Perpetual Innovation

Author: SustainMe

  • Bees in Peril. Costco Connection – July 2017

    The Costco Connection – July 2017 – Page 34-35:

    Bees in Peril: Working together to find a solution

    What to do when the canary (bees) stops singing (buzzing)?

    This is a great (short) overview of where we stand on bee front, written by Stephanie Ponder. (You gotta wonder if that’s a pseudonym!:0)

    This should worry people everywhere for soooo many reasons. The economic impact of a massive, or total loss of bees, is obvious. But bees are simply an indicator of our unhealthy impacts. It’s like amphibians (frogs). Frogs live in both the water and the land, so a little pollution in one or both, can totally wipe them out…. giving a strong indicator of what destruction a lot of pollution will do.

    Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is not so much the problem anymore. The big killer now is the vorroa mite.

    We still having a die-off of 40% of the bees each year, continuing to make a huge challenge for the beekeepers to maintain and replenish. This is hard to wrap the mind around. Imagine, that 40% of your cattle crop died each year. Beekeepers are going through some major gymnastics to try to replenish the hive(s) each year.

    The 4Ps are pests (vorroa mite), pathogens, pesticides and poor nutrition.

    Massive monoculture like almonds are providing poor nutrition (and no diversity). The article compares the mono-crop of flowers to a human diet of 100% steak. Farmers are introducing (or not killing) flowers and wild-flowers among the mono-crop. This also suggests that the monocrop itself is not so healthy.

    SustainZine has prior blogs related to CCD and healthy Bees. Think of bees as the Canary in the Coal Mine. When the canary dies, its a pretty strong hint that all is no longer well in the mine; when the bees die en mass, all is not well on the land.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • Coconut oil isn’t healthy. It’s never been healthy.

    Coconut oil isn’t healthy. It’s never been healthy.:
    by Ashley May.
    *** See our update pertaining to this article. It seems like Ms May, may have overstated her case against the coconut. See the update here… okay-coconut-oil-really-is-good-for-you. ***

    Like many such as the poor egg with its off-the-charts level of cholesterol, several foods have gotten a bad rap.

    Coconut oil got a bad rap, then got a good rap, and now it’s bad again.
    *** I’m sooo confused !!!! ***

    I have a Coconut book Bible on all the healthy benefits of coconuts and coconut oils, Coconut oil for health: 100 amazing and unexpected uses for coconut oil, by Brett Brandon, 2015.

    So coconut oil for weight loss is apparently not true. Like that’s never happened before!

    Related to the health benefits, it’s all about saturated fats. High levels of saturated fats can, and will, kill you.

    So aiming for uses of coconut oil outside your body, seems like a good thing. But ingesting it, not so much so.

    Honey might be a better homeopathic remedy for antibiotic, antiseptic cures and also allergies (local raw honey). Studies on honey curing allergies are inconclusive.

    Glad to clear this all up, like the Mississippi River during floodwaters,

    Well, gotta go put coconut oil on the scar on my knee that I’m trying to clear up.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • Tesla Solar Roofs. Better, Cheaper, Stronger, Longer

    Tesla Solar | Tesla:

    Here is the information to order your roof from Tesla (that has now merged with SolarCity).

    The tempered glass tiles are much stronger, much cheaper and last long (lifetime of the house or infinity warranty, whichever comes first).

    Oh, and then there’s the PV electricity generation, above that. It is 30-years warranty on the PV, it seems.

    This is something that is called an “irrefusable” value proposition. Especially if the house (building) is new, or an older roof that should be replaced within a few years.

    Here’s how it works. Most of the roof tiles are not PV. Only 30% to 40% of the roof would be in prime solar view.  The PV panels are about $40 sq ft, but the averages should be about $22. That also depends on the sizing of the system, no need to over produce in most cases (states).

    Here’s Tesal’s Specs and Sizing Calculator.

    Apparently, from the street, you can’t tell the difference between regular and PV tiles. Top view (helicopter) view you can, although it should be far less conspicuous than the usual PV panels.

    Also, remember those 5 GigaFactories for batteries and cars going up around the worlds. Well, couple in US and next one in Europe (?UK?).

    The pricing for preorder that started in May 2017, includes an installed 14kWh Powerwall  2 system. With battery backup, they entire building could go off grid, assuming the local power company and state law allow it. A generator (fuel cell) would do the trick.

    Of course, hooking to the grid provides the opportunity to sell back to the grid and assist with peaking. This type of building can help twice with peaking.  The excess electricity during peak times (heat of the day, usually) can be sold back. The batteries can be used as well at peak. They can be replenished in off times by the PV system or during low-load off-hours by the power company.
    This idea of battery pack backup can also apply to your favorite EV car as well. Dare I say Tesla or Bold. If the car will not be used today, why not use it to help with peaking loads, if needed, as needed?

