chasing answers newsletter #29
Toffee Candy Snowflake, BioHome3D, Project Linus
“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” - Winston Churchill
Happy Sunday!
The holiday season is now in full effect at our house.
Tree’s up.
Stockings are on the mantel.
The number of Christmas bulbs shattered by Buttercup is standing firm at four.
And a little visitor has made her way back from the North Pole.
The people who invented this damn thing should be responsible for all global economic policies.
They took a doll made out of what I’m pretty sure were scraps lying around a Chinese factory floor and created a business worth hundreds of millions of dollars while simultaneously creating part-time jobs for every parent who has children under the age of ten.
I have to get up 20 minutes earlier every morning to figure out what the hell I’m gonna do with Toffee Candy Snowflake.
As you can tell from the weak effort in the picture, I damn near forgot the first day. But I’m back in mid-season Elf on the Shelf form now, so it’s all good.
If you have an elf visiting for the holidays, I would love to see pics of what they are up to. It’s surprisingly challenging to concoct creative make-believe scenes for a $.25 rag doll with inoperable limbs, and I can always use fresh ideas.
BioHome3D
A couple of weeks ago, the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center unveiled what they are calling the first 100% bio-based 3D-printed home.
The entire home was built using biomaterials that are 100% recyclable.
This is nothing short of amazing.
One of my biggest concerns regarding the environment is where we will get all the materials needed to build homes for the growing population and what we will do with all of that material when old buildings/homes are demolished or remodeled.
As a landlord, I’ve done my fair share of filling up dumpsters during remodels. The last one I did filled up four large dumpsters, and all I could think was, “where in the fuck is all this shit going to go?”
BioHome3D is a possible solution. The house is made of wood fibers and bio-resins that are fully recyclable, and because of the precision of the 3D-printing technology, waste was almost entirely eliminated.
BioHome3D also addresses the labor shortage issue the construction industry is currently facing. Thanks to the 3D-printing technology, much of the labor in the building process was eliminated. The home was built in four modules, which were assembled in just a few hours. It only took another couple of hours to get the electricity installed and hooked up, and the house was livable within a day of being delivered.
This is a far cry from any building or remodeling project I’ve been involved with.
BioHome3D is just a prototype, so the jury is still out in terms of durability and affordability. The home is equipped with sensors that will monitor its thermal, environmental, and structural capabilities to see how it holds up.
It will be a while until there is enough data to know if this current version of BioHome3D is a viable solution, but it is a step in the right direction in solving global housing issues.
You can check out the full article here.
Project Linus
It is the holiday season, so I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some charities that do great things for children in need.
This week, I want to highlight Project Linus. They are a non-profit organization providing new handmade blankets to children in need.
If you’re super crafty and know how to make handmade blankets, you can check out their website and find a list of local chapters by state, where you can drop them off, or you can make monetary donations both online and through the mail.
You can also contribute by selecting them as your preferred non-profit through Amazon Smile.
If you’re shopping on Amazon and are not doing it through Amazon Smile, you should be. It costs you nothing but Amazon will donate .5% of eligible purchases to the non-profit you select.
There’s no better time to get signed up. You can do so here.
Project Linus is a US-only non-profit. If you are interested in something more global, I’ve got you covered in future editions. 😉
Best of Twitter
I’m a sucker for videos like this.
Ever since I watched the movie Born Free with my Mom as a kid, I fantasized about having big cats as pets or working with them in some capacity.
Somehow I got sidetracked and ended up stuck behind a computer in some office, so the closest thing I have to a big cat is a four-and-a-half-pound furball that likes to sleep on my pillow and smash Christmas decorations.
How anyone can see a video like this and not want to do everything possible to save and protect the amazing wildlife we have left on this planet is beyond me.
Enjoy!
I hope you all have a great week!
As always, I would love to hear from you.
If you read something here that resonates with you, leave a comment.
If you would like to discuss something further, shoot me an email.
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randy
Toffee Candy Snowflake is such a good name 😂 I hope you share more of their shenanigans.
Also, no to little cats, but yes to big cats??
Loved the lion video!