Summary:
In this podcast episode, hosts Steve and Marlo and guest Kevin Burkhart discuss a variety of topics, ranging from the progress being made in the electric airplane industry to the potential benefits of flying cars for transportation efficiency in large cities. They also touch on the possibility of using a catapult system for electric-powered aircraft takeoff to conserve energy and discuss the implications of the recent failure of Silicon Valley Bank, which impacted many tech companies. The conversation also delves into the current state of autonomous vehicles and the potential for increased efficiency as technology advances.

Transcript:

Did you know today is National Pie?

Kevin Burkhart in with us this morning as well.

and National Potato Chip Day. I mean, yes. And potato chip. We got both food groups represented. Well, I, yeah, well see I did that too. I, I, I fell into that trap also, , and then I remembered, wait a minute, we just had a national pie day and then I looked closer and went, oh, pie day as in math 3 1 4.

You know, this is actually the, the bigger, bigger national day of the two though. Well, I know it is, but I like pie. Well, yeah, so you have the, you have that reason to go on half pie. People across the country will be eating pie day to celebrate pie day. That, that’s what I fell back into. It’s like, you know what, I’m gonna have another pie day.

Yeah, I’m, I’m going to go to half pie. Just put 3.14 on the pie and whipped cream or something like that and then Oh yeah. Okay. Great marketing piece. Any restaurants out there listing? You should sell a slice of pie for $3 and 14 cents a day. That’s a good idea. Yes. See, you can double dip on pie day. See, I think there’s all kinds of ways to utilize this.

Yeah. Yeah. Hey, as long as they got a piece of pie, I’m happy. Banana cream, coconut cream. That reminds me, I, I was at Perkins just the other day ordering a, a whole pie. And the lady said, do you want it sliced? I said, sure. She says, do you want to cut into four slices or six? I said, you better make it four. I don’t think I could eat six

man, after my own heart. There we go. Okay. I wanted to talk a little bit about the time change. Of course. Uh, it’s weird this year. Normally I don’t, uh, have to deal with this, but um, cause I’m a morning person anyway. But the time change this year, kind of, kind of, I don’t know if it’s snuck up on me, caught me a little off guard.

Um, just a little outta sorts with the time change this here. First of all, because there’s eight feet of snow on the ground, it doesn’t feel like it should be time to set the clocks forward. I don’t think. Maybe that’s part of it. I think it is because I, Sunday night I was ready to go to Ben went, wait a minute.

It’s still way too light out. And yeah. And then Monday morning it was like, oh. Do I have to get outta bed now? I mean, it really is, you know, uh, according to, I forget what they call it for the weather service for the seasons, you know, we have the, the seasons that fall on the dates, right? So we’re almost to, we’re almost to spring, but there’s like the calendar spring or whatever they call it, which is actually, actually the first one.

Yeah. That comes up on the 20th is actual Spring. Spring. But they have, uh, you know, March 1st is actually supposed to be the whatever spring is, whatever it is. But anyway, uh, it’s like pie day. There’s more than one. That’s right. That’s right. . There’s more of everything now , I, I forget the trim that they used for that, but anyway, they, uh, um, it just, it’s a vernal equinox thing, but it just feels weird this year to have the time change and they’re, it still, I mean, yesterday morning it was 13 below zero, for goodness sake.

. Yeah. I mean, being a guy from Minot, we were getting a huge snow storm. On, uh, Saturday, late Saturday night, early into Sunday. So I looked at it as we got one less hour of a snowstorm. That’s perfect. I mean, just cut much less snow to have some snow shovel.

Less snow. Shoveler shovel. Exactly. So, so I get stuck in Vegas because of the snowstorm up here, . And uh, uh, and I took advantage of that and actually had some other business meetings and things, and, and I get back to the hotel. It’s one o’clock in the morning and I, and the plane leaves at six in the morning.

Right. And I’m like, oh my goodness. I I’m only gonna get three hours of sleep. No, you’re not. Because I would completely oversleep. I, at that point, I just stay up. Yeah. And I, I don’t sleep well the night before I travel anyway, I was thinking about doing that too. And I especially started thinking about, that’s the clock.

As I walk to the elevator to go to my room, there’s a huge sign that says, please don’t forget to set your clocks ahead one hour. And I’m like, What? ? It’s daylight savings night . So it’s not one o’clock. It’s actually two hours. Two o’clock. And I have two hours. Two hours now. Yeah. Yeah. You’re just stay up.

Yeah. And actually if you stay on the casino floor, they pump oxygen in. Yeah. You’re gonna stay awake anyway. Yeah, I did, I did try to get a couple hours sleep, but, but it’s funny, when I got to the airport, airport’s busy in the morning and, uh, um, it was like night of the living dead at the airport. I mean, people were like, everybody was about walking like they were sleeping.

It was hilarious to watch actually. So, just saying, I’m so curious to find out how Steve made it all the way through Sunday until Sunday night before he realized with the daylight. Oh, we had a time change almost 24 hours earlier. What part of what screwed me up too was, and I, I, I shut that feature off on my cell phone because I don’t, I don’t like, I like to do it myself.

So, um, It, it cuz my i’ll, I’ll travel and I don’t like my cell phone changing time. So, uh, that shut up. But my wife changed three or four o’ clocks in the house, and then I’m like, wait a minute. It, it was all confusing. It’s like, either let me change ’em all or you change ’em all, but you don’t change a couple and then change a couple more and then I’ll do with the rest.

And I’m like, which one’s got changed? And it was really confusing. Fortunately, most of the clocks nowadays just change on their own. Yeah, yeah. But for me, like all the clocks in our house, I set 10 minutes fast except for her clock on her nightstand. Yes. Because that’s, I, I, I need all the clocks 10 minutes fast.

So I’m not late for anything because I multitask. So I got too much stuff to do and that gives me a little extra cushion, which I’m thinking about going up to 15. But, um, like in my vehicle, my watch, everything’s 10 minutes fast. I, I do that math and I’m good that way. So now I’ve got her who set some of the clocks ahead, but did she factor in the 10 minutes?

I’m all screwed up. It, it was, it was horrifying. Marla, this, uh, one of the gentlemen that I meet with in Ka for coffee when I’m in town. Uh, what time did you meet with him? ? Good question. What time did you meet with him this week? I love these stories, right. So he is like, I’m gonna on, on his stove.

Obviously it doesn’t change by itself, but he must have a newer stove. So he’s trying to figure out how to put the clock ahead an hour and somehow or another walks the door, on the oven, , and cannot figure out how he did this. I didn’t even know there was clean mode. Yep. Well he’s, he is like, this is crazy.

And after a couple hours he said, Screw it. . I’m not going to, he said the clock, the unplug it know? Yeah. Yeah. It’s just kind of funny. Well, I had a condo and then a big glass top cooktop and you can lock those. And I, I kept lock. I’m like, what am I doing here? Because I, and it was through the clock is the lock feature, so I see.

I, yeah. It took me forever. I’m like, okay. It’s funny. So yeah, I kept locking the stove top so I couldn’t cook on ’em. I guess we’re microwaving everything or grilling. Yep. . I can’t use the cooktop. It’s hilarious. It’s hilarious. I’m sure everybody’s got time stories. And we’re gon, we’re talking about this because we’re gonna dive into this a little bit more today, right?

We’re gonna talk a little bit about is it going away and is it time? Because I also have another theory after going through this weekend, which. I don’t have an issue with time changes,

Uh, so what’s your favorite kind of chips I have to admit, trying Cajun squirrel might, might be find interesting. Well, they got all those flavors and, and we had a cabinet in Ontario, in Lake of the Woods when I was growing up.

So, you know, the Canadians were way ahead of everybody else when it came to flavored. Potato chips. Right. So I knew about salt and vinegar Yes. Long before they ever showed up in the United States. And, and all these, the, there was, uh, salt and pepper, salt and vinegar. There was, they had a ketchup one that wasn’t as, didn’t barbecue.

No. Didn’t, yeah. Yeah. Uh, but there was all these different Canadian flavors that were out there before you, well, you’re from Maya. You probably, uh, had some early samplings of flavored potato chips, Kevin. Yeah. I mean, they have, uh, they have all the flavors in Canada, but the best chips by far potato chips.

are Kirkland’s Kettle. Oh yeah. Ridges, I mean those things. We’ll be getting a couple of bags in the back of our minivan before we head back to Minea today. See, I, I like regular lays. It just lays potato chips, the original, and it, it kind of depends on what you’re eating with too, because, you know, growing up in Grand Forks, the kegs.

They’re sloppy joe’s. If you threw a couple Lays potato chips on those Oh yeah. In fact, a sloppy Joe dip with potato chips is the rough to go, right? Yes. So, but depending on what you’re eating is the type of chip, right? So, cuz I’m not a ruffle chip guy either, unless it’s a certain food. Right. So I, I think chips have kind of grown into a space.

I actually saw a meme the other day, um, that, uh, you’re so old, if you remember this, and it was potato chips instead of lettuce on a sandwich.

Mike, wait a minute. I remember that. Okay. I’m, I’m so old. I am, I am curious though, about who comes up with the flavors because the fact that there actually is a Cajun squirrel flavored potato chip, I don’t mean to go back to that all the time. I’m gonna guess there. That just has to be, that just seems like the most crazy flavor ever.

A Cajun ca Yeah. Well that’s true. I’m guessing it’s somewhere in New Orleans or something, but I don. , what do you think, Kevin? Did you try Cage and squirrel? It’s, it’s what they caught in the bug zapper, so, you know. Oh my goodness. Let’s make some chips out of it. Bug zapper. . What flavor chip do you want today?

How about the bug Zapper kind. . Well, you remember that scene from, uh, the Water Boy? Yes. Yeah. Yes. It’s like, what’s for dessert? Yeah. Squirrel. This squirrel. Well, we have a mutual friend who just, uh, uh, relocated to New Orleans, so we’ll have to reach out to Amber Yes. And see if she has any, uh, insight on the Cajun sel.

Maybe get a case set up here. Yeah, that’s a great idea. Yes. There we go. That should be Ever’s first thing for her friends back in North Dakota to send us a case of Cajun squirrel potato chips. We’ll swap some flavored chips with We go each other. Yeah. Speaking of squirrels, um, we were talking about time changes , and, uh, you and I have talked in the past about, uh, some of the states may be going away from it or maybe this national movement of getting rid of the time change.

You know, I have this great theory if we do have to keep it, cause I would love to see it go away, set it to what we’re at now and then just leave it there. Just, just, I, I like the extra light at night and I, I’m okay. I, it’s when. People get up in the dark and go home in the dark and they, they’re at work all day and they don’t see light.

Um, that’s the problem cuz you can’t do anything. So I, I like it the way it is right now, just leave it there. But if we do have to have it, why can’t we move it to Friday night, Saturday morning instead of Saturday night, Sunday morning? Because that gives people an extra day to acclimate before they have to go back to work.

That makes all the sense of the world to me. Yep. Yep. Let’s just hope it just goes away. . I I would like to see it go away. So this is where we’re at with it right now. Um, so last year, March, 2022, the Senate actually introduced a bill, uh, to get rid of or to permanently be on daylight savings time. It actually passed unanimously.

when’s the last time something passed unanimously in the Senate? Doesn’t happen. So, but the bill failed to get a vote last year in the House of Representatives. Why no vote? Because la well, they could not agree whether to keep the standard time or permanent daylight savings time. So that was the debate.

Which, so we’re on daylight savings time now, right? Right, right. Yes. Which one do we go to? I, I say permanent daylight savings time because you get more time in the evening. Right. So just last week, uh, the Sunshine Protection Act was reintroduced in the house. So they’re now pushing to hopefully ban or whatever, I shouldn’t say ban, but the ban, the clock change, I guess is the way to say it.

Right. So, This if this actually gets enacted this time. So if the house does act on this, my guess is that the Senate would act on it as well, because they passed it unanimously last year. And, uh, if that happens, then this could be the last time we’ve ever set that we will set the clocks forward. But, you know, nothing.

Call your local legislator. Nothing is ever for sure, because in 1974, Richard Nixon did this and it lasted 10 months. Just 10. Yep. So the, the new, and it was enacted in response to the 1973 oil crisis. For whatever reason, year light dav, daylight savings time was initially supported by 79% of the public.

But shortly after that first winner dropped to 42% support. And there was, the reason for it is that there was a series of accidents in the morning that killed some children going to. . And for whatever reason, the, the country, you know, they heard about this and then they decided that maybe it’s a safety factor and decided to go back to the standard that we have today.

Uh, and at that time it was six months. Six months. So you had six months of daily savings, six months of standard time. Now, of course, we’re at eight months of daylight savings time and only four months of standard time. So. Well, and that’s part of the argument. It, it, it, it’s just a number picked out of the right.

The air, right. That’s part of the argument, uh, against it or for it, or whatever it is. And I think you could, you know, it’s, you know, the, the stories of, of kids being killed going to school or whatever in the morning, uh, because it was dark. I mean, it’s a sad story of course. Uh, but it’s still dark. But I think it also, I mean, you could make the same case on the other side.

It’s dark when you come home. There are fewer pedestrians being hit at night. Yeah. When they’re all or whatever, extra hour. Right. I mean, it, it, it just, it was just something that just got caught up in, in the social conscious of, of, you know, at the time, and, and, and you and I had this conversation before because I, you know, I think a lot of people like me thought that, well, it was because of agrarian.

You wanted more time to work in on the farm and things like, which wasn’t the case, was not the case. That’s not the case. That’s still get up when the sun comes up, when they go to bed, when the sun goes down. Doesn’t matter what time it is. The biggest deal with it, if you go look back at history is that.

The idea behind having time zones was that they were trying to get as close to high noon as they could where the clock at noon could be at noon when the sun is highest at, you know, point in the, but that’s the time zones, not the time changed. Right, right. So that was, that was the goal originally. And, and that’s one of the reasons, I mean, besides, you know, equalizing time across the world, um, but this is, this is all actually relatively new.

As crazy as this is, it wasn’t until 1876 that we even had some time zones, and even after that it was just, it wasn’t even mandatory. Well, you and I were talking about Ohio had something like 26 tons. 2026. So, and, and even today, uh, states like Indiana, uh, some, some cities participate in daylight savings and some cities do not.

Within a state, within the state. And then on top of it, you have West Indiana, two time zones. And so if you, if you’re in an area that’s not participating in daylight savings time and you’re in one time zone, it’s possible that within the state of Indiana, that there is three hours between one side of the state and the other side of the state, just depending on what part of it you live in right now.

Now there are fewer and fewer, uh, that are not participating, but, uh, it’s just interesting to me that even today we have this issue going on. And, and of course, let’s not forget about the half hour change. There are some parts of the world that are not on the hour. Well see. I knew that because we, we had a cabin in Canada when I was growing up.

Yes, yes. Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, the, the merit times half. That’s correct. St. John’s. Yes. It’s a half hour. Half hour. And the reason for that, again, what the heck, the reason for that is the position of the sun. Right. That’s why they do that. But it’s how do you, how can you be a half hour off that?

How do you set meetings for that? It’s bad enough right now when we are trying to set meetings across the world and, you know, you’re dealing with seven hours difference here. 14 hours difference there. Yeah. But that math doesn’t compute. But, but if, if you’re on this island, what’s the name of the island?

Which one? The one that’s a half hour. Oh, prince Edward Island. Prince Edward Island, okay. Yeah. The Merit Time Province for Canada. Okay. So New Brunswick, new Prince, Edward Island, St. John’s. So how do you set that meeting? It’s, it’s 1:00 PM Eastern time, but it’s one 30 at our time. Right? Yeah. Well, you know the, the time zone’s a different animal though, because people get very, very look at when they changed the, where the time zone was in North Dakota.

Yes. When it used to be cross the Missouri River. That’s correct. You go over to Mandan and it was a time difference. Did it all the time. People look at the fight that, you know, and there’s been some bills that have come up in the legislature about going to one time zone in North Dakota and the people out west that they like their mountain time.

They time. Yeah. And people get very fired up over mountain time versus eastern types. So time zones a little bit different animal.

You’re changing that website, aren’t you? You’re the process. Yes, yes. Yeah. Being remodeled because we have So does that mean you’re getting like all new shirts so I can You want a new shirt?

Well, no, no. So you get new shirts so I can read the website off of, cuz that’s what I do. I always glance over it cuz everything you’ve got says national calendar.com. Yes. Which I, I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t have to read it. I’m by that by the way. It’s still. It’s habit. Yes. So it’s habit for me and I So you’re gonna have to change shirts now?

Not that you know now, because he’s got more than one shirt, but I’m the only, Kevin’s the only one in the room here that doesn’t change shirts on a daily basis. . Hey, hey, hey. I didn’t know I was gonna be on a radio show I want. I thought, well, who’s gonna see me? Well, yeah, he didn’t even comb his hair this morning.

He, he looks like, he looks exactly the same as I left him yesterday. Kevin doesn’t have hair, so it’s, it’s okay. . Alright, we’re, we’re shifting topics a little bit. Here we are. Yes. Uh, this morning. Uh, of course another big thing in the news besides the time change and me struggling this year, uh, was, uh, Silicon Valley Bank, a big tech bank, uh, uh, one of two banks that, I don’t know if you can technically call them failed, but there were failings within the system.

Now, why that Silicon Valley Bank was important was that’s where a lot of tech funding and a lot of venture capital for tech funding was parked. There was a lot of money there for the tech sector and that’s why this one is of a little bit of interest this morning. Well, and I think, uh, one of the things with this, I’m just reading through some of the latest news right now, um, is the disruption it had to companies like Etsy.

So I know a few people, in fact, I know companies who market products on Etsy and Etsy was unable to make payments to the, to those people. Right. You know, so if you’re a crafter or whatever that sells you stuff on Etsy, All of a sudden, you know, you, you might think that this bank that failed in California only in Pack Silicon Valley, but that’s not the case.

No. Because it was a big tech sector bank. So that means mean people who Right. Reach out to a lot of different avenues. Exactly. Exactly. So you, you know, if you’re getting, if you’re a crafter in mine, North Dakota, that makes their living on Etsy. And I know a couple people in mighta North Dakota that actually do Kevin, you know, uh, people who use their glow forge to create stuff and then they sell it online and this is how they make their living.

Uh, we’re unable to make pa get their payments from them, you know, so Etsy’s working that out. Of course. Uh, but it impacts a lot of people a lot of different ways. And I guess this is the first major bank that’s failed since the 2008 financial crisis. Yeah. So that’s 15, 16 years ago. And then I forget the name of the other one, but that also the signature signature that was, uh, which.

Ironically, Barney Frank from the DOD Frank Act who was on the board for that bank, which he was the one that Dod Frank Act, put in all these protocols in place to make sure the banks were safe. And but that signature bank also a, a big tech bank. Uh, and that’s where a lot of the technology dollars were parked a lot of venture dollars and, and a lot of, um, online internet companies did their businesses through those banks.

Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of irony, Steve, my, my favorite image over the last few days about the Silicon Valley Bank is watching the line of people outside of cer, of Silicon Valley Bank, who probably would never go to the bank, cuz you know, you do it, it online. Right? Right. But now they’re all lined. To get their money.

Right. And I’m, I’m sure there’s very few tellers who are employed at a bank like that because it’s all we did tellers online. That’s right. Everything’s online. Yeah. Who wants to be that one or two tellers who are, Hey, we need you guys in here today. We got some customers who want to ask, can’t work from home today.

Why do you like making it Wells Fargo? It a they don’t have tellers really anymore either. Right. So, but there’s a line of people outside waiting Yeah. Yeah. For a door that probably isn’t gonna be open . Right, right. Anyway, yeah. It is kind of ironic in that way. Right. But, but not a bank that, uh, typically you or I, or people would normally have money parked at, uh, so.

you know, they talk about the F D I C, the federal deposit insurance, and you’re protected up to 250,000. A lot of the people in that bank, those two banks, not people that are having $250,000 parked in a bank. These are big venture type Yeah. Banking operations. Yeah. So, but it makes you wonder, you know, I, I just, I think about there’s been a lot of layoffs in tech over the last three or four months too, right.

I mean, meta just came out just a couple days ago and said, which is Facebook and Instagram and, and uh, Oculus, uh, they are laying off another 10,000 people. You know. So it just seems that things that are related to tech recently seem to continue to slow down, to fail to whatever. And I’m not really sure, um, , you know, if it’s a, if it’s a sign of economic times that when you know things get a little tighter, that maybe technology is not, you know, you’re not, you’re not buying the latest television or the latest computer you’re gonna make due on those things because food and fuel and things become a bigger priority.

So I just wonder if it’s just kind of a sign of the times and this bank failing could be part of that. Now, where it could affect some people is if you’re one of those big industries that are laying off people in the tech sector and you do do your banking through that bank, then you know, some people may have, um, their deposits there.

