One and Co

One and Co

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Windshield Motor or Switch Problems Explained

You’re driving along and a little rain starts falling, you turn on your windshield wipers, but nothing happens. What should you do? The first thing is to pull over. Driving with non-functioning wipers can be dangerous. That is why you should check them regularly when inspecting your car. The next thing is to troubleshoot and fix the problem.

What Causes This?

There are a few possible culprits that may cause your wipers not to work. The most common are a malfunctioning switch and a seized or burnt motor. Unfortunately, identifying which is the problem can be a problem.

The good news is that you can easily find replacements for both parts using a VIN lookup at your local auto parts store. However, you don’t typically want to just replace things and hope for the best.

Troubleshooting the problem

One of the best ways to figure out which component is the problem is to use the windshield wiper stalk for other uses. Typically, they have more than one function. For example, you likely have multiple settings for the wipers. Try all of them and see if anything happens. Your switch probably also has the controls for your windshield washing fluid. Try activating that.

Some vehicles also have the turn signals integrated with the wiper control, try turning those on. Even if your turn signals are not on the same stalk, try turning them on and off. If they work, it isn’t a definite indicator that the problem isn’t the switch. However, if they don’t work, the problem is most likely with your controls.

You can also check the wiper motor wiring with a multimeter. Unplug the motor and connect your meter to the wiring harness. Check if you are getting a current to the motor when you use the controls.

Replacing both parts can be done without too much technical knowhow. However, the wiper stalk is a somewhat long process due to needing to remove some trim pieces.

Nonetheless, once you know which piece is the problem, fixing it is relatively easy. This is a common theme in automotive maintenance. Troubleshooting is the most challenging part. It is much easier with a multimeter. If you don’t own one, you can find them relatively inexpensively at many auto parts stores. AutoZone also has a loan program for various tools and diagnostic equipment.

Other Wiper Maintenance

Even if your wipers are working fine, you should consider installing windshield wiper replacement blades. This is very easy on most vehicles and will require, at most, a screwdriver. However, on many modern vehicles, you don’t even need tools at all. You can simply unclip them then slide the replacements into place until they snap-in.

Get Started

Whether you are replacing the wiper motor or just the blades, working on your own vehicle is very rewarding. It can also be a lot of fun once you get the hang of it. Don’t forget to make sure you are getting the right windshield wipers size and the correct motor or control stalk. Fortunately, finding the right parts is easy using the lookup tool described above.

 

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Taking CBD Oil

If you’re trying to help control a chronic pain problem, or looking for a way to reduce the impact of light anxiety or depression without recourse to clinical drugs, CBD may be the answer for you. Mostly available in the form of an oil tincture, CBD (cannabidiol) in a compound extracted from the cannabis plant with a growing reputation for boosting your sense of wellness as well as addressing specific issues like pain, inflammation, insomnia and anxiety, depression and low mood.

Buying CBD

As you may have noticed from the above paragraph, CBD is derived from the cannabis plant, so you might wonder how you can buy it, or if it’s legal. Fortunately, CBD is entirely legal – and free from the psychoactive effects people associate with cannabis.

Following a World Health Organisation report into CBD, which found it wasn’t addictive, and didn’t impair your judgement or perception, it’s become widely and legally available as a health supplement and complimentary medicine. You can it in health food shops and pharmacies as well as from specialist online retailers.

How to Take CBD Oil

Taking CBD oil is very straightforward. You can buy different concentrations of the oil in tincture form, so you can start out with a low dose and opt for stronger doses in future if you find it effective. These tinctures come in a bottle with a dropper, to make it easy to measure out how much you want to take.

The most direct way to take CBD oil is to drop your dose under your tongue. This is known as taking it sublingually. Here, it can be absorbed into the blood stream quickly, whereas if it enters your digestive system there is longer delay while it is processed by your body.

Other Ways to Take CBD

Some people don’t care for the flavour of CBD oil, or are looking for a more discreet way to take a regular dose of the compound. You can drop it into food or drinks – though if you’re adding CBD to your tea, you need to add milk (or a milk-substitute) because CBD is a lipid. As a fat based-molecule, it won’t dissolve in water. You can buy ready made CBD tea either as teabags, or over the counter in increasing numbers of cafes, but using a dropper and oil allows you to truly control the dose.

