[Cadre-politics] [Glpj] Petition against Indo-US strategic deal and nuclear agreement : Pl. Sign

Tue Sep 11 06:55:04 EDT 2007

Hello again,

Since I just caused 2 spams of the list unintentionally, let me do it
once more with a very good cause.;-)  Karthik, I'm not trying to
defend American policy in the Middle East -- God knows it's been
enough to inspire deep cynicism -- but I think doing something about
our dependence on oil from that part of the world would do more to
reduce the motivation for disasters like Iraq than anything else I can
think of.  Next Wednesday 9/19 U. Mass will host a genuine inventing
wild man, Doug Malewicki (157-MPH "California Commuter" in the 1980's;
Evel Knieval's canyon-jumping rocket cycle before Karthik was born
probably; 40-foot "entertainment robot" Robosaurus that bites cars and
planes in half at auto shows ....).  His new proposed urban
transportation system SkyTran is 200 MPG now and would solve the
transport problem of cities amazingly well -- it could be
solar-powered and zero-carbon; zero-grid dependence eventually.  My
wiki site hosted by the Community Software Lab explains details:
http://www.skytran.org.

Please take a look at my Google doc proposal "Skytran Campus Proposal":
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dc6nfm33_85f9hf8g&invite=c323bbp if you
can, and send it to someone you know in one of the departments we
named (the hook is that the whole University could do research with a
prototype system).  The SkyTran inventor Doug Malewicki will be here
during the day on 9/19/; not sure exactly where or when (except that
he needs to be down at MIT by 7 -- of course, they have their own
version of this mentioning the Media Lab, CSAIL, Sloan etc.).  My
adviser Georges Grinstein in CS will send it to Chancellor Meehan --
this just could happen!

I also did a straw-man campus loop using Google Maps' route editing
feature: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=1+university+ave.+01854&daddr=71+Wilder+Street,+01854&sll=42.457765,-71.55687&sspn=0.719355,1.141205&ie=UTF8&z=16&om=1
It should show an aerial photo view of a route between Olsen, South
Campus, and East (Wannelancit and Fox).  You can probably edit it
yourself if you have different ideas.  Doug, being an inventor, shot
right back with a 2-page description of how to go right over the river
("it's not #$% 80,000-pound semi trailers, but a stream of 700-pound
vehicles..." -- I'll send it to you if you like.

What do you think?  U. Mass Lowell could be the transportation
trend-setter of the world!  Add UML spin-off Konarka's solar cells
above the tracks, and we'd be on the way to zero-zero (no carbon
emissions; no net energy input) transportation at 100 MPH (in a
fully-built system with lots of track that's not frequently used --
right now they figure they could do it if the vehicles only went 30
MPH.)

Take care!
Howie Goodell

On 9/9/07, Karthik Ramanathan <kramanat at cs.uml.edu> wrote:
> Hi Howie,
>
> I'm in boston area and would be glad to talk more in private (don't know
> if you realised that you posted to the whole GLPJ list).
>
> But just to clarify: I do not subscribe to your view that its dependence
> on middle-eastern oil that drives US policies in the middle-east.
> US only secures about 10% of its oil from the middle-east with the
> rest 90% coming from atlantic basin/latin america etc.
>
> It's control over the region and prevention of independence in the third
> world, and emergence of an alternative power that's the key element of US
> foreign policy - and that policy would continue even if there was 100%
> reliance on renewable sources of energy in the US.
>
> Would love to hear more on your end in private.
> Best wishes,
> Karthik
>
> On Sat, 8 Sep 2007, Howie Goodell wrote:
>
> > Karthik,
> >
> > Where are you now, and what's going on?
> >
> > I'm back in the US and working in Cambridge.  It occurs to me that I
> > should invite your mentor to an event Wed 9/19 at MIT -- it's not
> > political, but it would do huge political good by potentially ending
> > our dependence on Middle Eastern oil that is the source of so much
> > evil in our foreign policy.  It's a 200 MPG public transportation
> > system based on a new kind of magnetic levitation (actually, I'm
> > proposing that the goal should be to make it zero:zero; all solar etc.
> > renewable energy) -- the inventor will be there proposing a test track
> > and prototype loop on campus, then to Harvard, then all over
> > Boston....  I'll send you an invite soon -- I also think I can get him
> > to UML.  Huge potential for dense cities like India and China have,
> > but it would even work in the US: $10M a mile initially, falling to
> > $2M in mass production; probably considerably cheaper once the Chinese
> > get done with it.
> >
> > Howie
> >
> > On 9/8/07, Karthik Ramanathan <kramanat at cs.uml.edu> wrote:
> >> Dear members of GLPJ,
> >>
> >> The recent Indian-US nuclear agreement basically frees domestic Uranium
> >> supplies in India for manufacturing nuclear weapons - increasing the
> >> production of these many-fold.
> >>
> >> This is a clear move - for a almost certain - toward nuclear holocaust in
> >> the region, given the relations between India and Pakistan, India-China.
> >> The immediate consequence would be a arms race among the three.
> >>
> >> All this while the Bush administration, Congress and the US ruling classes
> >> cry foul over a non-existent Iranian weapons programme.
> >>
> >> With the nuclear deal, also comes a defence agreement which seeks to
> >> outsource US war operations to India. Apart from the massive
> >> opposition in India, this is nothing but an attempt to undercut opposition
> >> to the War mongering in the US - among people who detest and protest the
> >> war crimes like yourselves at GLPJ.
> >>
> >> Please read and consider signing this petition:
> >>
> >> www.petitionspot.com/petitions/protestindousalliance
> >>
> >> Sicnerely,
> >> Karthik R
> >> (old member of GLPJ :) )
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Glpj mailing list
> >> Glpj at lists.greaterlowellpeace.org
> >> http://lists.greaterlowellpeace.org/listinfo.cgi/glpj-greaterlowellpeace.org
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > Dr. Howard Goodell  http://www.lri.fr/~goodell  howie.goodell at gmail.com
> > Sr. Scientist, InforSense LLC
> > 155 2nd St., Cambridge, MA  02141  USA
> > +1 617 547 2500 x243
> > --
> > Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff
> > life is made of.
> > Ben Franklin 'Poor Richard's Almanack' June 1746
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Glpj at lists.greaterlowellpeace.org
> > http://lists.greaterlowellpeace.org/listinfo.cgi/glpj-greaterlowellpeace.org
> >
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-- 
Dr. Howard Goodell  http://www.lri.fr/~goodell  howie.goodell at gmail.com
Sr. Scientist, InforSense LLC
155 2nd St., Cambridge, MA  02141  USA
+1 617 547 2500 x243
--
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff
life is made of.
Ben Franklin 'Poor Richard's Almanack' June 1746