Wednesday, April 06, 2005

I'm validated

Further proof of what I spoke of in my previous post comes courtesy of New York Times writer Thomas Friedman's book 'The World Is Flat'. He explains the premise of his book in this article. Basically, the rest of the world is catching up scientifically while school systems in this country are wasting time debating the validity of evolution and scientifically accepted theories on climate change are ignored.

He appeared on the daily show to discuss his book yesterday and mentioned the area where I believe the lack of funding for basic research is going to hurt american industries a lot in hte next couple of decades, alternative energy.

Lets assume that corporate oil concerns keep masive government funding from going in this area until the technology has already been created by, say, the Chinese. While your evonomy will still be chained to a depleting natural resource, your biggest potential industrial rival will be totally independent as far as power generation and will be gaining influence throughout the developing world by passing on this technology.

As an African, I have a fairly serious interest in solar cell technology. Anyone who knows about Ghana's oil issues can understand why. I'm actually trying to get unto the research team of the professor who works in that field. The lack of funding in this area is something that really bothers me. Well, I was planning on learning mandarin anyway because of the fact that its useful in NY's kung fu community. I guess now it will also come in handy for reading Chinese research papers.

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