Drones Used in Agriculture Gives Farmers Eyes in the Skies

We have heard of drones in the military, however the technology is helping farmers around the world and soon, (we hope), in the USA. The FAA rules are holding back the authorization of such equipment for farm use in the USA. In other countries where these drones are used, farmers can identify crop conditions to determine, fertilization, field drainage needs, find livestock, with huge time, material and financial savings for improved profits. Click on the link for more information: Flying Farm equipment. 

 

Smart Phones, Now Smart Guns?

Just when you thought it couldn't get easier for the hunter, along comes the computer controlled rifle to eliminate any waste of bullets and guarantee the one shot kill. A person has to question the idea of sportsmanship with this degree of accuracy. This gun uses the red dot technology that already exists , for the hunter to locate the target lock in the target. The computer "Smart" technology then will fire the weapon only when the firearm is pointed in the correct trajectory to the target. Link to more information and video : Tracking Point Firearms

Fun gunners like to think they are saving high cost ammunition and eliminate accidents by hitting only what they have intended it to hit. Concerned public safety activists fear that in the wrong hands the weapon can be deadly to victims in the line of fire from a suicidal homicidal killer. In the Newtown event, it was the empty clip that allowed the demise of the killer. In different situations where the shooter could be firing from a distance, this rifle could be devastating. Every shot guarantees a kill, allowing every bullet in the clip to do damage.The company says it will control who buys this gun and it will require a password to fire the gun. This handles theft, but does not address the issue that background checks are not required at many State gun shows. So yes, they could be bought second hand by unidentified killers at the local gun shows.

It will be interesting to see the waves of controversy this innovation could make in the next few months.

The Solar Impulse Proves Solar Is An Energy That Works!

Like the Daimler Hydrogen car of the early 2000's that journeyed across the USA at record speed and traveled into Washington DC it attempted to prove to the American people and its government that the technology was here. "Now, just put the hydrogen infrastructure in the USA, so that the cars can be made and bought by the consumers of America," they requested. Instead the Bush Administration designated tax payers monies to a hydrogen research center to research and develop the technology. The designation was enough of a payoff for about 5 years of research. This bought five years for the oil companies to continue destroying the globe for the next generations. Now Ford is boasting that by 2017 the cars will be hydrogen and self driven by electronics. They are asking Washington / Congress to develop the hydrogen station infrastructure to support the cars that will supply environmentally safe energy. The oil companies will continue to try to delay the top customer, the USA, from cutting back on their product. While USA car manufacturers, produce hydrogen cars for Europe, Republican politicians will continue to chant "Drill bay Drill," at their national conventions. The oil companies will not stop at this gullible coupe, yet target others in need of their seemingly unending piles of money.

It is to this cause to defeat the oil giants at their ruthless en-devour to fill their greedy pockets, that there is a extra delight.The Solar Impulse is causing Americans to second guess the oil liars. The Solar Impulse crew are more than the equivalent of the Wright Brothers. They are solar technology with a message. They are not just powering up a transistor radio with solar power. They are lifting two tons into the sky and flying crossed the USA, but with first solar flight around the world in their sights. They are doing this with not one drop of black crude. So with each city they land in their journey is more than hope for another generation, it is a serious blow to the effort to misinform the American public. Innovation can sometimes more than difficult technical task, but require the courage and perseverance to over come the adversaries with a different agenda. Hats off to the crew of the Solar Impulse.  

    Flow the trip on the map with this link:Fly Big Solar Bird, Fly!

Black Water Filtration Systems Could Be A Part Of The Hybrid Home Future

If you live in a urban area, chances are you are hooked up to the sewage purification system of your town. If you live in the USA and in the country, you may have a primitive septic tank or some sort of mound system. These systems strive to clear the water up before it enters into the local aquifer. During the 1980's under the Reagan administration, the Great Lakes and USA Shorelines Cleanup Initiative was De-funded. The effort was to have cities along shorelines restructure there sewer systems to handle the growth of the cities. Because improvements were not made to municipal sewage systems, when it rains over 1/4 inch many cities are forced to release excess raw sewage into water ways. Link to SAFE WATER Report that explains the extreme need for future change. The amount of overflow depends on the individual cities attempts to overcome this. Link to the the old way to get rid of black water in the USA non-urban areas.

As water becomes more valuable because of scarcity, the purification of water will become even more important. New technologies can be large efforts that urban areas are trying, to smaller individual home or building units. All units have to go through a series of processes to make the water usable again. Here is a detailed article on this process: Black Water Purification.

I would think that future waste transportation systems will use other methods to carry waste away. Maybe instead of a garbage disposal system in sinks, the waste material would be carried away by augers or  pressure to transport the waste to a composting container. The future homes will have to use ideology of aviation and space programs that have self-sustaining contained water/ sewage systems. Maybe chemicals and pharmaceuticals will need to use 50% less water to apply or transport the product to its needed function. Maybe the solids from the black water could be separated and burned for another home energy or heating source. Link to waste energy study.

