The majority of schools follow the same requirements of taking math, english, and all those other subjects. It has been this way for years. The same cycle for every student. But, why? We ask kids what they want to be when they grow up and fuel them with excitement as we put on a facade of “you can be what you want to be”. Why did I say we put a facade? It’s because as they get older our expectations we share them truly reveal themselves and we try to mold their minds to a 9-5 job. We shake their realities of life making them believe that those dreams they once had isn’t the priority and might not even come true.
I’ve asked countless people: “why are you going to college”
And, the answers are usually the same: “to get a good job”
But, why are we programming our generation that after kindergarten to preschool to middle school to high school to college their priority is finding a 9-5 job till retirement. That’s no life to live. And, I’m not trying to say don’t go to school, because I truly believe that somewhere that the intention is to teach. And, those who give their time to teach others are true heroes. What I’m saying is that their implementation for their intention is faulty. What’s the use of trying to force students to take subjects they don’t want to day after day. This just leads to cheating in class and the destruction of motivation.
Every child and every person is different. They learn differently. They take in information differently. Some people have shorter attention spans. Some people learn better when they do hands on activities. Some people learn better by watching. With all our data researchers and statistics we should know that putting everyone in the same process and expecting them to learn and grow the same way is just a big no-no. Wouldn’t it be crazy though if we did that? If we hundreds of different people into a box and teach them all the same way and expect good soaring results? Oh, wait, that is what we do.
It’s kind of like getting a bunch of cactuses and a bunch of daisies, watering them with the same amount of water then expecting both of them to grow equally healthy and to it’s full potential.
Students should be given classes that is directed towards what they want to be in life. Yes, there should be some mandatory classes. But they should ones that would really benefit the student when they go out there in the real world. To name a few classes that students should have to take: Financial, leadership, cooking classes, first aid.
Life skills are what need to be taught. They expect graduated students to suddenly be on their own and know how to do their bills and budgeting when all they taught at school was you had to run at least a mile to have a good grade in PE and that the square root of 64 is 8.
To sum everything I’m saying, learning life skills is way more important than trying to memorize the values of the unit circle. Everything around us is evolving, changing, and improving. It’s time that the educational system do that as well and make school a place of growth, ambitious.
Quote of AWESOMENESS: “Life in orbit is spectacular.” – Tim Peake
Imagine this:
Morning burst like a bubble as the alarm shouted: “WAKE UP, IT’S 6 AM!“. The sun was showing off as the clouds slowly dispersed until it was nothing but fine grains of salt scattered across the sky. An announcement popped on the news telegram showing the weather and a little notification about all the events and stores that were broadcasting they’re open hours. You decide to go for a little hover as you look up into the thoughtfully designed elevators shooting to the stars. It was a piece of artwork. Luckily, you had put in your schedule to go for a zoom into space today with a couple of friends. You and your friends meet up at one of the elevator points and get in with your special suits (which, by the way, look absolutely amazing) and designed gear. The countdown starts, “Please make sure you’re properly suited up and secured to the wall…. 5…. 4… 3.. 2..”
Before you could say “snickerdoodle”, the elevator starts its ascend into the sky and the ground below you starts to shrink. Your favorite song plays over the speaker as you and your friends start discussing which restaurant on which planet you wanted to try this time……
Okay, maybe the planet-hopping might take a little more brainstorming and planning and researching, but wouldn’t this be such an adventure.
Today we shall be discussing (yes, I know, that was a very formal-serious-big word I just used) the 𝓢𝓹𝓪𝓬𝓮 𝓮𝓵𝓮𝓿𝓪𝓽𝓸𝓻. Okay, so, let us proceed…..
Ideas of the space elevator have already been put out there for quite some time. “What is it?”, you may be asking yourself. Well, basically, it’s an elevator which starts here (on our beautiful planet) and goes on and on and on until space. I know, that would be pretty long. I mean, I already have trouble just thinking about using an elevator with a hundred floors. All fears aside, I would have to admit, an elevator TO SPACE is pretty awesome.
Transportation of goods would be relatively cheaper because aerospace companies wouldn’t have to keep remanufacturing space rockets and other things. We would be moving forward towards ideas on planet-hopping and studying more about the space world and cheering on, as Buzz Lightyear so famously quoted, ” to infinity and beyond!”.
However, there are some elements that would have to be considered and have safety protocols in return. Some are the following:
The weather
Conflicts with countries and people who would use this for something other than good
The strength of the material used for building
Passing meteors or space junk that might
To wrap everything up, researchers and scientists are still ongoing with how we are to design this access to space. Ideas keep on coming. It might seem like such a huge project and idea, but researchers are still definitely working to have this in our future.
