What's the most interesting thing you've learned in the past 6 weeks?

Darn, another tough question. Let me brainstorm for a second and get a selection.

• Mt.Edgecumbe is about 3,000 feet and there is a little trail up it.
• People really didn't believe the world was flat before Columbus.
• A little history on Juneau's China Joe.
• My kids really are smarter than I am.
• Juneau's resiliency

Yep, the last one is probably the most interesting thing, particularly in light of the rising cost of fuel. After an avalanche wiped out our hydro powerlines, immediate projections indicated AEL&P, our electric utility provider, would need to burn 100,000 gallons of diesel a day. Whew. That's about $400,000 a day. Divided into Juneau's 30,000 men, women and children, that's over $13 bucks a day, or $400 a month. If you have a family of 3, does that mean you might get a bill for $1200? Well actually that was a distinct possibility for some as AEL&P projected a rate hike of500%.

So people were finally motivated to not waste, and the effort has been impressive. The newspaper tracks local fuel consumption and it is down to about 34,000 gallons a day. It has steadily fallen and really helped. People have gone to great lengths and dramatically changed their lifestyles to accommodate the rate hike. Behaviors changed overnight.

Does that mean gas needs to be 5 times as expensive to really get our attention? At what point, do we dramatically change our lifestyles to reduce the use of fossil fuels. Living closer to work. Working from home. Electric cars. More efficient energy sources. We'll see.

If information was food, what would you consider a balanced diet?

Gosh, that's a good question. I really don't know.

I guess some information needs to relate to survival. Right? Like road signs. That's like water. Gotta have them or else we aren't going to make it long. Another example of survival information would be directions on how to make food. Right? That's an important part of a balanced diet. We need that basic instruction, kind of like what we learn through elementary school which progressively becomes more focused until it turns into information that puts food on your table.

Some information needs to address a pressing need that relates to your quality of life. Often we seek out things to make us feel better or improve ourselves. For instance, I've got a hellacious cramp in my calf that won't go away. I spent some time looking on line for info on "hellacious calf cramps that won't go away" and found out I've probably got a malignant tumor and six weeks to live. I'm really just kidding.

Some information needs to address our happy spot. It involves feeding our past times, hobbies, and personal interests. Smart people read books. I like sports. It soothes me to sit in front of the TV, watching highlight clips and pat sports interviews. Sometimes I do it so much I awake to realize I've missed big things in the world like massive earthquakes in China or the newest information on global warming. And that's when I realize I've had too much junk food and need a better balanced diet of information.

What's so great about teaching?

A couple ways of looking at it.

First off, I like the idea of people in general. I know humans can be pretty darn cruel and savage and so on, but I hope that if some master alien race was looking down on all these little human organisms, they would come to the conclusion that there is more here worth preserving than destroying.

Of course, I'm not sure most humans would agree with that, but who's counting. Education is the greatest tool mankind has for advancing and improving the species in general. So from a societal perspective, teaching is extremely important. Oh, and I use the term "mankind" loosely.

Second, teaching is a tangible way to help individuals achieve goals, both personal and professional. That is a great thing to be a part of.