ADU 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Another use for an ADU would be to post it on Airbnb if you live in a popular destination area.

In fact, the co-founder of Airbnb, Joe Gebbia, also co-founded Samara. If you want an ADU in your California backyard, they will come and install a prefabricated small house for you in just 6 weeks on your property. The whole process takes about seven months including your design choice, off-site build, land prep, on-site installation, permitting, and financing. 

Fyi: last week's "Nuclear Now" series told the story of Brazilian model Isabelle Boemeke, who made herself into a nuclear influencer. She happens to be married to Joe Gebbia.

ADU

Housing is getting more expensive. In some cases, building an ADU can help. 

ADU is an "accessory dwelling unit." It's a residence added to the lot which already has a bigger primary residence on it, to which it may or may not be attached. Local regulations vary, but there's usually at least a kitchen, bathroom, and sleeping room. 

It could be sold or it could be rented, in either case providing financial help to the primary property owner. It might be attractive to someone looking for a unit more affordable than a single family house on its own lot would be.

Another reason to have an ADU could be to provide housing to a relative or to a visitor. It could be your own work space, or studio, or a guesthouse.

(cont'd tomorrow)

AI & nuclear 1

Remember the "Metaverse," that virtual reality envisioned by Mark Zuckerberg? After billions of dollars of investment, there was enormous loss. The Metaverse virtual reality platforms still exist, but not as the company's primary focus. 

Instead, Meta has turned to artificial intelligence. Their new superintelligence research lab will be led by the founder of Scale AI (they paid $14.3 billion dollars for a 49% share in his company).

As MIT commented, building out AI will require "staggering" amounts of energy. So they're actively looking for nuclear developers with whom they can partner (read: invest $) to produce new power. That could include either big conventional plants, or the emerging SMR's (small modular reactors).

But of course fusion (instead of current fission) nuclear would be the breakthrough solution if the theory ever becomes practical. Meta has an agreement with Helion, as does Microsoft, for the delivery of fusion-produced nuclear power by 2028. 

Can Helion do it? It remains to be seen. We're hopeful. They've started on Microsoft's nuclear fusion plant:

Google loses one

Google is still fighting suits filed by states or the federal government a few years ago. One of them was decided and finished this summer. The state of Texas won it.

Attorney General Ken Paxton says, "In Texas, Big Tech is not above the law. For years, Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry through their products and services . . .They will pay for abusing our trust."

photo

After aggressive litigation by the Attorney General, a settlement was negotiated in place of a judge's legal decision. Google will pay the state of Texas $1,375,000,000: far, far more than Google has had to pay as a result of other similar suits.

This is in addition to a similar suit and settlement with Meta just a year ago, where they settled to pay Texas $1.4 billion. I hope the technology sector has learned that we the people will not tolerate massive, secret theft of privacy.

from Texas state website

Drug prices

Some people have to take a prescription drug for their health, not just for a temporary illness but for an ongoing condition, and it often costs them a lot. Harvard published a few reasons why that is so (photo). When it's expensive, that drug may take a big chunk out of their budget. The cost can be overwhelming for some. 

Researchers reported in 2022 that pharmaceutical companies charge Americans much higher prices than customers pay in other countries. The U.S. president is aware of this, and has told 17 of those companies that their pricing must be made more equitable.

According to that study, "Prices for brand-name and generic drugs were nearly three times higher in the U.S. than in 33 other countries in 2022 . . .[M]akers of prescription drugs set gross prices in the United States in 2022 at 278% of prices for the same drugs in the comparison countries."

If you are an American who must take an expensive drug and who struggles with the cost, things are going to change for you.

from Health Journalism

Robotaxi

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Elon is sometimes unrealistically optimistic about when those big goals will happen. But he was right that Tesla's robotaxi would launch finally in Austin, Texas, in June (or just sort of right, because it was limited).

Robotaxi is a driverless ride hailing service that is geofenced, limited by the city to an approved area. 

It's not just Tesla's concept. Waymo has been operating with 100 vehicles in Austin since last year, with a bigger approved area than Tesla has so far. 

Eventually Elon plans that Tesla owners can use their full self-driving cars for this service, and he sees it bringing in huge profit for both owners and for the company. Ark Invest thinks it likely, predicting a possible future trillion dollar enterprise.

This science blogger (video) thinks Tesla's "first trillion" will come from China, where robotaxis are already active.

$4/hour to CEO

Lowe's CEO and Chairman, Marvin Ellison, has quite a story. His experience should be an inspiration to everybody.

As a $4/hour part-time employee when he began working at Target, an entry level job, he drew attention to himself by taking tough assignments that no one else wanted. He learned how to make himself valuable to his employer and rose through the ranks to the position of Director.

