Images: Josh Bolinger at CES
Josh Bolinger Related
Bringing Health to Developing Communities
The race is on. Health technology is getting smaller, lighter, less expensive, and easier to use. With the advent of portable smart devices, a revolution has taken place in the field of medical devices. Nowadays, you can convert a handheld device into a blood pressure monitor, a glucose tester, a[...]
Is Alternative Energy Ready?
Is alternative energy ready? Probably not. Not by a long shot. Let’s face it, for now, fossil fuels are the majority of the energy production in the world, and they will continue to be a part of the equation for the foreseeable future. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be working on the probl[...]
What is an Entrepreneur?
Entrepreneur. We see that word thrown around a lot, and I like to use it, too. But what does it mean? Like any other word in common usage, it means different things to different people. I’ve seen the word defined to mean, “A person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on gr[...]
Desalinization: Using the Ocean to Satisfy Our Fresh Water Shortage
Desalinization would seem to be the answer to our water problems. With cities and even entire regions all over the world experiencing chronic water shortages, the massive amounts of salt water in our oceans and many aquifers look very attractive to planners. But desalinization is a difficult proc[...]
The Value of City Events
It was a sunny day in June when someone walked into the office and said, “I just saw Tony Hawk skateboarding down the sidewalk.” The X Games were in Austin Texas. Attracting events is key to a city’s economic growth. I have a buddy who goes to a small town in Michigan every year for their cheeseb[...]
Getting a Hand on Health
How can new medical technology improve our health? I’ve talked elsewhere on this site about the new portability of medical devices, and what that means for under-developed communities. But what does it mean for those of us here at home? From real-time blood testing for diabetics to the hand-he[...]
Understanding Homelessness
One of the big problems I see in dealing with the problem of homelessness is a lack of understanding of the experience itself, and how it feels. There are certain symptoms of homelessness that make it especially difficult to break out of. Breaking out of homelessness, getting back on the social l[...]
Why Travel is Essential to Learning
Travel is a life-changing experience. One of the greatest experiences of my life was getting the chance to see the world outside my own little zone of comfort. Experiencing another culture, seeing how the people of other nations lived first-hand and meeting people whose lives were different in so[...]
Can Non-Profits be More Effective?
In my career, I’ve worked with companies that were literally a couple of guys in a garage, and I’ve also worked with some of the largest companies on Earth. And there never seems to be a happy medium. Small companies often founder because of a lack of risk-taking, they are penny wise and pound fo[...]
2013: The Year in Tech
I know I say this every year, but 2013 was a huge year for technical innovation. Right off the bat, Google Glass leaps out as a biggie. This is going to be one of those technologies that changes our lives in ways the inventors never imagined. Of course, that’s one of the points I’m always harping[...]
The big water issue
Water is one of the biggest things we as Americans take for granted. I think most of us dont realize just how much water we use and how important it is to our daily habits. Its a part of nearly everything we do, from eating, washing, cleaning and of course drinking. If you put some numbers on it,[...]
Why Philanthropy Matters
I strongly believe that those who have been blessed with success and growth have an obligation to give back, to help those that haven’t been so fortunate. That doesn’t always mean money. You can give back by educating, mentoring, even investing. And there are so many places where you can invest a[...]
Innovating For the Developing World
How can the first world innovate for the third world? It’s what someone once called “the vision thing.” Or, to put it a different way, it’s a matter of perspective. We are blessed to live in a society with high technology, reliable electricity and water supplies, so many resources we often don’t [...]
Building an Effective Non-Profit
I’m a big believer in people helping each other, in cooperative endeavors. When you think of the biggest, most effective and memorable companies in our society, we often think of soda products, car brands, big entertainment companies. But we rarely associate non-profit or philanthropist organizat[...]
Seeing Beyond the First World
How can we change our perspective? How do we get past our own issues and learn to see our fellow citizens as our national family once more? I know one great cure. Travel. And I don’t mean Paris. Go see what the real world is like. Spend some time in the third world, and then take a look at you[...]
A Smarter Way to Invest
How do you make your money work for you in a way that makes the world better? Certainly the best-known investment destination in America is the stock market. But the stock market is heartless, meaningless, and ultimately without substance. Plus, every few years, it makes everyone’s money magicall[...]
Why Worry About Developing Countries?
I am asked so often, why do you bother to worry about developing countries? It’s so far away. Yes, in some cases, it is very far away. But, in the case of Brazil, where I lived for quite some time, it’s not very far away at all. But that’s really beside the point. Because human suffering knows no[...]
Building a Healthy Society
As Americans, we’ve developed some pretty unhealthy habits, and the digital world of the new century doesn’t help. We watch too much television, park too close to the store, use the drive throughs, take the elevator instead of the stairs, and spend too much time interacting with devices and compu[...]
What Good is NASA?
Just what good is a space program? There are really two ways to answer that question. One way to answer that question is to talk about the good our space program has already done, the other way is to say we don’t actually know yet what good it will do, and that’s exactly the point. Okay, let’s[...]
The End of Big Ideas?
Has America lost its ambition for big ideas? Sometimes it seems like we have. I think of massive accomplishments like the mission to the moon, the Hoover Dam, the Manhattan Project, and it seems like in our society today, you couldn’t even get ideas like this off the drawing board, let alone acco[...]
Boulder's Impressive Culture
I had the opportunity to spend some time in Boulder not too long ago, and I was just blown away. You spend some time in that city, and you come away very impressed with how it is set up and run. It’s a deep and pervading sense of design and thought, you can see it is the product of a larger cultu[...]
Driving for the Future
Cars can change the world. Of course, they already have, but now, it’s time for them to do it again. The automobile industry is one of the few places where you see constant innovation and change. Market forces push the car companies to make something new every year. We see improvements in safe[...]
Is it Really All About the Money?
How do you attain the ideal amount of money for your happiness? Is the job you are at going to get you there? One of my favorite things to do when I meet new people is to ask them what they do for a living, and then ask them what they really want to be doing. The answer is very rarely the same[...]
Being Homeless Changed my Life
Being homeless was like being reborn. Of course, it was in many ways far worse than that, as even the worst birth is over in a matter of hours or a day or two, and homelessness, while you’re living it, seems to go on forever. Poverty and desperation are monotonous. But coming out the other side o[...]
Can Entrepreneurs Save Us?
They don’t wear capes, but entrepreneurs can be heroes. Sometimes it seems everywhere we look for hope, we see disappointment. The two big major forces in society, government and large corporations, sometimes seem mired in the mud of corruption and greed. Government has become a massive bureau[...]
Jaded at CES?
I have heard the grumblings. About how anti-climatic CES has become. That CES used to be an event you attended to be amazed by what the future is going to look like. That now, it’s more of the previous year... but bigger, thinner, faster. That there are no major innovations. Technology is prog[...]
Do Our Leaders Do Enough?
Does it sometimes seem like politicians - of any party - are just fooling around with our lives? It sure does to me. When I look around at the state of leadership in this society, I am appalled. I see people in high positions of leadership - with responsibility for people’s lives in their hands -[...]
Is "Philanthropy" the New "Green?"
What is green? Does it even mean anything anymore? It used to be that “green” was a term for systems and products that were environmentally responsible. Looking for green labels was a way to try to direct your consumerism in ways that would have a minimal impact on the planet. The other day I [...]
