Google is Developing Delivery Drones

At the end of last year, Amazon announced it was working on an autonomous delivery drone service called Prime Air.  Now it seems another internet giant has high ambitions too. The Atlantic just revealed that Google's moonshot program, Google X, has been secretly hard at work developing its own prototype delivery drone technology known as Project Wing.

This last month, around 30 tests were conducted in Queensland, Australia.  The team has successfully delivered a first aid kit, candy bars, dog treats, and water to a couple of farmers.

“We’re only just beginning to develop the technology to make a safe delivery system possible, but we think that there’s tremendous potential to transport goods more quickly, safely and efficiently,” Google said.

Because logistics physically connects people, products and places, these incredible advances in technology could become seriously disruptive forces. Companies are moving quickly and developing these functional systems even ahead of the FAA's expected regulatory framework. Should be an interesting ride.

4 Steps To Hiring People You’ll Never Have To Manage

Resumes Are Nearly Useless

Most of our hiring practices were developed for the Industrial Age. But it turns out resumes are nearly useless and our hiring process is backwards.

#1 - Business Beliefs and Culture

Business Beliefs determine your culture. Beware the picture on the wall of an eagle with a clever saying. You don’t create a culture; you just live out what you believe.

Before you ever look at a resume, test for Business Beliefs. Your best future Stakeholders will believe they should Make Meaning at work, not just money. And they’ll believe that taking ownership of their job, processes, teamwork and results are fundamental responsibilities. Traditional employees believe they trade hours for money. Stakeholders believe they go to work to create Significance in the world around them.

Business Beliefs and Culture are everything, and you don’t find these on a resume.

#2 - Talent

Unlike skills, talents are those innate abilities that can’t be taught; a sense of urgency, attention to detail, silver-tongued communicator, ability to work alone or in teams, etc. Every job requires unique talents. Figure out what those are and hire second for talent, before you look at their resume. You don’t find talent on a resume.

#3 – Skills (Demonstrated)

Resumes are a terrible place to find talents, too.  You don’t test for skills by sitting across from someone asking them if their resume is true. Have the person demonstrate whatever they are being hired to do. If they are good at it, they have the skills. If they don’t, you have to decide if training them makes sense. My company focuses on hiring talented people, because you can teach skills, but talent can’t be taught. People who are highly skilled but untalented will never be great contributors.

#4 Experience.

If someone passes the first four tests, only then should you bother to glance (yes, glance) at their resume. Resumes are just obituaries about what someone used to do, and like obituaries, they are always embellished while downplaying shortcomings. Use resumes at the end of the hiring process to see if someone is a job-hopper, and to help you talk to their references.

We have it all backwards.

So to hire someone who you’ll never have to manage, who will take ownership and become a contributing Stakeholder, interview for these four things, always in this order:

1. Business Beliefs and Culture

2. Talent

3. Skills (test for them, don’t look at the resume)

4. Experience

But how does the traditional Industrial Age process do it? Backwards:

1. Experience - “We need someone fast. We won’t have time to train.”

2. Skills - “Their resume says they’re good. They must be good.”

3. Talent – Rarely looked at

4. Business Beliefs and Culture – At best, an afterthought

Is it any wonder we end up hiring Industrial Age style employees who need to be herded into office day care centers and supervised like seven year olds?

Key-Word Searches Are The Worst Possible Hiring Practice

Using software to do key-word searches as the first step is broken. The rationale is that there are always too many candidates and it eliminates the 90% who won’t be a fit. But what it eliminates is great people who could be a perfect cultural fit, with all the right talents and possibly even the right skills. Instead it selects BS’rs who wrote the best, and possibly most exaggerated obituaries.

Reboot

If you want to hire people you won’t have to manage, throw out most of what you’ve been taught about hiring. Hire first for Business Beliefs and Culture, second for talent, third for demonstrated skills, and use experience as a tiebreaker. You, and the people who you hire, will all be happier and more productive.

