Safer Schools Require Innovation and Money

For years many schools across the nation are struggling to get safer school buses to get children to and from school. Not very long ago I chaperoned a class trip. The buses may have been new school buses however they still had the old style bench seat with no seat belts. This upset me enough that I searched through the channels to find how this could be even remotely possible in this generation. It was told to me that school districts could not afford to handle the expenses that would be added to the budgets. So regulations on manufacturers were relaxed.

Portland, Oregon was recently looking at earthquake proofing their schools and the same case scenario came into light. It's a good idea, but it will be too expensive. So they keep sending their kids to the schools sitting over active faults. Read the article here: New innovation draws attention for schools.

Recent school shootings have raised several questions. Some want to ban the guns and some want armed guards. Armed guards though not bullet proof either would fall into the expensive area I would think. I find it interesting that a person cannot enter a apartment building or a business without a special entry card or password. Yet most schools can be entered by simply passing a card table with a volunteer parent. The technology exists but are the tax payers willing to pay for it?

When schools are built, they are usually voted on and tax payers can be heard speaking out at town meetings, "Why does this school have to be so fancy? It makes it too expensive." Innovations when it comes to schools has to be free it seems to happen. Can we challenge ourselves to meet the safety needs of our own children in light of climactic changes and increased suicidal threats of desperate people?

Safety pods are available for tsunami threats. Can we build rooms in new schools that can be shut off to intruders  or strong enough to survive tornadoes or earthquakes? Safer schools needs these innovations now!

Air Bladder Technology Used In Wet Suits

I am involved with water safety in Green Bay, WI, so it is important for me to focus a post on the new wet suit technology. Most drownings can be avoided if a person uses a personal floatation devise,(PFD). Newer PFDs already use the inflatable technology to shrink the size and uncomfortableness of larger foam style PFDs. Recently several manufacturers are installing the inflatable bladder technology into wet suits. This seems to be a "no brainer" for surfers. The only problem that I can see is that a person has to be conscious to pull the cord to activate the bladder inflation. But if this is what it takes to get surfers to wear a PFD it is a great start. The next challenge is to get the technology into normal swimming suits. Will the old fashion full body swim suits so that we can incorporate the bladder technology for adults? Or could we find a way to use it in tank tops in a fashionable look!

How the Bladder arrived: The Bladder Wet Suit Technology Invented!

Bladder style PFDs make safety comfortable.

Using You Tube To Send Powerful Messages

I recently had a twitter message that drew me to this powerful message of the history of nuclear explosions from the creation to later 1990's. I would like to see the rest of the story. From then until now we have experienced wars and natural disasters that many explosions have happened. I think this gives you an uncomfortable feeling about the enormous amount of radiation that must be around us. While this could be perceived as a negative, could we see any positives from an innovative mind set. Could this reshape our future inventions? Should we be studying the effects on the human body? Can we design materials that help us deal with radiation exposure?

Using The Internet To Do Big Things

I had posted in a earlier blog how some are using the internet to use its most powerful resource millions of participants. In that post they organize participants who shared gardening and the over abundance of product to meet the need of food pantries. The internet power lies in commerce, philanthropy, education, communication, democratization efforts to mention a few. Another power recently has come to light, manufacturing. The Star War enthusiasts recently are combining their passion to design and build a life size model of the Millennial Falcon. This is a monumental task of design and organization to maintaining quality. They do have lower expectations that this model won't actually fly at light speed. But imagine the other possibilities that could lie ahead. Could we start building buildings, by assigning participants to sent certain parts of a building and have people receive the stuff by mail and assemble it?

WASTE, Money and a Area for Innovations

"Eat what you have on your plate, many children in the world are starving," is a comment heard by many American children made by their parents. Recently when examining the cycle of food production to waste, it occurred to me we need to be to be more innovative. Add into the fact that only 50% of food produced gets actually eaten, the area needs help. Link to these facts: Food waste.  Our current state of life on this planet is unsustainable unless we find ways to better manage the resources we have. Do you want to start a business? Maybe your innovative contribution creating inventions, here are just some needs that waste presents.

1. Wouldn't this be a better world if we could just put our information of the required food caloric needs of family members, the exact meal palatial needs, the exact amount of meals, taking into account product spoilage lengths make a printout. We would take it to the store, the producers and we only purchase what we need. Only exact purchases of the exact quantity is purchased and produced. That is one part of the need.
2. Food products and other consumer products require shipping materials that are often just removed  and disposed. Creative and innovative shipping procedures, product production locations as well as recycling processes of the materials is need two.
3. Matching needs with the non-edible products. The introduction of the intranet has gotten us closer to helping us reach this goal. Black Thursdays and Fridays are a great example of the problem. On these days millions of consumers waste resources such as fuel in their cars to time they could be with families and still not finding what they want or need. Can we do this step and not interrupt the consumer markets?
4. Product sharing can help save resources of need. People have been coming up with ways to share cars, computers or creative ways to use the cloud (internet storage) to reduce the computer, notebook, camera and phone needs.  
5. Examples of companies trying to keep this thought in mind can be good areas to invest as well. Here is a link to check out: 8 companies with results.

How You Build the Worlds Tallest Building in 90 Days

Can this be true? Just putting in the foundation is an undertaking in itself. The company that is saying that they can build the tallest building in 90 days is building most of the building in a factory setting. The world will be watching to see if this can happen. The enormousness of the project to be completed in 90 days leads many to say they don't want to go into this earthquake proof building when it is done. It seems to be a impossible task. Specifics and details at this link: CNET Post

This project will not only put China as a leader in building construction innovations but show they have some truly top project managers. I would have to add to this statement, some very cooperative city regulators. In the USA project managers would agree that city safety, building regulators and planners would have to redevelop their processes to make this happen in the United States. During building construction the inspectors can be the biggest challenge to on-time completions. However, many could argue that a USA building of this magnitude would draw less comments like, "You wouldn't catch me in that building."

Could we learn from the Chinese about this process, absolutely! We have modular, and factory component construction. We have a transportation system that is not the best in the world but competitive. We have some very knowledgeable and veteran project managers. We have some of the most skilled construction workers in the world. Yet if you were to ask, "Could we do this in America?" Few in the business would say it could be done.

The cost of building construction done "China style," could make building buildings like this in America very attractive and affordable. Material and energy wastes could be cut. Building big buildings could change the trends of urban sprawl and change apartment rental and real estate trends. More people could share the views of oceans and bays near large cities. Manufacturing in America could get an extra boost as we start building more building structures in factories designed to do so. It would require a change in how we do things. Can we do it? Yes we can!

Link of interesting Skyscraper facts: Building Big

Could The Dark Knight Be The Next Star Wars?

The Star Wars movies were given credit for pushing the imaginations of  engineers to what lasers could do. It also pushed the brains to imagine of space travel and what other worlds could be like. The Black Knight has several creative ideas of what today's military could look like. Today's special forces have some primitive looking equipment compared to what Hollywood has put together.  

It was said in several other reports, that the producers of the Dark Knight played with toys in their garages to get the right look for their movie. The Bat Tumbler was designed by putting a  Hummer and a Lamborghini together. The Bat and the Bat Pod are definitely creative. I am very sure the the military will have vehicles in the future that resemble these clever machines that will give military troops an advantage in battles.

Dark Knight Bat - Flying machine (above) and the Tumbler and the Bat Pod are pictured at the right. The Movie is worth seeing just to see the special effects.