Yes. Because it’s the. Companies bank, right? So they may do some banking there so those people could be affected. Yeah, I over 250, this, this impacts, uh, I think a lot of people and, and, uh, it’ll be interesting, interesting to see how this plays out over the next few days. That’s for sure.

My mission today is find a $3 and 14 cent piece of pie. That’s a great mission. That’s my mission. And if I have to go to 20 restaurants and have a piece of pie at every one, , I’m gonna find it. That’s my mission today. Alright, fair enough. Um, I wanted to talk a little bit about, uh, some aviation.

Yeah. Um, and. Electric airplanes is, it’s something that’s been kind of popping up here and there. And, and I always look at it as scope and scale because for a commercial aircraft, uh, to be able to fit in that space, that’s a little, we’re not there yet, but are we, uh, and, and I go back to, you know, it wasn’t that long ago, Boeing had this experiment with electric generators on some planes and failed miserably.

It was battery capacity. They just, and well, the batteries kept catching on fire, but, um, another little problem, but it, they couldn’t make it work. So where are we today? Because it wasn’t that long ago. So there’s actually a company called Beta Technologies, and, uh, they’re based in Vermont. They have, uh, the name of the aircraft is a CX 300.

It’s a conventional takeoff and landing version. , uh, of its all, all, uh, two 50 electric vertical takeoff and landing. So they have a, uh, a vertical takeoff landing aircraft that they’ve produced that is electric as well. Uh, but this is a conventional aircraft. It looks like it holds, I’m going to guess 20 people.

So I was trying to find the specs on it, but I’m unable to do so right now. But it is not just for a couple people. So it is, and, and they are actually taking orders for this vehicle. And in fact, I think somebody just bought, yeah. Um, somebody just ordered 50 of these things actually. So they’re trying to get this through the f AA right now, uh, under its current regulations.

So meaning that they’re just applying for the permit to put these vehicles into the airspace here in the United States. without having to have the FAA change anything as far as how they’re fueled and, and all this other good stuff. So that’s kind of where it’s at in a nutshell. I guess. So the question I’ve got is, is where’s, and probably capacity, um, going back to the FAA and some of that regulation, where’s the, the line drawn between a flying car, which you’ve been in and a an electric aircraft?

where, where, where does that line get drawn? So that’s interesting. That’s an interesting perspective actually. So I would say, or is it just morphing into one Eventually? Yeah, probably. But I think right now it’s airspace, you know, so what you’re talking about, how far off the ground, how far off ground you go, right?

So a drone, for example, you can go 400 feet without having to do anything more than just flies around. As long as you’re not within five miles of an airport and things like that. Unless you’re the military, let me wait. Right, right. In North Dakota, there’s a 600 foot ceiling across most of North Dakota, because we are, we have a special training set.

Yeah, yeah. Because of our status with, with drones. Right. Uh, but other than that, so as long as your flying car stays within that 400 foot ceiling, then you’re Okay. You know, and, and you’re not gonna be, you know, cruising at, at a speed, at, you know, at 30,000, at 30,000 feet. You know, cuz you, you’re not gonna get up to 400 and some miles an hour or whatever.

Probably at 400. Oh, I’m gonna try. I know you will. I I’m gonna try. I know you will. You just don’t, you just don’t have enough room. , you know, that, that, that with without, you know, getting up there a little higher. So did you say vroom? Yeah, vroom. Vroom. However, I mean the electric vehicles that are the flying cars I’ve been in go 160 miles an hour in that space.

So from doing the math, how long would that take you to get back to Minot? What’s 40 minutes? Probably about, probably about a half hour. Yeah. Yeah. Wouldn’t that be something. Would you, would you like that? There’s a few curves that I’d be concerned about , but otherwise that’d be great. In a flying car, people from Minot come to Bismarck, 2, 3, 4 times a month.

People from Bismarck go to Minot like twice in their lifetime . So you know, and once it’s for a junior high track meet if it that fast. Yeah. And the state fair. Yeah, we go there for the state fair. If you could get to mine at that fast, I think people from Bismarck would come up during host f. You know That’s true.

Come check it out. That’s true. Go to Host Fest. I love Host Fest. You know if there was a charging station. So most of these uh, uh, flying cars, you don’t have a story about charging station? No, I don’t have a story, Steve. See if, if he starts me down that road again, it’ll be another hour.

Today is pie Day. Pie day potato, $3 and 14 cent piece of pie. Get some potato chips on it though.

potato chip pie. That actually sounds pretty good. I It does, depending on the flavor. , as long as it’s not Cajun flavored squirrel potato chips. Right on your pie. Well, it depends. That would be a meat pie then, right? I, I’ve eaten raccoon. It’s why not? Okay. I don’t know. Yeah. Okay. I, I, I, in fact, I’ve got a hot cook.

R How was QuickBook on on it? It was a little sweet. Really? Yeah. Not what I would’ve expected, I guess. No, a friend of mine was raccoon guy and Yeah. Tried it. The jerky was good. Okay. So yeah, who knew? Hey, you know what we say and why not? Why not, not why not ? Um, no, it’s good job there. Kevin. . So we’re talking about, uh, aviation, electric planes.

And electric aviation and, all right, so I got to thinking about this one day because of, well, in part the issues with Boeing and, and, uh, I knew we were gonna talk about this at one point. If you take a look at the ability to get off the ground with a plane, that’s the biggest expenditure of power. The flight and the landing not that complicated.

So if you’re looking at the ability, because the very, once you’re up and, and at cruising altitude, there’s really not a lot of, of energy expended to propel that aircraft. Uh, depending on what the prevailing winds and all that are, because you take a look at some of the electric, um, solar power planes that have been made thousands of miles of flight.

So now you’re just looking at that weight ratio. But going back to the takeoff, which is the big power, okay, at what point for an electric powered aircraft to take off? At what point would, could you see an airport with a catapult system, kinda like an aircraft carrier, because that’s how they get those aircraft off the ground in a very short space.

And then kicking the afterburners, you’re after the races. Um, but something like that could make electric power at aviation a little bit more feasible. Yes. All of that. Free. Yes. , one word response. Wow. I thought about this long and hard. , Hey, I’m like, well, aircraft carrier. Do, do, do a catapult system. It, it, so my question to you is, would that be the viable solution for, you know, accelerating what electric aviation looked like?

Because it’s that expenditure of energy, that quick drain on a battery that is, , the takeoff that that’s the part, getting it up in the air is, is the hard part. Right. I was just, as you were saying that, I was just looking up how much fuel, like a 7 47 burns drain takeoff, and I’m, I know it’s a lot. Yes. Okay.

A 7 77 . There, there’s my one word response to yours. This, this, this is incredible. How much, how much fuel do you think a 7 77 burns on takeoff? That’s the big dump that, that it’s huge amounts of fuel expended or energy expend to get off the ground to, to fight the forces of gravity. What do you, what do you think the number is?

Uh, I, I wouldn’t even know. Um, , well, it’s in pounds, so I would say no, I, I know, I’m actually saying in gallons though. So just so that you can, so I would say 6,000 gallons of fuel, actually. That’s a pretty good guess, uh, between four and 10,000 gallons on a takeoff. Yeah. Depending on the aircraft. And, and, and when you, so, when you think about what is, uh, what’s a gallon of jet fuel cost right now?

Seven ish. Oh my goodness. So even at 4,000 gallons times $7 is $28,000 to take that plane and put it in the air. Okay, so the question is, why wouldn’t you have a catapult system at a regular airport just for that ? Because that’s, well look at extending, uh, flight time and, and being in the air or taking a longer trip for different aircraft.

Think, I think that particular aircraft holds 63,000 gallons, right? Yeah. But you think about, uh, what does, what does the 7 77 hold, uh, for people? 250 people or so? Yeah. Um, I mean, you, you literally, if it’s, if it’s um, 28,000 gallons, so everybody in that plane spent 10 bucks just to, just to take off. Yeah.

Again, why wouldn’t you have a catapult system at an airport? Yeah. And then, then it runs on five gallons a minute. Yeah. When it’s in the air, so it much more efficient when it’s up in the air. Yeah. But, but the, the energy expansion or the, the, the energy that it, it takes to get off the ground is where.

That’s the the big, I have a better solution. Okay. I think every airport should be put on a Butte or something like that to shove the plane off the hill and then you just go off the side of the hill, . You just get enough to get enough off the hill. Go down. You get your acceleration because of gravity, and then you can.

Don’t like that idea. They have that ride at Valley Fair and it’s wee. Yeah. Everybody strap in. Go. Everybody gets quiet here. It’s, it’s, it’s kinda like the agenda of talking points for this radio show comes together. Well, let’s jump off the cliff and we’ll build the wings on the way down. Yeah. You know, let’s, we’ll figure it out.

Excuse me, but do we have an engineer on this flight? , but I agree with you. I think, you know, a catapult system would be interesting. I, it’s surprising that there aren’t any, anywhere, something. I mean, just, just to, you know, if you, if if there was a system that could get you to a hundred miles an hour or something relatively quickly.

Quickly. Well, the word of the day is efficiency. Yes. For, for a different reason. Because that’s what Zuckerberg is calling the 10 thousands of layoffs. That’s right. 2023 is the year of efficiency. Efficiency. So you would think from a cost perspective, yeah. Catapult system at an airport would be expensive.

But if you’ve got a big airport and you’re launching these large aircraft, the fuel savings alone, pay for itself, uh, in a very short period of time. So I’m wondering why there hadn’t been some thought into that system because, you know, doing the same old thing the way we’ve always done it, you know, efficiency, word of the ear.

Yeah. There you go. There you go. Thank you, mark. Yeah, for that word, . So, so anyway, you don’t lay people off anymore. We’re just getting efficient. So we’re talking about, you know, the, the flying cars, that’s where we’re moving with all this, right? Or did you just want to continue on? No, no, no, no, no, no. With, with your catapult system.

Yes. No

I put all this thought into it, is all this work and effort and it’s, it’s a good thought. I mean, I, I always think about, you know, other things. I think about the, uh, um, you know, in, in Bismarck, North Dakota when they, when they have to de-ice the plane and it becomes this like crazy circus out there to de-ice planes, and I’m like, Don’t we live in a snow climate?

Why does this have to be such a big deal? You know, I, I’m just using that as an example. Why wouldn’t we have like, some type of system that a plane can just like a car wash, taxi through and, and and you just hit the button. Yeah. And you know, you come through and you know, you tell, tell aircraft air traffic control.

Hey, I’m ready for my car wash now, or my plane washed. And you just slowly drive through the thing. And I’ve never seen any place that has anything like this. And to me, that would make all kinds of sense. It would be incredibly efficient. And maybe that’s why it’s not done. Yes, yes. . But why not? I, I, now I could see And why, why, and while you’re going through your airplane wash, you could set, you could, uh, get set up with the catapult and then where you go.

Yeah. Yeah. You could set the catapult right. And send that stone your way into the, into space. Well, yeah. I was thinking another thing too. It’s like now we figured out how the cow got over the moon. It was Catapult. Oh, yes, yes. . That’s how the cow jumped over the, and then you got it all figured out. See, Kevin Tuesdays can deteriorate rather quickly.

It’s going there real fast. I was, I was feeling personally attacked. We were talking about, you know, how much energy it takes to get that much weight up in the morning, you know, up, up. I was thinking to myself personally, uh, you know, just getting out of a, a leather recliner, you know? Well, that’s why you push that button and the chair goes up and gets you off the ground.

How many gallons of field does that take, do you think? Yeah, exactly. . Yeah, I call, I call my leather recliner there. I call my leather recliner, the, uh, volunteer chairperson because it’s easy to get into, hard to get out of my leather recliner. The volunteer chairperson, would somebody say Yes, yes, yes. Can I get Yes.

There’s a deteriorating fast there. Better idea. Yeah, you just go to. Channel your inner Tim Taylor from Tool Time and you motorize that thing fully and put wheels on it. Or if you wanna go up and down stairs, you, you can put tracks on it.

And yes, that is the theme to the Jetsons. And uh, the reason is we’re talking about flying cars. That’s right. Yes. Now you’ve actually been in flying cars and past. I’ve been in a couple.

Yeah. Just one or two or three. Or you’ve, so Mark Berg might be saying, this is the year of efficiency. Yes. I’m saying this is the year of the flying car. Well, wait a minute. Now, you’ve been talking about this coming up in the future. You can buy ’em now. You can buy them now. Yes. They’re here. Yes. Did you buy one yet?

So did you order one yet? I might. So it’s the Jetson one. Isn’t that amazing? Night? Wow. What else are you gonna name it? Yeah. Um, millennium. They’re sold, they’re sold. They’re sold out for 2023. You can order for delivery in 2024. Ready to fly in the United States of America. Now if, if, if it’s like most vehicles, traditional vehicles, yes.

Usually you don’t wanna buy the first model year . So, so I guess I’m probably good going with the 2024 model here, right? Yeah. So you let ’em work the bugs out of the first model year. Right. And then I guess flying cars the same way, I’m assuming, I suppose you could say that. So I’m not sure how can, okay.

So here’s the picture of it. So it’s not something that you’re gonna fly at 20 below in North Dakota because it No, it’s open cockpit. It’s, it’s open cock. So it’s not like you’re going to, oh, oh, hey, I have this flying car. And yes, uh, road closures be damned. I can get up above the, the white out ground drifting and actually see for six months a year around here.

This would be, I might bundle up and get in that. It looks like a blast, doesn’t it? It does. It, it, it kinda looks like those little tiny. Helicopters is Yes. Flying. That’s exactly what it is. It actually, uh, it’s designed basically to fly like 20 feet off the ground, but you can go up to 1500 feet with this.

It will also, if the motor goes out, it will still land, uh, without hurting. Just quicker. Yeah. Yeah, flying quicker. , it’s, well, it’s kinda like an ultra light. It is kinda like an, I’m looking at the picture though, and where’s the buttons that it just folds up into my briefcase. Where you get to work like George Shez.

So not quite there yet. Not there. Okay. But isn’t May, maybe that’s the upgrade for the 2024 model. It is an electric vehicle, uh, vertical. So it’s an, it’s an E E V T O L. So electric, vertical takeoff and landing. So it’s not like a fixed wing aircraft, personal helicopter where you need to have a runway or whatever.

Literally your backyard, it’s a catapult or your driveway . Well, doesn’t need a catapult. Cause it just goes straight up and down. 20 minutes of flight time can shoot you straight up and, and uh, um, I think it’s a hundred kilometers an hour. So that would be what, what 60 miles an hour? Yeah. So in that neighborhood, so it’s not fast, fast, but again, at 60 miles an hour zipping around town, uh, that’s not so terrible.

I mean, you, you’re, and what’s the flight time? 20 minutes. 20 minutes. So you could go to Washburn Ice or to Wilton Probably. And then have to charge it back up. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s not. You know, not like the E hang 180 4 that I was in, that that actually goes 150 miles an hour, uh, and still has that, uh, 20 to 25 minutes.

So, um, and there will be, there will be a time when this battery life will get, you know, more, but the, the challenges of course is that battery’s heavy, right? Crazy heavy. So hence the assisted takeoff. Yes. Yeah. Uh, but you know, for zipping around town, I mean this, oh, by the way, well think of this in a big city.

So how far can you travel in 15 minutes versus gridlock traffic? Oh yeah. And if you’re looking at high rises, you can go from this office building to that office building six blocks away and park on that roof and Yes. Get charges while you are there. I mean, you, a meeting, you know, at, at 60 miles an hour and 20 minute flight time, you still, that’s 20 miles, that’s 15 to 20 miles that you can go.

Yeah. Uh, that gets you across la. , you know, so you can zip around these big towns, uh, pretty efficiently. Oh, by the way, no pilot’s license Really? Isn’t that amazing? Well, we were, we started to talk about the FA regulations. Yes. And what they were trying to do with, uh, the, the fixed wing electric capacity under today’s regulations with the faa.

So does this fall under an ultra light, or, yes, it does. And, uh, uh, as long as you, I don’t know if you have to get your, like, your drone certification, I’m guessing that you probably have to the 1 0 7, but it’s really like flying a drone. I mean, that really is what this is. So, uh, , you wanna get one, don’t you, Kevin?

Well, I don’t know about the not having a pilot’s license. I’m just curious what it’s weight rated to, you know, as a full figured guy. , uh, I’m just curious, , what, how much of the guy can that one seed hold? I believe so. You’re fine. Yeah, I’m good. So, with three full figured guys in this room. Uh, but we’re all good, I think, but we’re all, so we’d have to each take one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I, this is not a two seater. Yeah. This is just a one person. So, doesn’t work for date night. No, no. Although that would be fun. Y well, yeah. . Hey, honey. Yeah. . So, yeah, I, I’m, uh, um, I’m pretty excited. Probably we’re gonna check out the sunset from New Salem too. . All right. It’s probably about the fact that this is actually coming, you know, and then the, uh, um, Japan’s version, so Japan has a SkyDrive.

which is one of the ones I have been in. And, uh, the Sky Drive 2026. And then that actually looks more like a drone, but it’s an enclosed cockpit. So this is enclosed two people. I’m gonna go that route, 150 miles an hour, much faster in the same, same flight time, but it’s, it’s a bigger vehicle. So, you know what’s ironic?

So I look at that and I can see the functionality there. This one really does look like a helicopter with four props and stuff. Right? One big rotor. It’s a big drone. Yeah. Is what it is. It’s, it looks like a big drone. Yep. Um, but here’s the irony I get. If you go and, and I’ve got a lot of friends that have done work in Japan and, and travel over to overseas.

Yep. What do you not see in Japan? So if you’re in Tokyo or where, what do you not see investment into? Electric vehicles. Oh, that’s interesting. You do not see electric vehicles or the investment into the infrastructure for electric vehicles in Japan. They don’t have the charging stations. And you would think that it’s, it’s not a space they’ve gone into.

They even take a look like a company like Toyota. They did not go down the road of electric vehicles. They went down the road and stayed to that, even with the, the tax incentives to go to electric. They stayed with the hybrid models, but now you see Japan getting into the flying vehicle space in the electric space.

So that would be, they might be, and we, we’ve talked about this before, I guess, in, you know, I have four thoughts going in my head at one time here. Okay.

Japan didn’t go down the road and Japanese companies didn’t go down the road of electric vehicles. You take Toyota for example, they went down the hybrid road, which now you see, you know, brought this up like the new Dodge Ram or the, uh, which I really love the, the gmc, the Hummer.

Oh, uh, love that truck. But can I get in a 6.2 liter? Well, then we can talk. Um, but with Dodge going down the road on their electric pickup truck, you can get a mileage extender, which is an internal incus. Bustion engine built into for an added cost, uh, for an upgrade price, which is kind of where we’re at right now.

But let’s get rid of that and let’s go a different route. Um, so I e hybrid of sorts. Um, Toyota just stayed the course with that. So, uh, they’re far and ahead of everybody else when it comes to the hybrid market, right. Um, and, and rightly so. I think that’s a good path that they stayed on. But we got talking about the four things that popped into your head about electric vehicles and versus electric vehicles because this started with flying cars and, uh, Japan’s gone down that road a little bit stronger than some of the other, uh, producers.

And the questions why. So, uh, number one was infrastructure, right? And, uh, I mean, Japan is landlocked. . So I think about, you know, what it takes to produce power, electricity, and if you’re going to change your population to. All electric vehicles. I mean, in the United States, we, we have to at least double the production of electricity to power our cars.

Yeah. Now you’re looking at a very small space and they, in Japan, because they’re landlocked and they’re, um, constrained with what their power needs are. Right. And power consumption. And power production. Right. So these are 20, 21 numbers. Uh, natural gas leads the way at 34.4% for electricity production.

Uh, coal is number two at 31%. Nuclears 6.9%. Renewables 20.3%. But what was interesting about renewables, they peaked. They peaked, they peaked last decade. So it’s a nice little piece, but it’s not the piece you’re going to rely solely on. So it’s going the other way now for Yes. And then petroleum and waste 7.4%.

So from a an energy perspective, pretty balanced portfolio. It is. I mean, I would imagine as electric needs grow in Japan, um, I’m not sure how much more they can produce. No, it’ll be interesting to see. They may have to import electricity from somebody else. And in a, you know, in the world that we’re in, um, you know, that to me is a huge security issue.

Imagine if we imported all of our electricity here and somebody could just turn the switch off, switch, and we have an electricity in this. Well, and for us in this country, it, the two things that are constraints are the stability of the grid, which nobody’s really talked about. No, but you’re taking a look at a small country like Japan, uh, they don’t have that issue.

