ii A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Energy Independence In the old days, Stanford Research Institute worked on the big air pollution problem of the day— irritated, red eyes from diesel exhaust. This volunteer is having diesel exhaust pumped into the hood to see if it irritates his eyes… And these were the good old days. iii Please visit us at www.EnergyLaughs.com iv A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Energy Independence The first energy or environmental book that makes no point and doesn’t ask you to think. by Robert Danziger Front cover by Mike Kazaleh Illustrations by Mike Kazaleh, Juan Ibanez, and Arno Baernhoft ãRobert Danziger v Published by Robert Danziger through CreateSpace For further information please contact:
[email protected] Or go to the website: www.EnergyLaughs.com First published in 2010 by Robert Danziger Copyright ãRobert Danziger, 1RND1 Corporation 2010 Illustrations and cartoons copyright ãRobert Danziger Cover by Mike Kazaleh Interior illustrations by Robert Danziger, Mike Kazaleh, Juan Ibanez, and Arno Baernhoft All Rights Reserved Photographs courtesy of the author and by permission ISBN 1450557295 LCCN 2010901478 vi Contents Preface . 1 Condensed History of Energy . 2 Part 1 The Beginning Chapter 1 We Get It . 9 • Why with the Music Stuff? • On a Serious Note Chapter 2 JPL and Caltech Days . 15 Chapter 3 My Weird Education and Career Prep . 21 Chapter 4 JPL: Getting the Job . 25 Chapter 5 Give or Take $500 Million . 27 Chapter 6 Perp, Purple, PURPA . 30 • SWEL and the Beautiful Blonde Chapter 7 Putting the “Rock” Back in Rocket .