Moving Windmills (was Re: Retuning?)

[Tony Hardie-Bick]

The Dong wrote:
>> Here is true inspiration:
> 
> In some ways, yes it is. Hope he manages to create a business from it, 
> before it is stolen from him.
> 
> As one of the posters points out, we'd all be doing shit like this for 
> pretty much free energy, it doesn't take a university degree to try, but 
> sadly we live in too close proximity and with such high regulation that 
> any attempt to harness the wind, water or sun on a scale large enough to 
> be of any use would be smashed down with a few words on a piece of paper 
> after the obligatory neighbourly complaint.

Ya know, Dong, I actually think you're closest to this guy in spirit than many. 
Tube amp? No prob. Get the bits from wherever.

It's just that... he's in northern Malawi - it's not even beautiful there (like 
it is in the South, where I lived for a coupla yrs when a kid). It's, a desert. 
There was a famine in 2002. And this guy builds a windmill. You may point out 
that it's not so hard. But that's cos we're surrounded by examples of what it's 
possible to do. We build our own computers, build whatever, and it's not so 
surprising, because we almost expect it of ourelves. We make multi-part 
arrangements of musical compositions we can call our own, or take part in 
recording other peoples' music. We make websites. No big deal. But this guy, 
lives in a rural community in the back side of Africa, no fresh water, no 
electricity, and no expectation. And he builds not just a curiousity, but a 
serious, life-changing device. He does it in a way that could be copied - not by 
corporations, but by individuals. My feeling is that, out of the best inventors 
and engineers I've interviewed and worked with over the years, here's someone at 
least as innovative and forward-looking as any. The context looks tame, but 
that's because of where *we* look at it from.

Well, anyway. Along with those others who have raised the bar in my perception 
of myself and potential, here is another. However, the implications are more 
than that, because what stands between one individual and success, is more often 
than not a psychological barrier. This guy shattered that barrier, and I will be 
considering what limits I have set upon myself, without realising, and 
shattering those, like someone following a path through the jungle.

Tony (HB)