Comment

November 2009

Your Letters

Kindness needed in this economy

I am not a company owner, merely an employee who was not even the intended recipient of your magazine. However, before giving the April InTech to my boss, I read the “Enough already: Be nice, it works” editorial and wanted to applaud you on your understanding of the basic concepts that make anything work, from government to family life. It is truly a pity that people apparently prefer antagonism to kindness. The old adage of “don’t care who you step on to climb the corporate ladder” has never been more evident than in today’s less forgiving economy. Too bad your article cannot make front page news across the nation; it would certainly be a wake-up call to the masses for not only have we begun to eradicate God from all things public, we are obviously trying to obliterate everything He has taught us, especially love, understanding, sharing, caring, and forgiveness.
Again, thank you for an excellent article.

Wanda Chaney, Monroe, La.

Young engineers on film

I really liked the Workforce Development article, “Engineers can change the world,” in the April issue of InTech.  If you do another, could you please try to include some color photos of young ISA engineers similar to the IEEE Spectrum February issue? I think the writers at IEEE Spectrum captured the obstacles and enjoyment of young engineers, which could possibly inspire some high school teenagers.  I use my old issues of InTech to help explain what electrical engineers actually do.

Marcus Rasco, Senior ECT Professor

Getting over nuclear power paranoia

I liked your June “Talk to Me” column, and I agree with the point you’re making. I read Greg Hale’s column pretty regularly, but this one had me hooked in the opening five words (“With all the spin doctors …”)!

The fact is, big oil has a lot in common with the teacher’s unions here in California (all of the California government, in fact): They will do whatever it takes to retain their stranglehold on something they have a monopoly on and can’t come to terms with the fact that things are changing. So I have another reason not to like big oil!

Regarding the energy conversation, I heard a great story on public radio about the quiet and cautious approach the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is taking on launching the next generation of nuclear power plants here in the U.S. The conversation was with a Wall Street Journal energy beat reporter, so she knew her stuff. It was neat to hear how much farther the nuclear industry has progressed, and her reference was the exact same one the CapGemini datacenter person talked about (I think you visited that datacenter with us, maybe I’m wrong) in Holland several years ago: The French figured out when you standardize on the nuclear facility they get safer, easier to maintain. The second thing that was neat was the reminder that nuclear fuel can be processed over and over again. So all the nuclear waste on hand is 95% fuel.

There are no silver bullets for sure, but the U.S. has to get over it’s paranoia about nuclear power. We know that solar and wind can only generate a fraction of the power needed, so nuclear power will make all the difference—and it’s made here in America! So the real scary threat to big oil is the DOE, I hope. In the program, they said they could have 10 plants online by 2016, or something like that. It sure would be nice to give big O the big heave!

Ron Seredian, V.P. of Marketing, Falcon Electric

“Unfriendly” in Colorado

Chevron’s poor use of “unfriendly” (June InTech, “Talk to Me”) gave you a nice hook for this column. Some wind and solar guys ARE unfriendly to oil, however.

Solar guys and wind guys have forced both of our U.S. senators from Colorado to forbid oil drilling in Colorado. Colorado has oil shale and underground oil, and now we cannot develop it. Colorado is forced to spend money on Don Quixote windmills and daytime-only solar setups. This is not only “unfriendly,” it is dangerous.

Your Rodney King attitude of “can’t we all just get along?” just doesn’t seem to work any more. Wait a minute—it didn’t work too well for Rodney King either.

Bob Askey, Longmont, Colo.