cc: file, Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail, Sara and Des Penny, and Maxine Shirts
"Interesting week. It was very busy. Hope each of you had a week partly as interesting. I worked late Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on the Nigerian Marginal Fields. Really interesting work, and the maps are really neat. It is a type of art. I look forward to when some of the data is released and I am able to show you what I've been doing. Expect this will happen about the end of October, when or just after Andrea and I get back from visiting Nigeria. More about that later.
The big event of the week was participation in a panel discussion with Venture West Network in Gillette, Wyoming. It has been years since I have been in Gillette, which is in the northeast corner of Wyoming. Mobil was running a research seismic crew in Gillette, attempting to see through the clinker beds, just to the south of Gillette in 1978 when I started working in Field Operations. Clinker beds are layers of coal which caught on fire, possibly started by lightning, and burned underground for years, leaving layers of clinkers. It is very hard to get seismic energy through these layers, and so the experiment Mobil was running was drilling through the clinker beds, setting the dynamite source off under the clinker beds, and recording the energy that made it to the surface, traveling through these diffracting and absorption layers only on the way to the surface. I carved the onyx indian head while I was there. It is also where I got the nice gypsum crystals which have been in the rock garden for 24 years. So I thought it was nice to be invited to go back to Gillette.
Michael Hauck invited me to participate on the panel. Mike used to work for Shell in New Orleans. In an SEG workshop he asked a question about dynamic range of seismic response, and the answer Allister Brown gave did not answer his question. However, my answer did, and we ended up talking at length after the workshop. We became friends, and have talked many times since then, although I have not referred to him in the Thoughtlets before. In the Continuum days we tried to sell a theater to Shell New Orleans, and he was guiding us through the political minefield. We weren't successful. Mike ended up leaving Shell, and took a job as the CTO (Chief Technical Officer) of a research lab associated with the University of Laramie. Part of his work is to encourage entrepreneurship in Wyoming, and that is why he suggested I be on the Venture West Network Panel. I like Mike a lot, and so even though they only paid expenses, I took a couple of days and went up to Gillette to help on this panel.
I left Houston at 7:40 on Thursday morning, and arrived in Gillette via Denver and a turboprop plane at about noon. The extra security at the airport reminded me of something Andrea read to me out of Reader's Digest:
While in the Denver airport I worked with Landmark about transferring Continuum licenses to II&T. Also, I had a long phone conversation with Swede Nelson. He has a project in a basin in Southern China he wants me to help him with. He is working parallel with me on Nigerian and Chinese activities. It will be interesting to see how it all turns out.
When I got to Gilette, there was a shuttle bus to the hotel. However, the receptionist wouldn't let me check into my hotel room until 2:00, because they were `cleaning the rooms.' When I checked out, I waited until 11:55, because the cleaning people had knocked on the door twice already, and I wanted to make sure the next person who waited for them had basis. So I read for a while, and then walked over to Kentucky Fried Chicken and had a nice greasy lunch. Not so good on the swallows, and it sure tasted good. Gillete is an interesting town. They are smaller than Cedar City and claim to be the energy capital of the United States. They do mine about 1/3rd of the coal used to generate electricty in the U.S. And the coal mines are very impressive (we flew into town over one of them). Russel Harris used to work on these coal mines. They mine the coal and then fill up the mine with the tailings leaving the land like it was before they make these giant open hole pits. If any of you are ever up there, I'm sure you would be impressed on a tour. That afternoon I took a nap to catch up for the first three nights of the week, and wrote out my thoughts on the topic they assigned me. The Panel had a teleconference call from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM on Tuesday Houston time, and so I had a pretty good idea what they wanted me to talk about. I used G. Spencer-Brown's `Laws of Form' logic to organize my thoughts (../0018.html, ../0029.html, and ../0048.html). The more I do this the more convinced I become this is the only way to write a paper. When we are next together, it would be to your benefit to get me spend a half-an-hour demonstrating how to do this type of outlining. It sure would have helped me when I had to write a lot of papers in school. I walked over to the meeting room at 5:00, and ended up spending the next hour and a half talking to one of the panalists named Ron Baird from south of Denver.
Ron is a retired investment banker, who runs an incubator. One of the companies he has developed has just got funding for an automatic measurement of CWD, the equivalent of Mad Cow Disease (../9932.html and ../0042.html) in Elk and Deer. It turns out this is turning into a big issue in the west. There is the potential of several thousand cases of Cretzfeld-Jakob disease over the next year, and they have not been able to determine how it is spreading. They know the deer and the elk do not eat the brains and spinal fluids of other deer and elk, and it is possible the transmission is by mosquitio. If so, the entire population of the western U.S. could be at risk. I had no idea how big of a deal this is in the West. They are searching for the vector which defines how it is spreading, and have not been able to identify it. He was also interested in China Cattle Corporation, Dynamic Resources, and some of the other stuff I have been involved in. It was a lot of fun, and I expect there will be follow-up conversations.
The Venture West Network meeting started at 6:00 with a dinner. After dinner, four companies presented their business plans. Really interesting. Much like the Rice Alliance (0013.html, 0019.html, and 0044.html). Only the business plans seemed to be farther along, and better put together. Following these four presentations, the panel got on our podium (see photo from Michael Hauck), and we each talked for about 10 minutes on our particularl questions. The questions were:
The outline I put together for my questions:
There were a couple of follow-up questions. The first one was how to distribute all of the inventoried data and patterns. I described the Infinite GridSM tilling process without refering to the IG. Then there was a question about what people in Wyoming would think of all of this data. I said I expected there is a lot more sophistication among citizens than is anticipated. I quoted Tom Frantis' epiphany in Paraguay. Since it doesn't look like I have included this in a Thoughtlet before, I will repeat what I said to Venture West Network here.
