The "We've Come A Long Way, Baby" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just snapped a few photos of a few of my favorite baseball hats.  After checking my cell phone to make sure I liked the photos, I emailed them to my computer from my iPhone.  Less than a minute later I opened the email on my computer and placed the photos on my desktop.  Total time: perhaps 2 minutes.  And, in a few years that will be cut in half, or maybe even faster than that.  I can see myself putting on a pair of special glasses that carry a camera in them.  I will look at my hats and blink.  Then I will think to myself my email address and my glasses will send the link to my computer.  Up will pop the photo on my screen.  Remember...you heard it here first!  Remember when you used to look up phone numbers in the phone book?  I must admit I still have a phone book, but I'll bet that at least half of those numbers are no longer in service, since the owner of that phone no longer has a land line.  I can remember living at 929 North Queen Street in Lancaster, Pennsylvania as a child and having a big black telephone that sat on the kitchen table and had holes in a round dial where you placed your finger to turn the dial to the right until you hit a stop.  

We had a phone exactly like this in our
first home on Janet Ave.  Pick up the
phone, dial the number with the circular
dial in the center and talk on the head-
piece you held in your hand.

Dialed all 7 numbers and waited until the person you dialed answered their phone.  We didn't have an area code you had to dial first.  I can also remember having a yellow phone on the wall when I lived with my wife and family at 925 Janet Ave. in Grandview Heights.  It had a dial on the body or the camera that was used for calling.  One of my son's friends visited us and asked how you use it when he wanted to check in with his parents.  Before too long you will have an implant beneath your ear that will understand your thoughts and dial the number of the person you wish to speak with by using the stored numbers it has in its memory.  You can continue with your chores while talking to your friend wirelessly.  And, how about computers!  I will sitting at my desk at typing on my keyboard that I placed any where in the room and the desktop computer can still recognize it and place each letter in the document on my screen.  I can then store it for future use if I care to in the "Cloud".  So what is that?  I must admit, I have no idea.  

Methods of storing data years ago.

There are plenty of clouds in the sky today, but I'm sure that none of them is saving what I am now typing, for within another minute it will be miles away.  I can remember floppy disks, thumb drives, and even flash drives where I used to store my stories.  But, have you heard of the "Izzy"?  That's what's coming next you know.  It is a small chip that you have implanted in your thumb between two of you joints.  As long as your body temperature is at least 96.3 degrees the chip will scan your computer or phone and remember everything you have typed when you hit the "Save" button.  To retrieve it you must hit a "Preview" button on your computer or phone and it will reappear on your computer screen.  Won't have to worry about losing your SD card or your computer disc.  As you grow older and your finger gets larger, you will be able to store larger photographs or even movies on your thumb.  I am preparing to try out my invention within the next few months.  I'm still trying to figure out how to project images from my thumb onto a movie screen at the local movie theater.  We've come a long way, baby, from the phone that was two empty tin cans connected together with a piece of string to the "Izzy"; from the telephone with a cord to the one you hang on you ear; from the fax machine to the copier that wirelessly reads your desktop computer.  But, I do see the advent of brick and mortar stores once again.  If we don't have them, why would you want a really neat car to drive to the mall to show it off in the parking lot?  Ah!  Life is a circus with three rings; one in your nose, one in your ear and one on your nipple!  I can see that coming soon...wait a minute...my wife says people already are doing that.  Darn!  There goes that idea that I was sure would make me famous.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Did I Say He Was In 8th Grade?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about one of Manheim Township School District's students, Ayush Iyer.  Earlier this month he was named one of 18 winners of the annual "World of 7 Billion" student video contest which is sponsored by Population Connection.  For his efforts he was awarded a $500 cash prize.  I have known and photographed this young man the past four years while taking photos for the Landis Run Intermediate School and Manheim Township Middle School yearbooks.  

Ayush Iyer

What is noteworthy about his winning this national award is that he is still in 8th grade!  I can still remember four years ago taking photos of him for the yearbook when he was in 5th grade.  He was part of a variety of clubs and activities while in intermediate school and when I first met him I knew he was going to be something special in years to come.  I took his photo as part of "Odyssey of the Mind" and "Peer Mediators" while in 5th grade and the following year he added "Math 24" to that list.  His activities continued to grow last year while in 7th grade and this year he was one of the leads in his school's musical as well as being picked by his classmates as the male choice for "Most Likely To Succeed."  While taking photos of him, he was always very cooperative and helpful, something that doesn't always happen with children in grades 5 thru 8.  His recent award was special since more that 5,000 students in grades six through 12 participated in the competition.  Students were to create a video exploring population growth as it relates to one of three challenges: feeding 10 billion, preventing pollution, and advancing girls and women.  Ayush has become an expert in vegetarianism, climate change and the responsible use of natural resources; all of which play a role in world hunger.  The contest was judged by 61 people which consisted of college and high school educators, filmmakers and experts in their fields.  His animated video was picked as the 1st place winner in the feeding 10 billion category.  At first Ayush wasn't sure he wanted to participate in the contest, but his gifted class teacher suggested he participate.  Eventually he decided to make the video and then the news came at the end of April of his triumph.  Ayush eventually hopes to go into a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) field.  His parents both work in computer science and I'm sure are extremely proud of his recent accomplishment.  I certainly am proud of his accomplishment for the notoriety it brings to the Manheim Township School District.  Oh yeah, did I say he is only in 8th grade!!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. 