Let’s paint an image, imagine a world where everything is super advanced. Where you could actually see flying cars instead of youtube videos of it saying that they exist. And, a world where the sky is truly the limit and people take advantage of it, in a good way. A world where you put on your calendar to meet up with your cousin who recently moved to mars for a few days then return back to earth. Another way to see this would be a world that also has the same technology as seen in Wakanda (to all those whose seen Black Panther “WAKANDA FOREVER!!!”).
Okay, okay back to the topic. Wait, what was it again?
Oh, yeah, having a really really really advanced world which is in no comparison to our world (for now).
Let’s explore more about this with Michio Kaku in his chapter on advanced civilizations. Who is Michio Kaku exactly? First, in my opinion, he is an awesome scientist. He is also an American theoretical physicist, futurist, and popularizer of science. Okay, now that we’ve covered that back to advanced civilizations. It was actually in 1964 when Russian astronomer Nikolai Kardashev introduced the classification of advanced civilization. Initially, Kardashev came up with 3 types of civilizations which are the following:
Type I civilization:
a.k.a the planetary civilization
this civilization would be able to employ all the energy that reaches the planet and all the energy it can produce
This energy is solar, thermal, hydro, wind, and more
Michio Kaku predicts we would have control over things such as earthquakes, the weather, and volcanoes
With research, it was found that this type of civilization would harness the power of 7 x 107
To get to this state, we would have to boost our current energy production to 100,000 times
We are estimated to reach this stage in about 100-200 years
Type II civilization:
Would also probably be classified as an interplanetary civilization, too
We would be able to use the total energy of our sun (a star)
Have the ability to move planets and stars
To accomplish harnessing the energy of a star, we would be using a megastructure called the Dyson Sphere
We are estimated to reach this stage in about 1000-2000 years
Type III civilization:
at this point, everything would be different from today
We’d have space travelers zooming everywhere
And, the norm would possibly be cyborgs
We would also have the power to use the energy of an entire galaxy
This, as Michio Kaku is estimated to happen in about “one hundred thousand years and possibly not for a million years”
Type o to Type I
In case you were wondering, we are a Type o at the moment and for quite some time, too. The first thing that we would have to do is change from Type o to Type I. Now, we have some obstacles that are preventing and slowing down the process of actually advancing forward and helping our world socially and technologically to reach the next stage. As Michio Kaku writes, “the biggest threat facing a Type I civilization may be a self-inflicted one” and some of the challenges include “global warming, bioterrorism, and nuclear proliferation”.
Problems preventing the transition from Type o to Type I
Expanding on the problems, global warming, which has been a threat to humanity has countless evidence which Kaku notes, the following:
EVERY major glacier on the Earth is receding
The Northern polar ice has thinned by an average of 50 PERCENT over the past fifty years
Large parts of Greenland, which are covered by the world’s second-largest ice sheet, are tawing out
A section of Antartica the size of Delaware, the Larsen Ice Shelf C, broke off in 2017, and the stability of the ice sheets and ice shelves is now in question
The last few years have been the hottest ever recorded in human history
The Earth’s average temperature has increased by the 1.3 degrees Celsius in the past century
On average, summer is about one week longer than it was in the past
We are seeing more and more “one-hundred-year events,” such as forest fires, floods, droughts, and hurricanes
Another great danger which the world and humans face which have been there for quite some time is diseases, plagues, and epidemics. The influenza epidemic killed an estimate of 50 million people whereas the war itself had it’s estimated down to 20 million less than that of influenza. The problem with this? There is such a thing as a weaponized biogerms. Yes, I know, terrible, if there is such a ferocious disease which gets created and released it has the potential to eliminate 98% of the human population! These are some of the things that have made it difficult for our advancement. Breaking from this would be a difficult job and a challenge when we emerge to a new civilization. But, if we work together, stop the competition, the inequality and put our awesome minds together, maybe we could transition to a better and advanced civilization compared to where we are now.
Future civilizations may change and evolve. But, with the decisions that are made today, in this century will help in determining whether that change would be better or for worse. If we take the right steps and choices, it may be possible to be living in a world where we have laser porting (which is a future way of traveling[g to the stars in light speed), space elevators, programmable matter, robotic construction, fusion power, asteroid mining, and a better-civilized world….
….and maybe (MAYBE) we might be living in a really cool world like in WAKANDA. Am I right?!?!
Hope you’re having an awesome day, afternoon, or night! Till the next blog, bye!!
Wind turbines were invented way before you. Like a thousand years earlier. Circa A.D. times, Wind Mills already existed. Did you know that way back even in 5000 BC Egyptians already started using the concept of wind power for their boats? Yup, they did. Pretty awesome, I know.
My Question: Why are wind turbines not everywhere?
I would have thought that with these thousands of years that have passed we would have been able to establish some worldwide wind turbine system put both onshore and offshore around this planet. Although some would debate that it would be a disadvantage to some wildlife such as birds and bats and also some complaints on the noise pollution it creates, we can find a way to fix that problem (right?).