Right. Because if you have a weak spot and you, you can fix it a lot easier than our interconnected grid here. Yeah. Uh, and then it’s the production side of things. Where are you going for production? And we see, especially up here, how many wind farms were, were turning with 55 mile an hour winds last. none.

Or when it gets to 30 below none. Yeah. So that’s a big constraint when it comes to the renewable side of things or how much electricity is being produced in a solar field or that solar panel on your house when you’re in a blizzard. None. So there’s constraints to the types of power production. So I would say that, you know, first of all that that would be why Japan isn’t moving in that direction.

The second thing is, is that I know Japan is about efficiency, cuz it is the year of efficiency. It is Zer, mark Zuckerberg said so. So yes. What is the average nom price of electricity in the United States right now? Oh. You can weigh in on this too. Well, it varies greatly across the country. Does, because, you know, North Dakota is the second lowest at 8.10 cents a kilowatt hour.

Yeah. Because we’ve got cooperatives and, and Right. That interconnected system Yes. Stuff. Yeah. We, we’ve got that. We’re, we’re great here. Yes. Yep. So, which, not the lowest though. No. Idaho’s the lowest we, we used to be. And Idaho has a lot more hydro. Yes. Uh, which is very cheap electricity produced. Yeah. But, but just one 10th of a penny more here.

Right. So, uh, so average is about 14 cents. Okay. In Japan, it’s a quarter. So when you start thinking about efficiencies, and we talked about this when I fueled my car up in Vegas a couple weeks ago. Tried to fuel you. Yes. Tried to fuel it up. That cost me 43 cents a kilowatt hour to fuel that car up. Right.

You and I did the math on that. It was actually less expensive. If you have a. Combustion car at 30 miles a gallon, paying four and a half dollars. Cause, cause I that 20, it was $27 to, to fuel the car, the electric car, uh, for 175 miles. Did we factor in the other component to that collision? What component?

No, it wasn’t pie. Um, no, the other component is what was your time? Is Oh my goodness. That’s not even What’s the value of your time? Because Yeah, I know. Spending two days trying to charge an electric, it literally took me six hours to charge that car because I couldn’t find a station to charge. It wouldn’t, the ones I were trying to get to my next month will be four days at least.

Oh my goodness. That check at Marlo’s at Marlo’s, efficiency rate, , he’s worth $10,000 an hour. So that stopped cost him $60,000. But that’s an important salary calculation, especially if you’re working in the business world. So, oh, I couldn’t, I couldn’t have been more frustrated Right. About that whole experience.

But this to me is why Japan isn’t moving down this road because, uh, economically, You know, gas is in diesel is still the better choice for them because it’s efficient, because they can’t produce a lot more electricity, so they’re gonna go that route. Efficiencies come into play when you’re able to get into the air with electric vehicles because now you don’t have, you know, you’re just not gonna burn as much electricity trying to get around town because it’s easy to move across, especially if you got a catapult on your.

Building route, right? That’s correct, yes. Or just drop off the site. Yeah, just . If in a skyscraper you might be able to do that. Watch that first step though. ,

going back to, uh, anyway, autonomous vehicles. Yes. And, and flying vehicles. And why Japan went down this road. Um, and, and you think it’s because of the flying and autonomous side of things? Because infrastructure’s expensive. So you take a look at what we’re. Great example is right now you take a look at the bridges across the country.

What if you didn’t have to span a river or a stream or Right. Or Right. Yeah. Yeah. And we’ve talked about that even locally here. I mean, about the idea of putting a new bridge to the north of Bismarck and Mandan and, you know, if, if we weren’t going to flying cars, put a catapult on one side, kind, when this catapult thing did, Heyford just jump it.

Yeah. Let’s DKA hazards it. Eva can evil it hazards it. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Congratulations. And then if you actually make it successful, you get a little, little sticker to put on your car. Ooh. I like that . I, I jumped the Missouri River

with, with, with the Bachan Catapult. , you know, sounds catastrophic. Yes. Now you got me thinking. Okay. Anyway, just, just to wrap up though, because we’re thinking about Japan and, and why they didn’t go down the EV road. Yep. , pun intended. Um, specifically And, and you were thinking, cuz this was your other thinking point, that we actually wrote a couple down so we didn’t get off track, uh, because there were thinking about the flying vehicles or the autonomous side of things.

Yes, that’s what I was thinking. Yeah. So Yes. The other thing with it, I’m just looking at all kinds of things about Japan right now. So density per square mile for people’s 339 per square mile. Per square mile. Wow. And there are actually rural parts of Yeah. Of Japan. Right. What’s our, I wonder what our density per square mile is for us.

I’m gonna density per square. I should be able to type faster. Right. Well, now we’re in my, now we’re in my wheelhouse talking about density.

I think we’re gonna need a bigger catapult, . So the United States is 93. Wow. So, four times as dense in Japan as we are in the United States. So again, I’m just throwing all this stuff together. They don’t, they’re, they don’t have, uh, as many people, of course, they’re at 127 million to our 350, but it much smaller country.

Much smaller country. But their, their density is, you know, so they don’t, they don’t have the ability, again to, to produce a lot of power stuff. So they have to look at efficiencies. Autonomous vehicles are become more efficient for them too, because you. You can take your autonomous vehicle down to work and your vehicle will go home or it’ll, or go to work and pick up other people.

And you know, so the vehicles that are gonna be on the road when we have autonomous vehicles will be a lot less because they’ll be more efficient in how they’re used. Well, and, and look at the efficiencies in their transportation system. You take a look at the bullet trains and the, the high speed rail that they have.

Right. And which kind of, because that they don’t sit on the tracks unless they’re station. Yep. Yeah, they’re elevated. Yep. So you take a look at some of that technology that Japan already has and now you can fold that into other autonomous or other, um, without saying flying. How do you say? Flying. Flying, okay.

Flying, flying vehicles. Yeah. But you’ve got a lot of different technologies that are out there. , uh, they’re kind of ahead of, well, I don’t think they have a choice. No. When, when you have that kind of dense population, you have to figure out ways to become efficient. That’s just how it is. And, and transportation is one of those main things.

And, and I truly believe that you’re gonna, I mean, flying cars are gonna be coming, you know, to fruition pretty fast here over the next four or five years now, autonomous vehicles, I mean, there are vehicles now that have, uh, like valet. Are you familiar with the valet service in some cars? Mm-hmm. , when you’re, are you familiar with valet, Kevin?

So, uh, well, I’m from the plains, so I think you’re talking about eastern part of the state. I see. No, not vale. Yeah. Valet. Valet, yes. Valet again for you. Yes, yes. Or I not focus comic relief valet . But valet service, you know, in, in, uh, a lot of our newer cars now means that when you’re in a parking or like you’re at a shopping mall, And the car will, you’ll go to the front door, the car will actually go pick it or drop itself off.

And when you’re ready to go, you can actually just sum it, sum of it, summit, call it with your phone, sum summon, thank you. With your phone and it’ll come pick you up. You know, so it’ll, it’s doing these type of things already. And the reason they can do that is because it’s on private property. Sure. So as the government allows these, these type of services to become a reality on public roads, then you can send your car home, you can send your car to go get your kids.

You can do all this kind of stuff moving forward. And well, just thinking full, full circle. And it’s big circle now, um, you know, one of the first conversations when you and I first met was about autonomous corridors. Yep. And what that does for shipping freight. Now you talk about the end user, uh, from rail.

And they’ll say it’s like they can take care of it all except for that last mile, right? The first mile, the last mile. And that’s where a lot of the space for autonomous vehicles come in because now you’ve got the opportunity to go ship that last piece of product. And that to me is where the game changing opportunity lies, is that there’s a lot, and what’s cool about that space, Steve, is these cool vehicles that are emerging.

You have these, these pizza delivery cars now that are like a third of the size of regular cars that are gonna be zipping around autonomously because all they have to do is deliver pizza. Right. Or that farm to market where the farmer who’s growing carrots out there can put ’em in a car that’s refrigerated and send it around town and you can pick your produce up in this refrigerated car.

It’s really cool stuff as far. Well, and when you start looking at those autonomous corridors in the opportunity to charge those vehicles in route Yep. That’s game changing. Yep. Because you and I have talked about the ability to charge a roadway, which it’s almost like that third rail back in the day.

The post From Electric Airplanes to Flying Cars: Exploring the Future of Transportation Technology appeared first on The Tech Ranch.

In a recent conversation with Marlo Anderson, the Guru of Geek, Dr. Dan Desjardins from the company Distributive discussed the potential of on-premise devices as an alternative to cloud computing. Distributive’s innovative web-based distributed compute platform offers a cost-effective solution for organizations like hospitals, manufacturers, and universities to make better use of their idle devices and computers.

Dr. Desjardins explained, “If it has a processor, a cpu, or a gpu, we can put it into its own cloud, its own compute cluster using a new novel, web-based distributed compute platform. This takes all the compute and AI and data processing and advanced research computing and does it on these devices rather than in the cloud. So it’s about a 10th to a 15th of the cost data stays in the building and allows anybody essentially to become practitioners of next-generation AI solutions.”

The platform has already proven effective in various use cases, such as optimizing surgical operating room schedules in hospitals and conducting dark matter searches in galaxies for universities. By leveraging the computing power of on-premise devices, organizations can significantly reduce their reliance on costly cloud services.

To learn more about Distributive and their revolutionary platform, visit their website at distributive.network or contact Dr. Dan Desjardins at [email protected]

The post Revolutionizing Computing: How Distributive Unlocks the Potential of On-Premise Devices appeared first on The Tech Ranch.

Analyzing conversations, demographics, and sentiment at the speed of light

Imagine having an AI tool capable of analyzing millions of online conversations to provide meaningful insights, demographic data, and sentiment analysis at lightning speed. Enter Polly.AI, an innovative AI developed by Advanced Symbolics Inc., which promises to revolutionize market research and journalism.

In a recent interview, Erin Kelly from Advanced Symbolics Inc. spoke to the Guru of Geek, Marlo Anderson, about how Polly.AI can provide invaluable data to journalists and consultants alike. The AI can sift through numerous conversations, extracting only the most insightful and meaningful content. Unlike human analysts, Polly.AI is completely unbiased, as it is not influenced by any political or personal motivations.

To illustrate the power of Polly.AI, Kelly ran an impromptu analysis during the interview to answer the seemingly trivial question: “Do people even own Bobbleheads anymore?” Within moments, Polly.AI not only identified two unique conversations about Bobbleheads but also provided a full demographic breakdown.

Erin Kelly & Marlo Anderson

According to the AI, Bobblehead enthusiasts tend to be males aged 25 and younger, primarily residing in the East North Central, Mid-Atlantic, and New England regions of the US. Additionally, the sentiment analysis revealed that those who engaged in conversations about Bobbleheads had a very positive attitude towards them.

The ability to quickly gather such detailed information has massive implications for both market research and journalism. Businesses can now access critical data without spending exorbitant sums on traditional research methods. Journalists can verify stories or gather data on public opinions in real-time, leading to more accurate reporting.

Polly.AI’s unbiased and data-driven approach to analysis has the potential to transform industries, saving time, money, and ensuring more accurate insights. To learn more about this groundbreaking AI, visit askpolly.ai.

Don’t miss out on the next big thing in AI-driven research and journalism. This is your Guru of Geek, Marlo Anderson, signing off from CES 2023.

The post Polly.AI: The Unbiased AI Solution Transforming Market Research and Journalism appeared first on The Tech Ranch.

Summary:
Hosted by Steve Bakken and Marlo Anderson, this technology podcast episode covers a range of topics related to technology, equipment and the film industry. The hosts discuss the potential of advanced technologies, such as prosthetic limbs that can restore communication between different parts of the body. The conversation also looks at the use of 3D printing to create medical devices, building materials and even houses. In addition, they discuss the potential for a film industry in North Dakota and the need for lawmakers to create tax credits to attract more films to the state.

Transcript:
Hello. You haven’t been here for a while. I know. Tech stuff. Did you miss me? Yes, he did. Yes. I hope so. A lot. Not, not only is Randy, the, the operations manager for this station, but he’s also our engineer. And one of the things that you’re tasked to do is move some of the snow around here because we’ve got a tower out back.

Well, no, no, hold on. Second you transmitter site. But what, but you have to move snow quite often to do your work. To do your job. I, I have in the past moved snow. Yes. Okay. So, so have you ever wondered how they measure snow? I figure just take a yard stick. Go out in the yard and measure the, that’s the unscientific way.

Measure the, the snow, right? Well, it depends if the wind’s warm, I just kind of if’s a drift. I look at how much is built up on my truck hood. Well, yeah, that’s kind of the easy way I do it too, which I, I look at my patio do. Yeah. Yeah. Your, what’s your grill or your table or, yeah, a little of all of it, I guess.

And, and if there’s, if there’s stuff that’s stacking up, I know I got a little bit, the grill’s a good indicator. Yeah. Grill’s a good indicator. Yeah. Unless it’s on, yeah, that’s slightly less accurate at that point. It’s not as accurate. That way the grills on, if you’re cuddle on the ground, then if you were grilling, not accurate at all.

So it’s interesting. I was just digging up this information. So of course there’s a difference between snowfall and snow depth. . So a lot of people don’t realize this, but snow is compressible. So if you have two 10 and a half inch snowfalls, it may only accumulate to 17 inches. Well, and you see that because they run  on the weather, right?

They run the snow depths. Right. And, you know, typically, you know, good snow depth and Bismark  on, on average, cuz they average it out  is eight to 12 inches. Cuz that’s good for the spring. Well we’ve got way more snow than that, but that’s the actual snow cover. Right. So I think this is where it really gets difficult too, because I’m thinking to myself, like right now, what, what have we had this year?

75 inches last I saw, we were on number nine. We were in the number nine position of all time snowfalls over a winter. Okay. Oh, for the entire winter. Yeah. I think we’re gonna get. Cracking the top five. Well, you know, with day, just a day and tomorrow and Thursday every day there’s an two or three or four snow in the forecast.

So, and, and now they’re talking depending on where it tracks the Colorado Lo for Friday into the weekend. I mean this is, this is crazy, but you know what it reminds me of? So I was in Grand Forks in 97. Yes. Except every weekend. We had a blizzard in 97. And actually here it was like every day we were pushing like one or two inches of snow.

That’s why we broke a record here. Cause it wasn’t like it was, we had some big storms, but it was like every day there was, see, I don’t mind every day, I don’t mind big snowfalls because it gives me an excuse to fire up the snowblower. Right. And go out and actually move snow where the one or two inches Yeah.

Is annoying. Do you enjoy it? Do you, yeah, it’s annoying. And then you gotta shovel because Yeah. That’s real annoying. Yeah. Well, and and you know, that’s where the yabo would come in handy. That’s true. That’s true. The yabo soon to be. If we have anything to say about it. Our show sponsor Yes. For the new tech Work Ranch that’s coming out.

Oh, I had a hard time saying that. The New Tech ranch that’s coming out at the end of this one, don’t stumble over that. I’m not going to, it’s gonna get me a yabo, you know, you know why that is? Cause I’m like, we’re on top of the town. We’re moving to the tech ranch, which yeah. Randy, are you excited about this?

I am. I can’t wait. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a brand new, brand New Tech Ranch coming out the end of this month. Fantastic. Actually, it’s the 1st of April first. Yeah. Yeah. So that’s Saturday, three hours show, not in April. Fools not, it’s be a three hour show. But anyway, getting back to the snowfall. Okay, so, so when you have 50 inches on the ground and you get another 10 or 12 or whatever we got over the weekend, I mean, how do you know, because it’s compressing, because there’s more weight of snow coming on this other snow that’s already sitting there.

So how do you know we got 10 or 10, 12 inches of snow? I mean, do they clear off an area? And then they have that clear all the time. So when the next snowfall comes, they can measure that, I would think. But then you have to factor in drifting and cuz the storm drift is much deeper. Right. And if you clear off an area that’s just basically a hole, it’s just gonna drift in and fill it all up anyway.

So because I have to clear off an area in my yard so my dogs have a place to go out and go to the bathroom. So it’ll blow that out. I don’t, they, they still don’t really have a great scientific way to measure snow, you know? I bet there’s a tech gadget that could help. There probably is, and we should probably invent this, but since 1890, put on the list everything else.

Yeah, right. We got a few other things that we need. We need something to reduce the nuisance factor of the snows. He’s on that. No Marlo’s working on that. I’m actually building something legitimately. There’s Are you really? Yes, I am. There’s a mock up in the works. No way. Wow. Unfortunately we could have really used what I’m working on.

Yeah, right. Now you’re a little late here, Marlo. Come on. Well, who, who would’ve thought that this dream that I have of this no removal machine that I’m creating would’ve been so perfect for this year, but, you know, oh, it takes time to build these. We could have Beed Beta tested that thing also. Oh, oh.

When wind, it’s got, it’s got to melt and remove at the same time to get the underlying ice.   well, you just, so I wanna give everything away, but you store the water until you can get it to a place that you can dump it out. So it’s the Zamboni is basically what Yeah, basically. Yeah. . Yeah. Basically. Right.

No, I’m serious though. That’s not named your airport. It’s, it’s not always the snow, it’s the underlying ice. That’s correct. Yeah. So you, that’s the real problem. So you, you, you, you tank it and then you drop it into  you. A event someplace. So anyway, that’s the way to go. You, you can’t let me give away all my secrets.

I’m sorry, but nobody knows how I’m heating this. We should’ve collaborated on this device. This, this is, well, we still can we still You want to? Yeah, you should talk about this. I’m working on the marketing side of this. It’s like, Snow. I’ve developed a new heating source. Yes. That’s what, that’s what fires this thing.

It’s not nuclear, by the way, , you knew what I was gonna say, didn’t you? . This is a way to get rid of the waste. It’s a, it’s, it’s a tiny reactor. . We’re just, we’re just using the waste plutonium. No big deal. Yeah, you can get that on eBay. Yeah. Eight bucks. Look at the rod. I got melted by Marlo’s. Love la Marlo’s.

Love  . Speaking of tanking, this segment’s gone tanking in a . It’s Tuesday Fox. It’s a squirrel day. It is bad enough that we have two people. Adhd. We got Randy. Randy in here. It’s even worse. I am. So, since 1890, the US Weather Service has relied on a network of volunteer observers. So there are 8,700 people across the.

With yard sticks, with yardstick, and they go, what did I say? You were right on. You were right on. That’s right. Well, and and the, the, if you listen to the weather every now and then, they’ll go, oh, national weather service, when we have them on with, when there’s weather, like, hey, send in your reports. Right, right.

That’s, that’s as scientific as the ground hug. That that is true. Yeah, that is true. So they have to do this on a daily basis though, so they have to do it at about the same time every day. And that’s how they’re able to keep track of what the actual snow depth is, and if there’s been any new snow on top of that.

Mm-hmm. . So that’s how it works. Now, how do they factor in the compression and, well, I suppose that every day when they don’t have drifting snow, I, I, they must take an average. That’s the only thing you have to run out before it compresses. Right, right. That’s the thing. E every day that we don’t have snow, and then there’s sun this winter, then there’s sunshine and all the other stuff that make all that happen.

So anyway, I’m just, I thought, I, I thought it was interesting to talk about that. We really don’t have anything more scientific than a yardstick yet. Just saying, Randy. There you go. I’m a big fan of the KISS principle though. Keep it simple. Simple. Keep it simple. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yardstick works. I think so too.

I mean, I don’t know how else reinvent the wheel. How else would you do it? I mean, it’s close enough. You don’t need it to the centimeter mill. They, they have these other things that they have, that they work with these, and, and they do have these areas that they actually clear, like we were just talking about for actual snow depth  or snowfall recording.

But I, I think the same thing is like we were just talking about is true. I mean, if you dig a hole out of what, how do you find a clear area that’s big enough that’s not gonna drift in right now? Yeah, it would be impossible here. Yeah. I mean, if there’s wind, all bets are off. Really. I mean, I have to snowball, blow whatever.

I have to remove snow . Obviously it’s Tuesday, like every morning right now in front of my garage door because it blows in every day. Yeah, yeah. Every day. There’s another bank right there, you know, there’s some science behind that. And that would be which direction to face your garage doors is when you build a home.

Yes. I never thought about this. Yes. Heard, but I’ve, I’ve been in this home for, you know, 20 years ago. And you want, do you want your windows automatically defrosted when the sun comes up in the morning or, good question. Southern facing. Southern facing. Well, you would want, well, southeast cuz you want the sun coming up in the east too, there.

So you don’t have to go auto start your car and defrost your windows and then you back into the driveway. Look at you. That sounds like a dream. I figured all this out. Do you, do you like the sun beating down on your deck in the evenings? No, for the sunset. O Okay, then you want your deck facing east. And I have to admit that, yeah, that that was one thing I did not think about When, when we have the house that we have now, drives me crazy that it can be 80 degrees outside.