The "The Future Of Housing In A Technological World" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Visiting a website that I knew years ago would eventually offer something to the general public that would have a big impact on housing.   Today the website shows affordable houses that have been made with the use of a 3D printer.  It was five years ago that I wrote a story telling of my visit to the high school where I taught for over 30 years.  I had found that they had a 3D printer and was excited to see how it worked.  They used a CAD (Computer Aided Design) program to print a small car on their new 3D printer.  Wow!  It was so interesting watching the students program the computer and print the car which to them was no big deal.  What a difference it is for someone who has grown up in a high tech society such as they have compared to me whose biggest technological item while growing up was a transistor radio.  Well, today, as I looked at page after page of 3D printed houses on my computer I said to myself, "I knew it was going to happen someday."  But, I wasn't sure if it would be in my lifetime.   Well, either I have lived a lot longer than I thought I would or technology is progressing at a rate I never thought possible.  Can you imagine making a house on a printer that you can live in!  I'm not sure, even after seeing it, that I really believe it has happened.  And, the houses that I'm looking at are remarkable.  One is a two-story villa that was printed on-site and was 400-square meters in size that only took 45 days to print.  I'm not sure how long they may last in comparison to traditional construction, but its certainly a start.  Following are a few of the homes I viewed and a small story about each one.

• A 3D home in Amsterdam, Netherlands.  It is 8 square meters in floor space and is 25 cubic meters in volume.  It is referred to as an Urban Cabin which is part of a research project that focused on compact and sustainable housing in urban environments.  It is printed using sustainable bio-plastic materials.
  
   
• A 3D home in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.  It is 240-square meters and was designed as a printed office.  This "Office of the Future" is a fully functional building featuring electricity, water, and telecommunications as well as air-conditioning.  It was printed in Shanghai, China and then shipped to Dubai.  The reason for doing that was to cut costs on labor.
  
• A 3D printed house in Russia which is 38 square meters or 400 square feet.  The home was printed onsite with concrete material.  It took about 24 hours to print.  It is made using a mixture of solid elements and liquid polyurethane.  It then was painted yellow.  It cost $10,134 to create.  Would be great for low-income housing.
  
• This is a 3D printed two-story villa that was printed on-site in China.  The entire 400-square meter villa took only 45 days to print.  It is printed concrete over the framing material.  The walls are made with printed concrete measuring 250mm in thickness.  
  
• This impressive building was printed in Province Jiangsu, China and is 1,100 square meters.  I was impressed when I read it was constructed in 2014.  The structural components were 3D printed off-site and moved to this location.  Recyclable waste with a hardening agent was used for this project.  That's just amazing to me!
  
• 3D printed house that was 2,400 square feet and printed in New York.  This estate is built with the help of Italian 3D printing pioneer Enrico Dini.  The property also has a swimming pool, jacuzzi and a garage.  The printing process begins by collecting sand, dust and gravel which are mixed with a magnesium-based binding agent to concoct a printable material.  The printer could make 6x6 meter cubes.  
  
• This 3D 600-800 square foot home is in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  The 28 different panels were printed off-site and assembled to create two exterior walls, roof and interior.   
  

The buildings posted here were printed by use of a program on a computer.  Just blows my mind what is happening through technology today.  It seems that anything can be done by using technology.  If only we could return to 2018 in a century see what has been done since then through technology.  Don't you just love it!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  

The "The Banana Is Only The Start Of It!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Taking a ride along the east coast of the island of Barbados.  Carol and I, along with traveling friends Jere and Just Sue, have made two trips to the island that is located in the southern Caribbean.  Along the southeast coast of the island is the town known as Bathsheba which is just beautiful with huge rock formations directly offshore and row after row of banana plants along the opposite side of the road.  

Driving the roads in Bathsheba.

During our stays on Barbados we saw many banana plantations which were filled with bananas in all stages of growth.  Bananas are plentiful in many of the Caribbean islands as well as the countries of Belize, Jamaica, Costa Rico, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Nicaragua, Panama and Columbia.  Bananas do best in areas where the temperatures range from 79 to 88 degrees.  

We passed many banana plants as we
drove the roads in Bathsheba.

