinker Bell series of movies and pop celeb whose picture is on bedspreads, matching towels, Halloween costumes,  and all manner of other kiddie merchandise. My granddaughters interest in the Tinker Bell series of movies has forced me to take a closer look at the Disney mascot.   As it turns out, the fairy’s name is actually Bell and Tinker is her trade.   

Tinker fairies invents gadgets and machines, build them out of readily available eco-friendly materials and repairs things.   Tinkers are the scientist, engineers, and technicians of the fairy world.   This interest in Tinker Bell and what she does for a living just might do more to create a generation of inventors and scientists than any government program has yet.  The effect could be much like what happened with an earlier generation when Jeri Ryan, playing the character ”7 of 9″ in the StarTrek series created a firestorm of interest in Borg nano technology.   Nano technology has since become an important field of research.  Will Tink mobilize and entire generation of women to take up careers in Math, Science, and Engineering?  …. stay tuned to find out.

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USDA 4-H AND AG ROBOTICS

4-H is a United States Department of Agriculture program and the clover logo is in a specially protected category directly protected by the US Congress.  It in a class of less than a half dozen items such as The Great Seal Of The United States (logo) and as such has higher protection (larger fines) than copyright or trade mark would provide.  I had no idea that it was such a big deal until I started looking into 4-H recently at the request of one of the readers here.

The reader wanted to know if it would be possible for me to establish a Robotics oriented 4-H club citing that Grand Traverse County MI was over run with Rabbit Clubs.  As it turns out that agricultural use of Robotics is one of the technical subjects that the USDA wants to promote and plans to do that through its 4-H youth development program.  I will be going to a 4-H Leader orientation meeting Saturday, 11-7-2009, at the MSU Ag Extension office, downtown next to the fire station, on Front Street, here in Traverse City at 10 am to find out more about it.    The 4-H Program Coordinator - Michelle Goetz Grahl - has offered “to kill a few trees” to provide me with printed information about the program at that time.  There is also apparently a Robotics Curriculum that is available to guide 4-H leaders.

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PROGRESS TOWARD NATIONAL ENERGY INDEPENDENCE

While the price per barrel of oil has fallen from the last summer highs, it’s beginning to rise again.  What hasn’t changed is the percentage of oil we import every day: over the past 12 months we have continued to import nearly two-thirds of the oil we use.Most of the oil we import is used as a transportation fuel - cars, trucks, aircraft, boats and trains.  About one barrel out of every five is used as diesel fuel to power heavy trucks - 18-wheelers.I am all for developing battery and fuel cell technology - or some other technology which is still in the laboratory stage.  But neither batteries nor hydrogen are ready for widespread distribution to our national fleet of approximately 250 million cars and light trucks.  A battery also won’t push an 18-wheeler.  The only fuel which is available to reduce our dependence on foreign oil is domestic natural gas.

Due to recent advances in technology, we now have the ability to recover natural gas from the enormous deposits in Texas, Louisiana and Appalachia in the lower 48 states.  In fact, a recent study Potential Gas Committee estimates that natural gas reserves have surged by 35 percent.  The 2,074 trillion cubic feet of domestic natural gas reserves cited in the study is the equivalent of nearly 350 billion barrels of oil, about the same as Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves.

Natural gas is cheaper than diesel fuel.  Natural gas is cleaner than diesel.  It’s abundant.  And it’s ours.

The time to act is now and the NAT GAS Act (H.R. 1835) is the best tool we’ve had in decades to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

The NAT GAS Act of 2009 (H.R. 1835) is a bi-partisan bill in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.  In the House, Congressmen Boren (D-OK), Larson (D-CT) and Sullivan (R-OK) introduced it April 1 and it already has more than 110 bi-partisan cosponsors.  In the Senate, Senators Menendez (D-NJ) and Hatch (R-UT) were joined by Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) to introduce it on July 8.

The NAT GAS Act provides industry with the incentives to replace older diesel trucks with newer natural gas vehicles - it’s a great step in the right direction.  It will provide the momentum for engine manufacturers,natural gas producers and natural gas distributors to ramp up and make a real difference in our dependence on foreign oil. 
                   – PickensPlan.com

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GO ROBOTS !  

Paul F. Grayson - Chief Engineer
Robot Club of Traverse City, MI
AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC, LLC
Cherryland Robotics Division - (The Robot Shop)
Racing to build technology that saves soldier’s lives.
390 4-Mile Rd. S.
Traverse City, MI 49686-8411
(231) 883-4463 Cell
pgrayson@chartermi.net
AIM: http://aimagic.org/
Robot Club: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/robotcluboftraversecitymi/
CE Magazine: http://www.controleng.com/blog/1180000318.html