Ryan Friedrich's Blog (7)

There are too many fields of innovation for energy on the horizon. I could cover the use of biofuels created by captured carbon that is then burned to create more carbon in a cycle using the sun as energy. Perhaps nuclear fusion is on the horizon. Perhaps we should use something we have had for decades.

Nuclear power! What is wrong with nuclear energy? Why is it feared? Why does France use it so happily?

This largely has to do with a public perception of nuclear…

A end to negative sum thinking needs to occur and in the year 2020 perhaps this idea will come to broader understanding. What is negative sum? What is positive sum? Zero sum?

A zero sum situation refers to a situation where nothing is gained or lost from a system. There is perfect balance. A negative sum situation, which is what most agriculture and farming is now, is where something is lost from the system. In this case a plot of forest is lost so that cows may graze for…

Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that mimic the relationships found in natural ecologies.

Below is a presentation from TED.com posted on permaculture. This is an idea that I believe with a little effort can produce more than enough good. The presenter, Michael Pollan, says at one point in the talk "You could do this all over Africa" with a tone as if to say "Hey it's really not that hard". If you watch and listen, you'll…

The area which I live in is largely agricultural and fields have to be replenished with nutrients regularly so that the fields don't become depleted. Often a food crop is grown on these plots of land and eventually tilled under when it has fully grown. This helps to replenish the soil for further growing. Tomatoes are a commonly grown crop and are only harvested by people who know that the tomatoes are free for the taking.

What can be done?

I was told once that there is…

Knowing where I will be in 10 years is silly. I know not how my path leads me but the goals of my path. In this way I know that I will be helping people as I do today. In 10 years my ability to help people may have greatly accelerated or diminished. How am I to know this? I am not. I walk my path as I am provided and make the best out of the opportunities I am given. There's a strong possibility that in 10 years I will be a psychologist helping people with various types of…

I was following this guy previously, who was running a project in Harlem. Basically he guarenteed an education to a bunch of parents so long as they follow specific steps for their children.

Psychology research showed that poorer families have a lower rate of language comprehension at the same age as richer families. Why? It boiled down to a simple fact. Rich families spoke and read to their children more frequently, resulting in 2x as many words being heard by the…

People have some strange belief that big problems require big complex solutions.

Giving things away apparently doesn't work in Africa. So why not solve two problems with one solutions? How do we do this? Simply.

Work will need to be done. Things need to be built, maintained, so forth. Unemployment can be extremely high in most parts of Africa.

This unemployment is the key to solving the problem, not the problem. Use this unused resource by giving…