I was watching "Modern Marvels" last night on the History Channel. The program discussed ancient Instanbul or Constantinople as it was then. It was amazing to see the architecture of the time. The most impressive part was the engineering feat of bringing in drinking water from miles away via aqueducts. This system was used up until the 19th century. It was especially incredible to me that this entire system functioned simply by gravity--no other energy was needed for it to work. The water traveled via miles of aqueduct and then into an underground basin, where it continued to move until it was accessible through fountains in the city square. Given that this system was developed many centuries ago, it is hard to believe that we have such a tough time finding ways to create energy using non-polluting sources. If the people of this empire could pump in drinking water with just the laws of gravity to depend upon, why do we have such a hard time powering our world with sources other than fossil fuels? Too bad the people of Constantinople did not power their homes with windmills or the sun--at least to my knowledge. Perhaps if this empire endured just a bit longer, this too, could have been added to their list of accomplishments. In my mind, if we can engineer an i-Pod that has a phone, camera and music player, then what is our excuse for failing to utilize the renewable energy sources that we have available? Maybe we need to return to our roots a bit and put the cart before the horse. Let's find the clean energy sources to power all of our new gizmos, rather than putting more pressure on fossil fuels to give us the increasing energy we need. Perhaps we need to think logically like the people of Constantinople did with their water system.