    For an existing home/building, you will want to do an energy audit and reduce the energy usage first, then size and install the roof (with power system).

    Very cool.

    This appears to be a game changer.

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  • Wikipedia founder to fight fake news with new WikiTribune site

    Wikipedia founder to fight fake news with new Wikitribune site | Technology | The Guardian:
    Way to go Jimmy! You will now Jimmy Wales a founder of Wikipedia, that GREAT crowd sourcing information repository in the sky.
    It is unclear when WikiTribune will actually launch. More than 10,000 subscribers agreed, in advance, to pay a monthly fee for this quality news. You can still join up at www.WikiTribune.com and encourage the effort.
    It seems that using crowds, we can attack bogus news and untruths!  Jimmy thinks so, and a lot of other people do too.
    The news is broken in soooo many ways, and the WikiTRIBUNE approach may be the single best way to fix the news. Or at least partially fix it.
    Fact-based journalism with a Wikipedia twist, the site that brings you the world’s largest ‘pedia.
    Or we can continue to perpetuate the junk news, fake news, and big-advertiser skewed news.
    It is a free subscription, actually, but if you pay a little for the monthly subscription, it will be a sustainable source of real, and unbiased news.
    And, you too, can become an author. And you too can become an editor.
    I assume this will work much like the articles in Wikipedia that have tighter controls. Where bias is noted and flagged, and comments that are unsupported have prominent warnings like[citation needed].

    I’ve long thought that we should be able to utilize technology to clobber the bad, bogus and fake news, while promoting high-quality, fact-based news. Wikipedia has been great, but it works best for historical facts, science and current popular facts/figures. Projections and commentary, not so much so. 
    In the world of the information cocoon, and all people can create their own content, news has only gotten worse and worse.
    Maybe, just maybe, WikiTribune is a way to overshoot the bots and the media silos and the paid information propaganda.  This could bring us back to discussing the full range of facts at one time, not just the left or the right half.
    Maybe. Gotta hope. 
    The Skimm. Here’s another place to find actual, real live news summaries, with a twist. This is daily snippets, or the Daily SKIMM of the news, visit http://www.theskimm.com/. This is short, sweet and fun presentation of the news. Couple ways to read the Daily Skimm, but I get it in my email every day. It is actually targeted toward young(er) urban women, say 22 to 34. Short, sweet, and very unbiased. For politics it says something like: well the DEMs say this, and the GOP want this, but here is what will probably happen. This is great because you don’t have to read where the left lies, and the right lies, and then guess what’s a pretty accurate truthful spot in the middle.

    Pretty funny reading stuff that the youth will pick up on, but the older crowd will probably miss.
    Paid advertising. Full disclosure as to ownership conflicts, appears related to adds and articles.
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  • Panera, getting clean and serving up Krispy Kreme

    Panera, as you know, is the casual dining, yet healthy, place to eat out (and now with a lot of delivery). Now that we are not so concerned about the salt in the menu (sometimes up to 1,000mg for a meal) it seems Panera is really living the wholesome live and riding the healthfood craze. Early in 2007, Panera was talking about totally cleaning up its already pretty squeaky clean act. (See company press and this WSJ article.)

    This WSJ article has a good discussion of the buyout by a private conglomerate JAB of Panera. The company’s already well priced stock jumped almost $100 over a couple days to about $310 today. (See PNRA stock trend for a month.) Going private has lots and lots of advantages for a company. There’s all the reporting and restrictions of a publicly traded company. Plus, you need to tell investors how you have done and what you plan to do. Surprisingly, competitors read these same annual reports and utilize the public information to their competitive advantage.

    Apparently JAB Holdings will allow PNRA to run with relative autonomy, or so believes CEO Ron Shaich. They do expect some synergies with the sister companies, especially when entering other countries.

    JAB is a German family owned holding company that has acquired lots of companies including the coffee kup craze of Keurig Green Mountain and the sugary delight of Krispy Kreme.  The coffee thing with K-cups, Peets, Caribou and Mighty Leaf Tea all make a lot of synergy sense. But Krispy Kreme seems like a bit of a head-scratcher.

    You know how you have the diet craze with salad at the fast-food restaurant; something for the carnivore and the vegan — in the off chance they travel together. How about Krispy Kreme at the Panera restaurant; wholesome-healthy and the sinful-decadent? Something for both the angel as well as the devil in the family.