Finally, we close with brief comments on Robot Salutes, Two Faced, Cry Timber, and Mini Me.  First, the armed forces continue to move down the technology curve with the adoption of robots for the battlefield.  Both the US Army and Marines awarded contracts to Endeavor Robotics and QinetIQ for both small bots weighing less than 25 pounds and medium size bots weighing up to 165 pounds.  These bots will focus on detecting explosives as well as chemical, biological, radioactive, and nuclear threats.  In this second generation, the military standardized the chassis to provide interoperable bots and lower costs.  In the pipeline are fully autonomous bots with weapons that can stand in the place of soldiers.  Already, South Korea is deploying gun-bots in the Demilitarized Zone facing North Korea. Given the pace of innovation, in the not too distant future, it will become commonplace to see Robot Salutes. Second, solar panel manufacturers are removing the aluminum backing to enable the reflected sunlight to hit the bottom of the panel.  Studies demonstrate this adds 10% – 15% to the panel’s output.  Given this, it will not be too long before all solar panels are Two Faced.   Third, lumber prices have reached their best levels in over 20 years at ~$500 per mbf (thousand board feet) compared to their collapse down to ~$220 per mbf in 2009. For homebuilders, this represents another cost pressure for which we see them Crying Over Timber.  And Fourth, scientists at the University of Washington discovered a methodology to use robots to grow miniature organs.  This will allow scientists to test a large number of compound samples in a short time period, accelerating new drug discovery, and allowing for the application of big data to early stage studies.  With another step on the pathway to the Bionic Human, we see Mini Me’s in everyone’s future.

 

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