Trip to Pikes Peak

Take a trip to the top of the world @ Pikes Peak !!!

Alternative Energy

I selected the case study entitled "Anticipating Alternative Futures in Energy Efficiency" from the Christakis book.
Pretty much everyone agrees that our energy future looks bleak, but what can we do about it.
In the Northwest Energy Alliance a group called the Pacific Northwest (PNW) decided to apply the SDP methodology the tackle this problem. Thirty five stakeholders gathered and shared ideas on methods to help solve this problem. After listing several ideas, the ideas were listed in four focused areas:
1. Energy Conservation
2. Energy Efficiency
3. Lifestyles of the future
4. Energy Supply

Each of these were then discussed and detailed. Implementation of the suggestions would have an impact. There is a link between energy efficiency and lifestyles that needs to be taken advantage of. This analysis helped all involved to understand the choices better and was a success.

WolfRamAlpha

I think one of the new web 2.0 tools that is showing a lot of potential is the new inference engine http://www.wolframalpha.com/. Notice how I did not call it a search engine. It is not. It is based on the Mathematica library. With those roots, it is good at symbolic mathematical computation. It is also good with multi-part queries that need to be reassembled. An example would be how much does an acre-foot of water weigh. It is also great at comparing two items like. Compare Apple and Microsoft. First it has to infer that they are both companies. An apple could be a type of fruit but a Microsoft could not be. Spend some time and try this out.