Thursday, September 6, 2007
St. Patrick's Day is known as a day of celebration and festivities, but very few people know the true story of St. Patrick and who he really is. By tradition, he is a patron saint of the Catholic religion because of the captivity that he went through, the time of solitude and his great faith, and eventually the number of people that were converted to know God through him. It is legend that he heard angels and they helped him in his decisions. All in all, he is known as the patron saint of good luck and blessings to the Catholics in that era up until the 21st century.
St. Patrick was a real live person born in the time around 400 AD in Roman Britian, when the British Isles were still under the domain of the Romans. He was born with the name Maewyn. His name wasn't changed until he was in the monastery. His father was a soldier in the army, and Patrick also reports him to be a deacon, civil official, and a town councilor, who was a son of a Romano-British priest. The family was Christian, but they weren't extremely religious, some historians even say Patrick was agnostic in his childhood.
According to his most famous work, the Confessio, Patrick was captured along with many others when his village was attacked, and he was taken to Ireland as a slave. Patrick was under the authority of a druid high priest and his family and here he learned the native Celtic language which he later used to communicate, and help those to be converted.
After 8 years in captivity, he escaped at the age of twenty-two, and legend has it that an angel directed him to spend twelve years in a monastery near Paris, France, where he adopted the name Patrick. It was during this time of captivity that Patrick found God and developed the habit of praying throughout the day to strengthen himself and to be closer to God. It is recorded in the Confessio that he would often pray up to 100 times a day. One night, while in the monastery, he said he heard many voices that were calling him back to Ireland to help the remaining slaves. At this time he was somewhere in his mid thirties and so he answered the callings. He became one of the first Christian missionaries in Ireland.
He was confident in the Lord, and he journeyed far and wide, baptizing and confirming with untiring zeal. Indeed, Patrick was successful at converting Ireland to christianity . And he even made important converts even among the royal families. For 20 years he had travelled throughout Ireland, establishing monasteries, schools and churches, which would aid him in his conversions. He died on March 17th.
You can see how originally this was a Catholic holy day, but today St. Patrick's Day has evolved into more of a secular holiday. Or, rather, 'be Irish Day '. Speculation as to why this holiday is so popular could be the coming of spring that occurs within just a few days.
Niall Cinneide loves entertaining and celebrating St Patrick's Day. He publishes views, information and news about St Patricks Day at St Patricks Information.
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The Solar Decathlon
Every other year, the U.S. Energy Department holds a solar decathlon for teams from various universities around the world. The winning team receives a $100,000 grant over two years.
A Contest of a Different Sort
The solar decathlon is an interesting strategy for promoting research and development on solar technology by the Energy Department. The Department selects 20 teams from a bevy of applicants to take part.
To win the competition, the teams are given the goal of creating and manufacturing a home that runs completely on solar power. The home must function as a residence as well as a home-based business and all typical transportation needs typically found with a residential home. The teams are not only required to design and build the home, but they must construct the homes on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for all to see. The most energy efficient home wins the competition and the university is awarded $100,000 for research and development of solar technologies.
In 2005, the University of Colorado was the winner of the competition with Cornell and Cal Poly finishing second and third. It was the second win in a row for Colorado over such schools as MIT and Cal Poly. The teams for the 2007 competition have been selected and are currently working on their projects:
California Polytechnic State University
Carnegie Mellon University
Cornell University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Kansas State University
Lawrence Technological University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
New York Institute of Technology
Team Montreal
Technische Universität Darmstadt,
Texas A&M University
Pennsylvania State University
Universidad de Puerto Rico
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
University of Cincinnati
University of Colorado
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Maryland
University of Missouri-Rolla,
University of Texas at Austin
The teams are due to build their homes on the National Mall on October 7, 2007. With the new interest of the Bush Administration in solar power, perhaps the contest will get a Presidential visit.
Rick Chapo is with SolarCompanies.com - a directory of solar power and solar energy companies. Visit SolarCompanies.com to read more solar electricity articles.
President Bush Goes Solar
Environmentalists throughout the world are still in shock. Who would've every thought President Bush would push solar energy?
The Initiative
As you undoubtedly know by now, the President George Bush announced it was time to start weaning ourselves from our oil addiction during his State of the Union speech. As with anything in politics, there is much gnashing of the teeth as to whether the President, an avowed oil man form an oil family in Texas, really means to do anything. The answer, of course, is really almost irrelevant if people would stop to consider the fact that solar power was even mentioned in such a speech. Clearly, a baby step has been taken, if not a giant leap. So, what is the President's grand plan?
From an overall perspective, President Bush has issued an Advanced Energy Initiative to begin changing our energy habits to cleaner, non-foreign supply, based fuels. As is his habit, the President has a Solar America Initiative as part of the larger initiative. This is where we find the key solar components.
With the Solar America Initiative, the administration has set a goal of accelerating widespread acceptance of clean solar technologies throughout the U.S. by 2015. Yes, it is a bit murky in regards to the exact goal, but the Energy Department recently clarified matters.
According to the Energy Department, the goal is to generate 5 to 10 megawatts of electricity in United States by 2015. While this may sound impressive, 10 megawatts of energy is barely enough to power two million homes. In comparison, California alone intends to put one million homes on solar in the next ten years. Put another way, the Solar America Initiative isn't particularly impressive.
While the President appears to be paying lip service to solar energy in this Initiative, it should be noted that he is due more than a small bit of credit. First, he has put solar power and other clean energy on the political table. Second, the administration has taken major steps in other legislation to provide tax credits for solar power and renewable energy platforms. Those steps, not the Solar America Initiative, are going to make a major impact on the promotion of solar energy in the country. For that reason alone, the President should be applauded.
Rick Chapo is with SolarCompanies.com - a directory of solar power and solar energy companies. Visit SolarCompanies.com to read more solar electricity articles.