Tom is Director of Visualization Research for Exxon-Mobil now. Before this job he made a trip into Paraguay. He stressed that Paraguay is the poorest country in the Americas. As he was at the airport waiting for the plane he was writing his trip report. He felt some eyes looking at him, turned around and saw three local kids staring at him. He asked if they spoke English and had a question. The leader said, `What's that?' Tom started to explain it was a computer, and that he was writing a report on it. The kids said, `No, is it a 386 or a 486.' Tom explained it was a 386, that his company was still testing the 486 to make sure it would not adversely affect their networks. Then the next kid said, `Are you going to fax modem your report when you finish.' Tom explained Exxon-Mobil's concern about security and that there were no modem's on company computers. Then the third kid said, `Well, are there any games?' Tom explained this was a company computer, and that it was only for work. The first kid cut him off and said, `Let me see if I understand, you have an obsolete computer, with no network connection, and you don't even have any games on it. I would never go to work for a company that provided tools like that.' It turns out the kids were on their way to a private school in New York. And Tom realized that the world has changed from when he went to college.
My comments were very well receveived by those attending the Venture West Network dinner. There were about 80 attendees, and probably 15 0r 20 of them came up and talked to me after the panel was over. Good people, and they truly want to change their state and the way things are economically. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I ended up talking to Mike and some of the others in the bar until 2:30 AM Houston time. It was no problem, because my flight was not until 1:00 Friday afternoon. It might interest some of you to know that I am 52 years old, and I have never even tasted a beer, even though I have spent many evenings in bars having discussions like this. Orange juice is always available, and it is not addictive like alcohol. I largely thank Randy Shirts and Dale Hatch and their example in High School for this accomplishment in my life.
I spent Friday morning on the phone and working on my new book, `An Open Mind.' I'm pleased with how this is coming together. On the plane I spent most of the time finishing up the book Roice gave me for Christmas: `The Age of Spiritual Machines.' I'm really impressed with the book, although I have a lot of thoughts about the author's stress on virtual sex (../9729.html), and that because the author does not come from a community based on sexual morals, he is missing the fact that as the world becomes more and more wicked (remember `wickedness burneth as the fire' II Nephi 19:18 and Malachai 4:1), the constituients on the planet will change, the wicked will be no more, and there will be a thousand years of peace, partly driven by the same computer developments he describes in his book. Anyway, this deserves more time and space than I have tonight.
When I got home, there was an interesting comment about one of my hero's, Benjamin Franklin, in one of the LDS Daily News e-mails. I include it for your review and consideration:
Matt had a good week. Andrea had cleaned up the dust from her sanding experiment. It was good to be home.
Saturday morning Andrea went with me for my meeting with Jude. Looks like we will be going to Nigeria the middle to the end of October. I never really wanted to go back to Nigeria, and this is too big of an opportunity to pass up. Won't be able to give blood again, possibly for the rest of my life, after this trip. Oh well! I'll go in a couple of times before we leave. Jude was pleased with the new interpretation results, and we reviewed the results. He also paid us $5,000., and reviewed all of the additional work he needs to be done over the next few weeks. I really do like Jude, and Andrea also likes him.
We went from Jude's office to the temple, because we missed going on the Nottingham Country Ward Temple Night on Tuesday. It was a really neat session. There were two Mainland Chinese couples taking out their endowments and being sealed, and many from the Chinese branch now meeting in the Maplewood Building. We ended up having a Chinese session, and we wore the headphones to listen to the session in English. Andrea changed channels and listened in Japanese. It was her first endowment session in Japanese. When the helpers came out at the end of the session the first one was Cosme Salazar, a Mexican who used to be in our Stake Prsidency, and a Nigerian looking man with white hair. What an international temple session! We were talking to one of the Chinese people afterwards, and she said these folks have brought their genealogy back 1,000 years with them, and they will be going back to China in another few months. There are big changes coming in the membership of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
When we got home, Matt went with us to dinner at Cafe East, a Chinese Buffet on Mason Road. I hadn't eaten all day, and I ate too much. Then we went to Ben Daniel's and Wendy Flanagan's reception. Bishop Daniels moved to Gillete, Wyoming when he left the ward. They were really suprised to learn I was up there earlier in the week. It was fun to see friends. Brother Thompson, whom Matt and I Home Teach, was there and talked to me. I missed the Vance reception on Friday night, and Andrea had gone, since she was Autumn's? Young Woman's Leader.
This morning Matt and I had Stake Priesthood Meeting at 7:00AM. It was very good. President Pickered expressed serious concern about debt and pornography. Adam Peterson had his missionary farewell in Sacrament Meeting. Great talks. He is going to the southern tip of Argentinia. I helped Chris Schmidt move a couch after church, and Matt and I Home Taught Brother Thompson and the Riches. We were late, because of going with Chris, and so Brother Riches was out Home Teaching. Truely Home Teaching was going out on the last Sunday of the Month and visiting each other's wives. Oh well! Then Andrea and I went to Adam Salt's Eagle Court of Honor. I sang three songs about scout camps I've been on with Adam. They were well received. Then we went to Adam Peterson's reception. Lots of cake, and it was 8:30 before I got around to eating lunch. And it is 11:20, so I guess I'll stop writing this Thoughtlet. Other than to point out there was an e-mail from Paul with 5 photo's of Grant which he wanted me to pass on to each of you, and an e-mail from Mike Hauck with the attached photo from the panel at the Venture West Network meeting."
