Feeding the World

This is pretty cool.  There are always tricks to be exploited, and this could be huge.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/19/11064978/indigo-microbiome-plants-crops-yield

Essentially, they are coating seeds with probiotics that provide the largest jump in yields.

Your Home is Your Castle

As the elites desperately try to centralize and homogenize us.  Technology allows us to stay a step ahead.  This is becoming ever clearer in the home.  For rural communities it is now a reality, and increasingly so for the suburban family.

It all started with solar hot water, for the home and the pool. This technology is over 100 years old, and used quite a bit before utility gas replaced it.  Now the systems are very space efficient and durable.

The next wave to hit the home was the advent of the internet.  This technology I am excited about for the purpose of this post is the ability to telecommute, shop, bank, trade, and shop online.  It is no accident that Amazon, Ebay, Google, NetFlix, Hulu, and Priceline are such a success.  The additional benefit is our ability to sidestep the parasitic middlemen that add no value, but occupied a crossroad.
I have to look no further than my own home to see this in action.  We shop 90% online, we watch 90% of our movies online, and we both work out of our homes, saving considerable amounts infrastructure and fuel costs, and work for ourselves because technology allows it.  The internet of everything will continue to open new frontiers in the coming years.

Then solar panels for electricity became economical, and now we have an alternative to the utility monopoly.  Although the Utilities are fighting hard to force you into being a captive customer, the next technology will obliterate their business model; Battery storage.  Right now batteries are not quite cheap enough for most uses but the next wave will get us there.  Keep your eyes on Sodium ion technology, and carbon nano-tubes.  Solar will continue to get cheaper, and there will be a move towards molded panels to fit the homes better, home sized concentrated solar, and plastic and paint based technology.  In 20 years every home will have solar on it.

As an adjunct to solar is the hybrid car.  Now that you can work from your home, your trips are going to be shorter and that allows you to charge up at home.  This will continue to have geopolitical implications as we will not need the amount of gasoline produced, we de-fund the nations that are the most mischievous, and we can start curtailing all of the defense spending we are doing, and redirect it elsewhere.

But there is more. We now can generate drinking water from the ambient air, safely and economically, compared to bottled water, and Teva Gas, out of Israel just released a home sized bioreactor that takes food and animal waste and converts it into cooking/heating gas, and liquid fertilizer.

Pretty amazing.

What I see next as the big opportunity, is using home sensor technology and the internet to allow greater health compliance and monitoring.  We will see smart toilets and smart medicine cabinets to advise, admonish, and alert us to health events and activities.

The home is truly becoming our castle.

Another great Tidbit from Fast Company

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3045598/forget-harvard-heres-where-to-go-to-college-if-you-want-a-high-paying-job#1

Think 3-D printing is a fad, think again.

I hear a lot of folks bemoaning the lack of opportunities, and here is the next wave of technology that will upend the construction industry.  This is a combination of 3-D printing, 3-D design, and additive manufacturing.

I will speak more on additive Manufacturing in the future as it will cause an American renaissance in reshoring our manufacturing base.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3047350/this-robot-can-3-d-print-a-steel-bridge-in-mid-air#1

A nice Side Business Through Breakthrough Technology

Check out his story.  If these guys get the Crowd-funding they are looking for it brings a nice side business to nearly anybody.  Plus you can do good while doing right.

My post is not a plea for funds for these guys, but an observation on how technology can democratize a business that was limited to "experts", and allow the everyman with limited capital and time to be able to supplement their family income, or turn it into a large scale family business.

At the very least you can get free honey for the family and increase the number of hives of our very precious bees.

Enjoy.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1071501276198227

Water, water, Everywhere

I have been following the development of water from air and water reclaimed with great interest.  At any moment, the atmosphere contains an astounding 37.5 million billion gallons of water.  That is a lot, and even in arid areas, especially in Mediterranean climates there is enough relative humidity to dehumidify in the air and extract drinking water out for approximately $.07/liter on a small scale.  That number will fall 14% a year as technology advances in solar energy.

The drought is now starting to focus heads on this problem, and I am fascinated with the possibilities, but even more so how can we use technology and this crisis in California to increase our self reliance and lower our living costs, but where to start?

The approach I like to take is incrementalism, by ROI analysis, or best bang for the buck and my time.

I know my biggest water use is in the yard, then the shower, so my focus is there.

• I started with smart watering; less frequent , yet longer duration watering.  Get the roots deeper.  Secondly, I opted for the best time, which is early morning to allow absorption into the soil, and not be evaporated.
• Stage two, was I noticed with my clay soil half of my watering still ran out into the street, so I sunk two 55 gallon water barrels underneath my french drains and allow those to fill and recirculate that water into my vegetable garden, and turned those sprinklers off.
• The next phase is to turn my vegetable garden into a hydroponic garden, grow more food and create a closed loop system.
• We have low flow toilets and low flow showerheads.  However, I am researching the idea of a shower fogging system which provides the warmth and oxygen of a nice shower but with an incredible reduction of water use.

When these are all complete, I will reduce my families water use by 40%.  I am already at 20%, and I sacrificed zero living standards.

But this is just for me.  For those looking to turn this lemon into lemonade, the big money is going to be helping farmers and industry use water much more effectively.  As far as I know nobody has really productized an approach to systematically offer water saving profit sharing like with LED lighting and solar.  Seems like a great crowdfunding opportunity, or petition your water authority to issue bonds to offer savings credits.

Now back up to my thoughts on the nexus of solar energy and water, check out this technology.  I am looking forward to scaling this down to the home.  Enjoy.  Much more on this subject coming up.

http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/California-drought-Solar-desalination-plant-5326024.php

A Really Cool Idea

On my first post, I asked for readers to send me unique and cool ideas for people to look at as possible businesses, or occupations.  I received a number of very interesting opportunities.

In this post I am going to talk about Cold Rush Ice  http://www.coldrushice.com/

They are a standalone ice making and filtered water machine, and they are manufactured here in Mississippi, using Japanese technology.  I will let the owner explain further.

The packaged Ice business surpassed four billion dollars in annual sales recently. The retail Ice business has evolved into business of convenience which is where we come in with the stand alone concept of convenient ice for the everyday ice consumer.  Convenience, Product, Price and Service are the key ingredients to the success any retail establishment. The greatest factor about the Cold Rush Ice Machines is the ability to provide all of the key ingredients for success without one employee on hand to make it happen. Everything is automated and easily operated by the general public.

I want to mention some of the advantages of what makes out machines better than pre packaged bagged ice.

• The ice is made fresh all day long.
• Customers can get ice or water, 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
• Our machines takes cash or credit cards.
• Customers can buy filtered water from the machine which adds additional revenue.
• Our ice is always loose and doesn’t get hard like bagged ice.

We constructed our first machine in 2010 and have since located them in Mississippi and Texas.

Please find attached a brochure on the ice machines and you can also look at our website  www.coldrushice.com.

I may be reached at my office; 601.736.5367 or my mobile phone; 601.441.7227.

What a great concept.  Create your own business, sell to grocery stores or to parks and recreation departments, if you have cash, finance these for others.

Give him a call and check it out.