Category: Change around us

radical changes taking place around us now

Update on the wide open frontier of technology – 12/3

Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

A few recent articles that fascinate me. Amazing things engineers can do. Pondering the lack of discretion from red-light revenue generators. Air Force use of civilians to pilot drones flying in combat zones.

10/20 – Link from Behind The Black – What the engineering wizards can figure out amazes this office-living accountant. Check out the huge machine that puts an entire bridge section in place.

Well, since I saw the video, the account has been closed. What it showed was a huge machine that advanced it self to the next pylon and pulled over the gap an entire bridge section and put it in place.

11/20 – Tymshft – Can robots issue citations? More importantly, can people issue citations? –

Continue reading “Update on the wide open frontier of technology – 12/3”

Update on the astoundingly wide open and possibly lucrative frontier of publishing. Want to write a book? Anyone can.

Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

One of the most amazing open frontiers today is the ability of anyone to publish a book and get it on the market. If you have ever wanted to write a book and see in print, you can do so easily and oh so inexpensively. The wide open doors to opportunity are right in front of you.

Lots and lots of people are publishing. No longer are huge New York publishers an insurmountable barrier for unknown writers.

9/15 – The Arts Mechanical – How To Win the Battle and Lose the War – Huge battle last year was between Amazon and Hachette. Amazon wanted to deliver books at prices customers were willing to pay. Hachette wanted to price e-books far higher, near the same level as print.

Continue reading “Update on the astoundingly wide open and possibly lucrative frontier of publishing. Want to write a book? Anyone can.”

Weaponized drones, military and civilian

Image of surveillance drone courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
Image of surveillance drone courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

A few of many articles on drones that caught my eye: precision of military drone strikes and possible weaponization of drones by law enforcement in North Dakota.

The second and third articles I’ll mention have a visible bias and agenda. Do I also have multiple biases and agendas?

You better believe I do. Read any five consecutive blog posts and you will quickly see my point of view.

The difference between those articles and this blog is that I’m not pretending to be objective.

8/27 – Wall Street Journal – Hacker Killed by Drone Was ‘Secret Weapon’ – This cyberwar stuff is going kinetic.

Continue reading “Weaponized drones, military and civilian”

Two superb primers on energy

Without cheap, abundant, and reliable energy neither the construction, illumination, nor activity after dark you see here would be possible. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com.
Without cheap, abundant, and reliable energy none of the construction, illumination, or activity after dark you see here would be possible. Photo of San Diego skyline courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com.

I found two more in-depth discussions of energy. I’m writing this blog to help me learn what is going on around us. If you are tagging along on my learning journey, you really oughta’ check these out:

8/21 – Daniel Yergin at Wall Street Journal – The Power Revolutions /Natural gas, solar power and data-driven efficiency are making big gains, but history shows that the shift away from coal and oil won’t be fast or neat – Anything you see in print from Mr. Yergin is worth reading.

He points out that it takes an extremely long time to make any major transition in sources of energy.

Continue reading “Two superb primers on energy”

As drones proliferate, next tech leap will be countermeasures

Check out the camera on the bottom of that quadcopter. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
Check out the camera on the bottom of that quadcopter. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

A recurring theme in the history of military arms is that a counter-measure emerges for every new technological development. Then a counter to the counter.

7/23 – Wall Street Journal – Next Step for Drones: Defending Against Them / Antidrone defense systems are a rising new business as military, aviation concerns mount.

Today’s illustration of evolving counter-measures is from the WSJ article. Small drones are starting to cause disruption, such as the presence of a couple of drones halted firefighting airplanes and helicopters at a fire near my home recently.

Continue reading “As drones proliferate, next tech leap will be countermeasures”

Wide open frontier, asteroid mining edition

Scientific wizards mining mineral resources from asteroids is one step to make that schedule possible. Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
Scientific wizards mining mineral resources from asteroids is one step to make that schedule possible. Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

As a break from the depressing daily news headlines, consider the incremental steps to figure out how to mine the abundant resources on asteroids.

7/17 – Space.com – Asteroid Mining Company’s 1st Satellite Launches from Space Station – Planetary Resources had a small satellite launched from ISS. It was a three unit cubesat measuring 30 x 10 x 10 cm or 12” x 4” x 4”. This will test a variety of systems and techniques that will be needed to mine asteroids. Pulling water and mineral off asteroids is a huge step in expanded space exploration. After this 90 day experiment is over they will launch another cubesat later this year (12” x 8” x 8”) to test the next set of techniques.

Why water?

Continue reading “Wide open frontier, asteroid mining edition”

Update on marijuana regulation – #18

Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

I haven’t seen much news on the legalized marijuana industry lately. Maybe I’ve not been paying enough attention.

For a reminder, the reason I’m talking about this issue is my hypothesis that overregulation will severely constrain this brand new industry. This is a natural experiment on how regulation affects an industry.