CBD edibles are also available. These are made by manufacturers using CBD oil, often in the form of gummy sweets or chocolate. They’re easy to work into your lifestyle, and discreet, if that’s a concern for you, but it’s harder to know how much CBD you’re taking in any one dose, and they are slower to take effect on you.

 

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3 Tips For Finding The Perfect Community To Raise Your Family

Raising kids is not an easy task. One thing that can make this easier, however, is choosing the right community in which to live with your family.

Within a family-friendly community, you’ll be able to feel comfortable being out with your children and will always have things to do and people to see who can enhance your life and inspire both you and your little ones. To help you find this place, here are three tips for finding the perfect community to raise your family.

Look For Other Kids

As you’re contemplating moving into a specific house or moving from one area of town to another for the sake of your family, it’s good to know that families are already living there and loving the lives they have together.

To know if this is taking place, Victoria Georgoff, a contributor to Care.com, recommends that you look for kids who are outside playing when you drive around a new neighborhood you’re considering moving into. If you see kids outside playing at various times throughout the day, you’ll know that not only are there kids in that area that your own child could play with, but you’ll also learn that their parents feel that the area is safe enough for their little ones to play outside.

Focus On Education

Once your kids are school-aged, they’ll be spending a big portion of their day at school rather than at your home. Because of this, Rebecca Lake, a contributor to The Balance, recommends that you ensure that the community you move into has good schools for your children to attend.

To determine if the schools in a certain area are up to your standards, you can look at school ratings that are posted online, read reviews, or speak to other parents in the area to see what they think of the school you’re considering as opposed to other schools that are in the area. If you’re unimpressed, you might want to consider sending your kids to school in a different community.

Choose Somewhere Safe

Arguably the most important thing about a family-friendly neighborhood is its safety. In an unsafe neighborhood, you can never feel truly confident that you or your children are out of harm’s way.

According to Diane Schmidt, a contributor to The Spruce, one of the best ways to learn if a community is safe for your family is to speak to the local police. They should be able to tell you about crime rates, community safety programs, and other details about the safety of any area in which they work.

If you’re wanting to move your children into a more family-friendly community, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you find one.

 

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Top Ways to Improve Employee Wellbeing

Wellbeing inside and outside the workplace is an essential factor for any employer. It is said that companies lose a significant amount in productivity due to mental health issues. What can you do to ensure your employees are fighting fit and loving their work-life?

Check out some crucial ways that you, as an employer, can promote positive wellbeing at work:

Encourage employee feedback – Employees feel valued and happy when they have a voice. Encouraging regular feedback from staff can open the conversation for other areas that need to be addressed. This feedback can be anonymous too, and systems provided by companies such as Inpulse.com enable you to compile all the information and consider the responses.

Offer support – There are several ways you can foster a better space for employees, and one way to do this is by offering onsite support. If employees know they have a place to go to, they will feel reassured that their thoughts and feelings are being listened to and that any concerns they have are being taken seriously. You could even arrange small mindfulness groups and mediation sessions to improve overall wellbeing and productivity.

Implement staff benefits – A great way to promote a healthy and body and mind is to include a wellbeing benefits package. This could consist of things such a subsided gym membership, travel coupons, cycle to work schemes, and health insurance. By promoting a healthy lifestyle can improve overall wellbeing at work and home.

Praise staff more often – Something as simple as a ‘well done’ or ‘good work’ can have profound effects on wellbeing within the workplace. Employees that feel valued in their work and are appreciated are more likely to work more productively and take fewer sick days. It’s important to recognize personal achievements and company-wide ones too, as these can help boost the morale for everyone in the company.

Offer training – Many people strive to push themselves in their careers. However, if staff feel they are unable to learn more or try something new, they often move onto a different role. Providing both internal and external training is a great way to push employees further and offer them with aspirations for higher positions and promotion. It could be as simple as training an individual on a new system or further study, such as sending them to night school to take a master’s degree. Each can have positive effects on wellbeing and personal enrichment.

Incorporate flexible working – The days of being tied to your desk 9-5 are starting to filter out of the average corporate office in favor of a more flexible schedule. By recognizing that employees can manage their timescales and projects, you open an increased level of trust with your staff. In this environment, employees feel more motivated and valued and are more accepting that there is a level of confidence to ensure this arrangement works well for both parties. Flexible working also helps prevent burnout and can improve employee satisfaction in the workplace.

