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Archive for category Entrepreneurship/Business

The new “green” nuclear power

Dec 23

Posted by Billy in Entrepreneurship/Business, Politics | 1 Comment

A recent article in Wired discussed a “new”ish method of nuclear power utilizing thorium instead of uranium.  It appears to be cheaper, safer, more efficient, takes up less space and goes forever.  So why can’t we get more buy in?  Nuke is nuke I suppose.  Lets forget the cap-n-trade crap or quit burning bundles of carbon to get to Copenhagen and develop this stuff! That’s my “global warming” answer.  Now only if the government will back off to allow it and hopefully some archaic nuclear utilities will explore it too.  One of the big proponents, Kirk Sorensen, runs a blog called “Energy from Thorium“.  Check it out, the first “open source project” for nuclear power.  The article is excellent and interesting. Check out this comparison sheet from the article of three possible reactors:

  • Uranium-Fueled Light-Water Reactor
  • Fuel Uranium fuel rods
  • Fuel input per gigawatt output 250 tons raw uranium
  • Annual fuel cost for 1-GW reactor $50-60 million
  • Coolant Water
  • Proliferation potential Medium
  • Footprint 200,000-300,000 square feet, surrounded by a low-density population zone

  • Seed-and-Blanket Reactor
  • Fuel Thorium oxide and uranium oxide rods
  • Fuel input per gigawatt output 4.6 tons raw thorium, 177 tons raw uranium
  • Annual fuel cost for 1-GW reactor $50-60 million
  • Coolant Water
  • Proliferation potential None
  • Footprint 200,000-300,000 square feet, surrounded by a low-density population zone

  • Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor
  • Fuel Thorium and uranium fluoride solution
  • Fuel input per gigawatt output 1 ton raw thorium
  • Annual fuel cost for 1-GW reactor $10,000 (estimated)
  • Coolant Self-regulating
  • Proliferation potential None
  • Footprint 2,000-3,000 square feet, with no need for a buffer zone
    • Well, I’m sold (at least enough to want to explore it further!)

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    Living “small” is cool…

    Nov 5

    Posted by Billy in Entrepreneurship/Business, Philosophy, Uncategorized | No Comments

    This dude is awesome! I couldn’t do it, live in 96 square feet but I respect anyone who can. He’s even an entrepreneur, turning his passion into a niche business. Respect… I found this on 37 Signals’ Blog Signal vs Noise (sweet blog of course). Check out the vid:

    Jay Shafer of Tumbleweed Tiny House Company designs and builds small houses ranging from 65 to 837 square feet. He’s spent the last 10 years living in his tiny houses. In this video he gives a tour of a 96 square foot house.

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    Alternative Energy Businesses to Come

    Sep 7

    Posted by Billy in Entrepreneurship/Business | No Comments

    I recently found a few articles on alternative energies extrapolated from garbage. Yes, our waste re-purposed. On company called Fulcrum BioEnergy will be one of the first to commercially produce ethanol from municipal waste. I, personally, am all about green ONLY when it is produced privately and made available on the open market. If it has the stink of government force, I’m out. This is impart because it is difficult to gauge the success and viability of solutions when the solution is forced on people. We don’t know if they really want it or if something better ought to be developed.  There is little drive to develop it further as well with little competitive incentive.  This is aside from the ethics of government force which I will save for now.  From the article:

    If you extrapolate the technology out to a national level, it could one day produce more than 1 billion gallons of ethanol annually…

    the company, already benefiting from its other ethanol business using different feedstocks, says the price of the fuel produced could be as low as 50 cents a gallon.

    If companies such as Fulcrum can commercially and profitably produce fuels that will drive costs down to 50 cents per gallon, all while not affecting corn prices and without government intervention or mandates, then lets get behind them privately and individually by buying their products when released!  Check out this article on GreenBeat regarding them.

    There are others experimenting with trash energy such as South Korea here.  I’m not advocating any economic support on this one, only that it is being done and as far as I can gather, done as an experiment for possibilities.  I may be wrong in that but I’m all about developing technologies…

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    Innovative Eyeglasses for the Masses – The Creative Mind

    Sep 5

    Posted by Billy in Entrepreneurship/Business, Ethics | No Comments

    Josh Silver recently demoed some innovative, liquid-filled, adjustable-prescription eye glasses at TED.  They are quite amazing and you essentially can “dial” them in to your own eyes, almost like focusing a camera or binoculars.  This is another example of human ingenuity at its finest.  He has got the cost down to $19 a pair but is working to get them affordable to be distributed throughout the developing world.  Companies are working already to do so.  This is another case of entrepreneurship at its finest, with motivations that appear to be other than financial (although I hope he reaps substantial financial reward so he may continue his work. We want more ideas such as this!)

    Check out the video and let me know what you think:

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    Redefining Learning: Innovative Education vs. Traditional Tyranny

    Aug 28

    Posted by Billy in Entrepreneurship/Business, Featured | No Comments

    I have seen a lot on education recently.  Whether that is due to it being an important and prominent issue or simply an action of reticular activation due to interest, I don’t know.  The great thing is entrepreneurs and passionate individuals are finally taking action against an archaic, aristocratic educational philosophy.  With the rapid shifts and flow of information, traditional education is 10 steps back, maybe 100 steps back.  Education tends to have (or has had) little competition as well, considering the substantial regulations regarding accreditation and other barriers to entry.  The interesting caveat is that people don’t seem to care about “accreditation” as much anymore and new educational programs are sprouting up all over the web and all of the world, many having little to do with the traditional acquisition of ‘degrees’.  I don’t mean to dismantle traditional education entirely, it has done wonders for many, only to say that creative destruction may begin to play it’s course, or at least offer some viable competition and an array of options and choices for ’students’ (however you define a student).

