Al Gore invented Global Warming

I listened to an interview about 5 years ago where Bob Metcalfe or Vint Cerf was tributing Al Gore for pushing hard on congress to fund the Information Super-highway. The direct result was increased funding, and I believe the 5 node backbone between the super-computing centers and then ultimately the Internet as we know it today. I cringe when people still joke about Al Gore saying he invented the Internet - I haven't heard his words, but it seems like he's allowed to take some significant credit.

It just struck me, as I was reading about the plastic / nanotube solar panels, that we'll probably be hearing in 5 years people saying that Al Gore invented Global Warming. It'll make me cringle but perhaps it'll have the same amount of truth: it sure seems like clean tech has boomed following his moving on the environment.

I'm no big fan of Al Gore - just had the thought...

Launch Log 2008.09.02

Chris Murdock organized a small community launch on Aug 2nd. Isaac, Spencer, and I went and enjoyed flying a bunch of rockets and watching a lot of other flights.

The Rainbow Machine had a beautiful flight on an Aerotech E15. The winds were calm so the flight was straight and the rocket landed about 10 yards from the launch pad. The Purple Rhino II had a great flight on 5 Estes A10 motors. I used flash-in-the-pan for ignition and clearly had plenty of powder in the pan!

• Rainbow Machine (E15) - perfect flight, correct delay, landed near pad


• Alpha III (A8) - first flight, early ejection


• Explorer (E9) - great flight, very high, delay (6) too long, nearly landed on pad


• Mighty Mouse III (B6) - first flight, bit of a spin, correct delay


• Purple Rhino II (5x A10) - first flight, too much powder in pan, very straight