But 125 on my deck. Yep. In the, had a good suntan. Oh my goodness. You, you can fix that. And my dermatologist confirmed that last week too, that I obviously get a lot of good Suntans. Yeah. . Yes. 

  we, we wanted to get back into  ces  talk a little bit about ces, cuz   you, well, I’ve been dropping all of Yes. Our interviews the last couple weeks now on the tech ranch.com, right? So if people want to go see these interviews, so there’s a couple really interesting ones and, and I really, you know, the thing I love about technology more than anything else is how it assists people.

And like the story with  we had About your mother. About my mom. Yeah. Right, right. Great, great story. And I look for those type of things. I mean, it changes humanity as we know it, but. , but it usually starts in a place where, you know, like you have somebody who’s bound to a wheelchair and then you add a motor to it, right?

I mean, that just gives them more mobility. I just saw over the weekend  it, it was   a mobility. It was a story about mobility with  somebody, I forget what she had.   she was a high school athlete and then wound up getting  some disease and to save her life they had to amputate her arms and legs and mobility device, right?

So the ability to take that vehicle off road into, cuz it’s track wheelchair,   to take that, they had to go through some legislation in the state that she was from. But it, it was fascinating story though, just on the equipment that was there to be able to facilitate her to enjoy the outdoors. You know, it’s just, it, it’s.

It levels the playing field is what it says. Yeah. That’s, I mean, everybody can, you know, you can even talk about how people who, I’m thinking how I could take that pheasant hunting, but that was me. Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, there’s a, there’s a, a robot. A robot. A robot. A robot. A robot.  a robot. By the way, iRobot was on this weekend again.

Really? Yeah. Apparently they’re playing the crap out of it. Interesting. Yeah. I am not familiar with this. Really? The Will Smith movie, iRobot. That’s that’s what I, robot not the vacuum cleaner. That’s what I was thinking. No, I’m not the vacuum cleaner. I’m thinking like iRobots like an old, it’s an old story.

Yeah. It’s like 15, 20 years ago. It’s old science fiction. Well, it, but it’s AI and Well, and that’s what’s interesting about it because they, they, they abide by those three rules.   there’s rules. Yeah. There are. Mm-hmm.  there on Tuesday. . That’s true. We’re still not done talking about snow icy. So anyway  the robot.

Not the eye robot. Not the eye robot. Not the robot. Yeah. But I could see the iRobot comparison.   this companion, so it looks like a, it’s like a cart, right? Yeah. I mean, something that you’d see that people would wheel around a little cleaning cart, right? Is what it looks like. Yep. But it’s a robot. It’s called the Labrador.

And this person invented this because you can put like a meal. Does it? Retrieve? It does retrieve. Okay. Hence the name. So, but you can put a meal on here and say, take it to room 4 32 and it would just take it to, in a hospital room or whatever.   just take that over to it. So it’s nothing fancy to look at.

So I know it was a golden retriever, but is it like Alex from St. Straus? I don’t the fridge and bring you a beer, but it can. Okay. Yes, yes. They have those things in restaurants. They do. And they’re becoming more and more popular all the time. Yeah. So have you seen one in a restaurant already or I’ve, I’ve seen on YouTube.

Okay. Which is my window on the world. . I’ve seen, I’ve actually seen somebody in a restaurant where the waiter was, A robot. Yeah. It gives an entirely new meaning to a. Yes. . Yes. . I like that. Because your olive cartt is, in fact, everything’s Olive Cartt . That’s funny. That’s great. But this thing is pretty, pretty cool.

You can see that there’s a tablet mounted to it. So, you know, you, you talk about the KISS method. Again, this is a very KISS type of robot right here. Very functional.   you could kiss k i s asked that Kissed Yes. Which is next door. Which yes. Did I say kissed? No, it, I’m just saying thank you. Why smelled cow this morning?

Oh, . That’s a good sign of spring, right? Yeah, spring. Yeah. Unfortunately it’s snowing outside. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, so I think that’s pretty cool. And you can check these out.   Labrador, they’re relatively inexpensive for what you get for this. Now, I don’t know what that means. It’s probably five or $10,000.

But for a robot that can do this type of work. But if you’re putting into a restaurant, oh my goodness. And you know, you take a look at someplace that has workforce issues, right?   and now the ability to, hey, you know, you’re. Sue waiter or Yeah. You know, go and drink order or, or even mean you touch the tablet for what your food order is.

Yeah. Or, or somebody that needs to clear off a table. Somebody can still clear off the table and put it in the tub, but no, the tub goes back to the kitchen by itself. Right. So that person can go and do something else. Well it’s, it’s, it’s about increasing efficiency. Right. It’s exactly right. And you don’t have to tip those as I Yeah, I was gonna ask.

That’s true as well. Yes. Don’t tip it over. They still expect 18% though. I’m, I’m sure when you go check out that the 25%, you know, I don’t know about you guys. I have to tell you, I, and I tip Well, I do too. I’ve always tipped very, very well. Yeah. I’ve been on that side, so I always tip well. Yeah. Yeah. It got ridiculous with Covid for some reason it hasn’t come back.

I, I’m, I’m really, really tired of like, when you go to like a buffet or whatever and there’s the 25%. Thing on the buffet. Mm-hmm. . What? Why, why do you expect I’ll leave a couple bucks on the table at a buffet? See, that’s the thing. That’s the thing. You, you leave for whoever to bust the table or, or to bring me drinks or whatever, right?

Yeah. But it’s the buffet. You go, it’s almost being like it’s expected now. Yeah. And I don’t, and I don’t know, I might be getting a little political here. I don’t know if it’s because they have these, these businesses have to figure out a way to pay their employees more because of inflation or what’s going on here.

But it just seems like it’s expected. Don’t pay outta the tip jar. Well, who’s making the money outta the tips then? Hopefully the server. Okay. That depends or, well, but, so I’ve worked in the bar side of things for a long time too, too. If you and servers will tip out the bartenders. But have you been to convenience the bar and have you seen this at a convenience store?

Tipping at a convenience store? Yes. See it everywhere. Everywhere. For my gas station hotdog? Yes. That’s Hell. No. Or, or, or the Diet Coke you just picked up. And you, and you go to pay and there’ll be a dollar, $2 or $3 suggested tip. Okay. So I was at Wda basketball this past weekend at the event center, $5 for a Coke prodding.

Right. They want a tip for that now too. I’m sure. Anybody a six pack for that . I understand. I’m just saying. Or I’m just, or a non, non, I don’t know, alcoholic beverage for I understand. I mean, I, I would be all for how do you pay your person more? I just don’t understand why it’s, it’s the tipping scenario.

Yeah. That just seems to be going everywhere. Well, for me, it comes back to customer service. I it, if I get, I, it’s like places that’ll put the gratuity in. And I hate that because you can have a good server or you can have a crappy server, right? Somebody is in a bad mood that day. Understandable. Just do your job, whatever.

But I’m not gonna tip you for being in a bad mood. I the person that gets that 25% tip, or sometimes 30 depending on  it’s because you get exceptional service and tell you what, and a server is an extension of the ambiance of going out. It’s like my wife goes, well, let’s go out to dinner. And then she’s like, well, why don’t you order a salad?

Because I don’t go out to eat to eat a salad. I can make that at home . Right, exactly right. I’m gonna have food. I’m gonna have a good meal in a good atmosphere. Yeah. At a good restaurant with good service and I’m gonna enjoy that. So do you think. And I know we’re running way over here now, but  give you, give everybody something to think about.

Do you think it’s because of technology, the ease of adding that one, two, or $3 thing in a convenience store that, that now technology is allowing this tipping to go on. 

 I always tip on service if, you know, I’ll give 10% minim  which, well, actually it’s more than that now. But  I would give 10% minimum. And then what your performance is increases what I tip if, if you’re their service, boom. The one thing that I cannot stand is, and this will, this will kill any tip anybody was ever gonna get.

  if I’m ready to go, cuz my time’s valuable. And you sit there and wait for the check. Oh yeah. I hate that too. I hate that. Yeah. That, that is the one thing that, so technology deal breaker. So has helped with that though too. I mean, a lot of these places now have you pay at the table. I was just, I was gonna say that.

Yeah. And I really like that a lot. I do too, actually. Yeah. You know, they’ll bring the check if you want, but they’ll have the little kiosk right there. You can just Yeah. You hit the pr. Yeah. How often The printers not work though. That’s the . Yeah. I haven’t sent to my email. Yeah, that’s even better. And carrying around to printout.

Yeah. So technology is helping in these scenarios, but, but this, you know, I I, I just, you go to the convenience store and I’m picking on Randy now a little bit here. Right. And the thing pops up a dollar, $2, $3, you know, and, and I don’t know if you know the psychology behind this, but because they do that, what do you think most people tap on?

Dollar. Almost 90% will tap on the tip. For a tip? Yes. If you get a dollar, $2 or a $3 choice, what do you, what does everybody tap on? Dollar? No, I tap cancel. Nope. . I don’t tip it. $3, $2, two. Oh really? I was close. I was all the way around it.  are they, but are like three options. And that was not You were wrong.

Yeah, I was wrong. Are they shamed into it, do you think? I, I wonder about that and I mm-hmm. , I fall into this too. I mean, and, and sometimes I’ll hit the council button, but if I’m greeted with a smile and they’re very pleasant to talk to, and maybe they’re a little helpful, I’ll, I guess sometimes I push the tip button.

I, I don’t know. I feel like I am getting shame down when I, I’m thinking about it. But there’s that, and you also, do you wanna donate to this? And do you wanna donate to that? You know, seeing that, do you wanna donate? Of course. Yeah. Grocery stores all the time. Yeah. That’s another thing. You know, the, the other one you wanna donate your change to St.

Jude’s or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Or McDonald’s. Ronald McDonald. How that feel bad if I say no? Well, but case those people around you. So that’s going into the other side of this too. So, So where that started, and it didn’t matter what it was, it was here hand an iPad and somebody, you know, you check out or whatever it  you could be at a craft show right.

And buy something and there’s a, it it was the iPad. Yes. The iPad had or whatever that pay through the iPad. Right. Like square or whatever. Yeah. Whatever it was. Yep. That had the option in it. Yes. And then you’re, the one thing that always went through my head was like, but if I push no tip, they’re gonna see that and think I’m a jerk.

Yeah. So you’re getting shamed into it. You’re getting shamed into it. You know, if somebody’s really given good service, they’ve worked hard. Yeah. You know, as you said, it’s part of the experience in a restaurant. I mean, the good, good, good or bad service can make or break the whole experience for you.   well there’s another side of that in, in the restaurant industry, but if I just bought a Coke at a convenience store and I’m checking out, I’m not gonna tip in that case.

Couple pennies. No, no. You’re already paying an inflated price for the Coke. Right. Most likely. Yeah. See, no, no offense to anybody, but it’s different server in a restaurant. They’re actually, I I always, they’re actually doing a lot more. Yeah. Right. Yeah. But, and, and, and there’s another side of the restaurant thing I’ll bring up in a second, but there’s always, you know, I if, if there’s a couple extra pennies or whatever or nickel, and I’ll leave that in that little jar.

I do that. I’ve done that, but I don’t consider that a tip. Take a penny. Borrow a penny. Right. Yeah. I’ll do that. That’s more like I’m paying forward tip. Right. You know. But the thing with the food industry though, is remember the movie Waiting You and your movie? Yeah. Well, never saw that movie. Never saw that movie.

Really? Really? Nope. Nope. Never Screw with the person who’s handling your food. Oh, well, yes. Well, that, that brings, that brings up a whole other subject. Other thing. Yeah. Make sure you take care of them well, yeah, because next time you go back to that a restaurant. Didn’t tip. Yeah. I’m like, h  . Yeah. Yeah.

And they remember you too. They do. Don’t, they don’t, don’t send anything back to the kitchen, is my rule. Yeah. Nope. Pretty much, right? Nope. Oh yeah. It, it’s rare, but it’s okay that I ordered it. Well done. I’ll, I’ll eat this , because you don’t wanna send it back. No, you never send food back. Yeah. That’s bad.

Yeah. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad idea. Yeah. Get it a go box, take it home, finish cooking if that’s what you wanna do. But I will say that, you know, getting back to the technology side of this, I think, well, that’s where we were. Well this is about technology today, right? And the tipping thing, I, I think, because when these people who are programming these things in, you know, I’ll pick on Square.

So Square will try to get you to do this because Square, it’s now a bigger transaction, right? They make percentage a little bit more. So if they can get 10% of their people to give you a $2 tip, you know, you have 200 customers a day coming through a convenience store. I’m just making up numbers here, but that’s $400 more that they get the charges or 2.75% on.

So they’re making more money. So they’re, they’re making this easy for the stores to include the tipping feature, and it’s not because they, they feel like the customer or that the  person’s given better. Yeah. The up upsell is they’re just making more money on it themselves. That’s what it boils down to.

So when you tip, I, I, I have to ask each one of you. So when you tip, because my wife and I have this argument all the time, she’ll put a flat number on it. And so if we’re out to dinner and the bill comes to 36, 27, I’ll round up to the 37 and then what I’m tipping. So I always give the change and that tipping.

So, right. So my final bill is a round number, right? She doesn’t do that. See, she’ll, she’ll just go, if it’s 36, 10 bucks, 27, and then she’ll just add $10 on it or whatever it is, and which is way over 10%. But  she’ll just add $10 on it. And then, so it’s the, I’m like, I don’t know, maybe it’s the.  a d, d and me, but I got a round, I gotta have an even number.

It’s gotta come to $50 or no, I just add a few bucks on. Okay. That’s all as change. I put a flat number on it. That’s I do too. Yeah. I have  because then you have to do the math. If, if you’re gonna round up, then you have to do the math. Yeah. And sometimes they have the number like 22%. Right? There’s $8 and 73 cents.

Yeah. But that’s never the same as me. So I have a full regular number. Right. Because for me, keeping my financials, it, it’s easier for me to, oh, hey, it was $40 or $50, or whatever it was. Yeah. Instead of,  and 12 cents. I actually, because I have, you know, because of technology now I the roundup that goes, or I have a system called  acorns.

Have you, are you with Acorns? I’ve heard of it, yeah. So Acorns is an app on your phone and where you save and you can save with this and it takes the money that, you know, like, so if the bill was $4 and 32 cents, it’ll take the difference from 4 32 to $5 and put that in your savings account. Right. It, it’s, it’s a digital change jar, basically what it is.

Right. Because my wife and I had a change jar. She’s like, you don’t put anything in it. I don’t, I don’t use cash. You’ll be stunned. I’ll show you at the break here how much money I have saved because of that. Really just rounding up your change. Stunning. See, I used to do that back before the credit card.

Yes. In my, and I used to have just delta sky miles things of change everywhere, right? Yeah. Yeah. And it’s like, hey, we’re good on a vacation. Go cash in the change jar. Yep. I had 700 and some odd dollars in me one time. Yeah, yeah. It’s stunning how much then I’d always throw a few bills in too if I, so I was told that if you tip cash.

The server gets it. Yes. If you don’t, everybody gets it. It depends on what the restaurant is. Suppose so I always leave cash. Yeah. Because I want my server Yeah. To get the benefit of this tip. See, and I use cards mostly, so I don’t, but my wife likes paying with cash, so I’ll pay the bill. Yeah. With, with  credit card.

Yeah. But I will leave tip cash, I will tip in cash for that reason. Well, and, and you don’t know the restaurant or the bar or the true, and I don’t know if anybody’s really getting, really getting this. You know, I don’t know if, if they’re getting the tip, if I leave it on the card, I don’t know if they’re getting it.

Some places, some places, co-man the tip, if I hand it to the server, , you know, for a fact then different story. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, is the bus person getting that cash though? Because I always make sure I hand right that cash to my server Exactly. With my bill if it’s credit card or, or my wife will pick up the, the tip side of it, but I always make sure they get it.

Because you don’t know if the bus person is gonna Right. Put it in. Yeah. That’s what I do too. But a lot of places you walk into you don’t know, is like if they commingle tips or if they don’t. So, so, welcome. Tipping advice from three old guys.

 So    devices and prosthetics is where we were supposed to be going with this. Yes, yes. Because you had an opportunity to, to see a really cool $6 million man stuff. Yeah. Like feel things and nerves that work. Yeah. And in a prosthetic.

And oh, by the way  it slices, dices and, and julianne’s as well.   pretty amazing stuff because you were holding a board and they sliced right through the board. Yeah. Just wack. Done. Well, here’s the picture right here. Yeah. So I pulled this from the video and you can just see at that exact moment that he, for those of you at home, if you pull up the tech ranch.

Yeah. If you go to the tech ranch, you can see the video. It’s pretty cool.   revolutionizing  prosthetics, how scis advanced technologies changing lives. Right. So this arm, so this gentleman, his name is Patrick, lost his arm rectal below his elbow. . And so this prosthetic is attached to his arm. And this is like, like you said, $6 million man type of stuff.

So as a demonstration, I’m on the tech ranch stage at cs and I’m holding this board. And like I was telling Randy in the break here, I was more concerned about were you standing in a puddle? Oh my goodness. , I would be, it’s close, close. You’re brave. And I’m holding this board and all I can think about is if he’s off by like an inch or two, my finger is gonna be part of this thing, you know?

So, but he just kicks aesthetic? No. Whether or not it would be an off an inch or, no, I don’t. I mean, or is that up to him? That’s up to him. Because what’s interesting is that this is attached to his nerves and he’s thinking, so, you know, and, and there’s another, if you watch the video, you know what he was.

that I don’t take Mar’s fingers off . That’s probably what he was thinking, right? . But  yeah, it was, it was a very interesting experience. And you know, he talks, you know, it’s very emotional when you, when you visit with this guy because. He’s able to feel his daughter’s hand Yeah. As she’s grabbing this prosthetic.

That seems incredible to me. And, and,   the doctor who’s developing this stuff, he’s a very young, dynamic doctor. And by the way, if you wanna invest in this company, get all his fingers. Right. Not like the old shop teacher that Yes. Came up with this. Yes, he does. Yeah. Tips of a couple fingers weren’t missing.

  they, they are actually  crowdfunding right now. Really? Yeah. So, and I just, I looked yesterday  a million dollars and they’re like 70,000 short after just a couple days. You and I were talking about this  before and, you know, I referenced the $6 million Man and just to a certain point, and, and technology either A, gets cheaper or b gets more expensive.

Right.   as it develops gen generally cheaper or better. More to this. Well, because getting better usually costs more money. Yes. So it it not like a tv.   this. , you were telling me the prices on this. It’s, it’s like, wow. Yeah. An affordable option for it is somebody that, because you think of somebody who’s got a prosthetic where it’s either a fake hand or it might be a pincher or you know, where they’re working off the muscles and, and the nerves or a hook or things like that for somebody that loses an arm.

This is a fully functioning is, we’re, we’re talking Luke Skywalker after he lost his hand to the lightsaber kind of stuff. The only, the only thing that’s really missing is having like the skin graph over the top of it. Yeah. And, and quite frankly, that’s not far away. I don’t think that’s how far that is that far away.

And because they’re printing skin with 3D printers right now. Right. Well, and I was just reading an article I told you about  earlier this morning  about some of the healing properties of building,   the protein base so that you can heal things from the inside out. Right. Well, when you start looking at, okay, how do you manufacture and layer on skin.

which is your largest organ, then? We’re close. We’re really close. Yeah. So this is really, really interesting where this is all going, but it’s, it’s exciting.   this same gentleman I was talking to, figures that paralysis, especially by injury, will probably not exist in five or 10 years. Spinal cord injuries.

Yes. And that’s what we think about. People get spinal cord injuries, whether it’s an athletics or an accident of some sort or, and what this slip and, and fall on the ice because your thing didn’t suck up the ice for Randy. Right? Yeah. So between, you know, when, when you have a spinal cord injury, generally it’s a communication issue, right.

You know, you broke, you severed the link that communicates rest of the body. Correct. So now what they have done is it’s almost like a Bluetooth device where they put it on both sides of the vertebrae and where the brake is at will we’ll communicate to the other side of the brake. Wow. Wireless. It’s amazing.

It’s amazing. Yeah. Just amazing. And this is being done now. Yeah. So when this, when this becomes widespread, I mean people, and I don’t know what this is gonna cost, but it’s, it’s, it’s again life changing for people, you know, and the families around these people, you know. So,   it’s incredible what’s going on right now in the, I mean, I’m just looking at, you know, our good friend Dave Blair had had    emergency surgery to get his gallbladder out.

Long story how he ends up in Fargo with this thing. But he was showing me yesterday, you know, what used to be a slice across the stomach is now like five little, he’s got five little Yeah. Robotic surgery. Yeah. He’s gonna say that he got five little spots, five little band-aids on his stomach. That’s it.