European homes are already using in home black water /purification units. Public rest rooms can be built and not hooked to the grid. This may not mean much at first glance, however hooking to the grid costs all taxpayers over decades of use. Not to mention the actual cost  to hook the unit to the grid. Like cars that verge several different energy supply sources and different methods to achieve the transportation need, homes will have to become more complex as well. Smart homes will be equipped with sensors in the waste plumbing to determine matter density and decide to dispose or direct it in a manner most effective to achieve efficient process for water purification and/or usage . Link to Hybrid Homes

European Weather Predictions Excel Because Of Reanalysis

In the 1980’s movie, "Back to the Future," the date that Doc and Marty travel to in the future was April 13, 2013. In the movie the future of the vision was flying cars and weather forecasting to the second. In real life political elections can change what a future may look like. In the decade of US, 2000-2008, of Republican control, they defunded the NASA "Super Skyway" that killed the flying cars idea and also defunded the investment of the US weather forecasting plan. It sounds like we should have the time machine to go back and change the outcome of the Bush-Gore 2000 election! The super close election propelled the country into a very different future. The political position that killed weather prediction funding is tied to the element Europe uses to make its weather system work so well, “reanalysis”.  Forecasters pretty much agree that the USA weather forecasting is way behind the European forecasting model. Europe decided that weather was worth investing in when USA didn't. 

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is an independent intergovernmental organization supported by 20 European Member States and 14 Co-operating States. The headquarters is in Reading, England, and has one of the largest supercomputer complexes in Europe that is linked by high-speed telecommunication lines to the computer systems of the national weather services of its supporting states. The Centre's computer system contains the world's largest archive of numerical weather prediction data. The information center accumulates all the data provided by the co-operating states and combines the information with reanalysis data. Together they are providing very accurate forecasts 15 day, 30 day and seasonal, annual forecasts. American television forecasters are checking their predictions against ECMWF whenever possible.

Understanding the reanalysis process is important. ECMWF makes significant contributions to support research on climate variability. ECMWF has pioneered an innovative approach known as reanalysis. Reanalysis is accumulated historical weather data to determine climactic changes that will affect present changes of weather. This becomes mathematical evidence of global climate change. This is why I believe there was a concern for the global climate change denying Oil Company backed Republicans who blocked the USA weather forecasting advancements.

The ECMWF combined satellite, super computer infrastructure and historic climactic trending to make great advancements in forecasting. You might say they were looking forward and backward. Maybe the saying could be said again, “When going forward never forget where you came from.” Still another thought could be when we are looking ahead for answers for innovation we can look for answers in previous findings. Thus giving us reason to reexamine the why, what and when that caused other innovations to fail.

New Hybrid Without Batteries, Another Step In The Evolution

In a earlier post, I talked about compressed air only vehicles. They had limitations of speed and distance. But  they worked well for city transportation, using no fuel. Why not verge the technologies to utilize the advantages of all technologies we know, to propel the human bodies to their destinations. Could we ever combine the solar, perpetual motion, compressed air/gasses, battery, hydrogen with a gasoline/ diesel backup? Maybe that will be the 2020 versions we see for transportation. As the ideas evolutionalize in front of us, the destination is less reliance of carbon based fuels at the demise of oil giants. It is more power, safety and speed without an adverse affect on our planet. It is style, design and acceptance for profit of entrepreneurial efforts of free enterprise.

 Compressed air with gas engines seem to be a common sense plan in stepping us closer to that goal, that does away with the battery concerns of other hybrid cars. Peugeot introduced their car that saves fuel by using gas powered engines assisted by compressed air. Read more at: Peugeot Introduces Air Assisted Cars

More information can be read at: More about the New Peugeot-Citroen and Bosch Drive Trains

Why Government Funding Is Important To Innovation

It is important to understand the challenges to funding large innovation projects. With my research of innovation it has become apparent that funding innovation is as important to success as the actual scientific and entrepreneurial exploration procedures. With some private and corporate funding the findings become the property of the fundraisers. It is either about profit or credit. If the money drops off, the progress of the innovation can be locked up, not to be shared. Right now we see some very impressive brain studies and brain function research. The problem is that a lot of the findings are not shared, which leads to a duplication of efforts to find answers to similar questions. Parts of the puzzle, not found or missing by others slow the assembly of the complete puzzle. Recently some larger efforts are being funded by trusts that where created by groups of scientists that are aware of the funding hurdles to innovative creations. Even these can be challenging. Deals have to be made ahead of time to confirm the intellectual property rights.

In April 2013, President Barrack Obama decreed he would pursue government funding of the mapping the functions of the human brain. This will be as massive an effort as was the human genome project. This effort like the study of outer space itself demands the direction and funding of a large government to make it even possible. The findings will be a tremendous asset to life on this planet and for the greater good of the USA. Not only will it be good for the economy but healthcare, technology, communication and human advancement.