    One recent post describes an open-source textbook company that is leaking into traditional textbook profits. See some on the company here from VentureBeat.  The concept of open-source textbooks is a powerful one.  Cost of production is near zero, updates are nearly instant so information is current (not 2 years old by the time it is in student hands) and those with access to solid educational resources is near limitless.  Combine this concept with those of other groups such as Singularity University (Not cheap but innovative) or Seth Godin’s ‘free’ MBA program and you can see some interesting evolutions in education.  Check out The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman as well. Here are some excerpts from Josh’s program manifesto:

    MBA programs don’t have a monopoly on advanced business knowledge: you can teach yourself everything you need to know to succeed in life and at work.

    and…

    The PMBA is more flexible than a traditional MBA program, doesn’t involve going into massive debt, and won’t interrupt your income stream for two years. Just pick up one of these business books, learn as much as you can, discuss what you learn with others, then go out into the real world and make great things happen.

    Fast Company also released a recent article regarding education as well here. They called it “Who Needs Harvard?” which hints at the obvious direction of the article.  It is very interesting.

    This is just the beginning and I’m excited to see what happens in the future and plan on more about it, if not some level of participation!

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    “Charter Cities” as a gateway to Libertarian ideals…

    Aug 25

    Posted by Billy in Economics, Entrepreneurship/Business, Politics | No Comments

    A recent talk on TED.com by Paul Romer describes a concept called “charter cities” which, as a foundational concept, is extremely interesting and potentially revolutionary in nature, paving a pathway to reforms for freedom in any country, including the United States.  The US is definitely not a purely free market and a charter city would allow a “free market experiment” to exist here as well as other parts, just as Hong Kong was, and is for China.  Countries could have their own “Hong Kong” and people would be able to choose to participate.  As demand grows, new charter cities are started, eventually whole countries may be reformed.  What a concept for nations that have been over-run with imperialist regimes and freedom-less government monopolies that have forgotten how to live with freedom or aren’t even sure if they want it.  Allow people to choose, countries and communities to transition.  If each charter city works, you now have examples and evidence of effectiveness.  Good stuff!

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    Natural Economy exists in all areas of life

    Aug 21

    Posted by Billy in Entrepreneurship/Business, Philosophy | 1 Comment

    There exists economic principles in all of nature.  Naturally existing, un-managed economies.  We could learn a lot from nature, economically, technologically, and more.  Instead of believing we must manage all aspects of life and the economy (which is truly impossible) we ought to let man’s individuality decide and allow naturally occurring un-managed coexistence and accelerated human progression happen!  I found the following video fascinating from the aspect of technology from nature. Now we ought to learn from nature in other aspects, politics, economics, and more:

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    The Entrepreneur triumphs at delivering safe drinking water to all

    Aug 19

    Posted by Billy in Entrepreneurship/Business, Ethics | 1 Comment

    A recent video on TED.com demonstrated the capability of a free-thinking concerned global citizen.  Michael Pritchard developed a water filtration system that can deliver safe drinking water no matter the conditions and due it in an extremely portable and remarkably affordable fashion.  He estimates that it would take no more than $20 billion to deliver clean drinking water to the entire world!  Now, there are other considerations such as political access to the end user in hostile territory, war lords and all that. But the concept and possibility are phenomenal!

    He does mention the amounts spent by governments on foreign aid which I am not as big a fan of.  I say we pitch it to Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and other private foundations who are spending this kind of money in the open, charity market.  They will act much faster and with much more efficiency instead of turning a $20 billion project into a $100 billion with the added bureaucracy.  And the average tax payer need not be squeezed for the money but given the opportunity to openly volunteer in donation to the private charities participating.  All in all, I hope Mike makes money hand over fist, enabling him to continue to develop the technology, market the new solution and get the word out.  This of course will do wonders for anyone needing clean water when in a bind.  Cool stuff!

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    Johnny Lee expands technology on the cheap!

    Aug 14

    Posted by Billy in Entrepreneurship/Business | No Comments

    I am a technology junky and love to see innovations and developments in technology, especially when driven by free enterprise and private individuals.  The following video provides an example of someone’s passion becoming an extremely affordable advancement in technological capabilities for gamers as well as developing schools and communities.  Entrepreneurship at its finest! (even if he isn’t looking to build a business…)

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    Apple, Google, AT&T, and the FCC?

    Aug 13

    Posted by Billy in Entrepreneurship/Business, Politics | No Comments

    Well, apparently the FCC doesn’t like to see siblings quarrel.  It’s latest venture into regulatory practice has it asking questions about why Apple rejected the latest Google App?  Why!?!?  This is not a question of monopoly or cruel business treatment!  It isn’t a matter of unacceptable moral programming!  (not that either should be their biz).  It is simply one business rejecting a product of another!  Let the free market breath just a little bit please… Check out this article from Reason.

    Now the FCC wants the whole story. Last week, it sent an abrupt letter to all three companies—Google, Apple, and AT&T—demanding answers. Why the rejection? Was AT&T involved? Is this normal? What are Apple’s usual policies for rejecting an app?

    A better question, however, might be why the FCC is sticking its nose into this business at all. As Jerry Brito of the Mercatus Center and Adam Thierer of the Progress and Freedom Foundation recently pointed out, it’s not clear that the agency has any authority to do so. Not that that’s stopped it before: As Thierer notes, the FCC has a long history of overreach. This may simply be a way of flexing its regularity muscle as its defines—and perhaps expands—its territory under the Obama administration.

    As it goes on, has it been necessary to meddle?  NO!! A lot of cool stuff has come from the competing cell companies since the iPhone’s inception. Let’s not stop now!

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