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3 Tips For Picking A New Primary Care Provider For Your Family

Whether you’ve just moved to a new city, your old doctor has retired, or you’re just ready to transfer your care to someone new, it’s important to know how to pick the right primary care doctor for you and your family. So much of your health will depend on this doctor’s ability to provide you with quality care, so it’s wise to take your time in finding the right fit.

To help you with this, here are three tips for picking a new primary care provider for your family.

Find Someone In Your Network

If you have medical insurance, the most important thing for you to look for when getting a new primary care provider is someone in your insurance network. In many instances, if you don’t see a doctor that’s in your insurance network, Elaine K. Howley, a contributor to U.S. News and World Report, shares that your medical services won’t be covered in the way that they otherwise would be. This could cost you a lot of money in addition to what you’re already paying for insurance.

Along with finding someone in your insurance network, you should also tap into your personal network and ask for their suggestions or referrals to try to find a doctor that’s already been vetted by someone that you trust.

Research The Doctors Standing And Reputation

Once you’ve created a small list of the doctors that you’d consider bringing your family to, you should then do some more in-depth research about those doctors and their reputation and standing with the medical board.

Dr. Brunilda Nazario, a contributor to WebMD.com, shares that you can check through various online resources to see if there have been any complaints or disciplinary actions have been taken against any of these doctors for medical malpractice reasons. If you do find anything on these websites, that should be taken as a red flag.

Do Some Trial Runs For Compatibility

Along with finding a primary care provider that is a responsible medical professional, you should also be concerned with a doctor that fits well with you and your family in your lifestyle and personalities.

To determine this, Joel Keehn, a contributor to Consumer Reports, recommends that you use your first visit with your doctor to really judge things like if the doctor listened to you, if your questions were adequately answered, how comfortable you were with the treatment, and more. Even if it takes seeing a few different doctors to find the one that’s right for your family, it will be well worth it when you’re finally able to find someone that you’re all compatible with.

If you’re needing to find a new doctor for your family, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you pick the right provider.

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3 Ways To Protect Yourself From Injury Due To A Car Accident

Getting into a car accident is a very scary yet very common occurrence. For minor car accidents, you might be able to escape with little to no injuries. But in many instances, car accidents leave drivers and passengers with at least some kind of injury.

Depending on the type and extent of your car accident, there may be things you can do to mitigate the injuries you sustain. To show you how this can be done, here are three ways to protect yourself from injury due to a car accident.

Wear Your Seatbelt Properly

One of the best ways to always keep yourself protected from harm when in a car is by wearing your seatbelt. However, many people either don’t wear their seatbelt every time they are in the car or wear their seatbelt incorrectly, which won’t protect them as it should.

To show you the right way to wear your seatbelt, Wes Siler, a contributor to Gizmodo.com, reminds us that the shoulder harness should always go over the shoulder, not under the arm. Additionally, the lap belt should be worn low and tight. If you don’t wear your seatbelt in this way, you run the risk of getting even more hurt due to improper use of your safety belt.

Protect Your Most Vital Areas

When in a car accident, there are certain areas of your body that are going to be more vulnerable than others. Because of this, you should try your best to protect these vital areas. According to Daniel Engber, a contributor to Popular Science, it’s much better to break your arm in a car accident than to get a head or neck injury.

One thing you can do to try to protect the most vital areas of your body is to ensure that you’ve packed your car properly. If you leave items loose in your car, they can and will become projectiles in the event of a car accident. These items could easily hit you or your passengers in the head, which is the one area of your body that you want to be sure to protect. So to keep this from happening, make sure you always secure your cargo and keep it low to the floor of your vehicle.

Prepare For Impact

If you see that a car accident is imminent for you, your body will naturally try to brace itself. To make this as effective as possible, Megan Brame, a contributor to WiseBread.com, advises that you try to keep your hands on the steering wheel with your wrists straight and your head pressed back into your headrest.

In these positions, you’ll keep your arms out of the way of your airbag going off and you’ll secure your head so any whiplash will be minimized.

