The new product-design ethic is “cradle to cradle.” That means making sure a discarded product is designed to become a feedstock for a process or critter when its useful life is over. Products that are recyclable or biodegradable will gain increasing consumer cachet until they become standard.
Eisenhower’s nightmare is now a reality
Eisenhower’s nightmare is now a reality On Jan. 17, 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower, a five-star general who led the D-Day invasion, gave a powerful warning to the nation in his farewell address: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise...
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Some unease hit the markets during the string of resignations that shook the White House. The Dow Jones, for example, dropped in mid-August to its lowest performance in three months, when Trump’s handling of the Charlottesville protests led to rumors that National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn was next to resign. Some talking heads on the CNBCs of the world...
Rural America, not cities, the new center of poverty
A generation ago, urban centers were cauldrons of poverty, crime and broken families. Today, the trend has reversed. America’s small, rural towns and their inhabitants are now America’s new down and out. Many of these hamlets once survived on agriculture, some on manufacturing and some on their natural resources. But over the last 30 years, agri-business monopolies put small farmers...
Trump presidency safe: He’s back in military school
Cadet Donald Trump, at 13, found himself surrounded by military disciplinarians charged by his parents with controlling the young future president by bringing focus and structure to his life. He needed to learn how to play by the rules. And what better place than an environment where rules rule, right down to marching in line, making your bed and even...
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As the decline of rural counties and once thriving small cities accelerated, there was high media hopes and “expert” expectations that the new world order of the internet and telework would bring young families and small companies back to the romance of small town living. But today small towns in the central US are locked in a tailspin of unemployment,...
The new electric grid: Smaller power sources run by local governments
Endeavour Energy, an Australian electric utility, is laying the foundation for what it sees as a massive turn in the power-generation industry: Electricity creation and distribution will become the province of small, local entities – town governments, co-ops, factories, small businesses or even neighborhoods. The change is being forced by the global rise of renewable energy sources coupled to in-line...
Trendpost
The electric utility industry’s shift toward microgrids is global. Worldwide, microgrids will be a $23 billion market sector by 2021, according to the research firm GlobalData. This is part of the electric-utility industry’s long period of transformation: The business model of monopoly ownership of a centralized generation and distribution system is dying. The industry is testing new ways to survive,...
Trump flump: A military- school brat
Why did Donald Trump go to military school? He was a spoiled little brat. Back in the day, the greatest punishment a parent could threaten an out-of-control little bastard who wouldn’t behave was military school. I know firsthand. I was threatened by my parents… many times. But I was smarter than Donald Trump. Trump went to military school. I didn’t....
Older tech workers, please apply
While young tech whizzes are making new apps for your phone or designing cybersecurity protocols, Amazon Web Services is creating The Cloud that these devices need to operate – and Amazon is doing it with engineers whose average age is over 40. Some tech giants, such as Oracle and IBM, have a workforce with an average age above 35. That’s...