It’s so arthroscopic now. Yeah. And they, it’s unbelievable what’s going in a few years they’ll just put in this protein that’s gonna fix his gallbladder. Right, exactly. Yeah. . It’s crazy. Wow. Crazy. What’s going on? Unbelievable stuff out there.

Randy? Randy, are you staying with us or no? I’m gonna move on You. Okay. Nice talking about this guy too. He, he’s had enough with tips for the day.

. Oh my goodness. Whi Whi. Which brings us up to an interesting conversation . Yeah. Because we were gonna talk about 3D printing.

Yes. And, and the robotics evolved with 3D printing and   It’s pretty fascinating avenues you can go down because there’s really no limitations. I’m printing birdhouses right now. Are you? Yeah, I am. Are they rent houses or are they full Sparrow robin. So I have Martin Martins, so there’s, I’ve only done how big’s the hole?

Marlow Barn Swallow one. One. All right. And Chicky on the other. But, but there are, in, in the designs that I have, they’re up to six. Really? I always considered you a Nutha guy. I seen a robin the other day. Did you? I fell over when I seen this, Robin. I’m like, I think your GPS is wrong. Just saying, or at least the internal clock.

The, the calendar’s a little messed up. Well, they’re probably, I was really surprised to see it. I don’t know why a robin was little, early bouncing around, but yeah. All right. You know it’s funny though, when, when they do come up, And you got all the snow on the ground. It is kind of funny because their biggest food source is berries from last year.

Yes. Which tend to be a little fermented. Yes. Which tend to have a little bit of an alcohol content in it. I’ve seen drunk Robbins Park trying to fly around. It’s hilarious. . And they usually get more than one after one or two of ’em. They, they like communicate, Hey, it’s good over here. He’s over here . And you see all these robins start congregating in that yard.

You know that yard? Yes. That yard. Yeah. That’s so 3D printing. It’s

this visual Now in my head, I’m not gonna get rid of am I? Nope.   so 3D printing and, and you were, I were talking about the different uses for 3D printing and, and there’s some pretty fascinating improvements that are moving forward on workable 3D printers. Right. Besides, besides making your birdhouse birdhouses.

Yeah. But I think that even, even the birdhouse thing, I mean, people think that you just make these cute little widgets and tchotchkes out of ’em. Right. Oh, that’s, That’s such a cute little Yoda or, or whatever. I mean this what, this is what you usually see. You don’t see the practical side of 3D printing a lot of times.

And, and now I think we’re really starting to see more and more and more, well they use uses, well they use 3D printing, robotics for some construction material stuff. So they’ll make bricks and they’ll make different concrete blocks. Yeah. And different things like that. And that you had, I was talking to a friend of mine about the opportunity.

It’s like, oh  we got a lot of snow this year and there could be some flooding opportunities. How long would it take to set it up on a levy and build a a dyke? You know, it it, or you mentioned sandbagging. Yeah, too. You could do 3D robots, printing robot, sandbaggers,  and

Teo. We, we sandbagger record your breaks too. We should, people should just listen. They should just come in here. If you’re thinking about a, if you’re an entrepreneur looking for a new idea, you should just sit in here sometime, because we bounce about a hundred ideas every Tuesday here. I’m just telling you.

It’s crazy, crazy stuff, folks. It is.   so anyway, going back to the, the, the 3D printing stuff, they’ve made some pretty fascinating improvements. But, you know, the practical side of things that people don’t think about too is they’re 3D printing, medical devices, 3D printing  heart valves there. There’s a whole bunch of different things that they’re experimenting with printing that work well.

And, and what’s interesting about that  when you get in the medical space is that. , like if you have a, a hip replacement, right? There’s like, I don’t know how many sizes they make, but let’s just say there’s three, right? Okay. Maybe there’s five or six or 10. I don’t know the answer to that, but there’s a, a finite number, right?

Mm-hmm.  that they make, right? And they take the one that’s just closest to you and they make it fit. Right? Right. Now, imagine chiseling here, little Deming there. That’s exactly what goes on. It really is true. That’s exactly what goes on. Imagine if you could just be scanned one day and then the next day your hip is ready to go to the exact ME measurements of what you are.

Yeah. Minus the bone spurs and the arthritis. Right? And the other stuff that, but this is what we’re talking about here, is that ability.   with 3D printers to create these things, you know, medically well, and, and for a lot of people with hip issues, you know, there might be a, a problem with the alignment of the socket or something like that, that caused that.

They can correct that too. So they can take that identical hip and then recreate it and then fix that alignment issue in the process too. So, and like you said, get rid of the arthritis or whatever else is going well. So then you start talking about, okay, like for a hip, for example,   you, you only have a, a certain lifespan with that, not at least with hips, they can realign them, so it’s not like they have to replace the whole thing.

  they just put a new liner in and, and works again. Great. Not like shoulders or  shoulders don’t work like that. Right. Trust me. I know. Yes.   but if you have the ability to 3D print something like that, so it is an identical match. It’s gonna wear better, it’s gonna last longer, I think. I think the advances in this space is, is amazing.

  and the other thing is housing. , this is where I think it really gets interesting is, is not, not that medical isn’t interesting enough because that 3D print houses. Yeah. Well, and that was some of the construction stuff that I was talking about too. Yeah. I mean, but, but there, there’s actual 3D printers with a cement mixture  that are actually printing full houses.

And this has been going on for a couple years already, and now it’s gonna starting to get approved in certain states.   like Florida for example, has just approved the, not just tiny houses. Not just tiny houses anymore. And, and you’re gonna start seeing h significant proof. Well, they are hurricane proof, they’re cement.

So the big bad wolf. Beautiful and puff. And it’s not going anywhere. No. And and   what’s amazing about these things too is that they actually  print your plumbing. They print your electrical, all this stuff happens at the same time. See, that’s the crazy stuff for me. It’s like, because you go in, you get the plumbing, the electrical, everything that goes into the different aspects of building a home.

And it goes in phases. Yep. And. To do it all at once. Yeah. I mean, logistically trying to figure out how to get crews in to do that without people stepping over each other. Nope. Just have that machine do it. So basically what happens at the end of this is you just have people who will come in and finish your house, you know, any, any cabinets and all that other stuff that have to be done.

But generally speaking, houses are printed in a week. Whoa. So that’s not terrible. I mean, you, you can show up one day and start and a week later you’re working on the finishing of your house. You know, I, I don’t know how long it takes to cure. I mean, I suppose different cements take different types of, right.

It depends. Cure or whatever product is  and they’re beautiful. And the thing is, is now you’re not just, if you can design it on a computer, you know, if you have an idea, if you want, if you want a, a, a house that’s shaped like half a moon because you, or, or a full moon or, or a star, Or you’re the logo of your business.

I mean, you could do these things. You could live in that you, and you could live in that, right? I don’t know. I don’t know who would, would want the logo of my business that the problem is the resale valuator on. Well, yeah, you might have run into an issue there, but if it didn’t cost you is because that’s the other part.

It comes into cost’s. That’s the other thing is that they’re half the price materials and labor. Okay. You just got rid of the, part of the labor part of that. A 3D printed house right now is running about 50% of a stick-built house. Really? So, so this is, and this is the thing, concrete house. Yes. This is a concrete house.

This is the thing that I think people like of yours and my age right now, are gonna be faced with in probably five or 10 years is, are the values of our homes gonna depreciate a little bit because. The interest in just building new homes because, you know, a home that costs $400,000 can now be built for $200,000, right?

So obviously there’ll be land costs and everything else. So maybe it equalizes out. I don’t know. But what’ll happen, in my opinion, well, depends on what type of home you want as well. Do you want a 3D printed home or do you want a, a regular? Because what, what I’m thinking of 

if you have, and I’m just, I’m picking on me personally. I’m gonna guess that my house is probably worth $400,000. I don’t know. I mean, I’ve never had it. I’ve lived in it for 20 years. It’s gone up some value and that some of the houses around me have sold for that. Right. So if, if I was coming into the market and I liked like the size of our house and that type of thing  and I could get it printed for $200,000, would I do that?

Well, think about it this way too. So say you have to move and you have to move to a different city, but you really, really liked your house. Replicate it. That’s true. You could do that. Right? I love that. Or, or how many people get into a house or, or build a house and you don’t know what you don’t know until after you’re living in the house and goes, oh, I love this house.

Just I wish we had an extra bathroom. Or, yeah. There was one other thing. A little different Yep. That, that you would do different if you were to build again.  and y you have that opportunity. You do have that opportunity. I, I love that house except for Yes. And then fix that. Yes.   but what I think it really gets interesting for like you and I  moving forward, cuz this is gonna become reality.

It already is reality in some parts of the country, it’s gonna become reality here as well.   so you have to be thinking about, you know, like you’re, like your retirement, I mean, is, is part of your retirement built into your house? A lot of people is right. We talk about that every Thursday with Joe Sheehan Benchmark Mortgage.

So if that’s the case and all of a sudden, you know, if you can build a 3D printed house for half the price of what your house is valued at right now, does that mean that the value of your house is gonna start to depreciate because the people who are coming into the housing market are now able to buy houses for less money than they can buy your house for.

So if this is going to happen in five or 10 years, and do, do you think about starting to sell your house now and doing something different? This is, and I don’t mean to get into the financial side of things. , but I think it’s something to think about. But the point is, this is where technology changes the landscape.

It changes the landscape else. So, you know, but it, it, it could go the other way too, because you might have people who couldn’t normally afford to get into houses that now cuz they’re renting or whatever, but because they’re half the price of what they used to be or so that explodes that market. Right.

Or like in the Bismarck, Mandan area, there’s just, we can’t build houses fast enough. Right. There’s not enough inventory. Right. So you take a look at a, a growing population like a in Texas or a Florida or some of these states where there’s a lot of migration into that state and they have serious housing issues.

We have housing issues here. We can’t build enough houses for the population, which means there’s no inventory which inflates the price. Well if you have the ability. Increase that inventory with different options for different people, then you’ve just changed that landscape as well. So when you’re in an area where housing is at a premium because of shortages and you can make up that shortage, so now you can go mass produce neighborhoods or, so that change there is a huge paradigm shift coming.

Coming. And so, so I’m so fascinated with this that I’ve actually looked into what it would take to bring these to North Dakota to start printing houses up here. And what would you think it would cost? So the, the company I was looking at that I really like  has three different 3d,   Printed models.

Three, three different sizes of, and each one of ’em will print up to a certain size of a house. So a six, you’re kind of a tiny house guy to me, I’m thinking. Yeah. Yeah. You can just see that by looking at me. That’s the side, change your mind, right? Yeah. . So the machine that, that will build a 6,000 square foot house, what do you think that would cost for the machine?

Square foot house is a huge house, so it’ll do smaller of course. But you, but, but the reason I looked at that is because small offices or offices, or even a small restaurant or something, this would, I guess 6,000 feet is a small, small restaurant. You know, think about the other way too is, is you know, from a business perspective for offices Yes.

Or restaurants, because one of the things, like a lot of the big chains, they.   precast and then manufacturer. That’s correct. They’ll just, it’s an erector set. Yes. So you take a look at a Costco that came in, or a Sam’s Club or, yes.   if there was a new McDonald’s, they’re already built somewhere else.

Imagine they didn’t have to, if they didn’t have to build and ship them, if they could just send the plans. Now you’re taking the shipping out of it. Now you take the shipping out of it. All you’re doing is shipping raw product. Yeah. Send machine, raw product and Yeah. That can be sourced locally and the way you go.

Yeah. But, but a lot of that stuff’s pre-manufactured, you know? Yeah.   so 6,000 square foot house, I a million dollars. So you’re right on the money, believe it or not. So the machine to build a 6 million or 6,000 square foot house cost a million dollars. And I can do that every week. And I’m thinking the overhead, because okay, the machine costs a million dollars and how many houses can I crank out in one a week?

So in a building, in a building season here, which is 30 or 35 weeks, right? Yeah. Yeah. So you can, you can crank out 30, 35 houses with a million dollars and run that with two or three people. And if you were gonna put the pieces together so you could 3D print walls, basements, things like that. Yes. And then, okay.

So that’s what you can do during the rest of the season. You can’t work outside. So you have the ability to continue to manufacture during the winter months? Yes. Wow. So for a million dollars, cause of 6,000 square foot houses pushing a million dollars new construction. Oh, I would have to. Yeah. So, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I, the numbers really work out. Why you not have that here already? I don’t know, because I’m busy, you know, doing tv, trying to make shows and radio, snow go away and stuff. Yeah. Yabo, man, I tell you Yabo. I agree. We’ll take care of it. All ya, come on, come on Yabo. Yeah. Future show sponsor.   I just wanna demo and, and then, you know, even, even Bridges, have you seen, that’d be like the cat video on YouTube.

Have you seen these robots making bridges? Yeah, actually I have, this is incredible. I mean, there’s one on, one on each side, right? And they construct the bridge as it moves along. Mm-hmm.  until they meet in the middle. Well, now think of this from a practical standpoint. Unbelievable. You know, there’s, look at the trillions of dollars that are being spent going into infrastructure in this country and we know most of that’s going to get fart in the wind and not come to fruition.

But if you can, cuz bridges are horrible in this country. Yep. From all reports. So if you’ve got a couple robots at a much lower cost building bridges than that are quality and Yep. Yeah. That’s.  and, and get, and they get done. They, they don’t stop working. Yeah. At two in the morning. They just keep going.

They get done . So , I mean, you lower the cost. I mean, there’s just all kinds, there’s, you know, the cost of building bridges is just extravagant. Right, right. I mean, you know, I’m, there’s been talking many different times about putting additional bridges across the Missouri River here, for example. Right.   if that could be, if that cost could be lowered,   you know, if it’s low enough to, well, we had that opportunity of walking up Bridge Norths, but that kinda got screwed up so prior to, but there’s all kinds of places that would love to have a bridge, but because of cost, it doesn’t happen.

So you remember the movie, the Bridge on the River Quai? Right. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it. Okay. So this last week I went, so military, world War ii, Japanese building this bridge. Yeah. Using slave labor from prisoners of war. And I was watching a documentary last week on.  that railroad, and they found the actual bridge on the river quoi, which there’s nothing really left of it anymore.

The the one from the movie that they were kind of  basing the movie around, but the engineering that went into building that railroad and spanning this ravine and that ravine, and then the rivers. And because you’re in Burma and it’s tropical and a building for the monsoon seasons. It, it was fascinating.

Absolutely fascinating. But you got a couple robots that can do that in a week. Yep. Now you, you brought up movies. I have to talk about this. A movie. Your movie references are driving me crazy. But it it, it’s true. If it’s in a sci-fi movie from 30 years ago, guess what? We’ve got it today. Yeah. It, it’s for the most part. For the most part. Yeah.   you saw a movie recently? I did. And  I’m a big fan of Daniel Balinsky and what he’s doing here in the, and I’m a big history guy, so I, this is fascinating to me.

So I was involved  need get damn back on. I had him on a long time. Yeah. I need, and then we, you should get him back on on now that the movie’s out. Right? Well, it’s about ready to be released March 24th. End of the rope.   I was able to see this movie. They had a special screening of the movie about a month ago.

Cuz there’s, there’s been a little bit of a move on to try to get legislature here in North Dakota to.  some, the film industry a little bit somehow, or not with tourism, you know? Cause a lot of states, a lot of states will have a, it’s called the tax credit. Yeah. It’s, but it’s part of their tourism department.

Yes. And it’s for movie making so that you can have more movies made here. And I didn’t realize how big of an issue this was until now that I’m in this industry a little bit. And  I would love nothing more than to film the, the upcoming TV show that I have. And then, and then there’s a movie that we are working on as well.

Well, Fargo, when, when the movie Fargo, which a lot of that was filmed up by Grafton. Yeah. Well, and, and, and north  west of Grand Forks. Right in, in that area there. Ironic. Well, so in the movie, every time you see a long, straight road Yes. That with no trees and it’s wind blown. Guess what not. Brainard, Minnesota  that was filmed in North Dakota, the elevator.

Film the North, North Dakota. Yeah. Ironically though, that year we didn’t have any snow. Yes. They had that they had to truck snow down from Canada, the movie, and they, and they were chasing it north Yes. When they were trying, because every day it was warming up and Yeah. I remember the stories of them chasing north all the time.

Yeah. Yeah. I had a few friends that were extras in the movie and Yeah. Yeah. I was . But anyway, I think, I think we could have a great movie industry or a film industry here if, if we could figure out a way to get legislature to, to figure out a tax credit scenario. Well, they’re looking to spend a bunch of money on commerce  or through commerce for tourism.

Yeah. Because they really want to help promote tourism. And I’ve always looked at tourism as, you know, that’s our other leg of the stool here in North Dakota.   it’s, it’s agriculture, it’s energy. We don’t have a whole lot of manufacturing, but now they get the infrastructure for that. And then it’s tourism.

Right. Tourism’s the other piece Right. That we have to have in North Dakota to be viable financially. So I think that the movie industry could really make a big impact on that. But we have a long ways to go to make that happen. Daniel Belinsky for whatever reason. Yeah. Why should Montana have a train station?

And we don’t, you know? That’s right. Yeah, that’s right. And you look what’s happened with Yellowstone and, and, and the amount of times that they even talk about, well, you can go back to dances of the Wolves. Yes. And in fact, that hat on South Dakota, I forget the Kevin Costner movie that came out a few years ago and it was dark, dark, dark, dark.

  and it was about a granddaughter who wound up getting kidnapped back to this weird fa there was a North Dakota pretty solid North Dakota reference in that. Okay. And why couldn’t you have just filmed that here instead of somewhere else? Right. But the, the challenge is, is that, you know, like Georgia.

  Vancouver  they have these amazing tax credits. So these companies go there, New Mexico, and they film because of those tax credits. Yeah. And I, I, I’m not one who, who should say that that government should get involved in industry at any point, but we’re at a point now where government is involved in business and industry too much too.

And they, and they’re, and, and companies are actually choosing to go places because of bids that they get back from cities and states on the, you know, the grant that they can get third or whatever, whatever. I, a lot of filming that goes on in Portland, Oregon. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway  I think that would be great, but for whatever reason, Daniel Balinski believes in this state and, and continues to make his movies here with no help at all.

You know, Josh Doel could do another Transformers from North Dakota. Yes, he could. Yeah. And I shouldn’t say that He doesn’t get any help. I think he got a little help with this movie End of the Rope with some grant from tourism, by the way. Right. Yeah. There, there was, there was some help there. Yeah. But. Is it enough now?

We’re looking at a different situation too, where we’re not talking about a big  movie office that we’re talking about. A smaller private producer. Yes. Making a movie too there. Yeah. There’s a difference there as well. There is, these are, these are not, you know, big money type of productions and, and the cool thing about shooting in North Dakota is that it’s easy to get volunteers to do things for you and, and   can it be an extreme, my movie?

Yeah, sure. Yeah, sure. Why not? It’d be just cool. Right? Let me see. Yeah, I’m free that weekend, , but that’s kinda what happens, right? Yeah. So anyway, but this movie I think is fantastic. End of the rope. You can go to their website right now. I think it’s March 24th is the premier up in Watford City, because that’s kind of the general area takes place.

  Schaffer, North Dakota. Yeah, north Dakota’s the last lynching. Yes. That’s what this story is about. And, and   I I was watching the audience dynamic probably more than the movie. Well, you’re like me though. You’re a, you’re a people watcher. Yeah. And I, you like seeing what people and crowds do well in, in, in this in instance, I just wanted to see, you know, our people cuz it’s a longer movie too.

I mean it’s, is it two hours and 40 minutes? I think it’s a longer movie. And there was an audible moan from the crowd when he announced that it was like two hours and 40 minutes. Cuz these, these are legislators that are watching this and I’m sure they were like, I don’t have time for this. But   as I was watching people and it’s a slow burn type of movie and you start to figure things out, think why me?

and, and, you know, and, and these crazy things that are going on.   see, I like movies like that I do too. Make me use my brain Yes. That are methodical. Yes. Now, and I could tell about halfway through, most of the audience was sitting on the edge of their seat. They weren’t, they weren’t leaning back in those nice chairs at the Grand Theater.

They were on the edge of their seats. And I’m like, oh, he’s got something. It’s really, really fun to watch this movie and  the historical aspect of it too, I think is, is amazing. So, yeah. So go check this out. End of the rope.   I think it’s just end of the rope.com and you can buy your tickets in advance for the premiere up in Watford City.

And then I think in April’s here, did he do the, the Sundance or Con or any of the, or some of the other smaller film festivals around? So this one is going to the Minneapolis Film Festival. Okay. I don’t know if that’s gone on already, but it, it’s either now or has just just recently gone on.   and I know it was being sent over there and he’s, you know, he’s the person behind Sanctified as well.