Article as seen on Inc.com

by Chuck Blakeman, Author of the #1 Rated Business Book of the Year, Making Money is Killing Your Business and Top 10 business book, Why Employees Are Always A Bad Idea

www.ChuckBlakeman.com

2 Years Later: A Look at Curiosity

"The first footfalls on Mars will mark a historic milestone, an enterprise that requires human tenacity matched with technology to anchor ourselves on another world"  - Buzz Aldren

August 6th, 2012 - One of the most ambitious space missions to date went into action.  The unmanned space rover, aptly named Curiosity, was set to land on Mars, all that was left was the trip.  After the "Seven Minutes of Terror," Curiosity was to begin its mission into the Martian wilderness.  Over the course of the two years, Curiosity has been active studying the Mars for signs of life and water, reporting diligently back to NASA.  Armed with cameras and a rock-vaporizing laser, Curiosity has been shooting and rocks and taking pictures for two years now, and we've learned some pretty astounding things.

Thanks to the intrepid rover, we have evidence that there was most likely once water on Mars.  We now know that life on Mars was possible given the history of the red planet, and we have an idea of where to search for it.  Among the many things that Curiosity has discovered on its extra-terrestrial mission, the biggest benefit from the rover may be a renewed interest in the space program.  From lego sets to t-shirts to its own Twitter handle, people are interested in what's going on on Mars.

Now, 2 years later, we get a look at what the time and elements have done to our beloved space-faring friend.  And maybe, just maybe, we can one day send someone up there to go meet our rover buddy and thank it for all it has done for us.

Serendipity Brings Music Lovers Together

"Music does bring people together... No matter what language we speak, what color we are, the form of our politics or the expression of our love and our faith, music proves: We are the same." - John Denver

Whereever you travel, through whatever country, people can always connect through the shared experience of enjoying music.  Everyday more and more people turn to online streaming services for their jams, creating a nexus point of musical diversity used the world over.  There are already ways to make online music a more communal experience, but this newest one is something else entirely.

"Even though listening to music can be a very private experience, I wanted to see how often this experience is shared.” - Kyle McDonald

Spotify, one of the largest music streaming services, recently unveiled a map, that shows when any two people around the world are listening to the same song at the same time (within 1/10th of a second of each other).  The map, named Serendipity, jumps from song to song showing the location of each of the listeners worldwide, and what they're listening to.  It also gives you the option to pause, stop and listen for a while. This project, based on real-time data was created by Spotify's first artist-in-residence, Kyle McDonald.  About the project, McDonald says “In person, it’s easy to see the features we share, or when we share stories in online discussions. But we’re also connected in more ephemeral ways, and we can extract these relationships with new tools. Even though listening to music can be a very private experience, I wanted to see how often this experience is shared.”

If you want to get connected with others through music,

check out Serendipity for yourself. 

How Your Language Affects Your Future Choices

“To abstain from enjoyment which is in our power, or to seek distant rather than immediate results, are among the most painful exertions of the human will” -

Nassau William Senior

Have you ever put off finishing a project until the last second?  Or wondered why you're bad at saving your money for retirement?  Chances are that you have, and it may have to do with a disconnect from "your future self."  The disconnect comes from this unconscious belief that the person you are today is a separate entity from the person you are in the future.  The future you wants to retire at 55, but today you wants to take a trip to Hawaii.  The future you should be a successful CEO, but the present you doesn't want to work past 5:00.  We have these notions on how we want the future to be, and a lot of times we are incapable of reconciling our present actions with our future wants.

What does this mean?  Keith Chen , an economics professor at UCLA, proposes a rather interesting idea.  As a native English-speaking Chinese person he often wondered at the differences between the two languages, and in particular the difference in their future tenses.  Upon doing a some further research, he realized that this difference in tenses was visible across the board in many languages.  Where in English one say "it will rain tomorrow" in German one would say "Morgen regnet es" which translates literally to "It rains tomorrow."  This way requires that English speakers make an inherent distinction between the present and the future, in a way that German does not.  This leads us to distinguish the two by saying that English has a strong future-tense while German has a weak-future tense, and it is believed that this difference could be what causes the present-future disconnect.

This may seem a little far fetched, but the effects of language on perception are well known.  Keith takes this idea and applies it to economics.  He believes that the separation of present-self from future-self affects us not only on a personal scale, but influences the amount of money that whole countries save.  Not only does this apply to savings, it correlates to the amount of risk that citizens take in their daily lives. For example, those countries with a stronger future tense are statistically more likely to engage in impulse buying, smoking and engaging in unprotected sex. Hopefully by knowing this information, an individual can act more consciously in the way they make their decisions and we can all do a better job of preparing for our future.  The full TED talk by Professor Chen can be seen below.