6/22 – Bloomberg Business – This Survey Says That Marijuana Prices Are Crashing in Colorado – Article cites a survey by a brokerage firm providing the following estimates of recreational marijuana prices at retail: Continue reading “Update on marijuana regulation – #18”

Fun news from the open frontier of technology – 7/24

Picture courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
Picture courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

Did you know more employees are using Uber than traditional taxis? New York has new rules on licensing bitcoin dealers and the Air Force is having challenges getting enough pilots to fly drones. A few fun updates on the wide open frontier of technology:

Continue reading “Fun news from the open frontier of technology – 7/24”

Capitalism undermines feudalism and offers economic freedom to Dalits

Capitalism does a better job providing freedom and equality than any other system. It is a far better option than feudalism.

Capitalism has been allowed to flourish in India since 1991. The results have been to release large numbers of Dalits from bonded labor. Previously those individuals were restricted to the most dirty, dangerous jobs.

Check out the results in this article by Swaminathan S. Ankelsaria Aiyar, writing at Cato Institute: How Capitalism Is Undermining the Indian Caste System

Article is reprinted in full under a Creative Commons license granted by the author: Continue reading “Capitalism undermines feudalism and offers economic freedom to Dalits”

Case study of the economics for rooftop solar panels

Photo courtesy of DollarPictureClub.com
Photo courtesy of DollarPictureClub.com

Came across a helpful case study analyzing the economics of installing rooftop solar. This analysis is provided by a website whose owner is not readily identifiable. Keep in mind the purpose of this website is to gather leads which are provided to rooftop solar installers. Thus the goal is to sell rooftop solar.

You can find the analysis at How Much Do Solar Panels Cost.

The case study is designed for a typical household that is a customer of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. (This is relevant because a subsidy from LADWP covers 25% of total cost.)

In this case, a 3 kW installation is designed to cover 5600 kWh of the household’s 8,000 kWh annual consumption.

Total system costs are usually in the following proportions: Continue reading “Case study of the economics for rooftop solar panels”

More news from the open frontier of energy – 7/17

Amazing things are happening at the energy open frontier. Vaca Muerta is a huge shale gas field in Argentina that I doubt will be a big player anytime soon. US passes Russia as largest oil & gas producer and OPEC revenue slumps.

6/10 – Yahoo Finance – U.S. Ousts Russia as Top World Oil, Gas Producer in BP Data – Data from BP shows that the U.S. is world’s biggest producer of hydrocarbons, surpassing Russia for the first time.

Hmm …. I wonder if there is some correlation to the following …

Continue reading “More news from the open frontier of energy – 7/17”

News from the open frontier of technology – 7/15

Amazon’s Prime Day sale marks an amazing anniversary. Autonomous robotic ‘cheetah’ can jump over obstacles as it is running. Other fun news from the astounding open frontier of technological innovation.

5/29 – Washington Post – Oh cool, now this robotic cheetah can make running leaps – Extremely cool. A mechanical cheetah that can run is an amazing step. Compound that with been able to clear barriers half its height.

Watch the slow-motion and you can see the complexities of calculations needed to position and push-off for the jump, having to pull in the rear legs to clear, having to absorb the force of the landing, and then resuming the run.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_luhn7TLfWU]

Amazing.

7/15 – The Economist Espresso (via email thus no on-line link) –  Amazon at 20: bargains and much, much more –

Continue reading “News from the open frontier of technology – 7/15”

The War on Coal

If you sometimes think there is an orchestrated effort to shut down coal, which currently provides 40% of our electricity, you would be correct. There is even a name for the effort. It’s called the “war on coal.”

5/27 – Politico – Inside the war on coal – The article shows this is a multi-front guerrilla campaign. According to the article, one of the leaders is the Beyond Coal project run by the Sierra Club.

The article, apparently written by an active partisan who is loyal to the campaign, spells out the strategy.

Continue reading “The War on Coal”

While you are laughing at all those robots falling down…

… keep in mind the tasks in the competition were to:

  • get out of a vehicle,
  • walk a distance over level dirt,
  • walk over several feet of broken concrete,
  • climb about 5 steps,
  • identify and approach a door,
  • grasped the door handle and open the door, and
  • walk through the door.

That is a sophisticated collection of gross and fine motor skills.

Yeah, a bunch of them fell down.

Here’s the video:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=g0TaYhjpOfo]

In terms of autonomous robots that could carry out disaster search and rescue tasks, we are about at the same place that space travel was in the late ‘50s.

If you weren’t aware, consider there was a large number of quite spectacular failures in the early days of missile development. For example, the rocket that lifts 10 or 15 feet off the ground, slowly drifts back to the earth, and crumples with the expected spectacular explosion.

Continue reading “While you are laughing at all those robots falling down…”