Right.   which I thought was, you haven’t seen Sanctified. It’s a great movie too. Phenomenal movie. Yeah. Yeah. All done here in North Dakota. Yeah. So great storytelling. You know, the other side of that too is, you know, when you start looking at some of the notoriety, cuz everybody knows Khan or, or Sundance, and I’m going there by the way.

To Khan or Sundance? Khan Festival over in France. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Not to the film festival. They have a A tv. Are you bringing the movie then you could premiere? Yeah, I could do that. Good. I’ll just talk to see how you’re going over there. Talk to Daniel like, Hey, I’ll bring it over there for you.

Yeah, no problem. Well, because that’s where a lot of films that don’t get recognition, and I think we’re in a window right now because of. , you know, COVID and how the movie industry’s changed. And you take a look at the streaming services and, and where things are discovered in some of these big studios.

They’re looking at smaller budget, smaller productions just to fill up their roster because they’re not able to put these big budget projects together, which is what’s gone on with Sanctified, by the way. Right. Sanctified is gonna be on a streaming service here pretty shortly. Yeah. So I’m, maybe I shouldn’t have let that out of the way.

Well, but in, and we won’t say which one. Yeah.   there you go. But from a content perspec, they’re looking at different content or any content. You take a look at some of the bigger actors that are, have signed on with these streaming services for, um  a run of a series, or they’re, it’s almost like a vignette.

Yep.   the way they’re building some of the movies now. Um  what’s his name? McClain.   Bruce Willis? Yes.   before, so he knew something was going on with his mental status before you, you, I was wondering about that because you cranked out like seven movies to his boat. It was crazy. Yeah. With his, like, with the streaming service.

Why, why is he in these movies? Even they fast tracked. Oh yeah. All of that. He’s got seven movies in a year. Done. It was crazy. Yeah. Yeah. But, but he knew that he was not gonna be able to make movies in the future. So did the, you know, agents and everything up. So they cranked out all these movies. They have that ability to do that now.

Yeah. Which didn’t exist. I mean, you take a look at an     an actor or an actress that would do. One project every couple years, or you know, the ones that were young and hungry, not getting the big paychecks right. Might make two a year in some smaller roles just to, for that paycheck. Well then you, it’s all changed.

It’s all changed. Then you get an attack with the likeness of things and I think that’s a great place to stop. We were going someplace with all of this. 

 I used to go to every  single movie. And if it was good, I’d see it two or three times. My Saturday mornings was, I’d walk  down the street to the local theater that was, well, I remember when it was a quarter, but then it was a dollar and it had second run movies and watch the movie and boom.

Done. Yeah. And, and going to when the, when the Cine Plexus started to open with three and then five and then seven. I mean, I’m like, oh, I could go to a movie every night of the week now. Which a lot of times I did. You know, I got a friend of mine that  well, we used to go to movies with him and his significant other, and   and he would movie Geek, I mean, absolute movie geek to the point where he wouldn’t go to a movie at the grand, depending on which theater it was in because Oh yes.

That doesn’t have the big screen. Yes. That doesn’t have the comfortable suits that way. That doesn’t this, it’s like, who knows this stuff? Yeah. Yeah. I was that way one time too, but, but to technology with this now. Right. Are there movies. That would not be the same without a particular character.

Absolutely. Yeah. We were just talking during the break. What would that be for you? So Harrison Ford and Raiders of the Lot Stark. Okay. Or, you know, die Hard with Bruce Willis. Right. Or, well, okay. So I still have this in my crop about Major League, which I liked Major League, but Major League two was horrible because they tried to replace Wesley Snipes with Yes.

It’s baseball. Yeah. So we got traded. Big deal. Bring in a different character. Oh no, they tried to have, you can’t do that without, right. Willie Mae Hayes. Right, right. Slapshot, yes. It’s handsome. Others. Yeah. There, there’s movies though. Darth Vader. It’s the franchise. Yeah. You know, you’re not, you’re gonna have to have a hamel to do Skywalker.

Right. So these characters, like in Star Wars is a great example of this. So James Earl Jones, who’s still alive by the way, actually penned a deal with Disney.   so that he will always be the voice of. . Darth Vader. Darth Vader. Because with AI you can That’s correct. So create that voice. So, so he now will always be the voice of Darth Vader.

And there’s royalties paid to that, of course. Just like if of course you’re acting or, yes, yes. But that’s the, that’s the deal. And Harrison Ford could probably do the same thing with Lou Raiders of the last arc. Now,   you know, and I think about between AI and stock footage, it’s easy now. Well, AI especially, I mean, you know, and, and the ability to make these characters.

In fact  princess Leia and the, and the last Star Wars, that was a major thing. She had, you know, Carrie Fisher passed, passed away, passed away. They just, they just her film with her. Yeah. It’s just amazing. What’s, what’s going on in that,  what? But what was really interesting is like with the James Earl Jones scenario is that James is still alive and Penn this deal, usually you have to pass away and then the estate makes some type of deal, whatever.

Now these people, now these people are, are actually penning these deals while they’re still around.   and I think that’s very, very interesting. What’s the likeness of you gonna be like, Ugh, , just, just think of your ability to have talk of the town on the air in 2084. But my question is, it goes back to that old commercial.

Is it live or is it Memorex? Yeah. So as a fan of a franchise, a movie franchise, is there something, and I think this is where they have to be careful on the marketing side of this, is, okay, I enjoy a franchise and am I okay with it being digitally created? And not having that actor that I like in there.

Is that okay? Am I okay with that? Because it, there’s a little line that Well, but that’s not real right? Because it’s not that actor. Right. You know it. So I, I was at the  there’s a, there, there’s a touchpoint there. Well, so the Whitney Houston,   3D experience. 3D experience, right. Or,   holographic experience, I should say.

Right. So I went to, I think I talked to you about this a few months ago.   if they hadn’t, I thought it was really good. I mean, it, it’s her as a holograph or hologram, or whatever you want to call it, I guess. Holograph. Hologram. Yeah, hologram. Okay.   and you know, they got, they have live singers with her.

They have a live band with her. I mean, everything else is live except for her. If they would’ve just left her on the stage in between songs.  to me have been realistic, but at the end of like a song she’d, she’d disappear in a sparkle, for example, and then she’d reappear for the next song in a different outfit or whatever, which is cool.

Well, we all know that diva artists, it’s all about the set change. Yes. But to me, having her stay on stage in between the songs to maybe share a little bit about her life or whatever, and then going to the different thing or different song would’ve been much more realistic to me. You know, all of a sudden she’s just off in this wisp of sparkles and it, it took me out of the moment because now I do realize that she’s not there.

So it was just this abrupt thing, like you’re getting into the song, it’s about the immersion for you for the experience. It is the immersion for the experience. So, so you’re talking about the same thing with with movies and things. To me it’s the same scenario. So is that a que my wife, we fight on movies and shows and things like this all the time.

Fight. Yeah. I, I’m like, if I’m gonna start watching something, I want to finish it. And she’s like, oh, pause it there, because I’m tired. I’m about getting into the experiences. Sure. The immersion and no distractions. Yeah. I wanna watch and focus. I just forgot my life now. Yeah. Keep me here. My phone’s nowhere to be seen.

And it’s like waking up in the middle of a great dream, right? Yeah. Yes. And I’m like, okay, I can’t start and stop and start and stop and start and stop like that because you’re missing something and she can, and that’s where we get into little   yeah. Yeah, we don’t agree. We agree to disagree on that.

You were going somewhere before I really interrupted you there and now you forgot. So the immersion Yes. Is it about, so the two questions I’ve got is, okay, we established that it’s about the immersion to the experience and, and that’s where I’m at. And is it a question of the technology is just newer and they haven’t figured out how to fully utilize it or, so there might be, is it a question that they just haven’t figured out?

The nuances of the experience for the audience with it? What, where, where’s the lag? So I would say that you have these people who are.  audio and video engineers that have created Whitney. Right. But they’re not people. People, they’re geeks. They’re not people. They’re geeks. Yeah. They’re geeks. They’re geeks.

They don’t understand the experience. They look at this and they go, oh my goodness. You know what you need is somebody who understands. So there’s somebody playing with the technology. Because the technology for them is the experience. Yeah. And it’s cool that she disappears in this wisp of sparkles.

Right. This is, this is is They’re looking at this. This is created not by somebody who would actually go to a Whitney Houston concert. They’re creating it because they think it’s cool. It’s cool. And it is cool, right? But they’re not understanding that there is an audience that that longs to have to disappear within her.

I wanna get lost in the moment. Exactly. For me going to a movie and going to the theater, or even watching something at home, it’s about just checking out. Yep. And being completely immersed and getting lost in the experience. It’s not starting and stopping on. Yep. Exactly. Yeah. It’s, sorry, I’m getting a little, wow.

Sorry I drives me nuts. All right, well tell you what, I’m proud of you Marla . You got my movie Talk for you got two segments here. Yes. Two seconds. You got in the but end of the rope.   yeah. If you haven’t seen, check it out yet. Paul, you haven’t seen it yet. Seen some. Nobody’s seen that pieces. Well, yes.

Yeah. Go go watch the trailer. Yeah, get your tickets. They’re on sale now. Yeah. So you get to the premieres in these different towns. Minot. Bismarck, I think in April. Watford City at Premiers. March 24th I think it is. Yeah. End of the rope. The the last Lynch. I think you and I are gonna be taking a road trip to Watford in, if you’re okay with that.

A man. I think we should go to that. All right.

The post Exploring Advanced Technologies, 3D Printing, and the Film Industry appeared first on The Tech Ranch.

Summary:

During this episode, hosts Marlo Anderson and Steve Baker covered a range of topics, starting with a weather update about a winter storm warning in Bismarck and the use of heads-up displays to enhance driving during storms. They then discussed the potential control the Chinese government may have over the social media platform TikTok, as well as the dangers of deep fakes and cybersecurity breaches. The hosts also talked about The Boring Company’s tunneling technology, specifically its potential to alleviate traffic congestion using electric and potentially autonomous vehicles. The conversation also touched on advancements in prosthetics, including artificial limbs that can provide sensation and the possibility of grafting skin over them in the future.

Transcript:

Other breaking news, the actual one, of course, blizzard warning, starting at 11 o’clock this morning. As of right now, it’s scheduled, that system that was supposed to stay south along the north and South Dakota border is kind of slid to the north.

And now Bismarck is right on the edge of the six to 10 inches possible of snowfall and Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah. Yeah. It was just a winter weather advisory. The last I heard. Then I noticed the winter storm warning. Now we’re at a blizzard warning. It’s supposed to kick in at 11 o’clock this morning.

We’ll talk to the National Weather Service later in the program. Find out. But you don’t even seriously snowblower. It’s a blizzard warning. Now, we’re now making this up. No. Oh, cuz we make up a lot of stuff on this show. We, we do, but no, this is an accident. For real. For real. Yeah. Okay. I was shit about that.

I just find it amazing that in today’s world that we can be surprised by weather sometimes, especially they missed with this one. Blizzards. Yeah. This one was kind of a big miss. I can understand like the occasional thunderstorm that pops up and surprises people or tornado or whatever. But it seems with surprise tornado.

Yeah, but surprise blizzard. What? And the worst part is you don’t even have your snowblower. No, I don’t have a snowblower. So you lent it to somebody. Yeah. You know, so my question is, contractually, if you lend a piece of equipment like that to somebody, isn’t it an incumbent upon them to, when they return it to snowblower your driveway?

I actually think I should have first dibs on it. So before they even do their own, they should bring it to my house and do mine so that when I leave tomorrow morning that my lawn or my, driveway will be sparkling clean of no snow. You know What else to get your driveway sparkling clean of no snow.

What’s that? He had a yabo. That’s true. There’s yabo again. Plug for an endorsement there. We need to get ahold of those people. Yeah. It, you know, I, it’s just a cool machine. It is. I do have, the, oh my goodness. The badger, they sent me a lawnmower, you know? Right. Yes. So we have to install that one of these days.

I actually think that, okay. You get the badge, get the arvo. I’m putting, I’m putting Jim with the city on, on the spot here, but I think he told me the other day that I could have part of Dykes Sean Park Really? And put the, to put the badger in. I’m just saying. That’d be, it’d be fun. It’d be a fun place to experiment with it.

Right. Say Mandan Parks and Rec a little money, or, I think so, yeah. At least around the bandshell area there. Right? Well, it would always be nice and groomed and yeah. Do you think somebody would steal it though? Mm I think there, I think there would be cats that ride around on it? Well, they didn’t close the silver dollar in Mandan for a while, but I don’t know.

But anyway, can it go to its docking station in a secure location at like about 1230? That’s funny. That might be a good idea. Yes. Yeah, it’s not that idea. Yeah, somebody, you get the badge going around on it. I get the arvo. Fair enough. The ABOs cool. Yeah. You know. Did you see that it has an attachment now to take your garbage out to the court?

What? Yes. So it’ll attach to your garbage can, like what we have around here in Bismarck? Yeah. The wheel, the big wheeled garbage can, it’ll actually has an attachment so that. You don’t have to remember to take your garbage out. Now it knows where you have your garbage can and go pick it up and take it out to the street.

Oh, I know. Molds your yard moves. Snow kills weeds. Takes out the garbage. Takes out the garbage. And there’s, oh, it’s a dog poop. It’s a ba. It doesn’t have that yet, but I think it’s going to. And then, it also has a battery pack on it so that you can plug your, you can charge your cell phone and all this other stuff on it too.

So, kind of amazing. I like it. Yeah. It is pretty cool. We need that. Yep. We’ll work on it. Yabo work on it one of the things I wanted to talk about today, from a tech perspective, cybersecurity, and it starts with TikTok also, big news in the story, the data breach with the US Marshall Service.

Yeah. We’ll talk about that coming up in a little bit here. But, if you’re talking cybersecurity, and there’s been a lot to be said about TikTok because it’s a Chinese company, right? Accessed by the Chinese government. Okay. There’s a lot of talk in Congress sooner than later about getting rid of TikTok, it just making it a prohibition on TikTok that I don’t recall, a government prohibition since alcohol.

So what’s interesting to me about this is, well, there’s two things that are very, very interesting to me. So TikTok is, is certainly eroding people watching things on YouTube, certainly eroding people using Facebook and Google. And I mean, you only have so much time in the day, and if you’re consuming a lot on TikTok, then these other entities don’t have as much time with you.

Right. well, and TikTok is really the format for, if you consider it a job, Quote unquote influencer. So Instagram and TikTok would be the two places where influencers thrive. Yes. Yeah. And, and I was watching an interview on the news and there was a young man that was like, they can’t outlaw TikTok. The government can’t do that.

I’m not built for a real job. , wait a minute, that’s where we’ve gone to. Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, I just, I just wanna throw this out there because I find it interesting that, you know, and I’m not a big conspiracy theorist person, at least when I was younger. Now, as I get older, I, I tend to think through these things a little bit more.

But if you’re these entities and you can talk the US government into banning your competition, wouldn’t you do that? Well, yeah, absolutely. Okay. So I just wanna throw that out there. And if I was really concerned about security, really, really concerned about it, why are they not outlying d d i drones?

because that, that to me there’s 2 million of them in the United States. You know, I have a couple myself and the only way you really file these is with their app, with the people Marlo’s watching. And where do you think all of that footage is stored? Somewhere in a cloud. In China. In China. China. Well, China owns the company or they, they are part of that company and all the servers are in China.

And Well, when you start talking the security side, cuz. Part of it’s about where we’re going in a society from a tech perspective. Right.

 , of course, Bismarck, Mandan area. We are in a winter storm warning. Expect that to be updated to a blizzard warning. I’ve been here at 11 o’clock, so we’ll keep you up the day With that, we’ll check in with the National Weather Service coming up in just a little bit next hour, little over an hour from now.

So this is a prediction year, is that we’re going to be moved up to a blizzard war. That’s what they’ve been saying. I see. Because of the wind that’s coming along with us. Yeah. Well the good news is March is coming in like a lion. It is. There’s no doubt about it. Now we’ve got some hope towards the end of the month.

That’s interesting. Yes. Yeah. We’ll see if that prediction holds true. Yeah. Yeah. In like a lion out, like a lion, like out like a lamb. Yeah. Perfect. That’d be great actually. I love that. Thank you do too. The weather system. Yeah. . So you, you’ve got a little weather. I do. You know, to fill us in on here, I think a lot of people don’t know that you can do this.

Are you familiar with call, what’s called a heads up display? Yeah. So that projection that goes into your windshield? Yeah. Okay. Jet fighters have been using it for a long time. Yeah. Big, big in it. It started in aviation. Yep. And then grew into some high-end automobile. Now a lot of electric vehicles have heads up display.

Yes. Did you know you can do that with your cell phone? What? Yeah. So what you do? I’m just, I’m showing Steve how to do this right now. You put your phone. on your dashboard.  , so, and then it will reflect into your windshield. And then, and there are actual apps that do this. So you can get an H U d a heads up display app, and then you can have like your, like your speedometer will show up in there and all this other stuff, you know?

 , but what’s interesting and why I’m bringing this up now is because of the incoming weather. , I’m sure you’ve been caught in, you know, like this, this storm that’s coming in. There’s a lot of people don’t even realize that it’s coming in yet, because this is something that we’re all being surprised with today, right?

Now’s supposed to stay south, right? So all of a sudden you’re caught out somewhere and you’re in whiteout conditions and you don’t even know where the road’s at in front of you. Right? You can take your phone, put on Google Maps, put it in, heads up display mode, put it in your windshield so you can see, so the technology can help you stay on the road.

Or if you’re coming up to the turnoff that you need or whatever. And I’ve done this before and I’ve been in those situations, like you can’t even tell if you’re supposed to be turning off here or not. Well, the heads up display will help you do that if you have, you know, if you don’t have a later model car, a lot of cars like, you know, like, like my car has all this stuff built into it.

It’s coating in the windshield. Right? What is the reflective for this? Yeah. But it, it works really well and. You, you know, if you want that weather map or whatever it is that you want for a heads up display, because it’s much safer than when you’re white knuckling with your eyes glued to the windshield, trying to see some semblance of a road or any flashers from a vehicle that may be in front of you.

Right. You know, even that two seconds, you look at the Google map Yes. On your display, on your vehicle. Yes. The heads up display, really heads comes in handy right here because you can concentrate on what you’re doing and not take your eyes Okay. While to get used to that, because you look through it right when you’re driving.

Right. And then, oh, you just readjust your eyes a little bit to catch it, but, but if you, you don’t lose focus. And what I do with it is I actually put it in the middle so that it’s just off to, so it’s not in my view, shed looking straightforward. I can just kind of glance over and see.  , but it works really well.

And, and  , so if you get caught out there, just know that like Google Maps and I think Apple has this setting as well. Maybe before you head out on the roads today or something just, just look to see how you play with a little bit. Set your heads up. Display is what it’s called, h u d. And basically it’s just showing the image in reverse off of your phone so that when it reflects it’s showing it properly.

That’s all it’s doing. Right. So, yeah. But it does, it works really well. So it’s a cool app. And then what it does is it blacks out all the other stuff, you know, so that that part doesn’t show. So if you wanted to have like, your speed going, your, your entire screen becomes black except for the numbers to show.

And that’s what shows up in your screen then or on your windshield. So Heads Up Display. Heads up Display, yeah. App. And there’s, there’s quite a few different ones out there, but, but but most phones have this capability right now. I mean, you don’t have to have an app. but if you, if you install an app, it’ll probably make it a little easier, so, h .

Yeah. Good to know. Yeah, because you’re white knuckling at home later tonight, and there’s been times, well, you know, it’s funny, like last Tuesday, right when, when I leave, when I left here, we were in the middle of those storms, right? Right. And come out and well, and, and it had snowed. It had snowed quite a bit while winter and go out.

Oh my gosh. It was just stunning. Right. And I noticed snow globe snow. I was, I noticed as I was leaving that somebody had missed the turnoff to come into this studio, that might’ve been me. And, and so it was like 15 feet off. But you, you know, the reason you couldn’t tell is because everything was white.

You just couldn’t tell where the road was. And somebody just took a educated guess and drove into the. Now this happens a lot in the country. Of course. See now if I’m driving my hunting truck, I, I kind of do that on purpose. Sometimes I don’t care. Yep. But we’ve all, we’ve all done that when you’re driving down like a country road that hasn’t been traveled a whole lot and all of a sudden the road just turns or ends or whatever, something like what I’m talking about here would probably keep you from driving into the ditch.