Why You Should Hire Stakeholders, Not Employees

Let's retire the idea of an employee. These days, your company needs something different.

The Factory System gave us cool toys and a cushy life, but it also came with business diseases, and one of them is the Industrial Age concept of the employee. That version is a very new idea in the history of man, and one that needs to go away. Let's replace them with Stakeholders.

Employees Are Silent

The Industrial Age recreated people as extensions of machines. If people left the messy, creative human part at home, they fit into the Factory System much better. Sadly, people adapted, to the point that the generation that entered the work force at the very peak of the Industrial Age (1945-1965ish) was given the worst generational label in history--The Silent Generation. They understood the Factory System mantra, "Be loyal to the company. Do what you're told. Show up early, leave late. Shut up, sit down, don't make waves, live invisibly, and go out quietly. The company will take care of you, from cradle to grave." They bought the promise hook, line and sinker.

Employees Are Children

This view of work (and life) turned adults back into children. The most respected person was one who obediently took orders, did what they were told, didn't question authority, was blindly loyal to those in charge, and lived passively as others directed their life. Pretty much what we want a five-year-old to do.

To keep the children from ruining the house, the Industrial Age herded people into company day care centers, penned them in with clear and narrow rules on performance and hours, and endless limitations on being human and adult at work. Machines didn't need them to ask why, or to create, or to solve problems. Machines just needed them to "do".

Childlike Employees Are Replaced By Adult Stakeholders

The notion of an employee is a business disease which turns people back into children, and it should be eradicated. Some companies can't even use the word anymore. They don't want to hire children who need to be supervised so that they don't run into the street. They want adults. Enter the Stakeholder.

Stakeholders bring the whole, messy, creative person to work. They can think, take initiative, make decisions, carry responsibility, take ownership, be creative, and solve problems. And they incessantly ask the most human of questions, "Why?" They are self-directed and creative, and they solve problems. They don't expect the company or other adults to take care of them.

Stakeholders Are Owners

Ownership is the most powerful motivator in business. Adults own stuff. Even if they don't own a piece of the company, Stakeholders own their work. And as Stakeholders, they receive profit sharing, just like an owner should. To create ownership, Stakeholders in Participation Age companies own some of the fruit of their labor.

Stakeholders Require Leadership, Not Adult Supervision (Management)

If you hire adult Stakeholders instead of childlike employees, it changes the way you lead people. Participation Age companies with Stakeholders don't have office hours, vacation time, or personal days. They're not interested in whose car was in the parking lot first or who left last. In these companies, Stakeholders don't need adult supervision, they need leadership.

Stakeholders Make Meaning and Money At Work, and More of Both

Industrial Age employees traded time for money, and then went home to Make Meaning. Stakeholders won't settle for a j-o-b that just pays the bills. They want to be able to go home at the end of the day knowing they made a difference, not just a product. And everyone is a lot happier because they all work with adults who contribute and pull their own weight.

In the Participation Age, employees are always a bad idea. Stakeholders will replace them. There is a growing wave of companies looking to replace employees with Stakeholders. Don't settle. Find one you can join, or build one yourself.

Come join us in the Participation Age.

by Chuck Blakeman, Author of the #1 Rated Business Book of the Year, Making Money is Killing Your Business and Top 10 business book, Why Employees Are Always A Bad Idea

www.ChuckBlakeman.com

Article as seen on Inc.com

Self-Driving Trucks & Automated Transportation

What if trucks could drive themselves? As automation technology proves to be reliable, the adoption of self-driving vehicles will continue to occur. The impacts on the economy could be massive. The UK may begin testing self-driving trucks in 2015. According to The Sunday Times, UK ministers recently visited Sweden to witness the technology in action and are making plans to bring it to the UK.  Advocates say the technology could increase fuel efficiency and make better use of human time.

Some proposed systems, such as Volvo's SARTRE road train system, would have vehicles driving tightly together in a caravan using Wi-Fi, infrared cameras, and laser sensors to keep vehicles at a safe distance from each other.  Each vehicle would have a driver in it, though only the front driver would be steering. The other "drivers" could be working on administrative tasks - or eating lunch. While governments and companies are starting out slowly, the eventual result could very well be fully driverless vehicles. This could also be useful for America's economy, as the American Trucking Associations (ATA) estimates that the U.S. is short 30,000 truck drivers. 

