Hawaii’s solar boom is so successful it’s been blocked from further expansion

Rooftop solar on a house in Hawaii.

William Walker and his wife, Mi Chong, wanted to join what’s seen as a solar revolution in Hawaii. Shortly after buying their Oahu home earlier this year, they plunked down $35,000 for a rooftop photovoltaic system. The couple looked forward to joining neighbors who had added panels, to cutting their $250 monthly power bills and to knowing they were helping the environment.

 

 

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The home automation business is enabling the Internet of Things

The home automation market size is around $8.8 billion.

In terms of homes that have a broadband connection as a market for home automation, the market size turns out to be around $8.8 billion at $100 spent per home or $880 billion at $10,000 for the U.S. If we are a little more conservative and say that only those broadband subscribers who use smartphones are targets, the range turns out to be about $5.63 – $563 billion. In order to capture this opportunity a number of business models have come into play. While these are not new business models, it is interesting to see how this opportunity is being captured.

 

 

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2013 blew apart our notions of privacy

2013 changed everything by demonstrating the extent and power of state — and commercial — surveillance.

2013 was an extraordinary year for those of us who are interested in privacy and data protection. What was previously seen as the domain of paranoid nitpickers has exploded into the public consciousness, shaking international ties and making many people re-evaluate how they live their lives online.

 

 

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Airbnb tops 10 million guest stays and 550,000 listed properties worldwide

Airbnb is a global marketplace where people can list space in their homes for rent.

How far has Airbnb come? More than 10 million people have stayed in Airbnb homes to date. This is a long way from the company’s early days when the founders hosted people on air mattresses in their apartment and basically went door-to-door to get traction.

 

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IBM unveils top 5 technology predictions for the next 5 years

This year’s ideas are based on the fact that everything will learn.

IBM reveals its five big innovation predictions that will change our lives within five years. This is the eighth year now that IBM has made predictions about technology, and this year’s prognostications are sure to get people talking.

 

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Multivitamins are a complete waste of money: Study

Multivitamins don’t contain any proven health benefits.

If you take multivitamins, you may want to reconsider your morning routine. The latest issue of the medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine, looks at the research and clinical trials and penned an editorial with a headline worth reading: “Enough is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Mineral Supplements.”

33 Dramatic Predictions for 2030

Futurist Thomas Frey: Humanity will change more in the next 20 years than in all of human history.

By 2030 the average person in the U.S. will have 4.5 packages a week delivered with flying drones. They will travel 40% of the time in a driverless car, use a 3D printer to print hyper-individualized meals, and will spend most of their leisure time on an activity that hasn’t been invented yet.

 

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Top ten drunkest states in America

The drunkest state in America.

Figures from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA) which has released its latest analysis on the state of the drinking union, show the states most likely to have a cocktail or two. By tallying sales of alcoholic beverages divided by census population data (all those aged 14 and older so don’t discount those underage guzzlers), the Institute has brewed the numbers and come away with a per capita rate.

 

 

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