Driverless cars, pilotless planes … will there be jobs left for a human being? | Technology Suddenly a robotised, automated economic reality is moving off the science fiction pages and into daily life. The growing use of unmanned battlefield drones is encouraging the growth of pilotless commercial aircraft – the first ever flew in British airspace last month. Google's driverless car is completing ever more trials ever more successfully: the world's major car companies are all hot in pursuit, working on their own prototypes of their own versions. The automated checkouts at supermarkets are becoming as familiar as bank cash machines. From staff-free ticket offices to students who can learn online, it seems there is no corner of economic life in which people are not being replaced by machines. This is the "Great Reset" – a cull of broadly middle-class jobs with middle-class incomes that is apparent across the west, but with little current sign of what industries and activities will replace them. The omens are all around. Think through the implications of the driverless car.
After Your Job Is Gone Do you have a job? Do you like having a job? Then I have some bad news for you. Wrong tense: the right question is what is happening. It’s the same around the world. Think you’re safe because you don’t work in a factory? Retail? Retail now employs fewer people than it did in 1999. Even lawyers, financiers, and surgeons aren’t safe. Oh, you work in tech? It’s like the global economy has forked into two tracks: tech, which boomed right through the Great Recession, and just keeps booming on, and nobody can hire enough engineers…and everyone else. It’s happening right in the heart of Silicon Valley. It’s always hard to say whether economic changes are cyclical or structural, but I think it’s fair to say that there’s a slowly accumulating consensus that technology is now destroying jobs faster than it’s creating them, and that the resulting two-track economy is here to stay…and growing steadily more disparate. Which is great for those of us in tech, right? At least I hope so.
Power JMD From PESWiki "E pure si muove / And yet it moves."-- Galileo said of the Earth Compiled by Sterling D. Allan Pure Energy Systems News June 18, 2013 A French company, Power JMD, appears to have an exotic free energy device that is getting close to market (some time in "2013 or 2014"). From what I can gather, it uses some kind of rotational mechanism that is able to self-loop and provide excess energy; and it is fairly bulky and fairly well engineered. On their site, they say: "With the POWERJMD system, you will get an independent and almost free ecologic source of electricity. And on their "goals" page, they say: "This new system has the potential to end the mass production of electric energy as we know it today." "Who has not dreamed of producing his own electricity? "The POWERJMD system does not pollute and emits very little noise. "Here is a generator for every use: Homes, apartment buildings, industry, commercial centers, and municipalities." Official Websites Videos Clean, Free Energy
Plug into a plant: A new approach to clean energy harvesting New technology out of the University of Georgia allows energy generated by plants through photosynthesis to be captured before the plants can make use of it (Image: Shutterstock) Image Gallery (3 images) Millions of years of evolution has resulted in plants being the most efficient harvesters of solar energy on the planet. Photosynthesis turns light energy into chemical energy by splitting water atoms into hydrogen and oxygen. The technology involves interrupting the pathways along which the electrons flow by manipulating the proteins contained in thylakoids. The modified thylakoids are immobilized on a specially designed backing of carbon nanotubes that acts as an electrical conductor to capture the electrons and send them along a wire. While you won’t be running your HDTV off the nearest tree anytime soon, Ramasamy says the technology has the potential to find its way into less power-intensive applications in the not too distant future. Source: University of Georgia About the Author
The Etive kinetic energy charger gives power walking a whole new meaning Etive kinetic energy charger harnesses your energy to create a power source for recharging your personal electronic devices Image Gallery (20 images) May 20, 2009 Hiking has its share of highs and lows. One of the less pleasing aspects is ensuring you have an adequate source of energy to power your personal electronic equipment. View all Faraday’s Law of Induction The device is called Etive and it uses the naturally occurring, vibrating, shock forces that are concentrated at the knee, after the heel has struck the ground, during walking. Also, the amount of current that can be created is also directly related to the change in the magnetic field and the size of the field. How much energy do we create? The development of the device Toole then set about creating a device that uses repelling magnets and a high grade neodymium magnet (NdFeB) suspended within a magnetic field to generate voltage. Smart idea. Jude Garvey Via EcoFriend Images via Coroflot Post a CommentRelated Articles
Power inverter An inverter for a solar-mounted free-standing plant in Speyer, alongside the Rhine. Overview of the solar inverters A power inverter, or inverter, is an electronic device or circuitry that changes direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC).[1] The input voltage, output voltage and frequency, and overall power handling, are dependent on the design of the specific device or circuitry. A power inverter can be entirely electronic or may be a combination of mechanical effects (such as a rotary apparatus) and electronic circuitry. Static inverters do not use moving parts in the conversion process. Applications[edit] Typical applications for power inverters include: Input and output[edit] Input voltage[edit] A typical power inverter device or circuit will require a relatively stable DC power source capable of supplying enough current for the intended overall power handling of the inverter. The level of the needed input voltage depends entirely on the design and purpose of the inverter. Sine wave
Coin Battery Project More fun with electricity for kids! A coin battery is similar to fruit battery experiments, except that the fruit's part is replaced by a small amount of salt water. It's an easy science project to do, especially if a project like the lemon battery has already been performed. Project supplies are plentiful and you can actually light an LED in this experiment if you stack enough coins together - - - but you have to get the right LED and making it work can be a bit tricky. So we'll use a voltmeter to show the effect with the coin battery here. This is listed as a 5th grade science project, but if demonstrated along with the "Turning on a Light Bulb" experiment, it can be used in electricity experiments, or elementary science projects from about the first grade on. How to create a coin battery ... Objective To learn more about how electricity works. Materials Preparation The only preparation needed for the coin battery project is to gather the materials. Project Day Troubleshooting
Power to the people: Generating your own electricity could make you money By Mark Hughes-morganUPDATED: 16:18 GMT, 30 April 2010 Could your own mini power station be the answer to going commendably green? The Government thinks so, with feed-in-tariffs (FiTs) that came into effect on April 1. These provide a tax-free, index-linked income for anyone generating electricity for their house, from the likes of solar PV (photovoltaic) panels or mini-wind turbines. In addition, if re-elected, Labour aims to introduce new legislation for ‘green loans’ linked to properties, so that should you move before the installation pays for itself, you don’t take the cost of solar panels and wind turbines with you. Going green: Feed-in-tariffs provide a tax-free, index-linked income for anyone generating electricity for their house The current government plan is for 750,000 properties to have installed home generation systems by 2020. But this total is subject to what kind of panel you get and your location. So anyone wanting to install a system can expect to wait longer than usual.
Power by the People: Generating Electricity From Human Activity | IMT Green & Clean Journal “Small Is Beautiful,” proclaimed economist E. F. Schumacher in his 1973 book of that title, extolling the virtues of a decentralized economy. And when it comes to power generation, what could be more decentralized than the harvesting of energy from everyday human activities? (See this introduction to E. F. Recent news reports have cast the spotlight on a Portland, Ore., health club that is generating electricity from its exercise machines. Using new energy technologies, transportation agencies could conceivably collect such power on a large scale fromroadways, railways, and pedestrian walkways. Technology companies are continuing to develop personal electronics such as mobile phones and music players — or even implanted medical devices — that require ever-smaller levels of electricity. More Than Just a Workout The health club I mentioned before, the Green Microgym, based in Portland, Ore., bills itself as the “world’s first electricity generating” gym. Pavement Power Power Walker