by Orville Ranger
Coastal Journal contributor

With the advent of enhanced communication, increasingly incredible events become known in seconds instead of hours, days, months, or years. One suspects that whether this is a good or a bad thing depends entirely on the content of the message. At a family gathering this past summer, I learned that Emily, a niece who lives in California, works for a company that produces modern surgical equipment which is operated by not-so-remote control - but remote nevertheless. It seems that although the scalpel touches the patient, the surgeon never touches the scalpel. However, by manipulating the controls, he makes it perform the same procedure he would perform if he were holding it in his fingers.

But why bother? Well, to a layman, it would appear that the incision could be smaller because a human hand, or part thereof, would be replaced by a rod which could, in turn, wield a tiny scalpel. Thus, the operation could be performed with a much smaller insult to the affected tissue, fewer blood vessels would be severed, and the loss of blood would be minimized.

by Robert Skoglund aka the humble Farmer
Coastal Journal contributor

You know that every morning I open the Encyclopedia Britannica at random and read. Every time I do this I learn something new and wonderful. One morning I read that Horatio Kitchener was a British hero of WWI. Years earlier, "pleading constantly for war, he had his way in 1896 and brought his campaign to a victorious conclusion with a tremendous slaughter of Arabs." Despite the ruthlessness of his methods, Kitchener's victories thrilled the empire and he was rewarded with a peerage. Soon later he experienced great success in South Africa where he brought the enemy to their knees by burning farms and "herding women and children into disease-ridden concentration camps." It's easy to understand why honors were showered upon Kitchener when he returned to England where he was immediately created a viscount.

Were Kitchener to live in the United States today, he'd be considered a bumbling incompetent. Nowadays, the judges and politicians in favor of concentration camps for women and children make sure that the camps will be privatized so they can get a per-capita kickback from the camp owner.

The humble Farmer can be heard on WMPG 90.9 FM at 2 p.m. Tuesdays

by Michael J. Mayhew, PE
Heliotropic Technologies, Special to the Coastal Journal

I'm writing this to address some of the points in leters written by a couple of engineers to the Portland Press Herald, regarding the Damariscotta Hardware solar electric system.  I want to make a point that their economic views of solar electric systems are not universally held by other Maine licensed professional engineers. My background as a Licensed Professional Engineer, with over 30 years experience working with Renewable Energy Systems, more specifically having designed and installed solar electric systems, as well as my employment at engineering positions at the utilities and Maine Public Utilities Commission, supports my ability to offer a professional opinion to this project's merit.

The cost of electric generation has historically required a large capital investment, and thus electric companies were given monopolies and guaranteed a minimum rate of return on their long term investment by the Public Utilities Commission.  Today the dynamic electric supply marketplace has summer 'real-time' peaking power prices that are magnitudes higher than average year-round electric power prices, and they are driven by the summer air conditioning loads, as well as other day-time commercial and residential activities.  The generation of electric power is one of the planet's largest greenhouse gas (GHG) producing process on the planet.