12/14/2010

 

Our fifth class concluded the preparation stage of our project. By now, we have decided that we are going to build the colony underwater, chosen its location at Guiana Basin and its political status as an independent city-state, named it Atlantis-2, designed the flag, the anthem and the great seal, and risen the necessary capital.

 

Today, we were hiring the crew.

 

The participants were quite prepared for their interviews. Some brought their resumes and cover letters. Everybody presented themselves well and boldly answered all the questions of the interviewing committee, some of which were quite hard.

 

 

 

Our first interviewee was Ms. Sunny Waters (a.k.a Adina). A Harvard graduate, she is a former journalist who wrote for NY Times before switching to public relations, where she worked for ten years. After she invented a device that reads the minds of the buyers, she became an intrapreneur and started a company that promoted her invention. If hired, she sees her job in bringing funding and attracting awareness about the project's importance to humanity. She was asked many hard questions. It became apparent the she was a kind of child genius and wrote for the NY Times at the age of 4 (I don't remember whether it was before or after she graduated from Harvard). Here are links to Adina's resume and cover letter. She was hired for a position of Director of Public Relations.

 

 

Ms. Caoilin (a.k.a. Caoilin) is a 40 year old journalist and educator. She started her career writing greeting cards for Hallmark. Now she is the editor-in-cheif for the NY Times (no, she's never met Ms. Waters there, they missed each other by a few years). This personable woman made a long-lasting impression on everybody by her openness, self-confidence, and determination. She has no family and intends to devote her life to publicizing our project, whether we hire her or not. She was hired as our Director of Mass Media and Ambassador.

 

 

 

Dr. Leonardo Pandrake (a.k.a. Dan) is a prominent open-heart and open-brain surgeon, a student and long-time coworker of great John Smith of Yale. He was successfully interviewed for a position of the Head of the Medical Department of the colony. He promised to bring with him a whole team of his students, which, in his own words, "'nuff said." Dr. Pandrake is a renowned specialist in high pressure and low light adaptation. He is a Harvard professor, expert in mermaids (hybrids of humans and fish) whom he studied together with the Janet Tyler, acclaimed veterinarian and marine biologist. He saved his students from nitrogen narcosis by a combination of vodka and skinny-dipping. He used his own terminology, claiming that scientists invent long words to keep lay people off. When asked about his expectations about his compensation (salary), he answered that he is interested in knowledge rather than money.

 

 

 

Dr. Anne Cecille Sterman (a.k.a. Sasha) convinced us to create for her a new position of the Head of the Department of Traditional (alternative) Medicine, which, in contrast with Dr. Pandrake's Medical Department, whose function is to treat sick people, will focus on preventing illness. She won't need expensive equipment, only massage tables and needles. She graduated from Cornell, where her mentor was the renowned Dr. Jeffrey Inn. Her specialties are acupuncture and herbal preventive therapy and she believes she is well prepared for practicing ancient preventive treatments underwater. In addition to practicing medicine, she will educate the colonists on healthy lifestyles and, along with Emma (a.k.a. Emma) work on the healthy menu based on Chinese and other dietary schools. We were honored to hire Dr. Sterman and Emma, who, without a doubt, will be a great asset to the colony.

 

 

 

 Dr. Lucite Garas (a.k.a. Eugene) applied for a position of Materials Engineer and Architect. He has degrees in Architecture, Materials Engineering, and Genetic Engineering, all earned at MIT. Another brilliant mind, a polymath, knowledgeable in a wide range of disciplines, a rocket scientist (he performed research for NASA), he won everybody's heart. When we learned that Lucite cannot swim (which for any other applicant would be a problem), everybody in the team, all established scuba divers, volunteered to teach him.

 

 

 

Zach (a.k.a. Zach), a Cornell-educated architect, was hired to work alongside with Lucite. Akiva (a.k.a Akiva) was hired as a kosher chef. We know them well and like them a lot, and both of them were hired without an interview.

 

Some of us were too shy for an interview and we hired them because they are great and nice, and we need them dearly.

 

 

 

 

 

And then we had a break.

 

 

After the break, as a glimpse into our next meeting, we talked about the energy for the colony. We need energy to do all kinds of work, from moving the machinery to growing food. Not all energy is useful. For example, the energy of randomly moving molecules (which we call heat) cannot be used to do any useful work (unless we have areas with different temperatures). There are a limited amount of possible sources of energy:

• Solar energy. Sunlight can be used by solar panels to produce electricity that can be used elsewhere to do useful work. Plants convert the energy of light into chemicals that can be burned (or eaten, which is generally the same thing). The heat from the Sun makes water evaporate so that it can return as rain and snow, form rivers and turn turbines of hydro power plants. The Sun heats land and water differently, and the difference in temperatures begets winds that rotate windmills. The difference in temperatures also powers ocean currents.


• Fossil energy. This comes from burning oil, coal, and natural gas. In a way, this is also Solar energy converted into carbon and carbohydrates by the ancient plants and accumulated over millions of years.


• Nuclear energy. This comes from transformations (fusion or fission) of atomic nuclei. We have developed reliable and clean technology for fusion reactors that use Uranium, which is a mineral (metal) that needs to be mined and refined (or, as they call it, enriched). Fission reactions are powering the Sun and other stars, and we can ignite them on Earth. Unfortunately, unless the size of the reactor reaches a diameter of a soccer field, the controlled reaction produces less energy than it needs to be sustainable. And if the reaction is not controlled, the reactor is called the H-bomb.


• Geothermal energy. This comes from the difference between a surface temperature on the surface of Earth and hotter areas underneath. There are more than one explanation why Earth is hot inside. One hypothesis states that our planet is still cooling from the temperature it had when formed. Another is based on an assumption that there is a fission nuclear reaction, when the decay of radioactive materials produces enormous amounts of energy that keeps Earth's nucleus hot (according to some data, the temperature of the inner core is higher than that on the surface of the Sun. Hard to believe.)


• The last source of energy comes from gravity. The daytime side of Earth, which is closer to the Sun, is attracted to it stronger than the center of the Earth, and the nighttime side, which is farther from the Sun, is attracted less than the center of the Earth. This results in tides on both sides. Similarly, tides are caused by the Moon, so we may have four tides a day.
  
  
  

 

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT:

 

In our next class, we will further discuss energy sources for the colony. There is no homework assignment this time (because everybody needs a break, right?) and if you would decide to do some research on the topic, it would be a brave act of great sacrifice :-)

 

I look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday.

-Valéry

 

 

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