My Alma Mater True by Tony Green

I was reading an article on line about the comedian/actor Bill Cosby being honored by at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for Mark Twain Prize for American Humor which is the nation’s top humor prize. In the article it was mentioned that his high school alma mater will be played at the ceremony by an orchestra conducted by James DePriest who also is an alumnus of Mr. Cosby’s high school.
The irony was that most people not even remember the name of their high school other than who that went on their senior prom. The pride of being an alumnus of an institute of learning is normally reserved for undergraduate collegiate and graduate programs.
In this case, Mr. Cosby’s high school is no ordinary high school. Central High, located at the intersections of Olney and Ogontz Avenues in Philadelphia, boosts one the nation’s finest academic reputations for a high school. Many of its alumni have gone on to become lawyers, doctors and engineers. 98% of its graduates attend college. Formerly an all male institution, the admission of women in 1985 has only solidified Central’s place among the academic elite high schools in the U.S.
Even more astounding was the fact that Mr. Cosby did not graduate from Central yet he holds the school in such high regard. Mr. Cosby left Central after his sophomore year and eventually graduating from Germantown High School. After Germantown he matriculated at Temple University where he was selected for the I-Spy television series with Robert Culp and the rest, as we say, was history.
Why? Because Central High is a very special place that is dear in the hearts of all of the graduates that have spread out far and wide in their various endeavors. Central High prepared me well college and for life. Maybe it has helped Mr. Cosby achieve all of the success he has.
From that, I guess you can imagine where I went to high school.

Biofuel, where are you? by Tony Green

According to the 2009 Clean Energy Trends report on Cleantrends.com the top three types of alternative energy in regards to investment are wind, solar, and bio-fuels (Ethanol and biodiesel). Global revenue expanded from 78.5 billion in 2007 to 115.9 billion in 2008.

I found this interesting because over the past few months I have stumbled upon many stories in the off and on line media about solar and wind power.

For instance, the oil tycoon Boone Pickens is a big proponent of wind power and how this power source can reduce our dependency on foreign oil. Solar power is being promoted as the latest great technology as the Solar PV market recent passed the 4 GW point in terms of global installations. Many news stories have been written about the bright future of the solar panel industry.

A shortage of stories seems to exist about the bio-fuel industry in general and more specifically bio-fuels companies. Example most people can point out who are the large wind turbine manufactures are and who the dominant solar companies, however, there is a small amount of publicity of the bio fuel outside of the clean energy family.

The market numbers as reported in the 2009 Clean Trends report indicate the market for bio-fuels was larger than solar. The market value in 2008 for wind power was 51 billion dollars, 28 billion dollars for solar, and finally, 34 billion dollars for bio-fuel.

I suspect that the coverage of bio-fuel may increase as the result of the stimulus bill and private investment into bio-fuels which many drive enough bio-fuel facilities, particularly ethanol, to produce enough volume to begin to factor into the overall renewable energy picture.

Only then will the bio-fuels industry take its rightful place alongside the other technologies as drivers of the upcoming clean economy. You heard it here first.

Image courtesy of U.S. Department of Energy Genome Programs at http://genomics.energy.gov.