My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica: Obama and Dr. Pell's Moon Express - Fly Me To the Moon, I''ll Drink To That

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Obama and Dr. Pell's Moon Express - Fly Me To the Moon, I''ll Drink To That

O, Swear not by the Moon, the inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love likewise variable

Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, II, 2

Election time is here!!!

It’s time for a better soap opera than the now-concluded Manatt Inquiry here in Jamaica, which ended on April Fool’s Day as well: The American Electoral Campaign.

Coming to a Local TV Station or Cable Network Affiliate near you!

At the time of writing this article, I am listening to Rihanna's Cheer's (Drink to That), a song reminds me of making out atop my company vehicle’s bonnet and then chilling, tired, under the light of the Moon with my Seventh Day Adventist Kick Ass-Princess Audia Granston on a Friday sunset.

Audia would remind me not to let the, quote, “Sunday –worshipers get me down” at work, as she thought I was super-clever to be able to get Telecom Provider C&W to be more competitive for JA$1 back in 2003 when CEO’s past could barely get Telecom Provider C&W to even make a coherent decision on advertising. Telecom Provider C&W, beat that!!

Audia Granston, whoever you are in Heaven with your Hair Salon cussing off St. Gabriel and “suss”-ing with the angelic choir, I’ll drink to that Rihanna's Cheer's (Drink to That) Style!!

Sorry, folks, I forgot to sneak that one into my blog articles entitled “Gmail Motion is SLOOW & other April Fool's Jokes - Armstrong's Firefly

Yes, let the silly season begin, folks, both in Jamaica and the United States of America, two (2) Western Democracies that are polar opposites in terms of size, Rights of Homosexuals and Technology, which is my domain.

Senator Barack Obama, President Elect of the United States of America is swinging for an eagle after sinking an easy putt in his first Presidency as stated in the article “Obama declares himself candidate for re-election”, published Monday April 4, 2011 9:03pm EDT by Steve Holland and Caren Bohan, Reuters.

All neatly chronicled and tied in a bow in my mixed-up blog article entitled “Gmail Motion is SLOOW & other April Fool's Jokes - Armstrong's Firefly” that sought to highlight the events that have happened since the start of April that should really have been April Fool’s jokes.

Now Senator Barack Obama is planning a Town Hall meeting on Facebook later this month of April 2011 to get his revolutionary online campaigning engine moving again as stated in the article “Obama to hold Facebook Town Hall this month”, published April 5, 2011 3:10 PM EDT, Associated Press.

With Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in toe for technical advice, I might suspect. Facebook’s first political Campaign contribution? If so Barack Obama needs to build his war chest fast!

Big Oil, still smarting from the tongue lashing he gave them during the Deep Horizon Oil Rig off the Coast of Louisiana exploded on Tuesday April 20th 2010, killing nearly eleven (11) workers, may be out for political payback, pumping millions into the campaign coffers of the Republicans.

Even worse that he is now implemented policies that are clearly in favour of Green Tech Industry pundits in Silicon Valley. Lucky for Obama, the Republicans are in no shape to put up a good fight against the tech-savvy Democrats and their equally charismatic President.

My blog articles entitled “Alternative Energy and the President - Oil Industry in Clear and Present Danger”, the article “Alternative Energy and All-Electric Vehicles - Wargames” and the article “Alternative Energy and Solar Power - Transformers” chronicle my opinions that the incident was being used as a Media Ploy to wean the US of A off Middle Eastern Oil by polarizing the public against Oil Exploration.

Simple, rasta. I’ll drink to that Rihanna's Cheer's (Drink to That) Style!!

The Obama Administrations support for Nuclear Power, however, is being sternly tested by the Japan Earthquake of Friday March 11th 2011 as stated in the article “Obama's support for Nuclear power faces a test”, published Friday, March 18 2011 by Peter Wallsten and Jia Lynn Yang, The Washington Post.

