Try America First

Got a better idea?

May 302010

Please add any ideas that you have to help America.
All ideas are welcome and anyone may comment and/or challenge on these pages.

Gulf of America

The experts don’t have the answers, because they’ve never considered the problem.

I believe the time has come to consider the bounty of the average American brain, i.e. regular people with reasonable ideas. This then is meant to be a place to propose those solutions, or partial solutions, or illusions of solutions that have been fogging around in your brain for at least a few weeks. Anyone can read and separate and mesh ideas however their creative abilities allow. In true grassroots think tank style, some ideas will be great, some will be repeats, others will stink, and a few will be flat out laughable.

So what.

Got a better idea? Well send it this-a-way.

↔

I’ll go first:

I think that BP, TransOcean and Haliburton should announce the joint funding of a 10 year $30 billion “Race to Lead” program. This will be used as support for the research of marine extraction science, and overseen by the National Science Foundation. All new patentable or profitable products or discoveries to be split 50/50 between the inventor and the National Science Foundation.

Think of it like a humbler version of JFK’s call to put a man on the moon by the end of a decade. Think of the almost immediate results of such a plan. America having kids thinking about science or engineering or geology or mining or chemistry or what have you, and realizing that they can find a future for themselves and their country simultaneously; while at the same time, the world benefits from the understandings and innovations that come from intensive study.

“But, but, 30 billion dollars would fill a great gulf’” you say.

Well, yes. It would.

I could remind you of the size of the ruined waters, instead, let’s look at the profits (not revenues) of BP. Last year, they posted a $14 billion profit. Just one billion of that going to the restoration of the world in a positive, desirable and publicly supported and adored manner is not a big price to pay. It isn’t even 1/10 of their profits.

The National Science Foundation’s proposed 2011 budget is about $7.5 billion, so this will be a huge boost for the future of exploration. Nothing is ever certain, but three billion from the parties each year for 10 years – on top of whatever other fees, fines or expenses related to the calamity are assessed – may bring those companies back from the public relations disaster Deepwater is and will remain.

Future Forward

Your thoughts…please ?

Should Senators have Term Limits?

Mar 062010

We’ve made this handy little Senate Term Limit widget for you to register your feelings about Senatorial term limits.

This issue is probably DOA due to the difficulty of having Senators vote to pass an amendment limiting their own terms – something that doesn’t even sound possible.

Other than the instituting staggered electing (1/3 of the body every 2 years), Senators have never willingly given up any perk of office. The take may have to be that the count on a member’s limits would begin after the states ratify. Even then, we doubt they would have the backbone to consider it.

After all, they are Senators, and they get to serve as long as the people in their state continue to elect them. Which is how it should be. Yet we all know from high school history classes that the founders assumed people would serve for a while and then return to private life.

After registering your own vote, we encourage you to take and place the widget on blogs and other sites where you think it would be appropriate and useful. Just let us know where it is, so we can follow our little guy, and look at some of the responses.

Okay – what do you think?

S Dakota - A Capitol Look

Dec 102009

Some of America’s most beautiful buildings are in its capital cities.
Try America First will look at all these buildings, and today we focus on South Dakota.

Why S. Dakota?
Why the heck not?

sd dome

Here we have a beautiful and history-filled building of interest to all – not just locals.

Sure, you probably go to SD to see Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial, or maybe Jewel Cave

or Badlands National Park. But when in the area, stop in to see their capitol building.

It is really a thing of beauty.

sd at Christmas

Mount Rushmore tidbit:
Did you know that the figure of Thomas Jefferson was started on Washington’s right? After 18 months of carving the figure of Jefferson had to be dynamited off the mountain and restarted on the left of Washington.

America on Fire

Nov 232009

The fires are shown as tiny particles with each particle depicting the site at which a fire was detected. Daily fires are displayed at a rate of 10 days per second. The fire particles fade over 1.7 seconds and change color as they age from red to orange, yellow and gray. A clock inset indicates the date. Note: This animation shows fires detected over North America from 8-21-2001 through 8-20-2002 with a clock inset. Data Collected: 2001/08/21 through 2002/08/20. Animator: Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC), Cindy Starr (GST). Scientist: Robert Sohlberg (University of Maryland), Chris Justice (University of Maryland). Platforms/Sensors/Data Sets: Terra/MODIS, Terra and Aqua/MODIS/Fire Location, Terra and Aqua/MODIS/Blue Marble: Next Generation.