Bloom Energy
Here's the common sense thing that I've been waiting. There are three megatrends that I hope my kids will follow - they are the most significant things for the 21C in my opinion. The first, which seems to be coming sooner rather than later is Dyson's Utopia, which will be fueled by the Bloom Box and it's like - distributed & decentralized power generation, rather than hierarchical and centralized. The other two are instantaneous voice language translation and biogen, but we can talk about that later.
Apparently the Bloom Box can generate 5KW. That's enough for five normal homes or two with as many HD screens and computers as mine. Looks good for industrial customers, Google has several, but I can't find out what the cost is per unit. If it's not car-price financable, you'll likely only see housing developers buy 'em. Anyway, that's the place to look - where self contained power is a necessity. I think this is one of those leapfrog technologies like cell phones in Africa.
The Coming Pension Wars
Last week, the Pew Center on the States reported that “at the end of fiscal year 2008, there was a $1 trillion gap between the $2.35 trillion states and participating localities had set aside to pay for employees’ retirement benefits and the $3.35 trillion price tag of those promises.”
I'm thinking lifeboat scenarios. Let granny drown. Bill Wilson talks more than I am willing to think on the subject. My mind isn't really made up on the cruel end of the spectrum, but this is the same thing that's going on with Greece. Workers in Germany who are 62 will be subsidizing Greek retirees who are 54 years old. Yes that's right, you retire in Greece at 54. Socialists!
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