WPenner's Blog

I've always read a lot, enough that it's a family joke. One hundred books a year has been my default for well over a decade. About a year ago, though, I started considering the results of all that reading. I was doing it mostly wrong!

Here are the three biggest mistakes I make and one golden techn...

The Spiritual Elites

One difficulty I see with the spiritual elites' game is its elevation of those with the "correct" thinking, experiences, actions, and so on over those without that blessing. This accommodates the amazingly few (the remnant, the elect, the chosen, etc.) with such experiences, a...

Demographic hollowing out is like a cobra: fascinating and deadly. This topic will shape our world of the next 100 years in profound ways, yet receives very little public attention.

The Canadian Situation

The Canadian demographic situation is very similar to other countries, having seen a declin...

There is obviously a hierarchy to news, and it is changing from what we think of as traditional, mainstream, or legacy to new media, social media, and decentralized media. What is less obvious is that for those who seek the greatest insight will increasingly play games.

Media Hierarchy & Competito

Satellite data is very exciting. Especially since all the data is about our world. Agriculture uses this information to make better land use, planting, tending (fertilizer and pesticide), and harvesting choices. Forestry uses it for better land use, conservation, and harvesting decisions. Economists...

The other day someone asked me about creating an Org Chart in HTML instead of using Visio. Since visualizing a fast changing organizational structure for investors, potential customers, and curious journalists is a common problem for people in the startup space, what I found seems to have broad ap...

As the US heads back to the Moon, the world differs greatly from what it was in the late 60s and early 70s. People in the US are far more cynical and skeptical than ever before. According to Gallup International, 8% of respondents agree that “The planet Earth is flat and what is everywhere written...

To sustain life on the Moon over more than a few days, building a sustainable life support system is crucial. Challenges include lifting or producing enough resources to get the system up and running and sustaining the system cost effectively once running. Any life support system must be adequate to...

Using satellite imagery to improve terrestrial results readily springs to mind when thinking of agriculture and space. Companies like Metaspectral, SpaceAlpha Insights, and Wyvern are just a few of the Canadian companies attempting to improve agriculture through the application of artificial i...