To give yourself the best chance of surviving a car accident, consider using the tips mentioned above to protect yourself when in a car accident.

 

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Composites Fabricating: Is the End of the Autoclave Near?

When a company like Boeing wants to make an airplane wing or fuselage panel, they rely on a traditional layup process and a high-heat autoclave. The autoclave applies heat and pressure to cure the multiple layers of carbon fiber inside an epoxy resin. The finished product ends up being a solid piece of carbon fiber reinforced plastic.

All of this is well and good, but autoclaves for such large parts are monstrous in and of themselves. Thanks to ongoing research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the need for high heat autoclaves may be coming to an end. Researchers have found a way to cure composite materials using carbon nanotubes and electricity. Their process completely eliminates the need for ovens and autoclaves.

Building an Airplane Fuselage

The Boeing 787, now considered the crowning jewel of the Boeing fleet, relies on an extensive amount of carbon fiber throughout. Needless to say that the 787 is a huge plane. Imagine what a monumental task it must be to construct fuselage panels for this aircraft.

A single fuselage panel starts as multiple layers of carbon fiber prepregs. As Rock West Composites in Salt Lake City explains, prepregs are carbon fiber fabrics that come from the factory already impregnated with resin. They are laid into a mold until the desired level of thickness is achieved. Then the mold is placed in an autoclave where heat and pressure cure the fabric and resin.

An autoclave large enough to accommodate fuselage panels is almost as big as a small warehouse. It consumes a ton of energy doing what it does. Between energy consumption and the sheer amount of floor space needed to house an autoclave, you are talking a major financial investment for Boeing. What if they could dispense with the autoclave altogether?

The MIT Research

Back in 2015, an MIT research team began working on a process whereby they could cure composite materials without the need for an oven or autoclave. They decided to go with electricity as the curing mechanism. Making it all work relied on creating a carbon nanotube film they could wrap around the composite layers. Introducing electricity to the film generated enough heat to cure the composites in place.

Researchers dubbed their process ‘out-of-oven’ curing. With it they were able to produce composite materials that were just as strong as those made with conventional layups and autoclave curing. More importantly, they did it with 99% less energy.

Fast forward some four years and a new team of MIT researchers is working to perfect the process. Much of their focus is on improving the carbon nanotube film. By improving its performance and introducing new capabilities, they believe they can dramatically simplify composites fabricating in the aerospace industry.

Implications for Other Industries

There is no telling how close MIT researchers are to perfecting their out-of-oven process. Yet by proving it works, they have set the stage for quite a revolution in composites fabricating. The implications go way beyond aerospace manufacturing.

Think about the automotive sector. They have been chomping at the bit to incorporate more carbon fiber in their designs. What has stopped them? Cost. If car makers could produce the carbon fiber parts they want with 99% less energy and without the need for ovens and autoclaves, it’s a lot easier to justify the cost.

Taking the autoclave out of the equation changes the game entirely. Throw in an automated process for laying down carbon fiber fabrics and you have an entirely new method for producing very large composite parts at a fraction of the cost.

 

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4 Ways To Improve Employee Morale

Employee burnout can often happen as a result of low morale. People aren’t productive, they aren’t motivated to show up, and they aren’t producing good work. Usually, turnover is high, resulting in valuable production time being used to train employees yet again.

The best way to tackle a low morale problem is first to accept that there is an issue and start thinking of creative ways to tackle it. Not only will you get the best possible performance out of your employees, but you’ll be happier as a manager with less to worry about.

Reward Good Performances

Rewarding employees’ performance is a critical step in making them feel motivated to do their best. You want your team to improve as they go rather than get comfortable where they are. The best way to make this happen is by offering incentives.

Rewards can be anything from delivering a fruit basket to offering theater tickets. Give them something that makes them motivated to perform at their maximum potential. When you can inspire greatness, then you know that you’re fulfilling your job as their leader.

Increase Communication

One of the most straightforward ways to boost employee morale is to improve the lines of communication. Be present when you talk to your team become sincerely invested in how they’re doing.

Check-in with how well their energy is doing and inquire whether there are any current challenges they’re facing. Offer to give them whatever tools they need to make their job easier.

Your employees should be valued and treated like assets. If you expect them to give you their best performance, then you’ll need to invest in how they’re feeling. Checking in once in a while is a critical part of leadership. Let them know that they matter and you care about their well-being.

