This clip of Lonnie G Johnson is so inspiring. Starting two companies and working on the research that he loves. He's even received high remarks from the National Science Foundation. This brother is the truth and all his attempts at getting funded has been limited. It's like the people with the money are catching on and don't want to see this brother receive the full credit/recognition he deserves for his ingenious ideas. This makes me wonder how creative our talented/ gifted brothers & sisters could have been if we had the resources to fulfill our dreams in life.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
today's banneker....
ReplyDeletethis is impressive.... that's why when i read things pertaining to banneker or carver i just get speechless... this guy is facing hardship today that MAY OR MAY NOT BE LINKED TO RACIAL REASONS. imagine the crap those guys went through (banneker had to teach himself to read and understand science and engineering in a time when it was illegal for him to do so).
i knew i knew this name... i remember finding out mr super soaker was black. i look forward to the day when realizing the color of a certain phenom won't matter....
In a way, I think his hardship has something to do with his color. Clearly his background (working on two prominent NASA projects, invented the super soaker, and 100 patents under his name) should suggest to most that Lonnie is someone to not be taken lightly. At the end of the day companies no longer support (monetary wise) projects that won't directly grow their profits or may hurt. Instead of seeing the good Lonnie's projects will do for the environment or greater good of the country.
ReplyDeletei am not sure if his blacklisting is driven by color per se or folks pockets...
ReplyDeletethis energy technology movement is funny because currently there is tons of money to be made off the current inefficient way we use energy. for example just take people's resistance to climate change research (well research that suggest that there is a man-assisted factor to climate change). this comes directly from they fact that fat pocketed individuals want to keep making money off petroleum for instance. i think the same can be said for his approach. on a small scale people are NOW using LEDs in traffic lights that need replacing once a decade or more vs once a yr. there is a need for a man to repair the traffic light more readily under the old way. convert to LEDs and his pockets gets lighter. now take that notion to mass scale movement that uproots the current system overnight. fat cats with pull unlike this lowly union worker perhaps will do everything in their power to stop this change. what they will do is aid the company they support to copy this research and catch up. when their big company/gov't finally duplicates the technology they will be all about the conversion over to the new way. i think this is moreso what is going on with this lonnie. if lonnie was white or asian i think the same shunning would be going on.
I love this. And I agree with both of you, I think is has more to do with the fact that Companies will not benefit/make money off of his invetions. That is why the electric car has been coming and going a few times in the last several decades. There is an amazing Documentary/Movie called "Who killed the Electric Car". You guys should check it out if you can. They literarily went around and collected all the electric cars left in every city, piled them up in a junk yard and destroyed them. Simply because they knew their profit was gonna stop if cars didn't depend on Oil.
ReplyDelete