Now this had nothing to do with bad weather cuz it was nice yesterday, but there was a Harlow’s bus across the street at the Cenex that was hung up. Really? Yeah. There’s a hole over there. And if you don’t hit the Proach Right, it’s a little separate interest with the snow. Yeah. It was kind of, wow, that’s a fire dollars tow truck.

All these challenges that are going on. Yeah. Yeah. There’s an app for that too. We’re talking a little cybersecurity and we were, yeah. You know, TikTok is, is kind of where the conversation starts when you’re talking cybersecurity. Congress looking at possibly getting rid of it.  , I, I think so. It’s not, I don’t think they’re really looking to get in for everybody.

They’re just, they’re, they, they, well, they’ve already taken off, banned. They’ve banned off a devices, but it’s, it’s back in the news again. So I think it’s being challenged. Well, Congress is looking at just outlawing it. Yeah. You know, like a prohibition of TikTok in this country. And part of me thinks about, okay, where are we going?

So if you have an app that has permissions and now say the Chinese government is, is utilizing this app. They have your face recognition, they have your voice, they, with AI coming that. . Okay. That does get a little scary. Well, with the, with the deep fake type of scenario they could make you Oh, they can make anybody.

And the thing with deep fakes right now, and this is an interesting point that you’re getting to here with, with the security part of it is that and I’ve played with this stuff already. We actually use some of the AI in our office. So, but so biometric scanners. Yeah. So if you’re looking at, you know, face recognition on your computer, your phone, your device.

Yeah. you know, anybody who watches a sci-fi movie or you know, government, intel mo, you know, what do they do? They scan your eye. Right. And I can recreate. . Well, that might be interesting. I guess I haven’t really thought about that so much from a security perspective. I mean, I suppose there will be a way sometime in the future, you always see them slip the contact lens in Oh yeah.

And they scan it and then it’s good, you know, or they just also cut the guys down. Yeah, yeah. There’s always that too. Yeah. If it’s kind of a gory Yeah. Yeah. But , but we’re probably, we’re probably moving more and more towards that. I mean, there’s, there’s a lot of talk about, you know, getting rid of passwords.

Totally. And just going to this because passwords are so easily compromised nowadays. But, wow. This is like two guys with ADHD again. Where, where? Where’d we start again? Cybersecurity. Oh, that’s right. That’s great. So here’s the other part, cuz you brought up the point. If, you know, if you’re a Google or one of these other.

Tech companies, why wouldn’t you want the government to get rid of your competition? Yeah. To be in your competition. I, I, I think, I think it’s kind of a twofold approach here that’s going on. I mean, I, I’m guessing, and, and again, this is just conspiracy in me, somebody from one of these organizations like Facebook or Google or whatever, whispered into one of our congressional, delegate’s ear that, Hey, we, there’s a security thing with TikTok that we need to discuss, and then all of a sudden it just becomes a thing, you know?

I really, quite frankly am way more concerned about the drone situation. I mean, I have been for years because, I mean, it, it’s kind of a combination of both. I mean, they get all these videos, and then when I think about a drone, right? You’re out camping south of Garrison Dam in the, what’s the campground down there?

Oh, the downriver Or what’s the That one? Oh my goodness. What is that name of that thing called? It’s by the, I’m drawing a blank right now. Yeah, me too. But I, there’s a campground there. Yes, there is. And, and and it’s a nice campground, beautiful area down there. Right?  , but anyway, just south of Garrison Dam or Lakes, aia.

And. You put a drone up because you’re just gonna have some fun with the family and take some, take some video of the river and whatever, and here’s Garrison Dam in the background. I’m just using this as one example, right? You, you’re not purpose purposefully filming the dam, but you’re gathering intel for the, for our enemies.

So if somebody wanted to do an attack or a cyber attack, or they’re, they already have, they already have all the data that they need on it. They don’t need to deploy somebody there to scope it out because there’s already all these videos that they’ve patched together and we have, I’ll betcha. I know pretty much all of our secured space across the country has been filmed some way or another with the drone, with the area exception of maybe area 51.

I, I, I, I did wanna finish up the, the, the other side of this too, cuz we talk about the cybersecurity and the TikTok and, okay. So where I have a bigger issue with TikTok is about what the app is cuz we’ve got the Chinese government that is pointing fingers at the US government saying you can’t ban TikTok because, you know, the United States should be free market and should be fair trade and, and all this, and, and we’ll find out a way to secure things.

I, I’m, I’m not concerned about that. . Where I have an issue with TikTok and TikTok specifically, is you take a look at TikTok, everywhere else in the world, and what we see TikTok as in the United States, and then what TikTok is in China is entirely different. It is. It’s apple to oranges. Yeah. It’s a, it’s educational, it’s patriotic.

It, it’s not what we, it’s not the crap about a dancing monkey and whatever. It’s because the chin Yeah. Chinese government is controlling the messaging that goes away from there. Right. So my point is, when you’ve got a TikTok as a company say, oh, no, no, no, we’re, we’re all secure. But in that space, the Chinese government is controlling that company.

Well, it’s a pretty easy step to go. Well, they’re controlling that company as far as content everywhere else as well. Yeah. Yeah. So, And I said, I was not gonna mention the movie, but you talk about dumbing down a society. Yep. TikTok. Yeah. The young man that I watched on the news that said, I’m not built for a real job.

Well, and if, and when you roll in, because you sit on video all day long, no kidding. You’re not built for a real job. Well, and you, you throw in the deep fake scenario. And for those of you who don’t know what a deep fake is, it’s the ability to, for example what I’m saying right now, I could be sa saying as Steve Bachan, right, right.

I mean, what AI can make. Right. Whatever. And there was a time, just real short time ago, like in the last election cycle you know, the prices had started to come down with this stuff, but it was still relatively expensive to get the software and the equipment that you needed. You know, the, the computers that you needed to do this, cuz this was all very, very expensive.

So Hollywood, that type of thing was able to do this stuff. And other, people who had the means, but now you and I can do this, we can get the software relatively inexpensively. I mean, I mean, my goodness, there are filters coming out even on TikTok that make you look like a teenager again and all this other stuff.

Right? Well, it’s not gonna be that much. I’ve never downloaded down TikTok, but now I’m thinking about it. It’s not gonna be that much further down when they’re gonna say, Hey, do you want, do you want do you wanna look like Joe Biden or, or Donald Trump, or whatever, right? And then you could say, I’m just, you know, this, this is, this is the challenge you have.

There is a window, it’s just like viruses. There’s a window, whether it’s 15 minutes or five hours or whatever before somebody debunks. What’s going on. So you can pop on and pretend you’re the president, say something, and by the time it’s corrected, the stock market has crashed. Just using that as an example, right?

Right. I mean, you could say something or start World War III or whatever it is, right? I mean, you could do things and if people think that it truly is the president and somebody and it gets, it gets viral somehow or another, that’s what, that’s, that’s the possibility here of impact. Now the impact in on the political spectrum is significant as well, because it’s always you know, this person said this or the person said that after a while, you don’t, you don’t even know who’s saying what anymore.

 , You get confused and then all of a sudden you see something else and, and the algorithm knows that you lean one way or the other. Already already knows this.

 , we didn’t talk about, we were gonna talk about this but, US Marshall Service, a big data breach

 , they’re also in charge of a lot of protective services. So they protect judges in this country. they’ve got a lot of different roles, very secure and, and, sensitive roles. they had a huge data breach, massive data breach. so a lot of information was dumped. a lot of information was, was compromised.

And then on top of everything else, extortion wear, if you want your files back. Well, so when you start looking at the vulnerability of businesses, individuals, banks, you know, the, the pipeline company that was ex now the government, it it, okay, from a security perspective, that’s a little frightening to me.

So this happens a lot more than you realize, right? And, and it, to me, it’s telling me that it’s like anybody’s vulnerable. they are. And I think it’s important for these institutions to make sure that they put some type of firewalls in place. have a plan. And it’s no different than you lock in your doors, right?

I mean, do you, do you leave your house anymore without locking your door? Do you sleep? Absolutely not. Do you sleep at night without locking your doors? No. All right. Absolutely not. So I, it’s not like when I was a kid. No. And, and I think a lot of people, I think that, oh, I’m just a, I’m just a small bank in Bismarck, North Dakota, or I am a, a clinic in flasher, North Dakota or whatever.

It’s gonna bother who’s gonna bother me. Right, right. Well, that’s the first places that they’re gonna go after because they know that there’s less obstacles for them to get through because you’re thinking that nobody’s ever gonna come after you. Well, and a lot of the, the, the phishing scams and the, the data breaches and the information that people are going after the nefarious people that are going after this information, it, it’s kinda like the phishing scams.

It is. It, it’s, it’s, yeah. If we, and my, if we get $20 from you and $20 from that person, and we don’t need a lot of people to fall for it, we just need a couple. Yeah. And we’re not taking a ton of money. We’re just taking little, but that adds up. That’s a, it’s a, that’s a little bit of a different scam scenario.

that would be more, and, and there’s a lot of those going around too. And, and the thing is, is when you look at your bill and it’s $3 and 42 cents, you’re thinking, oh, what did I buy? Oh, I, I don’t know the name of the company, but it’s $3 and 42 cents, so I’m not even gonna take my time to check into this.

The people on the other side of that. There’s an app for that though, right? There’s an app for that you can go through over there actually is. There is, yeah. I actually put that on my phone here the other day just to play with it a little bit.  , but they, but that’s what they’re after, is that you don’t realize, or you just don’t think anything about 3040 2 cents.

But when they have a million people a month that are doing this, the people on the other side who wrote that, that little ransom or that little.  , virus are loving this every minute, you know the, the ransomware scenario though, and, and my guess with the, there’s two, two ways they got into to the, marshals, and one would be what you’re talking about, some type of phishing scam.

So there’s something that came across and hey, you owe Amazon, or I, you know, you have this order coming in from Amazon for $1,842. If you want to cancel, click here. And of course, you know, people are like, I didn’t order something for $1,842. So then they’ll click on that. Well, what you did is you gave the virus permission to come into your computer.

Right. So I’m just using that as one way. Well, in this case, what football, what I heard was there was a program that got compromised and then they cut that program off. So, but how much information Right. We don’t know yet. Right, right. You know, how much did that program that they were using compromised the rest of the system?

Right. Because it was all integrated until. Oh, we’ve got a problem. Yes. Let’s cut this, shut this off. Firewall that off, block it off, disconnect it. but what else got inside? Right? You don’t know. That’s what takes the time. And that’s where the the extortion wear comes from. Yep. So it’s, it’s called ransomware and so yeah, I’m just reading through it right now.

The cyber attack took place on 17th of February and discovered a ransomware and, and they had a exfiltration event affecting a standalone system after which the system was disconnected from the network. But you never know, I mean, those things move fast. Mm-hmm. I remember one time when I had, kind of a ransom war scenario going on where, you know, they encrypt your, your information and I realized it and I unplug.

The computer. That’s the, probably the best thing you can do is if you know something weird going on, just unplug it as fast as you can, you know, or turn it off somehow or another. But, you know, in a laptop, I guess unplugging, unplugging it doesn’t help a whole lot. But on a desktop you can take the power away.

 , but by the time I got down there and unplugged it, it had encrypted everything. I mean, took, it, took out my externals that I had on that computer. It took out the backup on our network. It encrypted it all. I mean, it was crazy. And then of course, they, they want, you know, $8,000 or whatever to get your stuff back and they’ll usually, so, and this happens a lot.

I mean, I’m telling you like banks that you probably know have had this happen to them, but they, they just pay it. That’s the thing. That’s the dirty little secret here, is that hospitals and whatever, if they fight. They can be down for days or weeks or months. So a lot of times they’ll just pay it and the scammers know that they’re better off to actually give them the key to get their information back.

Because if, if it gets out that a bank is fighting this, for example, then the rest of the banks will, if, if they know that the bank can just pay the 20,000 or a hundred thousand dollars and get their stuff back, most banks will just take that and pay it off and take the loss on the, on the, well, that’s the other key too.

That’s where I was going with it, kind of comparing it a little bit to the fishing stuff too. They don’t ask for a lot of money because a lot of times in these though, I mean, they’re not gonna ask for, we don’t, we don’t want a billion dollars because we want you to actually pay it. We actually want you to pay it, but it’s usually like if it’s a bank or a hospital or something, it’s more than 10 bucks.

It’s not $3 and 42 cents. They’re gonna ask for something that’s gonna hurt a little bit. But a hospital’s different too, because depending on the systems you get into, People’s lives are at stake. That’s the issue. And they know this. So a lot of hospitals will just pay it as quickly as they can because they can’t even operate no pun intended there, I guess.

Right? But that is the truth of the matter, is that if you shut down a hospital, I mean, there are, there are lives at stake, you know, it’s not just financial records and things. I mean, so, so a lot of hospitals will just pay it and get back to business and then try to harden their systems after the fact, you know, the, the truth.

I mean, what you really should be doing is always being diligent and, and continue to harden your systems and make sure that they’re, they’re secure. So, yeah. Pound of prevention. Right. And you know, I know we all get frustrated with the password thing. It drives me crazy. It literally drives me crazy. And I know yesterday, I’m, I’m trying to get into one of my airline scenarios or one of my airlines that have, I don’t remember a million.

All my passwords. I don’t either. And I have ’em stored and I have ’em written down. I mean, I, I, I have all this stuff going on and I still have problems trying to get to these passwords cuz everybody is different. One of ’em needs  a special character, a capitalized letter. That’s one that screws me up is I’m good with all the, it’s the special character because you changed the special character.

I’m like, which special character do I use? Well, and I get a lot to choose from here and a lot of, so some of ’em you can use any special character. And then the one yesterday, I’m looking at this and I’m like, I’m putting my, what I normally would use as my password, my recent password in there. And I’m like, why is this not working?

And then I realized that the special pa or the special characters, they only allow five of them. And my one I use is not part of the five. And I’m like you gotta be kidding me. But that, that’s, that’s why it’s frustrating for a lot of people and that’s why there’s gaps in security. It’s like our corporate  email, which the.

I kind of use this to my advantage because they’ll send out things just, just as tests and then you gotta go take classes. Yeah. And it’s like I just delete everything from corporate and go, yep. Well I thought it was a phish scam. So, and what, what I love is being, what do you mean you couldn’t get a hold, pick up the phone and call me for having sakes when you go into an office, like when I, when I was doing more computer work, went into this one office one time and they had their password  with a little sticky note on their computer Right.

Or on their screen. So I, I, I walked in, I seen that, I said hi, and I actually left. I went out in the parking lot, got on their wifi, started printing stuff, and I came back in and they’re like, They’re, they’re going crazy. They’re like, my, our, our, our printer just went crazy here. And I’m like, well, that’s me.

I just wanted to show you how insecure you are. I sat out in your parking lot and did this. Oh. And people just don’t think about this.

By the way, the boring company

Don’t companies usually come up with creative names?

Yeah.

it actually tunnels and Really? Yeah. Yeah. You’re not familiar with this at all? No, I’m not. Seriously, I am not film in, so it’s, it’s like a, can we make the tunnel with it? Channel two? Yes. Yeah, you can. So it’s a big boring couple. Oh yeah. Yeah. So what happens is this unit goes underground and it bores and as it’s as it’s going through,

you very, very rarely see a company that’s literal. Yeah, . I, I just think it’s, I I really do believe it’s fantastic, it should have been called the Badger. It’s like  when I visited with Dr. Leroy Chow  he’s so, so, versed in so many different things and he hands me a business card and it says Doc All, all there is on his business card is Dr.

Leroy Chow astronaut. That’s it. It’s like, it doesn’t matter what else I’ve done in life. I’m an astronaut. That’s cool. It’s just so cool. And I have, I have this card on my desk at work because I th I look at that as, it’s kind of inspirational to me just to see this plain white card with his name and astronaut underneath because it’s attention getter at parties.

It’s kind of kind of fun. But anyway. Well, you know, but if you think about it though, what’s the pinnacle? That is the pinnacle. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, for at least in his life. Right? Well, but for most people, what, what’s your pinnacle? For most people, it’s like, once you’ve accomplished that, you’re like, yeah, I, nothing else even matters.

Everything else I did. Yeah. Who cares? Yeah. I did that. Yeah. It’s like, I’m an astronaut. Yeah. I did that. Yeah. It’s like, that’s cool. Yeah. It doesn’t matter that I, well, I suppose if he actually cured cancer, I guess you could put I cured the common cold, but I’m an, I’m an astronaut . Yeah. Cuz there’s only, you know, 580 of them, so That’s right.

  it actually tunnels and then as it tunnels, it actually puts these kind of triangular. Cement pieces behind it and, and continues to make this tunnel as it goes through. And then  and then like an earth worm and then it’s night crawling. Yeah. And then it, because they secrete thing that holds little tube that they’re creating.

It’s, it’s interesting to that you say that cuz I wonder if that’s the inspiration behind it. I’ll have to dig into that sometime. Nobody intended. Yeah. Yeah.  , but it’s not just worm poop folks. Yeah. But yeah. And so if you go to Vegas, for example, at the, at the convention center  he actually has, so you can, so they run Teslas through, through the tunnels and, and if you go to the tech ranch.com, you can actually see my ride.

 , going through the tunnel with the Tesla and, and  it’s, it’s pretty cool. And now they’re gonna tunnel out to the airport and then to other casinos, other properties along the strip as well. And you can just run underground on these. Tesla. So we talked about traffic and, and it’s expensive to, to build tunnels.

Yes, we’ve talked about, oh, well traffic won’t be that bad in the future because there’ll be flying cars. Right. There’ll be, but that’s the other side of it. So you can go below the car too, which we, you see in public transit quite often all the time. Yep. This is just another way to, and, and, and, you know, to make that happen.

And it makes sense that, you know, with electric cars, cuz if you were using combustion engines, it, you know, in a tunnel that’s busy. That could cause a lot of, you know, air quality issues and that type of thing. But, but  it’s interesting and fun and, you know, they’re starting to get a lot of  gigs now with, with  with boring, I guess well think of it from a simplification perspective.

It’s a, so you got all these air exchangers and, you know, if, if, think of a regular, traditional tunnel through a, a mountain. Yep.  , you’ve got, if it’s a long tunnel, you’ve got air quality issues, you’ve gotta vent the exhaust and bring fresh air in. And you don’t have to do that with electric vehicles.

Well, and you think about like here, I mean, in the wintertime, for example, I mean, wouldn’t it be cool to, to go underground and drive between Bismarck and Mandan on your daily commute or whatever and not have to worry about wind or snow or pedestrians or any of this stuff, because these things are dedicated to one way traffic.

They’re barely big enough to get the car in there. And these cars, of course, I mean, the goal here is that these will be autonomous vehicles that are zipping through these. Well, I think about it as well going to u n d, it didn’t take me long in the winter to figure out the tunnel system at U N D, so Oh, what’s connected to what, oh, I don’t have to go outside.

Right. When it’s 40 below crossing campus. Yep. Oh, great. Let, let’s, let’s do that. Yep. You know, schools like  university of Minnesota, Duluth, you never have to go outside, right? It’s like you roll outta bed, you go from your dorm right, to your class and, and you never go outside. Well, and I even think like you know, like, like the hospitals here in Bismarck, right?

They’re in the middle of town. So an ambulance, you know, in an emergency situation trying to, you know, come in from out of town, there’s a car accident 10 miles to the north and they’re coming back and they gotta deal with traffic and everything else. Imagine that there was a tunnel that they could get in that would come out right at the hospital and wouldn’t have to deal with all of that.

Well, think about traffic and just from a  public safety perspective, going from North Bismarck to, to the hospitals. Downtown Bismarck. Right. And that could be 20 minutes with traffic. Yeah, exactly. If you’re pulled up at, at traffic time. Exactly. And special tunnel just for ambulance. Yeah. Yeah. I, I think that there’s some or PD or practical type of, yeah.

I mean for fir, you know, our first responder type of scenario, they can just hit the tunnel and get the north side. How deep did these have to be though? Because you’re dealing with all kinds of infrastructure. Yeah, I mean, it just, it depends on the infrastructure, but they, but they, as they go, they shore it up, these, these, these, this cement cavern that, that it creates as it goes through.

Right. But you’ve got water lines and power lines. Yes, and, and phone and cable and all this infrastructure. This one, I would stay under the feet, under the, under the convention center. And I’m sure that the convention center, they had to map all this stuff out. Of course, I’m sure. I would say probably 75 to a hundred feet is where was was at.

Oh wow. So, yeah, quite deep. Yeah. And they could go deeper if they needed to, but that’s, that’s cuz they have an escalator that goes underground to get you to the loading platform. And that’s where you take the, you know, and, and this would be, you know, if you were to walk this from, because it goes from like the west side of the convention center, the brand new one to the east side.

