Hi Doug and Friends!

Post here once you join, and tell us about yourself so we have a clue who we are talking to.
Keep threads short here -- once you have something to say, there's a topic here somplace where it will fit -- and if not, let me know and I will make subforums as necessary. We want all of hard science and tech up here, and if something doesn't fit -- that's my fault and I will fix that for you. See the rules and tips in the parent forum, please.
Forum rules
This sub forum is for new menbers to announce themselves. Try not to create long threads here -- this is just for you to tell us who you are, and for us to say welcome. There are other forums to actually discuss real tech-science things here, and ask questions on. The idea hopefully is to have enough forums and subforums that nothing sci-tech related will be off-topic, there will be a place for it. If I missed something -- let me know, and I'll fix that.

Hi Doug and Friends!

Postby Craig Potter » Tue Apr 22, 2014 5:52 pm

Hello everybody! My name is Craig Potter. I live in Southwest Virginia, about an hour and a half west of Doug.

I'm one of the 10,000 people that contacted Doug after watching the Vice piece featuring his work and brief glimpse into his life. I was honored to have Doug let me be part of his forum.

So here is my story. I'm 31 years old and I manage a "Material Recovery Facility" which is a special kind of Solid Waste Management Facility. We specialize in recycling wastes with alcohol, which we distill and put through a molecular sieve to make pure fuel grade ethanol for fuels blending, and household hazardous waste collected at Household Collection events all over the Eastern part of the country. This is a family business built by my father and I take a budo (samurai-esque attitude) type approach to serving my father. I've always feared the nepotism thing so I work every hard, which lead to promotions, additional responsibilities, and no allegations of nepotism.

I did not always work for my father. I studied thermodynamics and history in college. When I got out of college I had trouble finding a good job with my degrees. I tended bar to make some money while I looked. While doing that I started doing standup comedy and decided to give it an honest shot. After 3 years, and not much progress, I concluded that I didn't want to live the life of a road comic. I decided to work for my father, try to improve the business as best I could, and focus on my martial arts training.

Since joining my father's company 7 years ago I have focused on mostly work, my martial arts, my guitar, and, since reading about GMOs and possible food shortages, my garden.

Martial arts has been my particular passion and I've made the conscious decision to learn enough to be a respected teacher. I love the confidence, the inner peace, the challenge, the discipline, the art of the techniques, the concept of Ki, and the atmosphere. I treat it like a PhD and my own dojo is my dream retirement job. I studied a style called Diato Ryu Aikijujitsu. It is the art at the root of all modern Aikido and judo. We also do a system of Karate called Shorin Ryu. After researching 20 plus schools in New Jersey, I found this school the most engaging and effective.

I've recently had a rewakening in my interest in science, particularly energy technologies. I was particularly interested in Energy Technologies (hence thermodynamics in college), seeing that energy was essentially our ticket to the liberation of labor and time. Cheap, clean energy isn't just science to me, its liberation of humanity.

My scientific mind has been focused primarily on health. The idea that our food is our medicine and our medicine is our food resonated with me as well as supplementation, nutrition, and fitness. I am in a good place in that regard.

And in that good place I saw Doug's video and was very inspired to create something like Doug's device. My initial email to Doug was essentially an offer to help in anyway given my close location and access to reusable waste streams. My technical skills are not very good but I'm reinvigorated and ready to learn and relearn. I want to offer a hand for humanity by helping Doug and learning how to do it myself.

I'm well aware of my ignorance in many areas so I will do my best to research before I ask specific questions on the science forums. I hope I don't embarass myself.

I might be able to offer people free paints, cleaners, fertilizers, and recycled fluids if it is being beneficially used. Feel free to contact me with any requests and I will do my best to help, if possible.

Thanks for the add Doug! You've built an amazing resource here, I'm honored to be part of it!
Craig Potter
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2014 1:28 pm
Location: Abingdon VA

Re: Hi Doug and Friends!

Postby Doug Coulter » Thu Apr 24, 2014 9:19 pm

Good to have you Craig. I didn't respond to the offer as I have literally tons of low-tech materials already, space for them is a problem as is. Now, if you can make optical or better grade electrostatic lenses (I'm using high grade graphite, pure tungsten and special jigs and I'm not even close)....I'm listening.

Feel free to post anything on the water cooler. It auto-deletes threads that don't get posted to for awhile (or a moderator hasn't made sticky), keeping the "this is the real book by real guys" parts of the site cleaner, so it's more useful to searchers.
If you have something to post and can't find an appropriate (sub)forum - let me know, they're not hard to create, and I'm into organization for the main parts of the site - insofar as it's even possible to pigeonhole most of science (it's frustrating to try, but I'm game).

Heck, if you're that close - maybe you should visit here. A few forum members have, and we've had a lot of fun at it. Some of them from all the way across the pond...

I know a guy who does big stills for ethanol and hazmat remediation, maybe you guys should meet. He builds whole plants, does all the automation, teaches the guys to run it, you name it. He works out of Roanoke. A good friend, we played music together pro for a few decades, and reverted back to engineering when that became too aerobic for us.
Posting as just me, not as the forum owner. Everything I say is "in my opinion" and YMMV -- which should go for everyone without saying.
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Doug Coulter
 
Posts: 3515
Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2010 7:05 pm
Location: Floyd county, VA, USA


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