The simple principle on which wind turbines use to create energy and produce electricity
There is a small device attached to the very end of the wind turbine (kind of like a tail) which has two to three blades (but instead of being sharp it’s rounded and caved like a spoon and its movement is similar to that of mini propellers) and is known as an anemometer. This device (anemometer) is connected to a rotor which is connected to the main shaft which is connected to and spins a generator which produces and create electricity!
There are a minimum and maximum speed of air which is needed for the wind turbine to move or stop (especially if the winds are too strong). And, according to WilloWindEnergy (which is both a developer and operator of wind farms in the UK), the wind turbine would need a minimum wind speed of 4 to 5 meters per second (circa 10 miles per hour) and a maximum wind speed of 15 meters per second (circa 33 miles per hour).
What is the difference between offshore and onshore wind turbines?
First and the main difference between the two types are the locations. Offshore wind turbines are in the ocean and onshore wind turbines are on land.
Offshore Wind Turbine
Offshore wind turbines are farther away from humans which makes it safer and less irritating (with its noise pollution). Also, because winds are usually higher at sea, they built these wind turbines to be stronger and they are also better at producing as well. But, unfortunately, it is more difficult to install offshore wind turbines compared to onshore because it’s like in the middle of the ocean. Okay, fine, not exactly at the center of the ocean but really far from civilization in the middle of rough waves and strong winds. Also, the wind turbines (offshore) have the disadvantage of having less maintenance as it’s not such an easy task to grab a boat with the tools and fix the underground wires or other problems that may occur. According to GroundSure, they install the wind turbines in open water by bringing the parts and assembling the parts like a kit. They ship the parts, dividing them by their main components and then when they’re at their location they assemble the turbine piece by piece. Also, the drilling is different (and in my opinion) much harder than onshore because they need to drill deep underneath the seabed whereas onshore wind turbines just need to drill a deep hole underneath the surface of the earth (on land, which should be obviously easier. At least, I think it will).
Onshore Wind Turbines in Scotland
Onshore wind turbines, on the other hand, have their advantages and disadvantages as well. For your onshore wind turbine (just like the offshore wind turbine) you’ll need to dig a hole where you will place the turbine. The depth of this hole would be around 1 meter or 3 feet but it varies with the size of your wind turbine. The bigger the turbine = the bigger the drill and dig. Most cons lie on the noise pollution they omit, the dangers of wildlife getting hit by this that onshore wind turbines, and apparently, they also don’t look a pleasant sight to some.
Creds: Union of Concerned Scientist This is the revolution of how wind turbines came to be today and probably in the near future.
How do we calculate wind power?
We can calculate the wind power that is used by the anemometer on the wind turbines with the equation: P = 1/2 ρ A v3
P = power
ρ = density of air
A = area wind passing through (which is perpendicular to the wind)
v = wind velocity (m/s)
How do we choose which is the best place to put a wind turbine?
First, you should:
Choose a location
Avoid slow winds
Avoid turbulent wind
NEVER put the wind turbine on top of a building
It creates loud noises which won’t be pleasant for the people in the building
It’s not always a site for everyone to enjoy
It might not be that stable (compared to the once that have a foundation and are built and stabilized underneath the earth surface a bit
High wind speed tip:
Open areas are best
Upppp high (but not on a building [<— REMEMBER])
If you want it on a higher area just extend the stand to be longer (but you will also most likely need to dig deeper, as well)
And, according to the wind energy association,
The output of a wind turbine depends on the turbine’s size and the wind’s speed through the rotor. An average onshore wind turbine with a capacity of 2.5–3 MW can produce more than 6 million kWh in a year – enough to supply 1,500 average EU households with electricity.
BIGGER TURBINE = MORE POWER
BIGGER TURBINE = DIG DEEPER
Something that just blew my mind with it’s awesomeness…….
If you check out this website, you will see (in real time) the movement of wind happening around the globe! And, that’s not all! You can also see the global map of wind, weather, and ocean conditions. Here’s a small take on what you will see once you visit the website.
Mind – blowing,
I know,
I know.
Check it out!
So, here we are again: why don’t we have more wind turbines? It mostly lies on a couple of problems such as —> the fund. Although you might think that the price of the wind turbines by themselves is quite reasonable (especially considering the length and how much non-polluting energy and electricity it can produce), you would still have to consider all the other factors such as taxes, labor, and transportation expenses on the bill. But, with global funding, greater engineers (to solve the endangerment to flying wildlife and loud sounds emitted), awesome artists (to fix the “looks” maybe so that it could be a sight to sore eyes, too) and imagine that! Teamwork. Passion. We can probably make this work. And, think about it, we could even reduce the problems that come with burning fossil fuel in the long term.
Life of a Secret Homeschooler | A.K.A | L.O.A.S.H 
You must be logged in to post a comment.