{"id":38198,"date":"2013-05-10T21:03:49","date_gmt":"2013-05-11T01:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/forex-news\/?p=38198"},"modified":"2013-05-10T21:03:49","modified_gmt":"2013-05-11T01:03:49","slug":"money-weekends-futurewatch-11-may-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/2013\/05\/10\/money-weekends-futurewatch-11-may-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Money Weekend\u2019s FutureWatch: 11 May 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

By MoneyMorning.com.au<\/u><\/a> <\/p>\n

TECHNOLOGY:
\nMars Could Become the First Interplanetary Insane Asylum<\/h2>\n

There seems to be a lot of people who really don\u2019t like their friends and family. What do we mean by this? Well, let us give you the back story first.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a not-for-profit called Mars One<\/strong>. And this is their goal;<\/p>\n

\u2018To establish a human settlement on Mars through the integration of existing, readily available technologies from industry leaders world-wide. Mars One intends to fund this decade-long endeavour by involving the whole world as the audience of an interactive, televised broadcast of every aspect of this mission, from the astronaut selections and their preparations to the arrival on Mars and their lives on the Red Planet.<\/i>\u2019<\/p>\n

2023 is the year they plan on landing a settlement on Mars. The first group will be just four people. We like to call them Marstians. Two years<\/i> later they plan on landing another four Marstians at the settlement. A grand total of eight people.<\/p>\n

The plan is to establish the settlement, explore Mars, perform tests, carry out research and\u2026live life. Luckily enough for the settlement, there will be cameras everywhere. Because their activity will be filmed 24\/7, 365 days of the year. And of course back here on earth it will be on the TV. It\u2019s all very Big Brother<\/i> meets Survivor<\/i> meets Alf<\/i>.<\/p>\n


\n Source: Mars One<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anyway here\u2019s the amazing part which had us falling off our chairs. The trip to Mars is one way. <\/i>That is\u2026not coming back\u2026ever. Who in their right mind would want a one-way ticket to Mars? Apparently thousands of people! You can check out the submissions here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get us wrong; we\u2019re all for space exploration and we\u2019d probably jump at the chance under the right circumstances. But living with 7 other random people for the rest of our lives, saying goodbye to friends and family forever\u2026uhh, no.<\/p>\n

The project itself is truly pioneering, and credit to the crazy eight who end up going. It\u2019s really amazing to think that within 10 years a colony of people will inhabit Mars. That\u2019s mind blowing and exciting. It opens up a whole new world of possibilities.<\/p>\n

But as optimistic as we are about breakthroughs and pioneering feats, we can\u2019t help but think maybe they should rethink this one just a touch. Perhaps starting with a way to get back to Earth.<\/p>\n

If this goes ahead as planned, it might get a little crazy. If you ever watched a series of Big Brother<\/i>, you would\u2019ve progressively seen the people start to go a little insane. Multiply that by 140 million miles and you start to see where this could end up.<\/p>\n

We hope it\u2019s successful, and it would make for some (initially) riveting TV. But more importantly, it would be a major breakthrough in the exploration of space.<\/p>\n

HEALTH: Downright Dirty Problems Solved By Some Healthy Competition<\/h2>\n

The XPrize Foundation<\/strong> is a remarkable organisation, and one you should get familiar with. What they do is create competitions to solve world affecting problems. Then teams of scientist or researchers get together and try and win these competitions.<\/p>\n

Big prize money is up for grabs too. Often this equates to millions of dollars. For example the Google Lunar XPrize<\/i> has a prize pool of $30 million for the first privately funded team to land a robot on the Moon. This has subsequently spurred on a multi-billion dollar private space industry.<\/p>\n

Aside from the Lunar Prize (which is the biggest one to date) there are other XPrizes in the works. Some with the design to challenge huge global problems.<\/p>\n

One of the most ambitious projects in progress is the \u2018Village Utility XPrize\u2019.<\/p>\n

This competition aims to use human faeces (poo) to power villages and purify drinking water<\/strong>. We weren\u2019t joking when we said it was ambitious.<\/p>\n

But as out-there as this one might seem, it\u2019s not impossible. The reason for this prize is the huge impact dirty drinking water has on the world. As the prize description explains,<\/p>\n