Guess it is a great time as any for Venture Capitalists to get a little Moon Madness.

This as Dr. Barney Pell, founder of Microsoft Owned-Powerset and his two adventurers-in-chief Naveen Jain of Infospace and Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards formed a company called Moon Express that – get this! – has as its aim the ambition to set up a mining operation on the Moon to extract Rare Earth Minerals!

“Bumboclaat”, as Audia Granston would say!!

This as chronicled by Malik Om of GigaOM in the article “For some Entrepreneurs, Moon is Money”, published Apr. 4, 2011, 6:30pm PT by Om Malik, GigaOM. Guess the article I read a year ago in October 2010 speculating on this very same idea as stated in the article “Is Mining Rare Minerals on the Moon Vital to National Security?”, published 04 October 2010 Time: 08:10 AM ET by Leonard David, Space.com must have caught Dr. Barney Pell eye and he probably chuckled, “heck why not”!

After all, the NASA Veteran who founded the SEO Company Powerset probably was tired of pushing paper at his office job at Bing.


This as may have put a sparkle in his eyes as Privatization of the Space Industry, relegating NASA back to Research Status it had in the early 60’s as stated in the my blog articles entitled “Alternative Energy and the Ion Drive Engine - Star Trek and Andromeda” and the article  “Alternative Energy and Daedelus - Avatar and Planet Gliese 581g Next Door”.

And the successful launch and return of SpaceX’s Dragon Capsule by PayPal CEO Elon  - with the wheel of cheese intact -  as chronicled in my blog articles entitled “NASA and SpaceX - Little house on the Prairie” may have made him say, “I gotta get in on this!”



So he got a couple of his drinking buddies together and decided to make a swing at the Rare Earth Minerals Sector by going after the lucrative US$30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE which is a, quote “competition to place a robot on the Moon’s surface that travels 500 meters and transmits high definition video, images and data back to Earth.”

A US$10 million contract for Moon Express, as Dr. Pell puts it, quote, “for the initial delivery order of the ‘Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data (ILDD)’ program”, adds more cash to Moon Express’ war chest for their ultimate project: Rare Earth Metal Mining on the moon.

After all, there must be money to be made as the People’s Republic of China controlling 97% of the world’s Rare Earth Metal Supply must be an issue of National Security as stated in my Geezam Blog entitled “Chinese Crisis in Rare Earth Metals: Afghanistan is silicon Valley's Saviour”.  

The EU and the Americans still have not stabilized Afghanistan, so getting the mineral wealth would take another five (5) or so years.

Too long to wait on an All-Electric Vehicle Green Energy revolution being catalyzed by the Obama Administration that is happening as I type.

Dr. Barney Pell best expresses this Rare Earth Mineral supply goal for Moon Express, quote: “There is eventually going to be a moon rush, because there are a lot of resources on the moon that we will need. Resources like platinum and other metals that are needed for fuel cells and the post-fossil fuel economy. In the future we want to be able to land the payloads and machines and bring things back. We want to be the last mile to the moon.”

Need I say more?

This at a time when All-Electric Vehicles such as the 2011 Chevy Volt and the 2011 Nissan Leaf are all the rage in the US of A as stated in my blog articles entitled “The American Race Towards Alternative Energy and the article “Alternative Energy and Volvo - Tomorrow Never Dies for the Hydrogen-Electron Economy”.

So the Moon Express has to Fly Me to the Moon (2008) for the Rare Earth Minerals that are needed to fuel the ambitions Green Energy Tech Industry that will surely win Senator Barack Obama more votes in Silicon Valley – and eventually the Presidency.

Only one question remains: Where did he get the Name “Moon Express”? Sounds like something I said back in 2009 to a bunch of Shurpower Engineers in April 2009.

Oh well……we’ll Never know for sure……..just Fly Me to the Moon (2008), Dr. Barney Pell! I’ll drink to that Rihanna's Cheer's (Drink to That) Style!!

No comments: