The road to Rolla: Day 1
I'm on my way to Rolla, Missouri, to prepare for a special edition of The World Tonight, to be broadcast live from there on Friday in front of an audience of local voters.
Why Rolla? Come to that, why Missouri? Two words: middle America. Neither north nor south, neither east nor west, Missouri is the perfect bellwether state: in every Presidential election since 1904 (with just one exception), Missouri voters have favoured the candidate who won the election.
Rolla is a small town in central Missouri where we hope to hear what's really on the minds of voters who often get overlooked when the media get into election mode.
What do they make of the Republican convention, which will just have ended? What do they think of John McCain's surprise running mate, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, and her unmarried pregnant teenage daughter?
What do they think of Barack Obama and his campaign slogan: eight years (of a Republican president) is enough? Are Missourians ready to vote for a black President?
The immigration officer who greeted me at O'Hare airport in Chicago told me: "I ain't never gonna vote for a man with a name like Obama ... and there's lots of folk who think like I do." Was he typical, or an aberration?
Tonight, I'm in the small town of Hannibal, on the banks of the mighty Mississippi. It was the boyhood home of Mark Twain, and is full of Twain memorabilia. Twain was anti-slavery in a pro-slavery state, and, according to the curator of the Mark Twain museum, insisted on portraying black slaves as humans with souls rather than as a white man's property.
More tomorrow, by which time I hope to be in St Louis.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~33~RS~)
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Unfortunately, this is typical. It just goes to show, that in my country, where we claim and wage wars in the name of freedom and democracy, that we have yet to break away from our ignorant past.
Robin,
I have tried diggin up follow up info on something that caught my attention nearly a year ago. And according to the nature of this "revolutionary-breakthough," I do not understand why I haven't been able to find out about more, or heard anything since. It seems quite new worthy to me, being the price of gass and all.
The basics- car does 220 miles on one charge on a lithium ion battery+ with Cui's breakthrough x10!!!
2200 miles... oil? THE HELL YOU SAY!
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"The researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to give rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, used in laptops, iPods, video cameras and mobile phones, as much as 10 times more charge. This potentially could give a conventional Li-ion battery-powered laptop 40 hours of battery life, rather than four."
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http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,1000000091,39292139,00.htm
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"The Energy Storage System (ESS)
When we set out to build a high-performance electric car, the biggest challenge was obvious from the start: the battery. Its complexities are clear: it's heavy, expensive, and offers limited power and range. Yet it has one quality that eclipses these disadvantages and motivated us to keep working tirelessly: it's clean.
The Tesla Roadster's battery pack — the car's "fuel tank" — represents the biggest innovation in the Tesla Roadster and is one of the largest and most advanced battery packs in the world. We've combined basic proven lithium ion battery technology with our own unique battery pack design to provide multiple layers of safety. It's light, durable, recyclable, and it is capable of delivering enough power to accelerate the Tesla Roadster from 0 to 60 mph in under 4 seconds. Meanwhile, the battery stores enough energy for the vehicle to travel about 220 miles without recharging, something no other production electric vehicle in history can claim."
http://www.teslamotors.com/
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"Drill here, drill now"
MY ARSE!!
Why can we not dump billions of dollars into stuff like this? My first guess is the deep running roots of old money-aka power-aka oil.
Both of these technologies are proven!
And, I really would love having an electric Ferrari! wow!
Sorry for off topic, but you know, it's totally relevant in my opinion.
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FYI there is an excellent campus of the University of Missouri at Rolla. Famed for its technological curriculum, UMR has regularly competed for the top spot in the college solar car challenge held in Australia annually. A close friend in graduate physics (more years ago than I want to remember) matriculated at UMR as an undergraduate and his excellent preparation was obvious to me.
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