In the United States, Google has been the most outspoken proponent of self-driving technology. Their prototype (built from the ground up) goes further and foregoes the steering wheel, mirrors, and pedals found in most of today's vehicles. Their project is focused on human transport, ostensibly so people that used to spend time driving can spend more time using Google's internet services. Uber's $17 billion valuation shows that applied innovation in human transport can be quite profitable for entrepreneurs and their investors. Now imagine automating the most expensive aspect of Uber's business model: the drivers. While some people fear the safety of such auto-mobiles, advocates of self-driving vehicles point to the current rate of human driver error (~40,000 vehicle related deaths in the US each year) and want to push for dramatic safety improvements through well-designed automation.

While the ride-sharing & taxi industry will be attractive, the real prize could be in supply chain logistics.  Global shipping is worth trillions of dollars, and margins could be improved with this new technology. The last couple decades have seen container ships greatly increase in size in order to achieve better economies of scale. The BBC talked with Matt Collette, who teaches ship design at the University of Michigan. He says, “There are two primary drivers for automation,” says Collette. “One is that human beings are not very good at long repetitive tasks. That’s when you see lapses in concentration that lead to the ship getting into a collision or running aground,” he explains.

“Automation could reduce those types of accidents significantly, because the computers have no problem paying attention for a two-month voyage.”

In the 20th century, Malcolm McLean helped adopt the standard size and shape of shipping containers. Although a simple invention, containerization drastically lowered the costs of shipping around the world. Some economists find evidence that the shipping container has done more for global trade than every trade agreement signed in the past 50 years. Now, with automated transportation, the economics of international trade may be revolutionized yet again in the 21st century. 

Funding for Nuclear Startup, Transatomic Power

Nuclear power is seeing growing interest.  Billionaire Peter Thiel, co-founder of Paypal and Palantir, has been investing in technology companies for years. His venture capital group, Founders Fund,  challenges the short-term mindset of many in Silicon Valley with its saying: “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.” Thiel is now aiming to disrupt the nuclear energy industry.  As re/code reports, Founders Fund has recently made a new allocation called FF Science to "tackle hard problems" with financing for early-stage science ventures.  It recently made its first investment - $2 million into a Cambridge, Massachusetts startup called Transatomic Power.  Co-founders Leslie Dewan and Mark Massie developed the technology as graduate students at MIT. According to their website, Transatomic Power Corporation is commercializing an innovative molten salt reactor that safely burns nuclear waste to deliver vast amounts of affordable clean energy to meet the world's needs. The technical advisory board of Transatomic Power includes leading nuclear scientists and engineers with leadership experience from MIT, UNLV, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Oak Ridge National Lab, Idaho National Lab, and Westinghouse.

 "Transatomic Power's innovative nuclear reactors turn nuclear waste into a safe, clean, and scalable source of electricity."

Founders Fund says it wants to take more risks on early-stage startups tackling difficult technical problems.  “FF Science” is an allocation within its most recent billion dollar fund earmarked for seed-stage investments in areas like aeronautics, advanced computing, energy, life sciences and nanotechnology.  He said the firm wants to invest in startups attempting to solve “some of the world’s most important problems.” They’re not looking for academic science experiments, but incorporated businesses with established teams, even if there’s considerable work left on the science side.

Check out this TED Talk given by co-founders Leslie Dewan and Mark Massie where they outline their new design and how it addresses issues of safety and waste:

http://recode.net/2014/08/05/going-nuclear-founders-fund-plugs-2-million-into-transatomic/

http://www.businessinsider.com/peter-thiel-nuclear-energy-industry-2014-8

http://transatomicpower.com/

http://www.foundersfund.com/

Dealing with the Patent Trolls

Start-ups face a lot of adversity in their quest to become profitable companies and, in fact, most don't make it.  One large factor in preventing start-ups from moving forward is the intervention of the dreaded "patent troll."   Patent troll is a derogatory term for a business that produces no products or services, yet obtains patents and uses them to launch a plethora of law-suits against other companies.  A patent troll uses the threat of a lawsuit against businesses in order to extort settlement money without having to go to trial.  What set these trolls apart from companies that legitimately license out thier patented ideas, is that the trolls have no interest in developing the idea, only using it for threat purposes.  They don't want to lease the idea out, and they don't care about the benefits of the final product. Patent trolls are a pain in the butt for not just start-ups but many other businesses as well.  Adam Corolla, a comedian and owner of Lotzi Digital Inc, a podcasting company, is being sued by a company called Personal Audio, a company that claims to own the rights to the idea of a podcast.  When it realized that there wasn't much money to be made in suing podcasters, Personal Audio moved to dismiss the suit, a dismissal that Carolla refused.  Carolla wants to see the suit through to the end, in the hopes of getting Personal Audio's patent revoked, a move which would free other podcasters from the fear of an absurd suit showing up on their front doorstep.  This trend, the trend of taking the fight to the trolls, seems to finally be making some headway and others have started to follow suit.

