1. Turn Off The Damn Lights!
Home energy monitoring technology is finally catching up with the smartphone and tablet - although, it's still a little clunky. With the rise of the Internet of Things, systems like Curb are making homeowners more energy savvy consumers. There is a lot of focus (rightly so) on global warming, so it makes sense to better understand how we are using energy in our homes because it's not free and the devastating environmental impacts caused by creating and using energy must be addressed. What's measured is managed.
And it's not just energy. We're also running out of fresh water.
"Water scarcity increasingly is driven by three major factors: Global warming is forecast to create more severe droughts around the world. Meat consumption, which requires significantly more water than a vegetarian or low-meat diet, is spiking as a growing middle class in countries such as China and India can afford to eat more pork, chicken and beef. And the world’s population continues to grow, with an expected 2 billion more stomachs to feed by 2050."
Fog collection is a pretty cool way to offset water shortages in certain regions.
"Fog collection projects have used from 2 to 100 fog collectors, and depending on the location, each panel can produce 150 to 750 liters of fresh water a day during the foggy season. In the village of Chungungo, Chile where annual precipitation is less than 6 centimeters, 100 fog collectors produced 15,000 liters of water a year for ten years. Harvested fog water meets the World Health Organization’s drinking water standards."
2. Royal Crown Cola
Remember RC Cola? Unless you live in the South or overseas somewhere (evidently it's still popular in Estonia, Thailand, Iceland and the Philippines), chances are Royal Crown Cola is not your soda of choice. But back in the day it went head to head with Coke and Pepsi.
"But the number of RC drinkers could have been much, much higher. In an alternate—and completely plausible—universe, it would have given Coke and Pepsi a run for their money. At one point, it did. Believe it or not, Royal Crown Cola used to be one of the most innovative companies in the beverage industry. It came out with the first canned soda, the first caffeine-free soda, and the first 16-ounce soda. It was the first to take diet cola mainstream, and the first to stage nationwide taste tests."
"So who drinks RC Cola these days? In addition to its southern fans, the brand has a presence in Chicago, where it’s served at Bears games and at pizzerias throughout the city, which often give out a free liter with orders. According to Encyclopizzeria, that arrangement began back in the '60s, when a creative local bottler got in good with local pie shops, figuring the pairing of RC and deep dish pizza would generate good vibes with customers. It did, and today many a Chicagoan has a soft spot for the underdog cola."
3. Active vs Passive Fund Management
The current trend is clearly headed in the direction of passive management. The chart in this article is an excellent depiction of that trend and the fact that folks are tired of paying management fees to fund managers when most do not outperform the market. The question is: When will the passive management trend hit a point where the market will correct back to active management?
One theory:
"Eventually, we’ll reach a point where active management, even after fees, does as well as passive. The case for index funds and ETFs will become weaker and weaker, until average investors will be about as well off with an active manager. Meanwhile, the best active managers will become proprietary traders, shunning outside money and making their services unavailable to the investing public."
"Why Do We Pay So Much For Lousy Advice" is another good read on this topic.
4. Read. Read. Read.
The pathway to success.
"In fact, when Warren Buffett was once asked about the key to success, he pointed to a stack of nearby books and said, “Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”
5. Getting Fit Faster
Studies and data keep pointing to the fact that high intensity interval training (HIIT) has some pretty incredible benefits. One study reviewed in the NYT, suggests significant health benefits with 60 seconds of intense exercise three days a week over a period of 12 weeks.
"But when the scientists retested the men’s aerobic fitness, muscles and blood-sugar control now, they found that the exercisers showed virtually identical gains, whether they had completed the long endurance workouts or the short, grueling intervals. In both groups, endurance had increased by nearly 20 percent, insulin resistance likewise had improved significantly, and there were significant increases in the number and function of certain microscopic structures in the men’s muscles that are related to energy production and oxygen consumption."
Home energy monitoring technology is finally catching up with the smartphone and tablet - although, it's still a little clunky. With the rise of the Internet of Things, systems like Curb are making homeowners more energy savvy consumers. There is a lot of focus (rightly so) on global warming, so it makes sense to better understand how we are using energy in our homes because it's not free and the devastating environmental impacts caused by creating and using energy must be addressed. What's measured is managed.
And it's not just energy. We're also running out of fresh water.
"Water scarcity increasingly is driven by three major factors: Global warming is forecast to create more severe droughts around the world. Meat consumption, which requires significantly more water than a vegetarian or low-meat diet, is spiking as a growing middle class in countries such as China and India can afford to eat more pork, chicken and beef. And the world’s population continues to grow, with an expected 2 billion more stomachs to feed by 2050."
Fog collection is a pretty cool way to offset water shortages in certain regions.
"Fog collection projects have used from 2 to 100 fog collectors, and depending on the location, each panel can produce 150 to 750 liters of fresh water a day during the foggy season. In the village of Chungungo, Chile where annual precipitation is less than 6 centimeters, 100 fog collectors produced 15,000 liters of water a year for ten years. Harvested fog water meets the World Health Organization’s drinking water standards."
2. Royal Crown Cola
Remember RC Cola? Unless you live in the South or overseas somewhere (evidently it's still popular in Estonia, Thailand, Iceland and the Philippines), chances are Royal Crown Cola is not your soda of choice. But back in the day it went head to head with Coke and Pepsi.
"But the number of RC drinkers could have been much, much higher. In an alternate—and completely plausible—universe, it would have given Coke and Pepsi a run for their money. At one point, it did. Believe it or not, Royal Crown Cola used to be one of the most innovative companies in the beverage industry. It came out with the first canned soda, the first caffeine-free soda, and the first 16-ounce soda. It was the first to take diet cola mainstream, and the first to stage nationwide taste tests."
"So who drinks RC Cola these days? In addition to its southern fans, the brand has a presence in Chicago, where it’s served at Bears games and at pizzerias throughout the city, which often give out a free liter with orders. According to Encyclopizzeria, that arrangement began back in the '60s, when a creative local bottler got in good with local pie shops, figuring the pairing of RC and deep dish pizza would generate good vibes with customers. It did, and today many a Chicagoan has a soft spot for the underdog cola."
3. Active vs Passive Fund Management
The current trend is clearly headed in the direction of passive management. The chart in this article is an excellent depiction of that trend and the fact that folks are tired of paying management fees to fund managers when most do not outperform the market. The question is: When will the passive management trend hit a point where the market will correct back to active management?
One theory:
"Eventually, we’ll reach a point where active management, even after fees, does as well as passive. The case for index funds and ETFs will become weaker and weaker, until average investors will be about as well off with an active manager. Meanwhile, the best active managers will become proprietary traders, shunning outside money and making their services unavailable to the investing public."
"Why Do We Pay So Much For Lousy Advice" is another good read on this topic.
4. Read. Read. Read.
The pathway to success.
"In fact, when Warren Buffett was once asked about the key to success, he pointed to a stack of nearby books and said, “Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”
5. Getting Fit Faster
Studies and data keep pointing to the fact that high intensity interval training (HIIT) has some pretty incredible benefits. One study reviewed in the NYT, suggests significant health benefits with 60 seconds of intense exercise three days a week over a period of 12 weeks.
"But when the scientists retested the men’s aerobic fitness, muscles and blood-sugar control now, they found that the exercisers showed virtually identical gains, whether they had completed the long endurance workouts or the short, grueling intervals. In both groups, endurance had increased by nearly 20 percent, insulin resistance likewise had improved significantly, and there were significant increases in the number and function of certain microscopic structures in the men’s muscles that are related to energy production and oxygen consumption."
No comments:
Post a Comment