Encourage Feedback

Often employees feel scared about sharing their ideas with their managers. If they feel like they can’t give their input, then you’ll never have an accurate reading on how well your team is doing.

Always encourage feedback and encourage creative thinking. You’ll get much more out of your employees if they feel like they’re an active part of the process.

Have a Little Fun

It’s essential to roll up your sleeves once in a while and take your corporate tie off. Encourage your team to have fun once in a while. Organizing something casual like an outing together to a restaurant or even going to an event together can get your team to open up.

When they start seeing you as a real person and not just a manager, they’ll be more inclined to give you their best work. Apply these tips and encourage growth, and you’ll have a great team on your hands in no time!

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Ode to the king single

The king single bed is the best mattress size ever conceived. You can keep your stubby double bed and your bloated queen bed; the king single is all a person ever needs. I have slept on every kind of bed in every different size, but nothing has played a constituent role in my life more than a king single bed.

What the heck am I talking about? I know, I sound crazy, spruiking the benefits of a… mattress size? Before you call the men in white suits to come scoop me away, let me tell you a little story.

Growing pains.

When I was a child, I slept on the top bed of a bunk; below me was my younger sister. We shared a room peacefully until I was 11 when I started to complained daily about a crawling pain in my legs and arms. I was so concerned I started to make my self sick with worry. Why was I feeling this? Was it a rare disease from space? Maybe my math teacher had a mysterious strain of flu and gave it to me when he marked my test?

My loving mother (bless her) would laugh at me, say that I was being dramatic, and it was only growing pains. Growin pains? What the? My rapidly changing man-child body was an awkwardly hilarious disaster for all around me as I bumped into things constantly, not used to my expanded extremities.

In the space of four months, I went from a chubby little boy who fit snugly in a single bed, to a gangly 6 foot something teenager. The rapid growth scarred my body with stretch marks, which are still visible today.

Graciously, before the onset of this change, I was given my own room, and we went bed shopping. An uninterested and constantly moody teenager was probably not the funnest shopping partner in the world, but still, my mother persisted as we hopped from Domayne to Harvey Norman, on a quest to find the perfect bed for her rapidly expanding son.

She was insistent on a double bed. On the outset, this size looked like the logical choice, double the width of my current bed, not too expensive and a popular size amongst teenagers, according to the teenaged salesperson. My mum was sold, myself not so much.

In my short career of growing taller, I had managed to crack the six foot two mark, and as such, as I lay on a double bed in the showroom, surrounded by my parents and a sweating salesperson, I realized it was too big. But I didn’t say anything, I kept quiet, and for years I slept diagonally on a double bed, too afraid to offend my mum, as they say, don’t bite the hand that feeds you!

King-sized revelations

I wasn’t even an adult, but I didn’t fit in my supposedly adult-sized bed. The ensemble was heavy and took up an awkward amount of space in my room. When I left home for university, I knew I needed to buy a new bed, and I thought queen-sized must be the way to go; after all, it was a double but longer, just what I needed. Or so I thought.

After some number crunching, doubt began to creep into my mind. A queen-sized bed is too big for my university accommodation. I was too poor to pay someone to deliver a bulky mattress. Was I doomed to live a life of awkward sleep?

For months, I tried to adjust to uni life, all while sleeping on an air mattress. Oh, what fun it was to remember scores of critical information while waking up on the hard ground after the mattress had deflated in the night. It was pretty grim, but when I think back on it, that pretty much summed up university.

Big (tax) break

An eye-opening first semester had drawn to a close, and I was free to wander the city streets and try and process some of the madness I had witnessed. Shortly after that, I realized it was futile and went to the mall. Good choice, it was a welcome respite from the bitter winter that had recently snuck in.