In 2011 patent trolls were estimated to have cost businesses over $29 billion in legal fees and settlements costs, and creating legislation to curb their suits is hard to create.  Any move to abolish software patents would work, but this would also harm legitimate research companies, companies like Toyota which has software patents on the device that controls the hybrid engine in their Prius.  So what can be done?

In June of 2014 the Supreme Court gave those fighting the trolls a great new weapon for their arsenal.  The case of Alice Corp. v CLS Bank made huge waves when the supreme court ruled that “merely requiring generic computer implementation fails to transform that abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention.”  This means when dealing with computer software, simply having the idea for something is no longer patentable, and only becomes patentable when implemented.  Even then, only your particular version of the implementation is patentable, and not the idea as a whole.  For trolls, who rely on not implementing to protect them from similarly absurd suits, this is a striking blow.  Fresh on the heels of this Supreme Court decision, another trend is making the trolls take notice.

Patent Trolls make a large portion of their money from settlements outside of lawsuits.  The cost of fighting a lawsuit is high, and rather than pay giant legal fees, many companies choose to pay what amounts to blackmail, often having to close down the company to do so.  When one NYC startup was faced with a similar decision, they reached out to Brooklyn Law students for help.  The students quickly realized that this was an opportunity for the best real-world practice that they could find, and put the troll on notice.  With an unlimited number of hours of legal representation by third-year law students available to the defendant, the patent troll had no option but to tuck his tail and run.  This free legal support drastically changes the game against the trolls, and could seriously impact many companies who make their money this way.

Carbon County Wind Farm Moves Ahead

Carbon County, Wyoming, is the proposed site for the largest-to-date onshore wind farm in the United States.  Power Company of Wyoming  proposes to build up to 1,000 turbines in Carbon County, a proposal which has been approved by the Industrial Siting Council 7-0.  Known as the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre project, the proposed $5 billion plan could produce up to 3,000 megawatts of electricity, or 10 million megawatt hours annually. The ruling by the Industrial Siting Council moves the plan one step closer to becoming a reality, and it seems to be proceeding without much opposition.  During the two day hearing, council members noted that no one spoke in opposition to the project.  According to Richard O'Gara, a Cheyenne Democrat, "It was probably the most professional presentation I've ever seen. There was virtually no opposition."  This sentiment seems to be the same across party lines.  Siting council chairman Shawn Warner, a Powell Republican admits to entering the presentation a little apprehensive about such a large project.  It seems his fears were assuaged though, as he says "They did a first-class job in submitting what was required, they literally left no stone unturned."

The project's final aim is to sell electricity to Arizona, California and Nevada, three states that have renewable-energy standards requiring them to utilize renewables to bolster their supply of generated power.  The plan predicts an 8-year construction once the approval process is finalized.

Read more about the project here.

Adobe Expands 3D Printing in Photoshop

3D printing is exciting technology; however, to become really compelling and world-changing, designers must start creating amazing things.  So far this capability has been available to a small number of people willing to learn a whole new, multi-step process. Now, Adobe is expanding its popular photoshop software to include more options to design and print real-life 3D objects. Adobe describes the upgrades in a new blog post - full version here

The latest update – Photoshop CC (2014.1)

This latest release of 3D printing features and enhancements expands support for new 3D printers and 3D print services, broadens the range of file formats that can be read and written, and offers updates that add efficiency to your workflow. New features include:

• Support for the MakerBot Replicator 5th Generation desktop printer and DMM.com (Japan) 3D print service
• Support for additional 3D file formats including VRML, U3D, PLY, and IGES
• Streamlined 3D painting experience
• Ability to easily combine multiple print jobs into a single print bed
• 3D printing workflow improvements

As the fundamental cost of quality 3D printing goes down, this technology will become more accessible and ultimately more useful. Add in an army of creative photoshop designers and things will be getting even more interesting.

