Over a dozen New England SIOR Chapter members joined the 600 attendees for this fall's SIOR national conference held from Oct. 21-23 at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio. The Opening Session was held Thursday afternoon with key speaker Don Yaeger, New York Times bestselling author and Sports Illustrated associate editor. The topic was "What Makes the Great Ones Great." Yaeger spent time with some of the greatest winners in sports to answer this question including: Walter Peyton, Jimmy Connors, Michael Jordan, John Wooden, Pat Riley, Dale Brown, Shaq O'Neal, etc. His talk was an overview to these findings.
His first question in his research was "What makes people outperform and compete over others? What separates them from others?" Yaeger found 16 most consistent answers in his interviews of the best athletes. The number #1 answer: It's personal. They hate to lose at anything and they hate to lose more than they liked to win. Yaeger stated three threads he found with great people and players. 1) Greatness is available to all of us if you are willing to do common things uncommonly well. 2) It's not about touching your toes. It's about being mentally, emotionally and spiritually disciplined. You need to be more emotionally declined. 3) Greatness requires proper nutrition and understanding the importance of your time of food. An early morning routine is necessary and getting out of bed.
The General Session was held on Friday with Robert Bryce. Bryce is the author of "Gusher of Lies." He explained why most of the hype about renewable energy and "green" technology is just that - hype. His argument was radical in nature but he showed that over the past three decades the U.S. has been among the world's best at reducing its energy intensity, carbon intensity, and per-capita energy use. His argument was why the U.S. must continue buying foreign energy for decades to come and how ethanol is actually a classic example of the redeeming power of oil.
Bryce stated that the U.S. must stay dependent on oil and that energy independence was not a good idea for the U.S. It wasn't energy that we should have a problem with but the need for power. People care about power and its availability. Power is the rate that work gets done and not the energy. Energy doesn't make us rich, its power. Bryce then gave his 5 points for power.
1. Density is green. High density = high productivity. High yields are best friends of energy. Lower power density such as wood, is always working uphill. The French produce nuclear waste and aren't any smarter than the U.S. in handling it.
2. There is a myth of energy independence
3. Regulations on energy for SIOR? Regulations will be at a cost for rate payers, commercial users who will be hit the hardest. In the next 25 years, commercial users are expected to increase by 42%; the highest of all users.
4. Natural Gas and Nuclear.
The world is going natural gas and nuclear and this is an essential key part to electrifying the world. If you are anti-nuclear, then you are pro-blackness and pro-powerless. Natural gas is the growth energy.
Bryce concluded his speech with some predictions.
1. Nuclear will happen overseas more than in the U.S. that now has gridlock
2. Natural gas can be integrated in other countries for electrifying.
3. Pushback to energy has begun. People don't want big, industrial wind turbines. Wind power costs 21.5 cents per kilowatt on Cape Cod while residential rates are 10.5 cents. It's double the cost and there is a backlash due to high unemployment, U.S. poverty, foreclosures, etc. and now people's electric rates are going up.
4. Energy transitions take decades and not years. It will take decades to transition such as it has in Japan.
Bryce finished by stating that we need more energy because we need more power but we need to be more educated about the differences of energy and power.