Results - not prestigious education - got him to the executive level at Lowe's. 

His advice: be a problem solver, think through your path to success, and take every opportunity to educate yourself.

Polyface farm 2

(cont'd from yesterdays post)

Re-post from 2017 

Polyface Farm has not applied a chemical since the family bought it in 1961, says Joel Salatin. They don't run things like a "normal" farm does today. Mimicking the pattern of nature, fertilizer and sanitation are supplied by the animals instead of by chemicals and antibiotics. 

The farm is open to visitors and cameras every day, and he claims they have no disease problems like those that plague industrial farms. Cows are moved to fresh pasture every day, chickens follow cows by 3 days, then turkeys. Pasture receives the time it needs to re-grow.

"It’s all a symbiotic, multi-speciated synergistic relationship-dense production model that yields far more per acre than industrial models. And it’s all aromatically and aesthetically romantic." That means it smells good and looks good. We were there last summer, and it's beautiful.

"On our farm we have cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, ducks, lambs, fruit, honeybees, forests--it's breathtaking choreography, always dancing," p. 119 of The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs.

Polyface Farm

Re-post from 2017

There's a beautiful farm in the Shenandoah Valley of northern Virginia. The passionate farmer, Joel Salatin, is known all over the world because his message resonates with almost everybody who loves nature, farming, or food . . also because he has oodles of personality and has written twelve books.

Polyface Farm is "the farm of many faces". They grow chickens, pigs, turkeys, cows, all the animals doing what they naturally do - unlike the typical industrial farm, which is a mono-culture of corn or chickens or something else.

Their methods are not ordinary, not like factory farms or CAFO farms. Animals are grown humanely on rich pastures which are sustainable. By the way, these pasture lands capture carbon like no factory farm can. The whole system produces healthy soil, healthy animals, nutritious food, and a beautiful environment.

It's called regenerative farming. 

COO

Space operations used to be the domain of governments only. But now there's a big private sector. In the private, non-government space business, there's no more important name than Gwynne Shotwell, President and Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX.

photo

Super celebrity Elon Musk hired her as an engineer way back in 2002. As Director of Business Development, she successfully negotiated the contract (2008) with NASA to deliver commercial resupply services to the International Space Station. Promotion to the position of president followed. 

Gwynne is a superstar herself. She led the effort to build the Falcon rocket. Under her leadership, SpaceX was the first private company to successfully launch to orbit and recover a spacecraft and send one to the ISS . . plus all the recent SpaceX achievements. 

Test flight #8 of Starship may take place today, depending on conditions.

Stargate

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Excitement in the tech industry over the new administration may be due to a huge wave of investment and development coming for AI (artificial intelligence). The president announced it from the oval office in the company of some tech titans.

AI infrastructure (hardware and software) will require a colossal buildout of data centers . . which will require the energy industry to grow in order to supply the required electricity.  The president appointed David Sacks his new AI and Crypto Czar (photo).

 

OpenAI will take operational responsibilities, collaborating with Oracle and Nvidia. Softbank will take financial responsibilities. Stargate is the new company's name, and here is OpenAI's statement:

"All of us look forward to continuing to build and develop AI—and in particular AGI—for the benefit of all of humanity. We believe that this new step is critical on the path, and will enable creative people to figure out how to use AI to elevate humanity."

Vibe shift 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Business owners and managers don't need ill will from those who hold power. It's already challenging to produce some kind of product which people want and will pay for, while keeping expenses low.  

So big business will try to make peace with the powers that be. That includes tech companies that have leaned left politically. America has a new sheriff in town.

Google donated $1 million to the new president's inauguration in January. OpenAI donated a million. Meta donated a million. Microsoft donated a million. Apple's CEO donated a million.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledges the "vibe shift," and calls the new administration "a breath of fresh air." He says there is huge excitement in the U.S. tech industry: “Maybe we can go figure out how to get good at semiconductor fab again, get good at robotic factories, to make data centers again, get good at building new energy.” 

Their Super Bowl commercial for ChatGPT:

Boeing's DEI died

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Boeing's new CEO knew he would have to solve problems when he took the job last August. 

What is the basic goal of the company? Right in the middle of their big troubles (yesterday's post), he focuses them on asking the most important question: "Does this help us build airplanes?" Because that is what they have to do really well.

So, the CEO cancelled their DEI program. According to one insider, "everyone who has had to build things knows that what really drives value is integrity, hard work, and technical expertise." DEI was a distraction, a dilution of focus. It divided their employees--it did not unify them.

"The best culture directly promotes values and results, not identity groups . . . Hiring on merit while truly caring for people, regardless of arbitrary one-dimensional identity- or affinity-group labels, is the way to go. After all, people do not want to be beneficiaries of bias any more than they want to be victims of it."

from City Journal

Boeing problems

Aerospace company Boeing is the largest in that sector, with a workforce of over 170,000. Their new CEO as of August has multiple problems to solve, including a huge backlog of of $500 billion. A two-month strike by machinists just ended this month.

