To infinity and beyond.

Space Force. Well, I guess I’m not surprised. It’s a logical extension of armed forces. Why the Air Force can’t do it rather than create a whole new cash gobbling organization I don’t know. I was also disappointed by Vice President Mike Pence’s statement about the U. S. must dominate space. I would rather no one dominates space thank you very much. There are suspicions that Russia may have launched some sort of satellite killer to push the envelope. I would much rather see a coordinated multi-nation, all nation effort but I guess the envy and hate on the earth will go out into space where people will fight and die. Mr. President we must not allow a space force gap.

I am not going to mention the U.S. President by name this week. Quoting Oscar Wilde, “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

I saw UNICEF has shipped 90 tons of health, water and sanitation supplies to help battle the Ebola outbreak n the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I hope this horrible disease does not spread. We’ve come close before. If it does we’re going to be living and dying in a sci-fi show, probably of our own making.

There was a deal with Iran, not the best, but I believe the best we could have hoped for. But with the U.S. pulling out and imposing sanctions then despite the best efforts of others such as France, UK and the EU in general I fear Iran will become ever closer to Russia. I think Turkey may go the same way.

I have wondered about the future of large power stations for a while. In the first week of August Bloomberg reported on a phenomenon that could send shivers up the executives and investors of established power generating company’s spines. In some places, reportedly Australia, California and Germany, sometimes power being fed into the grid from renewables is outstripping demand. The result? Negative power prices. That’s right, south of zero.

I have long thought that micro power generation added to the sensible use of renewables and backed by on demand fossil fuel stations could make a huge difference to electrical power and its price. Imagine every house, every business, feeding back into the grid. Not all of the time, but some, maybe even most of the time. Combined with smarter and more sufficient use of power and devices using less maybe some of us could even become power self sufficient? Could this herald a dinosaur moment for the big utilities?

I hoped that the people of Zimbabwe could look forward to a brighter future with the ousting of President Mugabe. Apparently not so. The election, which has raised concerns, delivered the same party back again. Second verse, same as the first, only a little bit louder and a little bit worse. There is a court process underway, but I don’t expect much from it. I truly hope that the end result does not lead to more violence. Why is power so important to some people?