Today's BION is a cheat. Frankly, I'm just not up to it as I have my second sinus infection in a month and the fifth for the whole summer (yes, it's still over 90 degrees here so it's summer in my book!). So, today you're getting a schmorgishborg of BIONs from headlines that excited me--or as I've previously mentioned, something my husband found on Reddit and then set to me.
Yesterday I shared that I was quite looking forward to my time on the blog with 'believe it or not', and I even sought to channel the spirit of Mike Nemeth in the finding of something wonderfully odd. Well, it seems that I channeled a bit too well. I had prepared piece on something I thought was super cool--solar roadways. Yeah, roads made of solar. I was pretty thrilled until I was adding labels and 'solar roads' autofilled for me.
Crap.
Turns out Mike already covered these guys in 2011 and so did Sandy, in 2010. So, I thought I could scrap it, pull together another post and voila! the first BION. Well, that didn't happen. You see, blogging is lovely, but it's not my day job--not by a long shot. I like the open road--or so I tell myself. So in between a trip to Firebaugh Wednesday evening and an early morning in Visalia today the best I can give you is the SJVCEO third annual Solar Roadways post!
Cue the confetti!
I'm keeping my original post--you can find it down below. However, I felt the third annual look at solar roads deserved a little something extra; it needed a TED talk. Why? Because TED talks make me happy. They make me feel infinitely smarter than I am. Sometimes they depress the heck out of me. But no matter what feeling they produce, they always make me feel something. That, and I have a nice little daydream about my own TED talk and being on that big black stage. It is almost as awesome as my daydream of advising a sitting president on energy policy, or presenting to the UN General Assembly. All awesome, just different levels.
Luckily, Scott Brusaw, the founder and engineer behind Solar Roadways hit the TED stage--or the TEDx stage. TEDx is a totally new discovery for me. Turns out there are independently and locally organized TED-ish talks. The self-organized events are designed to "spark deep discussion and connection in a small group". The TEDxSacramento was in sync with Sandy, and in 2010 invited Mr. Brusaw to break it down TED style on solar roads.
I actually really like this talk. Once he gets past the nervousness and "early days" and gets into his passion, he sells it. This could be huge, and it's Mr. Brusaw's love of the project that makes me think so. We always say there's no silver bullet that can fix our energy conundrum; maybe, if solar roads make it we could at least have the LED lit road that gives us the path to get there.
*my first run at solar roads*
Occasionally, or every day, my husband will send me something he found on Reddit . To his credit it is often something about a Saint Bernard, or politics, a really cool "I am a" but more often than not it's about something sort of related to my job. That's right--my husband is my slave driver--never letting me leave the office behind!
Okay, okay, he's not that bad. He finds me jewels like the video below.
These guys are making roads out of...wait for it...solar panels. Yup, 'believe it or not' you could one day be driving on an energy producing, solar panel paved interstate! See what the heck is going on here:
