When i was 11 years old i was given my last school report from my junior school its conclusion was “David is very intelligent but can be under motivated, the ball is squarely in his court.” your thinking thanks for that but why are you telling us? well in my opinion the typical report for an 11 year old sums up the Human race in a nut shell.

Leading up to the second world war an RAF airman named “Frank Whittle” invented and patented the Jet engine as we know it today, sadly the government refused funding to further his invention until you’ve guessed it the imminent break out of WW2, the funding, staff and building space was given overnight.  I’m not suggesting his invention would have never made it to the huge success its become, I am saying it may have been years or decades later it went into production.  Think on how that would have set back the holiday industry for example, fancy flying to Australia in a propeller driven aircraft with perhaps 4 stops to refuel i don’t! as a foot note “Sir Frank Whittle” never charged anyone or contested his Paten till the day he died he said “Its my gift to Man kind”.

On a some what controversial note the dropping of 2 Atom bombs on Japan in WW2  forced Japan to surrender ending the second world war.  The spin off from this research into Nuclear fission is Nuclear power in all its forms, Power stations, Nuclear powered ships,Radiation treatment to help treat Cancer, the next generation of space vehicles is thought to be built and launched from a space station and powered by extremely powerful nuclear reactors. Would we have gone down the route of nuclear power without the nuclear bomb? I’m not sure have a think.

A subject recently in the world press, NASA has test launched its replacement for the space shuttle.  Do you remember the space race between America and Russia in the 1960s and early 1970s? America put the first man on the moon winning the space race.  The technology that spun off from the race was incredible, computers as we know them today,digital time keepers,Teflon coated kitchen pans, there are more but ill stop there.  America beat Russia to the moon and not too long after cancelled the Apollo space programme.

Oil reserves are running low across the world I don’t not know the exact decade when oil will run out but its going to be sooner rather than later.  What progress have we made with electric vehicles? not much is the answer a few hybrid vehicles powered by petrol engines with a huge heavy stock of batteries to power an electric motor for in town driving.  Trouble is on electric power these cars are slow and have a very poor range perhaps 90 miles, the technology hasn’t grown hardly at all, why you ask? the answer is simple we still have oil its running out and getting more expensive [supply and demand] Man kind will wait until its got 6 months of oil remaining then throw all its top scientists into a melting pot and trust me an alternative to fossil fuels and the Internal combustion engine will be found.

Why not fund the scientists now and be rid of Fossil fuels save some of our ozone layer as well, Man is a party animal if things are going well they leave things as they are and carry on partying, I’m not saying I’m different because I’m not, which brings me back to my junior school report “David is very intelligent, but can be under motivated” Man is at his best when his back is to the wall and he must be creative and inventive, its such a shame this trait is present in all of us.  Imagine if we had extended the Apollo missions kept up the same rate of invention and creativity in the 40 or so years since Apollo was cancelled we could have space stations on the Moon and Mars maybe we could be mining recourse’s from Mars to for fill our growing planets needs?, but we didn’t, we returned to the slow pace of peace time invention.

I hope some day Man will use his powerful brain and ingenuity without war or political pressure.