Microsoft’s Visions of Future Tech

Very inspirational video created by Microsoft – hurray for future-tech!

Kinect Hacked

Within days of it’s release, Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect has successful been hacked. Mind you, this is only the first steps in which the basic hardware is being controlled, but this is the first of many big announcements. Of course, Microsoft is “up in arms” about its motion control technology patents and intended use of the product. Excitement will surely grow as more and more code is released into the hands of capable PC programmers.

Formerly called, Project Natal, we brought you the original post related on the Xbox the upcoming gaming experience. A $2000 bounty, placed by alias, Adafruit, for an open source Kinect driver was offered up at the beginning of the month. Within days, videos were popping up on YouTube with evidence of the hardware cracking. Initially, only a $1000 bounty was offered, but as reports of Microsoft’s anti-open-source stance, it was quickly doubled. Additional awards were added by more open technology supports, creating a fund to begin the development phase.

Chalk one up for the Do-it-Yourself electronics hobbyists. Minority Report is closer than ever.

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Google’s Power Plan

With a 37.5% stake in the equity of the 350 mile, 6000 Megawatt East coast wind farm, Google announced an investment of $5 billion  to this landmark project. The system’s backbone infrastructure is equal to the output of 5 large nuclear reactors. Resting on the shallow seabed up to 20 miles offshore, it would stretch from New Jersey to Norfolk, Virginia. Met with criticism by NIMBY nay sayers, the towers would be barely visible to the land dwellers. The first phase is estimated at $2 billion and stretches 150 miles from northern New Jersey to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware,

Richard L. Needham, the director of Google’s green business operations group, called the plan “innovative and audacious.” Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission which oversees interstate electricity transmission stated, “Conceptually it looks to me to be one of the most interesting transmission projects that I’ve ever seen walk through the door.”  This project provides the much needed lifeline to alternative energy development and will have huge implications with the current stagnation of proposed  wind power projects in North America. Construction is slated to begin in 2013, but faces immense hurdles which span the 5 bordering states. No doubt, the political climate in the United States is cause for concern, when innovative projects like this resemble the failing in Massachusetts, 10 years ago. The lingering bureaucratic delays could run into unforeseen pressures from big oil sympathizers and lobbyists alike. However, the companies involved anticipate such obstacles, and the wind farms proposed to connect to the backbone have subsequently chosen locations that limit the aesthetic impedance from any natural shoreline view, appeasing public concerns of beauty over practicality

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Start Your Journey

Do not go where the path may lead,
go instead where there is no path
and leave a trail.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

US Offshore Wind Farming

130 turbines at nearly $900 million will soon grace the coast of Massachusetts. After 9 years of intense debate, the political battles over the first offshore wind farm to be built in the United States has finally been approved. Entry into this market is far behind the thousands of turbines gracing the European nations already in the game, but no doubt will be utilized and the potential fully realized. At 450 megawatts, this achievement will be recognized as a crucial step forward in renewable energy. Thankfully, it looks like a future of clean energy has not sailed out of sight.

• US Approves First Offshore Wind Farm (treehugger.com)
• Offshore wind farm could have big impact (bendbulletin.com)
• Where Offshore Wind Power Remains Far from Reach (cleantechies.com)
• Is Direct Drive the Future? Wind Turbines Without Gears are Lighter, Cheaper, More Reliable (treehugger.com)

Results Not Typical

Image via Wikipedia

The next age in government needs to invoke consumer trust. Confidence is not typically a word used to describe our current democratically elected leadership, nor the current economic system they support so passionately. Transparency, choice and accountability have not been upheld by those that the masses trust to ensure a prosperous future. Those who question the ethics of the corporate oligarchy are labeled as unpatriotic denouncers. Reprehensible actions, such as railing against the bad social policies set forth by the rule makers is viewed as condemnable, when in reality, a check and balance system is how democracy is truly defined. How can we entrust responsibility to those that further the blithe of global debt, which is currently growing beyond $32 Trillion? We need to make things better without spending more money, while increasing our well-being by giving power to the people – putting them in the driving seat. The post-bureaucratic age is a natural progression in which the period dictates the means to govern the people locally, centrally and globally in a united and accountable voice. Just as the industrial revolution evolved into the information revolution, the masses have been enabled to hold the power.

Going with the grain of human nature, you can achieve so much more with behavior economics and social awareness. Social networks have become a powerful and persuasive tool for communicating with our family, friends and neighbors. A revolution does not happen when society adopts new tools, it happens when society adopts new behaviors. Sites like Facebook and Twitter give single voices the power to become collective and unified movements. Even if a consensus cannot be achieved, merely the act of discussion creates the bridges of communication which are needed to bring about change.

“Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.” -Robert F. Kennedy

Food for thought…

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Saving Time in a Bottle

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day ’til eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you
– Jim Croce

What if a product you used every day was suddenly offered at 2000 times the price it normally sold for? It happens daily at the rate of over half a billion purchases every single week in the United States. The bottled water companies claim to be  just meeting consumer demand, but in reality they are just creating manufactured demand at an exponential rate. Using scare tactics in the media, portraying images of pure fantasy (mountain streams and pristine natural scenes) and outright lying to consumers is at the forefront of this blitz. Not only is this a gross crime against good taste, but over 80% of the empty containers end up in landfills or incinerators impacting our environment immensely. Time after time, consumers choose tap over bottled water in blind taste tests – proving that this is  a less tasty, less sustainable, way more expensive product that should be shelved permanently. Aquafina and Dasani are perfect examples of glorified filtered tap water. Over a billion people around the world do not have access to clean water, we don’t need to add to the fray.  As a responsible consumer, just say no to purchasing bottled water and choose a reusable container instead.

See the Full Video @ The Story of Bottled Water

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The Natural Mind Project

Are you running on automatic pilot?

What if nature had a consciousness… it certainly would have to wonder, “Why did I give life to this species? They are so intent on destroying themselves, each other, and all of nature itself. What was the point of the billions of years of evolution on this planet? Do they not actually want to be alive? Aren’t they satisfied with this planet which is full of abundance?” The majority of this one species seems content with total destruction of the earth. What if the earth made a huge mistake and soon we will simply be another species that faces extinction by our very own hands. What do we do with this wonderful existence we have? We fight, we control, we destroy, we subdue, we take, we enslave, we butcher, we pursue our individualistic goals at whatever the cost to everyone else and we are very full of our own self-importance. This is the thanks that nature gets – humans squandering it into oblivion.

Awareness is not about becoming perfect role models. It is about taking notice of more important things than the credit in our wallets, the vehicles we drive, the status we strive for, the control and dominance over those surrounding us. You may have a big intellect and a healthy body, but one day very soon, that brain along with your body will stop functioning; we are only here for a short time. You may believe in reincarnation or heaven all you like, but your body and its very existence will soon be no more. We all end up at the giant scrapheap, just like our worldly possessions – that is an absolute. Awareness is waking up to what you are – a wonderful human being; alive today and enjoying all that life has to offer. Sharing the pleasure with the rest of the world and bringing love instead of war; compassion over terror; empathy without hatred.

Read The Natural Mind E-book by Alan Macmillan Orr @ Scribd.com

Continue reading »

Gaming for the Future

Is it possible to save the real world as well as we save the world in the online universe?  Spending more time trying to achieve that epic win may actually bring people together, build stronger bonds and instill a sense of community.   In order to solve many of the world issues which seem unattainable, the following video from TED.com suggests that we need to output exceptionally more hours per week of game play. Games like World of Warcraft give players the ability to save the world, which in turn, enables these players to learn the vital habits of heroes. Worldwide over 3 billion hours is currently spent each week playing games online.

“If we want to solve problems like hunger, poverty, climate change, global conflict, obesity, I believe that we need to aspire to play games online for at least 21 billion hours a week, by the end of the next decade.”, says Jane McGonigal. “We do achieve more in game worlds. But we are also motivated to do something that matters, inspired to collaborate and to cooperate. And when we’re in game worlds I believe that many of us become the best version of ourselves, the most likely to help at a moment’s notice,  the most likely to stick with a problem as long at it takes, to get up after failure and try again.”

Imagine the best case scenario outcome and then empower people who want to make that difference. Helping people achieve the epic win which circles around the environment, social consciousness and global issues can only benefit humanity as a whole. So what happens next? Gamers are a resource which can invoke real change in our world if we can couple them with games that matter. Enabling them with an epic win has an outcome that is so extraordinarily positive, you have no idea it was even possible until it is actually achieved – making a clear impact.

Let the world changing games begin. It is time for our epic win.

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Tapping the Energy in Landfills

10 years ago, Waste Management became the one of the first industrial pioneers to partner with landfill owners, breaking ground to develop landfill gas-to-energy as a viable alternative energy source.

Throughout the United States, this growing presence has influenced many additional programs to capture methane from garbage piles. Organic food waste, cardboard and paper decompose over time and emit methane gas which can be used to fuel vehicles and a plethora of industrial applications, including heating.

The University of New Hampshire is among the first colleges to utilize the gas to provide energy throughout its five million square foot campus. Originally powered by natural gas, the school found the change to be more efficient and the less expensive option. This institution also boasts a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to 57% from its 1990 levels.

Waste Management entered into a joint venture with Linde North America in 2008. The companies built a liquefied natural gas (LFG to LNG) facility. The gas is being collected and processed to create clean, renewable fuels to “close the loop” on waste collection. The plant has produced 200,000 gallons of LNG in 2009. To close the waste loop, 500 of Waste Management’s waste and recycling collection trucks throughout California are now running on the product, instead of filling up with diesel.

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