Quality and safety failures have damaged its hundred-year reputation. Their spacecraft Starliner carried astronauts to the ISS for the first time last June, but NASA judged it unsafe to return those astronauts, so it came back to Earth empty.

Last January a panel broke away from a Boeing airplane at 16,000 feet shortly after the Alaska Airlines commercial flight took off. No one was seriously hurt, though the plane (photo) also lost a cushion from the seat immediately next to the blown-out section of fuselage😮

(cont'd tomorrow)

Attacking Elon 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

How gullible are people? Some completely trust those in power to tell them what is true and what is "dis/mis/information" -- so they approve of government censorship.

The White House today, like tyrants everywhere, is afraid of free speech so they must suppress and control public opinion. What a contrast to President Kennedy (assassinated in 1963) who trusted the public (us Americans) with our constitutional right to free speech.

Elon is not one to humbly submit to coercion. He bought Twitter and let go of over half the staff since "content moderation" or censorship would no longer be their goal. He published documentation that Twitter had been bowing to government pressure. 

Elon's businesses make him vulnerable. This White House and its left wing political party really don't like him, and it shows (yesterday's post). So he's gone from having little interest in politics to . . joining the other political party and its presidential candidate (photo). 

As he has said in the past, Game On.

Can ULA compete?

United Launch Alliance, formed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin back in 2006, is America's "most experienced" launch service. But after enjoying their cash-cow of NASA business for many years, they now struggle to keep up.

Their one reusable rocket, Vulcan, finally flew for the first time this year. For comparison, SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets have safely landed back on Earth since 2015. If you don't have to build a brand new rocket for every launch, it saves a lot of money.

ULA can't compete with young private space companies in cost. A vice president of engineering said that in a lecture and soon resigned--or was fired by his boss. Tory Bruno, the CEO, says they can so compete and will prove it. Some doubt it. A sale of the company is being negotiated.

Fruited Plain

 Follow up to this post and post 

Laremy is a Christian. He still runs his cafe in Iowa and still turns out a good product. He still derives satisfaction from it because he sees how it fits into God's good creation.

Fruited Plain Cafe demonstrates the value and mission of work from God's point of view in Genesis, when He tells humanity to "have dominion". The point is not selfish or careless domineering of nature, but rather a sort of co-creation in cooperation with The Creator. 

"I can add my own knowledge, care, and love to coffee beans and milk, using tools that I understand intimately (café owners must also be espresso machine repairmen after all) to create a final product that honors God and blesses my patrons."

This is second level creating along with God--taking what He's provided both in the material world and within the human person (within Laremy and within you and me) to make something "useful and beautiful!"

Helium 3 🎈

Follow-up to this post

It seems confirmed: northern Minnesota's newly discovered helium will put the state in a small group of global suppliers, competing with Russia, Qatar, and Tanzania. Analysis so far indicates "world class results" of the highest concentration the industry has ever seen, and a very large reserve underground.

Babbitt MN will profit from a new industry with new jobs, and America will have a wonderful access to this clean, non-renewable resource right within our own borders. 

 It will be great . . if and when the company (Pulsar Helium) and the state can put it together. Minnesota is working on regulations now, including where they want the state profits to go. Fortunately fracking won't be necessary, so that's one controversy that won't enter in.

Environmental impact is sure to be a mine field. There's only one comment to the video above on Youtube. Its writer describes this project's location as "an extremely sensitive and important ecosystem that connects to a huge area of pristine wilderness."

 from Hadco International

Space mining

Human beings are at home on planet Earth but not in space, where we can only go with much protection and at great cost.  SpaceX has been working hard to make it more accessible to us. 

As that happens, there will be business opportunities. Astro Forge is raising funds for that. What they do:

"At AstroForge, our mission is to make space resources accessible on Earth. We mine asteroids to extract valuable minerals in space at a lower cost and smaller carbon footprint than the current terrestrial mining methods [image]."

As of this month, a total of $55 million has been invested in this idea. Here's how their two missions have gone so far, and what they're working on.

from Space

Hot Bread 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

No matter how good an idea may be, it may fold because of any number of problems. Somehow Hot Bread Kitchen has overcome the inevitable challenges to continue, and even to grow in its mission.

Starting out in the founder's kitchen, they celebrated a 15th anniversary last year, "creating economic opportunity through careers in food" and funded by $6 million in annual donations.

Through training and support, they claim they've put "1500 individuals on the path to economic mobility" whether as employees or entrepreneurs in the food industry. They like to call their members "Breadwinners."