Harnessing the power of the Sun!

Oh, I bet it would be logical to put an interesting article on solar power technology or nuclear fusion here. I think not.

The Solar Death Ray



'Cause melting/burning stuff is fun :)

So I've decided....

After giving it a week or so of thought, I've decided to pursue a master's degree in EE right after finishing this degree up. Dani was very supportive of the decision, even if it is detremintal to our plans somewhat.

I told myself when I applied, I'd only do it if I had a free ride +. Last week I was notified that I was approved for the NSERC national graduate scholarship. I guess the decision was partially logical after that. I can pay off my debt, have money to spend, and focus on finishing the master's degree as quickly as can be. In fact, it says right on the NSERC application that they'd like you to speed it up ;)

The professor who suggested I applied, and helped me with a topic for sample research to put on the NSERC application, told me:

If you find a great job in the last few months of your undergrad, that's great, you can still put NSERC on your resume. Else going to grad school is a great option.

One advantage as I see it of having to make this decision now is that I have a few months to figure out what interests me, and what I'd like to work on, approach professors regarding sample research, etc.

The Corporation

I watched a very thought provoking documentary today, called the Corporation. It was better than one of Michael Moore's documentaries because it was not as one sided, in fact, a good chunk of the screen time was taken up by CEO's of large corporation's opinions.

I've always had difficulty grasping the economic concepts and results of a corporation. How legally, it is considered a person (yep, how absurd does that seem.). How the stock market works. How they hold all loyalties to the shareholders, not workers or the community. I suppose indirectly a Corporation is bound to the public, because if the public has a bad image of it, it's bottom line decreases.

This lack of responsibility has caused corporations to "dig too greedily", so to speak. People speaking out against them has helped in many cases. Collective concern for the world is increasing. In this film, many of the past CEO's realized this, and were working for sustainable manufacturing and products.

I thought to myself, this idea of sustainability is extremely important. Now I'm not an environmental extremist, but I see "the problem" facing the world in my lifetime : oil either running out or becoming so scarce that it is no longer efficient to extract it from some remote reserves. I remember reading that the world's oil supply will only last until approximately 2030, though I understand it is impossible to know exactly how much oil there is.

Will we make it by then? That is, have enough of the world's energy needs running on sustainable power rather than oil? I do agree technology is moving towards this, but the question is, fast enough? I'm fairly confident that still far more research effort is going to oil and such rather than alternatives to it.

Who knows what the next revolution will be.