Boom, Boom, Boom, Another one bites the dust.

Another solar energy company is going under. This constant stream of bankruptcies seems to be directly related to the inability to make solar energy financially attractive for the consumer. No one in their right mind wants to pay $.30 per kWh when natural gas produces electricity at $.07 per kWh. More importantly, no one wants to pay $.30 per kWh for something that is essentially free.

I continue to be at a loss to understand why this is so hard. You would think that if the scientists and government were as concerned about global warming / pollution / oil dependency as they profess to be, they would be making a significant effort and investment in a solution.

That solution should be a combination of wind (windmills and ocean wave generators), gravity (hydropower dams and current generators) and solar (panel farms as well as individual homeowners linked to the grid) with solar being the most significant piece of that pie.

According to Sandia National Labs, the extractable electrical energy of solar power is 89,000 terrawatts. If you would like to see that number written out in long hand, it is 89,000,000,000,000,000,000 watts.

The average home in the United States (the heaviest electrical users on the planet) uses 10,932,000 watts so the math tells us that there is enough solar power for 8,141,236,736,187 homes.

The number of houses on the entire planet is currently estimated at 1,500,000,000.

This means that if we apply some averages and adjust for manufacturing, there is enough solar energy striking the planet to provide for about 5,500 times current needs of the human population. It also means that the worlds population will have to expand by a factor of 5,500 before we begin to exceed the potential.

Yet for some reason, solar power only supplies 0.12% of our current energy needs. That is slightly more than one tenth of one percent.

Can someone please explain to me why our government has decided that they should leave solar improvements in the hands of publicly-traded companies? Why is this not the focus of our government? If they are as concerned about global warming as they claim, why do they not have something similar to the Manhattan Project in place for solar energy?

Our government is screwed up and it's only going to get worse...

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The Red Sox played the third game of their four game series against the Blue Jays this afternoon and they managed to lose. This gives them a 6-5 record which is an okay record. Not as good as the Orioles, the Royals and the White Sox but still, it's okay.

The Nationals, however, are playing some very good baseball with the best record in all of MLB at 9-1. The Cubs are right behind them at 9-2 which is also a very good record.

So having said all that, it's still April and there are 150+ games left to play. All I'm saying is that so far, it's shaping up to be a pretty good season to be a baseball fan.

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Here are some links:

• I can't think of any possible reason for you to be running that god-awful CPU resource-hog known as QuickTime but if you are, knock it off.



• If you are looking for a job and you don't mind living in Denmark for a few months, this might be the job for you.



• Key phrase in this story: "...just leave the coytoes alone."



• I agree.