The power of understanding

The Power to Understand

I attended an interview yesterday at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley for a research project on the citrus greening disease (HLB). I told them what I knew about HLP, how it is spread by psyllids a tiny insect. I told them how in California Caltrans spread the disease with the decorative flowers the planted along the highways. I told them how while looking for a solution for the Red Palm Weevil in the middle east I connected with researchers of the Huanglongbing disease, AKA: Citrus greening disease and HLB. I told them about a solution using microbes to which breakdown hydrocarbons into nutrient filled, vitamin packed proteins the natural microbes like, making the trees more robust so they can still produce fruit even with the HLB disease. I told them about UC Davis using a hyperspectral camera taking imagery every day of 14 citrus trees purposely infected with HLB so they could determine the spectral marker for the disease and use multispectral cameras flown by drowns to find trees infested with the disease.

At this point they told me I was over qualified. Then they mentioned Global Warming. I reacted to that statement by talking to them about the evils of NPK and how it is the wrong kind of nitrogen for the plants and how we must eat ten times more food to get the same nutrients we did 50 years ago and why we now have an issue with obesity.

They asked me how being part of their project would help me as a teacher. I explained that stimulating youngsters with the technologies and then explaining to them with math and science needed to implement the technology would give them a reason to learn algebra and physics. I went on to explain to them how physical activity produces endorphins and the creative part of the brain making it easier to learn.

Then they mentioned that I could be a resource for technologies and companies to help them with grant writing. They get DOD funding for their research projects. That sounded very intriguing. I would love to be someone who vets new technologies and companies to get into the markets.

I remember sitting at a bus bench and a retired sociology professor and economist telling me “We are going through a phase of global secular reshuffling. All the systems we have become accustom to are no longer working. There is going to be an equalization period, everyone is going to get to an equal level. Everyone is going be looking for the new path to run on to get them out ahead” I think about that conversation on that bus bench six years ago often.

It reminds me of playing rover on the soccer field or walking a booby trap course in the SEAL Teams. As a rover, you look for the area on the field that is open, no one is there. It never fails, that is where the ball will get kicked to. Walking a booby trap course, whenever you are being channeled in a direction that you wouldn’t naturally go, a limb of a tree over the trail or a log you need to step over, that is when you will find a booby trap. When you see that we have more retirees depending on social programs than we do people in the work force contributing to the pool, there is going to be a problem and taxing that smaller pool of workers isn’t going to solve it. It just takes a little common sense.

There are a lot of emperors parading around in their new cloths that need to be exposed.