Rainfall should average about 70 inches a year with the rainfall distributed throughout the year.  Altitude must not exceed 980 feet and sheltered valleys that have little wind make perfect growing conditions for the plants that have shallow roots and can easily be uprooted.  The banana industry is huge with some countries producing over 200 million tons in a single year.  Raising bananas is a labor-intensive industry and in some cases rivaling the government as the next largest employer on the islands.  In 1950 most bananas were exported from Central America by the American owned United Fruit Company.  Guatemala was paid modest amounts of money by the company for large areas of land on which they grew bananas.  Not only did they control the banana industry, they controlled transportation when they built the first railway in the country which was meant to be used to transport bananas.  In 1950 the company's profits where twice the gross domestic product of the entire country of Guatemala.  But...they did little to understand the biology of growing bananas.  They had one variety...the Gros Michel.  Bananas grown in this area of the World were Gros Michel.  Cuttings from the best specimens were replanted and thus all bananas were genetically identical. The banana plantations of Central America in the 1950s were not only the largest collective organism alive at that time, but perhaps ever.  True genius economically!  As the plantations of bananas expanded across the American tropics, scientists wondered what would happen if a banana-attacking pathogen would arrive.  Well, it happened!  Panama disease (known as fusarium wilt) started to wipe out the banana plantations.  Nearly all the plantations in Guatemala were devastated and then abandoned.  The Gros Michel was in trouble.  But, there was another variety known as the Cavendish, but it tasted different then the Gros Michel.  

The Cavendish banana which we buy today.  But for how long?

The Cavendish was not affected by the Panama disease and was planted in the fields abandoned due to the disease.  It was soon exported to the United States along with a massive advertising campaign lauding the benefits of the new banana.  And, boy did the people fall for it.  They loved the new banana strain.  If you were born after 1950 it is unlikely that you ever ate anything except the Cavendish.  As expected, the Cavendish bananas are all genetically identical.  In 1984 the United Fruit Company rebranded as Chiquita.  And...guess what.  Another pathogen has arrived.  And...what I just wrote is true of many species of our crops.  Many of the key species of fruits and vegetables are in trouble.  We tend to experience pleasure when we eat our favorite foods and the more we feed ourselves the foods, the more we create a world dominated by just a few productive crops that could be threatened just because of their commonness.  Many crops today are at risk from pests, pathogens and climate change.  I for one love strawberries that are grown in Lancaster County during the spring of the year, but the season is only a month or so long.  I long for these strawberries, but when I buy strawberries at the grocery store from other areas, I'm disappointed.  Will scientists be able in the near future to come up with a diversity of crops that we will be able to enjoy at all times?  They must solve the puzzle that we surely will face someday or our food sources may vanish.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.   

The "The Future According To LDub: Part II - RFID" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Wondering what it would be like to be able to go to the grocery store and with a swipe of my hand across their scanner pay my bill.  Or stop to fill my car with gas and with a swipe of my hand across their card reader be able to dispense gas into my car.  Or maybe heading to the bank to transfer money from my savings to checking account and being able to do it without getting out of my car with a swipe of my hand while at the drive-in.  And, on the way home I could stop at McDonalds and buy a Big Mac meal with a swipe of my hand on their portable reader at the drive-in window.  Kind of scary, isn't it.  But then again, pretty neat to be able to do all my errands without having to pull out my wallet.  About half a year ago in a town in Wisconsin about 50 employees in a tech company agreed to have RFID (radio frequency identification) chips placed in their hands.  

Chips placed in your hands are the future for know!

These chips were approved by the Food and Drug Adminis- tration in 2004.  The chip is about the size of a grain of rice and is placed between your thumb and forefinger.  The employees were told that the chip is not GPS enabled and does not allow for the company to track workers and does not require a password.  At the time the chips cost $300 each and were implanted by licensed piercers.  The chips would be used to enter through security at the office, log into the company's computers and be able to buy a snack with a swipe of the hand.  The chips are virtually unable to hacked into and the chip is not connected to the internet.  So, are you surprised that about 80% of the employees opted to have the implants?  We used to have hand-cranked phones before we had wall-mounted phones with rotary dials before we had cellular phones.  I guess you do know that you can now be tracked everywhere you go by your iPhone.  Very few people today don't have a cellular phone in their purse or pocket.  So what's the big deal with having a chip stuck in your hand.  In the 1950s hand-held external pacemakers were used to control the heart and were eventually embedded into the body.  My dad had one for years to help regulate his heart rate.  I'm positive he had no idea he could have been monitored or tracked if someone had wanted to do that.  Pets have been implanted with a chip for years now to help find them if them become lost.  Tests were done on dogs who had implanted chips to see if there were any medical hazards to the procedure.  Some developed cancerous tumors at the injection site, but the chip itself did not allegedly cause cancer.  So, you just knew humans would be next to get the chips.  Do you really believe that the company in Wisconsin is not able to track their employees?  And, so what if they do.  What type of information could they gain from tracking them; where they shop or whom they visit or if they go to church or not.  So long as the chips can't broadcast a visual signal to a monitor.  Now, that would be scary.  You know that RFID chips will probably be mandatory sometime in the future if you plan to buy a gun or certain types of narcotic medicines.   The chip could be used when we have socialized medicine.  Will the government be able to use your embedded chip to tax you or see what political party you belong to?  Hey, the list could go on and on and on.  Are you ready for it?  If it happens in my life time I figure it will make it much easier to register at the hospital or maybe pay my bills.  Oh, the advantages of technology.  Yeah, but I still enjoy shifting gears in the car and talking on my landline telephone!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.