I mean, that would be easily a 25 to 40 minute walk, I suppose, if you walk this thing. I mean, that’s how big the convention center is there. I mean, and this, they travel it in three minutes. So it’s just an incredible time saver and moves people around and I could, you know, I just see. You know, I, I know we’re talking about Bismarck, but I mean, just think of the LA situation or New York, especially with first responders.

Again, I mean, these tunnels, they, they should almost make these tunnels to get first responders out to these, these heavily trafficked areas or whatever, to, well, you would have to transverse what a highly trafficked or a impact traffic area is then. Yeah, I see. Where there’s an application for that. It makes sense.

Yeah. And I just, I mean, look, I was even watching just a scenario the other day, and I don’t know what was going on, but somebody actually, here’s a, here’s a policeman coming through an intersection, a four-way stop, and everybody else was pulled over, but somebody didn’t see the light and actually makes a left turn in front of this  You know, car and his cop car.

And I’m just like, how do you not see and hear this thing coming down the road? Literally turned right in front of him. So they deal with this stuff all the time, right? I mean, just all the time because people aren’t paying attention. They got the music up too loud. I’d be guilty of that myself, I guess.

Peter fan, or who knows? Fishing fan, whatever. Windows are rolled up. Yep. And And the radio up and busy talking to the person next to you. I mean, who knows? Windows are frosted, right? Yeah, right. So anyway, you know what else would be really cool? What’s that? Work similarly the same way kind of sorta, but just for people, not vehicles.

How close are we to getting a Wonka Vader, ? I’m just asking for a friend. . So you want a space elevator that goes Yeah, that’s been talked about for a long time. Time actually.

H u d, if you’re just catching us right now,

Actually, it is a good idea and I, I highly recommend people to do that

Yeah, and that’s Have to use it. Good idea. .

heads up display. You can actually put your smartphone into your win or underneath, you know, under your dashboard, and then it reflects into the windshield so that you can see the telemetry of how fast you’re going.

Or like I said, with Google Maps or whatever, you can see if you’re still on the road or not, or you can. So this is smart technology, right? Yeah. So would it tell me if there’s a cop hiding up  the road on, I suppose if you’re using Waze? It would probably do that, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Which is another app of course.

Really? I, yeah. That one I gotta get from you , you don’t have Waze on your computer? No. Aren’t on your phone. Wow. No. Yeah, it actually, so ways will actually, somebody reports that there’s a speed trap coming up, it’ll actually warn you like a, a mile or two out, that there’s a speed trap really, you know, coming up and things like that.

Yeah. Not that the, you know, the police force wants me to be talking about that, but, but you know, if nothing else, I mean, a lot of times those type of things are about prevention, right? Right. I mean, you know, there’s a reason that, that’s why I have a radar detector, which actually tells me if there’s road construction or an accident on the head.

Sure, sure. That’s what I use it for a hundred percent. If you, if you, all the time, if you. If you solely, if you, you know, if you talk to any officer, they’ll always talk. I mean, a lot of, a lot of the stuff is just by seeing an officer on the road. I mean, you Right. The first thing you do is look at your speedometer.

Yeah. Make sure you’re, you know, law abiding there. I guess I’m, well that’s, that’s usually the second thing I do after I tap brakes. Okay. Yeah. , because you already know you’re there, h ? Might have a little bit of a lead foot. Yeah.  , you know, we were gonna talk about  another company too, because you  have an opportunity to visit with a lot of these different companies at ces, and, and Sy was one that, that.

Oh my gosh. You, you talk about the $6 million Man. Yeah, because again, everything for me comes back to a television show or a movie for some strange reason. So they actually, they not 6 million, actually, I, I’ve seen a lot of stuff this year. Of course  AI was probably one of the big things, of course, but SCI is about, prosthetics and a, as you just watched right here, this, this gentleman actually, so he, he has an artificial arm.

He lost  his arm just below his elbow a couple of years ago, and now he’s wearing this, limb built by  sci. And his first thing, it’s pretty emotional, by the way, when you talk to him, but you. He, it took, he said it took about a month to train with it, and they’re working on making that shorter because this is a new company and you know, Dan is his name and it’s his first, you know, this is one of their first people using this, but he talks about how he can feel his daughter hold his hand.

That’s crazy. And it’s artificial. Yeah. How is that possib? I mean, you think about that. So he, he uses his mind, but if you think about sensors or nerves, it’s just making the connections. Right. I know, I know, right.  , but he uses his mind just like you and I would move, move our hand, just like I’m moving my hand right now.

He uses his mind to move his hand. I mean, the interview that I’m doing with him here, and, and again, it’s not on the tech wrench yet, but it will be shortly, you’ll see him holding a microphone as I’m talking to him, and he can feel the microphone. I mean, you can see that he actually is engaging with it.

It’s not like it’s  I mean, it’s a little different because he has a prosthetic as opposed to an artificial limb as opposed to a hand. But, so he holds it a little differently than maybe you and I would.  , but the most amazing thing, of course, and you just watched this, I’m holding this piece of wood, and this is why you’re saying this $6 million man, right?

Yeah. Yeah. And he, he literally punched us through this way. Steve Majors All right, right through that wood. It’s amazing. Yeah. You know, I, I’m thinking when I, he was holding the microphone, I’m like, wow. . Luke Skywalker. Yeah. His lightsaber like that with his artificial hand. It’s, it’s in, but there, you know, and you make an interesting point.

I mean, once they get past this, are they gonna start graphing skin over the top of these things or whatever it could and then, yeah. I mean it’s, it’s really no different than having an artificial knee or anything like that now. Right, I, I, it’s just, to me, it’s incredible and I had another conversation.

And, and this is because that, that would be the next evolutionary process is grafting the skin over it. So now it’s something you don’t remove. Yes. Because right now prosthetics, there’s something that you take off and, and clean and Okay, so at what point are you not removing that? Right. It’s something that it, it’s almost like an implant.

Right? Right. Rather, this kind of is right now, because it does connect to your nerves and everything every day. I don’t think he really takes this thing off. So I’m sure there’s a cleaning process. They can, well, I’m, I’m assuming there’s probably a boot that goes on and then the attach probably gets attached to attaches to that boot which connects Yes.

Because you have to have some way to remove it. Yeah. Yeah. Fascinating. Yeah, absolutely. Amazing. So the, the gentleman who devised this, you know, we’re, we’re talking about the future, you know, and of course he’s, he’s doing stuff with legs and things right now too. But the most fascinating conversation to me was that he feels that.

Paralysis will be a thing of the past in five to 10 years. Really. So they have, especially if they’re injury related. So if you’re born with this, that’s a whole different scenario. But if it’s injury related, if you had a car accident and you’re paralyzed from this, they’re, he’s creating a device that will, let’s say it’s  you know, I don’t know enough about the spine, but there’s, you know, the, the different node in there.

Right, right. And usually it’s a, a break between them in the spine that causes this. Right. So what they do is they, it’s like Bluetooth, like Bluetooth from your phone to your headset. So they’ll just fill the gap, the break in the spinal cord with the spinal cord injury, with this communication piece. And when that thing is installed, it actually transmit wirelessly from where the break is to the next point.

And then you’re able to walk. It’s incredible. It’s incredible. So these are the advances in, in medicine that are going on right now because of technology. So it’s, it really is Bluetooth. I, I would’ve thought the next iteration of something along those lines. Maybe a fiber optic Sure, sure. That, that’s where my brain goes to this.

But we’re already past that. So if, if this company’s looking at that with Bluetooth, we’re past it. Yeah, we’re past it already. They’re doing things wirelessly and, and, and potentially who will make me run faster. Wow. They have that already too. Have you seen these boots? Oh my goodness. So there are these boots that, that you put on, and there’s kind of a spring.

It’s, it’s a rounded spring on the bottom. I’m trying to give you an idea of, I’ve seen these before, but it’s not a spring, like a coil. It’s a spring. That’s that. A rounded piece of metal, right? Yeah. Like a leaf spring in a vehicle. Yes. That’s exactly what I’m thinking of. And  it attaches to this, this boot, and if you’re, if you would normally run eight miles an hour, you can run 20 miles an hour.

Really? Yes. Yeah. That’d still be really tired afterwards. Well, right, but walking, instead of walking three miles an hour, maybe you walk eight miles an hour or 10 miles an hour, then yeah. Boy, that opens up an entirely different world for taking the dogs for a walk. . I’ll see if I can get a pair of the, I could actually keep up with my wife that way.

You could. Yes. Yes. But she’s like, I, no, we’re not walking the dogs together cuz she’s way up there and I’m like, no, I got my pace. I’m good. You can keep, you can keep your up. I, I could keep up with, with these boots. And she wouldn’t even know. All she would say is that, Steve, you’re a little taller today.

Well, yes I am. Well, if you think about a, if, think of a walking boot, if somebody has a fractured ankle or a surgery or you know, high ankle sprain or things like that, walking boots, they’re built a little like that minus the spring side of it. But they, they’ve got a little, because they’re compensating for what your gait is.

Yep. Because the other thing with a lot of, you know, and in that case a walking boot would be considered a prosthetic temporary one. Yep. But, what they found medically is there’s an opportunity to screw something else up. So if you’re not walking correctly, you could injure a knee or throw your hip out or look back.

So a boot that was made for running is gonna have a different ergonomic than what is attached to your foot. So, miss, miss Metaverse, have you, have you ever met Katie? No. She’s been to town a couple times over the last few years. I’ve invited her in for a few things. Yeah. But Jocelyn, I’ve met Katie Aquino?

Yeah. Okay. miss, miss Metaverse, she’s been on the, she used to be a frequent guest on the show when I had the tech ranch, and, she’s been very involved in the development of these boots, so, we’ll have to get her on the show sometime. You realize the song I’ve got stuck in my head right now. I have no idea.

Nancy Sinatra. Oh, these boots are made for walking. Yeah. I, I really have that there all day long now. It’s a great song though, so it’s okay to have that song stuck in your head. , just telling you that is one of my favorite songs actually. Is it really? Yeah. In fact that I came up with it. Of course it is.

Well, yeah. Yeah. So there you’re all right. I guess it’s time for the weather service.  , yeah, because we got this blizzardy thing, something coming in’s on our way. Yeah. I’m not really a  yeah, roads are good right now though, but in the meantime, Hmm. Not looking forward to what’s coming ahead. Okay. But now you’re, now you’re gone next week, right?

Well, yes. Okay. So we’re, we’re, we’re gonna. Visit a little bit about Yes. Putting next week together. Yes. Well, we’ll do that. Okay. So, so we’ll figure it out. Yeah. We’ll figure it out. So we’ll be here next week.

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Traveling is a passion that many people enjoy, but as we age, it can become more challenging to explore the world. Beeyonder is a virtual tour company that offers live and interactive virtual tours around the world with local qualified tour guides. In an interview with the Guru of Geek, Marlo Anderson, Camille Scannell from Beeyonder explained that they primarily target seniors aged 55 and above, providing them with equal access to travel opportunities.

Beeyonder currently offers 430 virtual experiences in over 60 countries, with local guides on the ground giving walking tours as if the tourists were there in person. Participants can ask questions and interact with the guides, making it a more engaging experience. Beeyonder’s focus on accessibility has made them a popular choice among seniors, especially those who are not able to travel in person due to health or mobility issues.

Camille shared a story of a client who was an avid traveler but had to stop due to age-related health issues. Taking virtual tours with Beeyonder allowed her to revisit destinations she had traveled to in the past and explore new ones she was never able to visit. The tour guides’ engaging personalities and highly trained skills in keeping participants engaged make the tours a worthwhile experience.

Beeyonder’s founder, Brittany Palmer, was inspired to create the company due to her own experience as a bilateral amputee with other disabilities that limit her travel options. Her mission with Beeyonder is to provide equal access to travel opportunities for everyone, regardless of their physical limitations.

If you’re interested in taking a virtual tour with Beeyonder, you can check out their experiences and book a tour with a local tour guide on their website. Beeyonder’s commitment to accessibility and equal access to travel opportunities makes them an excellent choice for seniors and anyone who loves to explore the world.

As Camille Scannell from Beeyonder said in the interview with Marlo Anderson, “We are all about accessibility, bringing equal access to travel opportunities.”

The post Beeyonder: Providing Virtual Tours for Seniors appeared first on The Tech Ranch.

Michael, the founder of Labrador, was inspired by the loyal and helpful nature of Labrador retrievers, which are also the most common breed for assistive dogs. With the mission to create an assistive robot that can deliver items for people with health issues, Michael named his company Labrador.

“I wanted to create something that could provide a degree of assistance to give somebody a degree of independence back. It’s not about replacing human caregivers, but providing a lifeline for people with disabilities or health conditions who need assistance with daily activities,” said Michael Dooley, the founder of Labrador.

Unlike traditional humanoid robots, Labrador is designed to be more functional and utility-based, similar to R2D2 in the Star Wars world. It is a game-changer and lifesaver for people with disabilities or health conditions who need assistance with daily activities. With the ability to bring medication, water, and groceries, Labrador brings back a degree of independence that is often lost with health issues.

Labrador can be controlled through speech commands, cell phones, or even IoT buttons, making it accessible to everyone. It has a set of bus stops that includes places like the armchair, kitchen counter, refrigerator, and front door. The robot parks at the right spot and raises and lowers to the right height, making it easy to access.

Labrador is a perfect example of how technology can be used to improve people’s lives. If you want to know more about the company, visit their website at labradorsystems.com.

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Psyonic, a company founded by Dr. Aadeel Akhtar, is revolutionizing the world of prosthetics with their groundbreaking technology. Recently, Dr. Akhtar visieted with Marlo Anderson, the Guru of Geek, to discuss the company’s success and their current crowdfunding campaign.

Psyonic is a company that creates prosthetic limbs with advanced technology that allows for greater control and functionality than ever before. Their prosthetic hands, for example, can be controlled with a patient’s own muscle signals, allowing for natural and intuitive movements.

Dr. Akhtar explains that the inspiration for Psyonic came from his work as a neuroscientist. He saw the limitations of traditional prosthetics and wanted to use his knowledge of the brain to create a more effective solution.

Patrick smashes through the board held by Marlo Anderson on The Tech Ranch Stage at CES 2023

“We realized that there’s a huge gap between what the prosthetics currently available in the market can do and what the human body can do,” Dr. Akhtar says. “So we thought that we could use neuroscience to bridge that gap.”

Psyonic’s technology has already made a significant impact on the lives of those with limb differences. One of their patients, 29-year-old Patrick, lost his arm in a workplace accident. With a Psyonic prosthetic, he is now able to perform tasks like tying his shoes and even playing the guitar.

“I just feel like myself again,” Patrick says in a video on Psyonic’s website. “I feel like I have control again.”

But the impact of Psyonic’s technology could go beyond just helping those with limb differences. Dr. Akhtar believes that their technology could eventually be used to enhance the abilities of able-bodied individuals as well.

“We believe that our technology can be extended to the general population to enhance the functionality of their limbs,” he says. “So it’s not just for people with limb differences, but it can be extended to everyone.”

To further their mission, Psyonic is currently running a crowdfunding campaign on their website. They hope to raise $1 million to fund the development of their next generation of prosthetics, which will include even more advanced technology and greater functionality.

Dr. Akhtar stresses that this funding is crucial to the continued success of Psyonic.

“This funding will allow us to bring our products to market faster,” he says. “It will allow us to do more research and development, and it will allow us to continue to help more people.”

Investing in Psyonic’s crowdfunding campaign not only has the potential for financial return, but it also has the potential to make a real difference in the lives of those with limb differences.

As Dr. Akhtar puts it, “Our mission is to make a difference in people’s lives, and we hope that you’ll join us in that mission.”

In a world where technology is constantly advancing, Psyonic stands out as a company that is using that technology to make a real difference in people’s lives. With their innovative prosthetics and their commitment to helping others, they are truly a company worth investing in.

As Patrick says in the video on Psyonic’s website, “It’s life-changing, honestly. It’s amazing

The post Revolutionizing Prosthetics: How Psyonic’s Advanced Technology is Changing Lives appeared first on The Tech Ranch.

Kaltech Corporation has unveiled their latest innovation in home technology – the Premier water purification solution, a unique humidifier designed to provide users with two different attachments for personal or family use. Jacqueline Nakao, representing Kaltech Corporation, recently visited with Guru of Geek Marlo Anderson to discuss the Premier humidifier’s features and benefits.

Nakao explained that the Premier humidifier is the company’s first water purification solution. One of its attachments converts tap water into soft water using a tap duo cartridge, making it perfect for personal use after showering or bathing. The other attachment is for family use, making it ideal for maintaining healthy air quality in your home.

According to Nakao, the Premier humidifier provides numerous benefits beyond just soft, luxurious skin. “Adding humidity to the air in your home can also help with respiratory issues such as coughing and dryness, as well as ensuring that the air in your home is healthy and comfortable to breathe,” she said.

The Premier humidifier is set to be released in the US market in March of this year, with more detailed distribution partners to come. Nakao expressed her excitement about the upcoming launch, saying, “I’m so excited that you can find it in the US market.”

Overall, Kaltech Corporation’s Premier water purification solution is a must-have for anyone looking to improve their skin, respiratory health, and overall air quality in their home. With its innovative design and customizable attachments, this humidifier is sure to be a game-changer in the world of home technology.

The post Revolutionize Your Home with the Premier Water Purification Solution appeared first on The Tech Ranch.

Formlabs, a leading company in the 3D printing industry, has recently launched three new products that make up their automation ecosystem, enabling 3D printers to run 24/7, 365 days a year. These products allow for mass production of sellable goods, which is a major step forward in the industry. In an interview with Marlo Anderson, Derek Vilim from Formlabs discusses these new products and the company’s core technologies.

Derek explains, “We’re launching three new products together at CES this year that form the Formlabs automation ecosystem. These are three products that basically automate your 3D printing pipeline, allowing your printers to run 24/7, enabling mass production.” He goes on to say, “When you’re automating the 3D printing pipeline, you can reduce cost per part, maximize throughput, and open up mass production situations.”

The Formlabs automation ecosystem allows customers to scale their production based on their demand. The automation capabilities enable low-volume customers to produce thousands of units and easily scale up to medium volumes. Formlabs has high-volume customers as well, with different applications that they are using the machines for.

Derek also discusses Formlabs’ core technologies, SLA and SLS. He explains, “Formlabs was founded with our SLA technology, which is our core technology. This is using UV lasers to cure a photo-polymeric resin. On top of SLA, we have SLS, which is using lasers to center nylon powder. These are our two core technologies right now, and they both have strengths and weaknesses.”

In conclusion, Formlabs is leading the way in the 3D printing industry with their automation ecosystem and core technologies. With their machines and automation capabilities, customers of all volumes can scale their production to meet their demand, enabling mass production of sellable goods.

The post Formlabs Launches 3 New Products for 24/7 Mass Production with 3D Printing – CES 2023″ appeared first on The Tech Ranch.

Innovation at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has traditionally focused on new gadgets and cutting-edge technology. However, SkyX Platform has taken a different approach, reimagining old technology and processes to create a new and safer way to install and control lighting in our homes.

During an interview with the Guru of Geek, Marlo Anderson, Rani Kohen of SkyX Platform explained how the company has developed a ceiling receptacle that enables people to connect light fixtures or ceiling fans without having to touch hazardous wires. This simple but effective innovation has taken ten years to develop, but the company has now reached the final phase of becoming a standardization.

What makes this innovation even more exciting is that the company has developed smart features around the plug. Once a fixture is installed, it can be controlled via voice-activated assistants such as Siri, Google, Alexa, and other leading companies. This means that people can control their lighting from their app, schedule it, dim it, and change the color. The energy-saving modes and emergency lights also add to the product’s appeal.

SkyX Platform has won the Smart Innovation Award at CES, and people can now start making reservations to purchase the product from the company’s website, skyplug.com.

Apart from the convenience factor, SkyX Platform’s innovation also addresses safety concerns. The regulators voted the innovation into the International Electrical Code, American Standardization Institute, and the National Electrical Manufacturer Association because of the safety aspects. The company’s approach is similar to the GFCI receptacle in the bathroom, which has a safety switch. The receptacle from SkyX Platform can do the same for the lighting industry.

Kohen explains that the product has other applications beyond lighting. The retrofit kits can turn every chandelier, pendant, or light fixture into a smart plug and play fixture. The plug and play feature also enables people to move their fixtures around for seasonal use or during events such as the holiday season.

Innovation at CES is not just about new products and gadgets, but also about reimagining how old technology can be improved. SkyX Platform’s innovation is an excellent example of how technology can be used to make our lives easier, safer, and more convenient.

The post Reimagining Lighting: SkyX Platform’s Revolutionary Smart Plug and Play Solution appeared first on The Tech Ranch.