The heaters were pumping as hard as the sickly sweet love ballads coming from the stero system, it’s 11:30 in the morning, and the mall is swarming with shoppers. I treat myself to a donut and start to wander aimlessly, enjoying the strange juxtaposition of me, the poor uni student, and the mall, a shining temple of consumerism. Before I can get too deep and arty, a sign out the front of a department store catches my eye;

‘TAX TIME SALE: %50 OFF ALL MATTRESSES AND ENSEMBLES ‘

I browse the displays; queen beds stretch out before me. Even with the sales, these beds are too expensive, to.. excessive. And then I see it. The Rialto king single bed. This bed is what I had been missing my entire life. A bed that was comfortable long, while not being fat on the sides. I was about to cry in desperation at my lack of funds until the sign out the front replayed in bold font across my brain:

‘TAX TIME SALE”

It’s a sale, and its tax time. Its tax time. TAX TIME! Of course! My tax refund had come in for the previous year, it wasn’t much, but it was enough to buy the mattress. Some young men buy expensive cars, and others just want a good night’s sleep and buy a Sealy mattress instead. Yeah, I know I’m very uncool.

My love affair with this sized mattress grew deeper when I was able to fit it into my Camry and managed to get it home and set it up by myself. That night I had the best sleep of my ife, and the rest is history.

In a world where bigger is better, the king single is an interesting idea — something big, mixed with a healthy dose of restraint. King single beds are the perfect bed for a teenager, a single adult or even a couple who are severely strapped for cash (My girlfriend and I shared a king single for two years, and yes, we are still together) When it comes time to upgrade your mattress or ensemble, spare a thought to the king single, the king of the bed sizes.

 

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Technologies that changed the course of history

Throughout human history, there seems to be a distinct ebb and flow in human innovation. Usually, we see a paradigm shift in thinking, an idea so revolutionary it changes the way we think and live our lives forever. Always there are those opposed to a change in the status quo, and we see periods of human history that take a step backward from what we have learned (the dark ages anyone?)

Thankfully, as we march into the future, we see more innovation and less darkness. We are living in an age that may just see us give birth to artificial life. How did we get here? What technologies kick-started our ubiquity? What inventions can we thank for our prolific history and our bright future?

Printing press

For tens of thousands of years, we huddled in caves; fire was our greatest discovery. We invented language, animal husbandry, and learned to navigate using the night time sky. There are millions of individual ideas and inventions, but nothing kick-started our rise to global super species like the invention and spread of the printing press.

It’s hard to imagine a time when news wasn’t accessible instantly from your iPhone 11 pro, but before printed material, even a simple newspaper did not exist.

Invented around 1440, the printing press allowed the mass reproduction of printed material, and this gave birth to newspapers, magazines, and other consumable writings. Most importantly, the printing press allowed for easy circulation of information and, ultimately, the establishment of the scientific community.

A strong scientific community that could easily share ideas and information was paramount to the development of more sophisticated technology. Without the printing press, we would not enjoy the convenient lives we lead today.

Microchip

If the printing press changed the world in a hundred years, the microchip did it almost overnight. In the early ’70s, this stroke of design genius emerged, promising to shrink bulky, vacuum-powered electronics to a more manageable size.

There are too many ways in which the microchip changed human history to list here. Every piece of technology was miniaturized and made more efficient after the microchip was introduced, allowing us to enjoy handheld devices of astonishing power — devices like the smartphone.

Smart phone

Many people say that Apple introduced us to the smartphone, but it doesn’t really matter. The move towards handheld computers was well on its way before Apple graced us with the iPhone in 2004. The melding of touchscreen technology, as well as cellular connectivity, gave birth to perhaps the most significant piece of consumer technology in the earth’s history.

Has the smartphone made our lives easier or more fulfilling? The argument could go either way, but it seems they have complicated life further for many. Smartphones are so significant not for how they helped humankind, but how they have distracted us and changed the way we live forever.

What’s next?

If I could predict the future, I wouldn’t be writing these articles; I would be enjoying an extended vacation on a beach somewhere far away, growing fat on the lottery money I have won. Alas, I cannot predict the future, but we can make educated guesses as to where humanity is heading.

3D printing is starting to mature and is finding applications in the real world as we speak. As technology gets more sophisticated, the effects of 3D printing could be profound. Imagine being able to print new organs, or instantly replace a part in a broken machine by printing a new one. This future is not very far away and is very exciting, but only time will tell how it plays out.

Human history is intrinsically tied to technology, from early man discovering fire to modern man developing neck cramps from overuse of a smartphone, technology is what makes us human. What new wonders will our children witness? What technologies will emerge to reshape our world once more? Only time will tell.