\u2018Nearly one billion people lack access to safe drinking water and 2.6 billion lack access to basic sanitation. As a result, half of the world\u2019s hospitalizations are due to drinking water contaminated with infectious agents, toxic chemicals, and radiological hazards. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), just one of those infectious agents – the bacteria that causes diarrhoea – accounts for 4.1% of the global disease burden, killing 1.8 million children a year.<\/i>\u2019<\/p>\n

This XPrize aim is for a pioneering team to develop a solution to this major health issue. It might be a little on the \u2018gross\u2019 side but it\u2019s a problem worth solving. Hopefully enough smart minds can figure it out\u2026with multi-million dollar motivation of course.<\/p>\n

ENERGY: LED\u2019s Could Save the World Millions of Barrels of Oil per Year<\/h2>\n

The humble LED<\/strong> is turning out to be quite a multi-talented device, sparking a lighting revolution, and now solving the world\u2019s oil issues.<\/p>\n

From improving home energy usage to being used for internet access, there\u2019s not much LED\u2019s can\u2019t do. And it\u2019s something that the car industry is now very aware of.<\/p>\n

Research from Mercedes Benz has shown the LED\u2019s in headlights can help reduce driver fatigue. The light from an LED is closer to natural light than the bi-xenon, xenon or halogen globes. This has a positive effect on the driver as it helps simulate day driving conditions.<\/p>\n

Audi has found using LED\u2019s in brake lights allows faster response time of drivers behind. LED\u2019s illuminate instantly and what might be a millisecond faster than a normal light equates to meters in a road accident. It literally could mean the difference between a crash or not.<\/p>\n

But what Mercedes have done is trump all the research, including their own. They\u2019re so enthused by this finding they\u2019ve put only<\/i> LED\u2019s in their new flagship 2014 S-Class model. About 200 of them in total.<\/p>\n

Mercedes have found that LED\u2019s create more fuel efficient cars<\/strong>. Because LED\u2019s use a fraction of the power of normal lights there\u2019s less strain on the car when running. Mercedes say the fuel savings are about half a litre per 100km.<\/p>\n

If all car makers adopt this strategy and use only LED\u2019s it will have a world changing effect. Let\u2019s have a look at some raw numbers to understand how big an impact we\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n New cars sold in Australia every year <\/td>\n\n

LED related fuel saving per 100km<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Avg. distance travelled by car p.a<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Fuel saving per car p.a<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Total fuel saving in Australia<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Barrels of Oil to make 75L of Fuel<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

1,000,000 (approx.)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

0.5L<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

15,000km (approx.)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

75L<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

75 million litres<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

1 (approx.)<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

That means in Australia the potential fuel saving LED\u2019s create is equal to 1 million barrels of crude oil every year.<\/i><\/p>\n

Looking abroad, the US sells 14 million new cars per year and the Chinese sell 19 million. That equates to about 33 million barrels of crude oil saved per year<\/i> from the US and China.<\/p>\n

So it next time you see a car with LED\u2019s, take a moment to realise the real potential of the little lights. Because they\u2019re actually helping save the world energy and in turn helping keep the world a little bit greener.<\/p>\n

Sam Volkering
\n<\/b>Technology Analyst, Money Weekend<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>From the Archives\u2026<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

The Market Rebounds, but We\u2019re Still Not Selling\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

25-04-2013 \u2013 Kris Sayce<\/p>\n

Is This the Last Hurrah for the Australian Dollar?<\/a><\/p>\n

25-04-2013 \u2013 Murray Dawes<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Proof the Silver Bullion Market is Alive and Well<\/a><\/p>\n

25-04-2013 \u2013 Dr Alex Cowie<\/p>\n

Stand By for the Recession Rally in Resource Stocks: Take Two<\/a><\/p>\n

23-04-2013 \u2013 Dr Alex Cowie<\/p>\n

A New Take on Hard Asset Investing<\/a><\/p>\n

22-04-2013 \u2013 Kris Sayce<\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By MoneyMorning.com.au TECHNOLOGY: Mars Could Become the First Interplanetary Insane Asylum There seems to be a lot of people who really don\u2019t like their friends and family. What do we mean by this? Well, let us give you the back story first. There\u2019s a not-for-profit called Mars One. And this is their goal; \u2018To establish … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Money Weekend\u2019s FutureWatch: 11 May 2013”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}