Juggling Dynamite

Powered by electricity (which can now be derived cheaply from solar and wind) this is what productivity-enhancing innovation looks like.
AQUAER water condenser and engineer Enrique Veiga explained his invention this month in a Reuters video here:

“What our machine does is to replicate the cycle of water. It uses the air in the environment, our machine’s main feature is that it can work in the desert, with temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius and above with a relative humidity of 10%, 15%.”

A small machine can produce 50-75 litres a day.

The bigger versions can produce up to 5,000 litres a day.

Our goal is to help, our goal is to reach those refugee camps where there is no water to drink and give those people the chance to drink. Our aspiration is not only to produce an effective working machine but to make it useful and above all make it useful to those people that we see in documentaries walking kilometres and kilometres to get water and dig wells.”

As the latest COVID-19 variant (Delta) accelerates, legitimate questions arise about when a booster shot may be needed to maintain antibodies among the vaccinated and whether rich countries should be entitled to a third shot while 84% of the global population has not had the first two.  See Does the explosion of the new Delta variant mean we need a new COVID-19 vaccine?:

Worldwide, only 15.6% of people are fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data. This has many health experts concerned that high-income countries will be busy handing out booster shots while the rest of the world burns. It’s another ethical quandary, Ochando said. Distributing booster shots to the immunocompromised and elderly in wealthy countries makes sense, he told Live Science, but providing third shots to young, healthy people in rich countries is hard to swallow when only 2% of Africa’s population has been fully vaccinated, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control numbers.

One thing we know for sure is that the more the virus spreads the more its variants are likely to prove endemic.  This is one of the reasons that the exodus of workers and dwellers from major population centers may be longer-lasting than presently priced into property prices, rents and government tax collection forecasts.  “The High Beta Rich” author Robert Frank reports on trends to date in New York.

CNBC’s Robert Frank reports on New York City real estate. Here is a direct video link.

Life is full of risk every day in every way.  Acknowledging this is not pessimistic; it allows thinking people to be proactive.  Risk management requires that we hope for the best while trying to drownproof an uncertain future.

Cultivating health is job number one.  Beyond our bodies and environment, this means minimize debt, keep costs and spending well below our income, buy insurance, maintain liquidity and direct longer-term savings in ways that enhance future resources.

Over the past year, I have encountered many well-intentioned people who have come to believe that the best way to help young people is to assist them in buying homes priced at 5 to 15 times their household income.

Many have borrowed personally to help with downpayments or co-signed to enable off-spring into properties they will struggle to maintain and indebtedness that will last decades.

Few have considered the probability that home prices may be flat or considerably lower a few years hence than they are today, and that many may need to sell before prices recover.

Already, recent surveys show that 20% of Canadians regret how much they’ve borrowed, and 45% doubt they will be able to cover living expenses without going further into debt.

The best time to prepare for both difficulty and opportunity is before they arise.   The best time to reduce spending and risk is before we are forced to.   Solid financial plans require optimism and drownproofing.