“The 3D printing features in Adobe Photoshop CC unifies what used to take us roughly 15 steps in several different programs into one easy-to-use program—condensing our workflow significantly,” said Bradley Rothenberg, co-founder, Bradley Rothenberg, a studio focused on 3D printed textiles, jewelry, and accessories. “Our experience with using Photoshop in 2D is something we can easily leverage now with 3D models, which is incredibly helpful, and these latest features and enhancements will make it even better. I can’t wait to see what Adobe does next.” – Photo by ThreeASFOUR

Tesla Could Upend Utilities

Morgan Stanley, a major investment bank, thinks the utility industry underestimates the potential of Tesla Motors ability to achieve dramatic reduction in battery storage costs. This breakthrough could potentially convince more people to go off-grid. In their detailed report released in late July, Solar Power & Energy Storage, Morgan Stanley says, "Energy storage, specifically Tesla’s product, could be disruptive in the US and Europe. Given the relatively high cost of the power grid, we think that customers in parts of the US and Europe may seek to avoid utility grid fees by going “off-grid” through a combination of solar power and energy storage. "

“We believe there is not sufficient appreciation of the magnitude of energy storage cost reduction that Tesla has already achieved, nor of the further cost reduction magnitude that Tesla might be able to achieve. once the company has constructed its “Gigafactory”, targeted for completion later in the decade.“

While the costs of the utility networks are fixed and rising, the costs of these new disruptive technologies will continue to fall, and they're falling quicker than the incumbents realize.

Most battery manufacturers, the report notes, have a capacity of around 40MW to 50MW per annum. Tesla is proposing one of 1,000MW – and possibly many more. This, says Morgan Stanley, will slash the capital cost of Tesla’s battery from the current $250/kWh to $150/kWh by 2020, whereas its closest competitor will be at a cost of ~$500/kWh.

Morgan Stanley canvasses three types of approach to the arrival of storage:

On the grid, but net zero grid power usage. Under this approach, a customer’s solar panels produce excess power during the day (which is sold back to the grid), and at night the customer draws power from the grid. This approach could result in low or net zero usage of power produced by large-scale power plants attached to the grid.

On the grid, partial grid power usage. This approach is often taken in Europe, where solar panel systems are not sized to fully allow customers to eliminate their net usage of power from the grid, and where economics and regulation mean moving fully off-grid is very unlikely. It is thus unlikely that such customers pursue a fully off-grid approach.

 Fully off the grid. In this approach, consumers fully depend on their on-site power generation, using storage and a power management system to provide power to the home when needed. Consumers could choose this approach for a number of reasons. For instance, in select markets, customers who choose to “net meter” as in the “on-grid” approach described above, have to pay a large non-bypassable, fixed grid charge; these consumers have an incentive to go fully off the grid.

“By 2028, we estimate Tesla’s 3.9 million units NA car population (or “park”) will have an energy storage capacity of 237 GW (443 GW globally), equal to 22% of today’s US production capacity and nearly 10x larger than the entirety of US grid storage that exists today. These figures exclude any recycled (2nd life) battery after EV use."

"Tesla Model S (85 kWh) can store enough energy to power the average US household for 3.5 days."

ICOSA Hosts City of Denver Community Planning and Development Workshop

On July 30th, ICOSA played host to the City of Denver Community Planning and Development department and Urban Land Institute.  That morning a variety of city planners and volunteers spent their day at the ICOSA facilities touring the area and working on plans to revitalize the 40th station area.  The 1/2 mile area surrounding the station includes portions of the Swansea, Northeast Park Hill and Clayton neighborhoods. The evening event was open to public, and was attended by roughly 100 neighbors, community leaders and business owners.  The meeting's agenda focused on what the neighborhood could be like in 5,10 and 20 years and what type of housing, employment or neighborhood amenities could be implemented. The group also discussed how can the area can be improved with foot, bike and vehicle or bus routes and the positive and negative health impacts could be.

Presenters discuss possibilities for the future of the area

The morning brainstorm sessions were the focus of the evening meeting, making residents aware of the possibilities in the area and gathering feedback on what the area residents would like to see happen.

The RTD's East Rail Line, otherwise known as the Eagle P3 Project will connect Downtown Denver to Denver International Airport and is scheduled to open in 2016.  In a report from TRD FasTracks, released for July-October 2014 the Eagle P3 project has added more than $954 million to the Colorado Economy.  Since groundbreaking, the Eagle P3 Project team's contractor, Denver Transit Partners, has also employed 4,800 employees.

