Google told me that today would have been Alessandro Volta's 270th birthday. I wish Count Volta a Happy Birthday and hope that he would have enjoyed this blog about powering an automobile with the sun's rays. He invented an early form of the electric battery called the "electrophorus." Count Volta, a man after my own heart, was quoted as saying: "The language of experiment is more authoritative than any reasoning: facts can destroy our ratiocination—not vice versa." Ah, yes, I agree that the truth is best when conveyed with data.
But, how does one go about envisioning the future? I've blogged in the past about bringing the future to the present. Well, I recently visited Kaiser's Garfield Innovation Center, where Kaiser works to bring the gap between an innovative idea and reality. One of the innovations on display was a Nissan Leaf, which represented a future where a car would autonomous drive to an individual with chronic heart failure in the middle of a possible medical emergency. The vehicle could be equipped with sensors so that the medical intervention would begin in the vehicle as it drove the patient to the hospital. Well, many parts of this scenario are already under development. For example, the autonomous driving Leaf is on its way...in 2020. In addition, Patent US 8874301 B1 Autonomous vehicle with driver presence and physiological monitoring from Ford Global Technologies details an autonomous vehicle that would shut down and execute an emergency response mode if built-in or driver supplied biometric sensors detected "any serious condition/deviation in biologic signals."
The pieces are all out there. We just need visionaries to bring it to the present and so I ask: WWCVD? What would Count Volta do?
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Thursday, February 5, 2015
ODO 8433 miles
This post is on a topic that is not EV or Solar or Solar EV related, but an important issue nonetheless. It is about water. Do you think about where the water that is coming out of your faucet originally came from? The mountains somewhere. That reservoir that I can see from the freeway maybe. Well, in this time of serious drought, where our drinking water comes from will likely become more diversified as we get more, umm, creative with finding new sources of water to replace the snow that is not falling.
In behavior change theory, one way to affect change is to bring the future to the present. That is what the state of California is trying to do by offering subsidies/rebates to electric vehicle drivers. As I drive along, a single driver in the carpool lane waving to everyone stuck in traffic on the 405, I am demonstrating a new model for transportation. So how can we bring the future to the present in demonstrating the latest water source that is gaining attention - recycled water, aka #poopwater? Well, Jimmy Fallon did just that when Bill Gates came on his show on January 21st. Watch it here. Bill Gates posted this photo on his twitter feed:
I love the way Fallon and Gates are showing everyone that recycled water is delicious! Other products are leading the way, my favorite is the recent offer from Clean Water Services to provide recycled water to homebrewers. Sign me up!
But time for a little truth. You might be drinking #poopwater already if you live near me. West Basin Municipal Water District uses recycled water for groundwater replenishment, i.e. they clean it and then put it in the ground. But, groundwater is 21% of their water sources. So what goes in, might also come out and to your faucet. That's what I call bringing the future to the present.
In behavior change theory, one way to affect change is to bring the future to the present. That is what the state of California is trying to do by offering subsidies/rebates to electric vehicle drivers. As I drive along, a single driver in the carpool lane waving to everyone stuck in traffic on the 405, I am demonstrating a new model for transportation. So how can we bring the future to the present in demonstrating the latest water source that is gaining attention - recycled water, aka #poopwater? Well, Jimmy Fallon did just that when Bill Gates came on his show on January 21st. Watch it here. Bill Gates posted this photo on his twitter feed:
I love the way Fallon and Gates are showing everyone that recycled water is delicious! Other products are leading the way, my favorite is the recent offer from Clean Water Services to provide recycled water to homebrewers. Sign me up!But time for a little truth. You might be drinking #poopwater already if you live near me. West Basin Municipal Water District uses recycled water for groundwater replenishment, i.e. they clean it and then put it in the ground. But, groundwater is 21% of their water sources. So what goes in, might also come out and to your faucet. That's what I call bringing the future to the present.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)