The President’s Energy Plan

I read about his plan from this AP story.

As far as I can tell, Bush thinks market-driven innovation will win out. The Environmental Defense thinks we need mandatory caps.

And I say they are both right.

Shakespeare was one hell of a poet. For those that study that kind of thing. His Elizabethan sonnets are said to be beautiful and moving. After 400 years we are still reading them. And they still bring joy. Elizabethan sonnets have certain rules. Let’s call them mandatory caps: From Wikipedia:

    The form consists of three quatrains and a couplet. The couplet generally introduced an unexpected sharp thematic or imagistic “turn” called a volta. The usual rhyme scheme was a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g. In addition, sonnets are written in iambic pentameter, meaning that there are 10 syllables per line, and that every other syllable is naturally accented.

Now if you are not a poet, this all may seem like a bunch of gibberish, iambic voltas and all, but to a poet, it makes complete sense. And it makes it so much easier to innovate. You have a structure to innovate in. The poet gods call to you: Here are the rules. Rhyme this way. Exactly 140 syllables. Engineers need those same types of structures: Only so much carbon to play with. Solve the problem. That is where innovation comes from. There must be rules and creative ways to make something out of nothing.

Bush may be trying to do something positive with his time in office, or this may be a stalling tactic. I do not have the savvy to understand that. I just know how creativity within boundaries works for poets and engineers since I have worked with both, been drunk with both, and can’t engineer or write poetry. Good poetry anyway.

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About the author

free electron

Simply, I want the world to be a better place, for my kids and for all the other children in the world. I am in IT, understand technology, believe in the scientific method, and have made a lot of mistakes.

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3 Comments

  • Iambic pentameter? Wow! It has been ages since I last heard that. I like your thinking on this issue. Our country is not being as innovative with alternative energy as they could be. Maybe when companies realize how much money is to be made in alt. energy, then it will start heating up some innovative ideas.

  • The big oil companies have America over a barrel, no pun intended. As I am sitting here writing this, I am listening to a debate on one of the major network news shows (controlled by oil company owners, no less) as to why so many refineries have shut down this year, driving up oil prices. It seems that the oil companies, despite their vast wealth, have not been maintaining their refineries and in most cases have been shutting down for 40 days straight due to these problems. My, isn’t that convenient? It also comes as no surprise, that this series of events has materialized right before the summer vacation is to begin. Of course, the media that tells us all of this wonderful news is controlled by the major oil players, so when we hear all of this disinformation, it is usually coming from the very people that created the problem in the first place.