Presenting to the community about the proposed future

The next public meeting will be held at ICOSA (4100 Jackson Street) on Wednesday, August 13th from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.  At this meeting it will focus on community design around the 40th and Colorado station. Discussion will include proposed land uses, connectivity, station access, building heights, storm water quality and other important considerations.

Children in the Hot Seat

We've all heard the tragic stories of a child being left in a hot car, and the horrifying results. On average in the United States, 40 children die each year, left in hot cars. Due to the combination of hot summer temperatures, and the notorious lack of shade in most parking lots - the temperature inside a car can heat up from a safe temperature to 94.3 in just two minutes. After an hour, the inside of a car could be 123 degrees, on just an 80 degree day. Albuquerque, New Mexico high school student Alissa Chavez (17), has invented a device to alert parents if their baby is left in the car. Heartbroken over news of children left to die in their car seats, Alissa set out to create an effective warning system. Her design includes a pad that slips into the seat of an infant or child car seat, which detects both the weight of a child and increased heat levels. If the seat starts to get hot, an alarm goes off on a key fob, on your cell phone via a related app, and in your car to alert passersby.

The project started as an eighth grade science fair project that took her to regional and state level competitions. Since then she's been working with engineers to perfect the design, and now a prototype for the product she calls the "Hot Seat".

Funds for development are being raised with crowdfunding source, Indigogo, which as of this writing, has well-exceeded the $5,000 goal with a total of nearly $14,000. Alissa hopes to launch the prototype by the end of this summer.

Watch a brief video of Alissa's presentation here.

For some, it's hard to believe that a parent or caregiver could forget about their child inside a car, but something as simple as a change in one's daily routine can throw off simple memory cues, like dropping of your child at day care. Until the Hot Seat is available nation wide, it's recommended to put something you need, like the left shoe you're wearing, or purse or cell phone in the back seat with the baby so you'll always be reminded.

The Hazards of a Busy Lifestyle

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." - Ferris Bueller, amateur philosopher.

We all know these words, or some variation of them, but not many of us take them seriously enough to do anything about it.  Recently some data came to light that highlights how a busy life could present problems, and may be a symptom of other underlying issues.  As it turns out, people will go to great lengths to find something to keep themselves busy in order to avoid being alone with their thoughts, even if that something else involves electrocuting ourselves!

"The pain keeps me from thinking about my failure as a person!"

The study backs up a previously held notion that people can't stand to be alone with themselves, but it also hints at a lot of other issues as well.  It turns out that people are pretty critical of themselves, and will tend to harshly judge themselves when left with just their wandering mind.  When the problems dredged up don't involve easy solutions, they can become recurring issues that can lead to depression.  When someone is constantly busy, however, they can keep their brain busy and away from self-doubting thoughts.

It may be difficult, but in the end it turns out better if an individual is able to be comfortable with themselves in their alone time.  Research has shown benefits of increased empathy to higher problem solving ability.  The ability to come to terms with one's self, can make a huge difference in an individual's morale and productivity, or put more Ancient-Greeky “No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself. No man is free who cannot command himself.” - Pythagoras

Originally posted here

Use Ecosia, Plant Trees For Free

22,600 tons of carbon dioxide are released every year to power online search engines and an astonishing 300 million tons powering the entire internet. The best solution for balancing out the increase in carbon emissions from computer servers is to plant trees (trees use CO2 as a natural input for the photosynthesis process).  

"A new breed of internet startup is taking on the big guns of the tech world."

 

Ecosia.org is a clever startup that is reimagining online search. Most search engines make money through displaying online ads, however, Ecosia uses 80% of its income to fund The Nature Conservancy's Plant a Billion Trees project.  Brazil's Atlantic coast is extremely important ecologically because of the high level of biodiversity found there and the intense pressure from previous deforestation.  Strategically, it's a highly effective place on planet earth to plant trees.

The search engine recently got an upgrade; it now combines Yahoo! and Google results to better display maps, news, pictures, and even biographies. It has never been easier to help the environment while searching the internet. You can make a difference by 1.) Visiting Ecosia.org for your online searches  2.) Installing the browser extension and 3.) Telling your friends!

The ICOSA Principles

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