Inspiration

[John Raabe]

Let's start a new thread on bits of findings that somehow inspire new ideas.

This is a short video of the wind powered kinetic machines of Theo Jansen in Holland. He wouldn't call them machines but new lifeforms - and they certainly do have a spark of organic energy and self-motivation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSKyHmjyrkA&feature=email

If you want more here is an 8 minute TED talk presentation:

http://www.ted.com/talks/theo_jansen_creates_new_creatures.html

[glenn kangiser]

Cool - I see he has created a new machine or two since I last saw him.

They do look very much like they are alive.

[MountainDon]

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/05/photographer-remy-haynes-captures-positive-side-of-recession/

[John Raabe]

Some of my builder friends on Whidbey Island have seen their business drop by 80% and others have been running in the red for 3 years trying to keep their team together. That's the bummer part.

One of those builders is taking this time to do something he's always wanted to do... join the Peace Corps. Long term that will probably be much more memorable that the 2 years he would otherwise spent building buildings.

[glenn kangiser]

The steel company I sub-contract for held many of their smaller jobs during this recession and after their men fabricated the materials, they then called me to run their shop crew and install the materials thereby keeping their good crews employed, when they would otherwise have had to lay them off.  This company already is in, and employs many from the very poor side of town.  

They are an Italian family employing a diverse mix of ethnic groups and treating all as equals according to their abilities,  as it should be.  No favoritism of one race over the other and I see many excelling there that I would not expect to see otherwise if this great family had not given them the opportunity to strive to reach their greater potential.  I feel it is truly like working for family when I work for them and they get a real kick out of the fact that I am totally crazy.  

Field work is so much different than shop work their crews would not have been able to do it in a timely fashion, but they know I am flexible, and working together we have both been able to stay in business during otherwise very hard times.  

Note:  That still does not make me a team player though....

[Windpower]

I was recently on a service call at a major aviaonics manufacturer in Cedar Falls IA

there was a you man who was 'interning' there during a break in his college education (I think he gets college credit and slave wages)

It was quickly clear that he was a a very bright young man because of how fast he picked up on the Mass Spec operations I was working on

I asked what his major was in school -- Engineering and Material Science specializing in polymers and ceramics

then he said after he graduates he is going to Med School

So I asked what the connection was 

He wants to use his polymer and ceramic  background to work making prothetics

he is sure that there will be working prothetic arms legs etc within 10 to 15 years and that is what he is going to work on using his MD and Engineering education

It is wonderful to see some of these youg men and women that are going to pull our society into a better future

[MountainDon]

CPR Marathon: More Than Two Dozen Responders Resuscitate Neighbor for 96 Minutes

It's not very often Dr. Roger White uses the word "amazing." But when more than 20 first responders tirelessly performed CPR on a dying man for more than an hour and a half -- and saved his life -- the co-director of the Mayo Clinic's emergency transport team said it was nothing less than remarkable.

"If he had not had CPR, and good CPR, he would not have survived," White said. "CPR made all the difference."

Watch "World News with Diane Sawyer" for more on this story tonight on ABC.

It was just another cold winter's evening in tiny, remote Goodhue, Minn., where the population is less than 1,000, and they don't even have a traffic light.

Howard Snitzer, 54, was heading to buy groceries at Don's Foods, when he crumpled to the sidewalk, suffering a massive heart attack.


While the grocery clerk called 911, the only customer in the store, an off-duty corrections officer, rushed to Snitzer's side and began what could be the longest, successful out-of-hospital resuscitation ever.

Across the street, Roy and Al Lodermeier, of Roy and Al's Auto Service, heard the commotion and hurried over.

"He wasn't breathing," Al Lodermeier said. "He was in trouble and that's when we started doing CPR."

As news spread, the numbers grew. The team of first responders in Goodhue is made up entirely of volunteers. In total, about two dozen pairs of hands worked to the point of exhaustion to save Snitzer's life in a CPR marathon.

"We just lined up and when one guy had enough, the next guy jumped in," Roy Lodermeier said. "That's how it went."

Candace Koehn, the off-duty corrections officer who was first on the scene, said the group worked as a team.

"Usually," Koehn said, "there was someone on the sidelines saying, 'Hey, you want me to take over? You need a break?'"

When the paramedics arrived via helicopter, they witnessed an astonishing scene. Mary Svoboda, a Mayo Clinic flight nurse who flew in on the emergency helicopter, said "it was unbelievable. There were probably 20 in line, waiting their turn to do CPR. They just kept cycling through."

The marathon CPR went on for 96 minutes. First responders shocked Snitzer's heart 12 times, and they administered intravenous drugs. When they finally had a pulse and a regular heart beat a, Snitzer was airlifted to the Mayo Clinic.

After 10 days, he was released from the hospital -- miraculously healthy, and incredibly grateful.

"My heart wasn't pumping anything, so the only thing that was pumping my blood was those guys doing CPR," he said.


Snitzer, a relatively new addition to Goodhue, reunited with those who worked to save his life on Tuesday at the town's fire station.

"I think it's the quality of the person," he said. "We're in small-town America, hard-working people. I happened to have a king-size heart attack in the right place and the right time, and these guys would not give up."

He came to thank his neighbors -- no longer strangers. People who simply would not quit when he needed them most.

"I feel like I have a responsibility to them to live the best life possible and honor the effort they made," Snitzer said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/96-minute-cpr-marathon-saves-minnesota-mans-life/story?id=13048099