MY LIFE: 2b

The big news of the day is that, according to President Donald Trump, Israel and Iran have agreed to a ceasefire.

Of course, he has made similar statements in the past, on 2April2026 and 8June2026.  We'll know in a day or two if this latest development will last, leading to an opening of the Strait of Hormuz and success in peace talks.

However, yesterday:

When Welker mentioned what local (California) officials have said about the process, Trump said, “They’re crooked. Just like you’re crooked. Your press is crooked and Meet the Press is crooked.” 

Then, President Trump stormed out of an interview with NBC's Kristen Welker yesterday, after being challenged on false claims about California's ongoing elections and the 6January2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, something he has done in the past, like the CBS 60 Minutes interview with Lesley Stahl in 2020, and several more instances in the past.  Presidents Biden, Obama, both Bushs' and Clinton never did so in anger.

To bring you up to date, I began my first episode of the three 27-year periods of my life, my educational phase, a week ago.  Part 1b came a couple of days later, and the first chapter of my second 27-year period, representing my "work" years, on Thursday.  Thus, today, Part 2b.

In the second half of the 1970s I became an associate professor of engineering, taught courses in computer programming, environmental engineering and technology & society.

• Technology and society was especially interesting for me, as I created it, and students could use the course to satisfy one of their interdisciplinary requirements.  
• Typically, the class had a lecture size of a 100, about equally split among engineering, science, the social sciences and humanities majors, with three breakout sessions of 33 students each to complete projects related to the community and environment.  
• This provided me an opportunity to have students with different backgrounds and interests to work together on a topic of technological importance for the future of humanity.
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  One semester, in particular, was immensely rewarding.
• I was able to obtain National Science Foundation funding for the class to produce a book on renewable energy.  That yellow one.
• Some leaders formed a team to educate the state legislature, which provided additional funds for them to visit school programs on all the major islands.
• The State Department of Education the book for their high school energy course.
• In addition to Fortran IV Programming I expanded into computer graphics.

I spent two summer months in the second half of the 1970s at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) on laser fusion.

• In 1974 my apartment was adjacent to a vineyard of Wente Brothers.
• A competing winery in Livermore was Concannon.  They developed the Petite Sirah wine which I think now is the #1 red wine in the world.

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  Petite Sirah grown in Paso Robles is as good as grapes get for the finest red wine.  Read about my recent journey to this site.
• There was another special reason why I wanted to visit Paso Robles.

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  During my four years at Stanford, I drove through this town at least 20 times and never stopped once.  But then, they had very few wineries.  That was 64 years ago.

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  Today?  More than 200 of them, and some produce the finest red wines, even better than French Bordeaux and Napa Cabernet Sauvignon.
• What did I do at LLNR?  Not much.  My building of tunable lasers got me this summer job, and, well, it was summer.
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  I did, however, decide in 1979 that the laser to accomplish commercial fusion was not yet invented, and who knew when that would happen.  

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  Nearly 47 years later, this remains unknown.  
• However, Lawrence Livermore attained fusion ignition in 2022.
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  ITER in France using magnetic confinement is not expect to reach that milestone until 2039.
• Billionaires are now beginning to invest in this development.
• Watch this video on How Close Ae We to Fusion Energy?

In 1979, during the heat of the Second Energy Crisis, I was asked to work for U.S. Senator Spark Matsunaga in DC.

• I got a leave of absence from the University of Hawaii.
• Drafted the original legislation for ocean energy and hydrogen, and worked closely with the House to pass the first wind energy bill.
• All this legislative experience and personal links to governmental officers made a huge difference in my job to come when I returned to academia.

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  During this three-year assignment, there was an opportunity to experience life in the East.
• Took Amtrak to New York City several times, and on one trip had a fabulous Cellar in the Sky dinner, located in the middle of Windows of the World, at the top floor (107th) of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, which collapsed on 9/11/2001.
• Spring flowers, Fall foliage, museums, concerts on the Mall.... 

After three years with the U.S. Senate, I returned to the University of Hawaii as a full professor of engineering in 1982.

• Over the next few years, new Dean of Engineering Paul Yuen and I determined that there was a flaw in the transition of academic research to the marketplace.
• We thus created the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research (PICHTR) with the strong support of Senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga, Governor George Ariyoshi and University of Hawaii President Fujio Matsuda.

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  This new technology transfer organization, hopefully serving as the bridge between academia and industry, created several showcase projects, all valued at $25 million and more.
• Built an open cycle ocean thermal energy conversion at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii on the west side of the Big Island, and succeeded in gaining net positive energy and producing freshwater.  Watch Luis Vega provide a TedX talk on this subject.
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  On the island Maui, a biofuels facility to convert biomass (sugar cane waste bagasse) into biomethanol to serve as a transportation fuel to replace gasoline.

• PICHTR, forty years today remains as a successful organization headquartered in Honolulu.

The Pacific International Center for High Technology Research, however, was a secondary effort, for my primary job was director of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute at the University of Hawaii from the mid-1980s to 1999 when I retired.

• I took over directorship a decade after I helped create it following the first energy crisis in 1973.  Ran it for 15 years.  I recruited current director Rick Rocheleau, who went on to direct HNEI, now in his 27th year.
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  While director, the Institute became the Department of Energy's national Hydrogen Research Center with the Florida Solar Energy Center, Department of Interior's national Marine Minerals Center with the University Mississippi and National Foundation's Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center with the University California at Berkeley.  

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  Combining my personal research with bills I drafted while working in the U.S. Senate which became national priorities in hydrogen and ocean energy, and the accomplishments of HNEI, we began to work with organizations around the world to develop the Blue Revolution.  Here are two talks and articles I wrote for The Huffington Post worthy of your follow-up: 

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  A 2012 talk I gave at the Seasteading Institute Conference in San Francisco.
• A TedX presentation I provided in 2022 titled, The Time for the Blue Revolution is Now.
• Huffington Post articles.
• The Dawn of the Blue Revolution.
• The Ultimate Ocean Ranch.
• The Blue Revolution.
• The Blue Revolution is the Optimal Solution for Japan.

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  What is the status of the Blue Revolution?  
• This $150 million project is too large for governments and companies.
• We await the interest of a visionary billionaire.
• You can become famous if you lead such an individual to that article.

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