Interesting timing on Dyson's announcement this week - yesterday NPR ran the first of a 2-part piece on the Excel Dryer Co [1], a US-based Dyson rival.
Though it's not mentioned in the transcript, late in the nine-minute piece, the Excel VP takes the reporter into Excel's R&D where he's shown one of their latest inventions, a faucet that dispenses soap, water, and then drying air...
One thing that really stuck in my mind when I heard the story was that, even 35 years later, "we're now a substantial fraction of a 'light-day' from the Earth..."
With the term "light-years" most commonly mentioned (eg, from a few days ago: http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/astronomers-find-su... ) I think hearing about light-hours and light-days helps to put things a little more into perspective (though it's all still mind-boggling).
I’m relatively new here and hadn’t caught one of your posts before. Tonight I saw your reply to the Instagram post, someone’s reply to you, and I started to read through your HealthGazelle and KidsLikeMine sites and comments on HN.
I’m grateful and happy that people here have reached out to you, and so I want to try as well. I’ll summarize here and follow up with an email after I’ve had some time to give it some thought.
-- You are a great writer, and your blog posts are a compelling mix of passion with the mundane, common sense and a bit of adventure with trying new things to feel better (“Teeth” and “Throat” on gazelle are examples). Have you thought about publishing an e-book? Just today I heard an “On the Media” story on how people have made money by writing for the Kindle/Amazon platform and pricing their books (of varying quality) at 99 cents. [1]
Though the majority of your CF community may not be ready to listen to your experiences on reclaiming your (and your family’s) health, I think the broader general public is hungry for real-life examples of how people are finding health again. Especially through nature/naturally and on a budget, two things that it seems you are able to do well. And I know you would be able to come with some great book titles that would catch people’s attention (here’s a quick example: “What a walk in the ocean can cure, and other natural health remedies that have worked for my family”).
-- Have you thought about Kickstarter? I haven’t posted a project there, but it seems that there are only two components to listing a project there: 1) a short video describing the project and 2) a written description of the project and the levels of backing. And with your tablet (shoots video?) and skills, you have what you need.
I think your potential funding rewards could be very attractive to folks (eg, $1 gets name added to supporters on site, $10 pledge gets that and an early edition and any updates to your next ebook, $100 gets the person a 1-hr phone/Skype conversation about ways that you’ve been able to get healthy naturally, etc). IANAL and I don’t know what disclaimers you’d need so that you don’t run afoul of medical/legal issues that this might bring up though (related, I did sell a table on craigslist years ago and the lady that bought it gave me a self-published book she published on getting healthy naturally and her belief that her daughter’s health issues were caused by excessive flouride, MSG and aspartame, and she wasn’t a doctor).
Searching Kickstarter for “homeless” turns up a handful of film projects; searching for “health” yields 300+ projects... [2]
Please forgive the late-night ramblings, something just made me want to jump in and try to help if I could.
Hang in there – though with the fight and spirit I’ve read in your posts, it doesn’t seem like I need to even say that...
Thank you for writing. I have had people suggest Kickstarter before and I have looked at it. I don't grok what qualifies as a "project". I cannot wrap my brain around why people praise what I have already done but won't donate money, won't promote the site and won't tell me something like "All you need is a rad t-shirt!" It always involves creating something new to get something back for my work. Further, people seem to be openly hostile to me as a person who gives advice. They like me far more as an entertainer. And entertainment sites, like webcomics, do make money. If I have to start from scratch to make money, a new project that lacks the boatloads of emotional baggage and personal scars seems far more logical.
That was what jumped out at me as well - I could only think about the $100K that was going into GoDaddy's bank account. ALL the dozens of domains I've moved (and continue to move, sometimes one by one) hardly make a dent when compared to these bulk folks that still use GD. Oh, well, death by a thousand (hundred thousand) blows...
The majority of that $100K doesn't go to GoDaddy. I believe the current cost of a .com from verisign is $7.21 + $0.19 ICANN fee, then transactions fees etc... godaddy probably takes home about $0.50 per domain, so they made maybe $5k off this guy.
"Tales of Airport Security" is one of my favorite parts of Le Show - though the stories are typically sent in by listeners regarding their first-hand accounts of TSA ineptitude, I could see Shearer delivering this one himself... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Show#News_segments
Agreed. The TSA Out of Our Pants guy goes to the trouble of giving specific examples in a well-articulated video and they respond with some catchy, hip-sounding interwebs keywordz... I feel safer already.
> If you read/watch American news, you think you actually know what other nations are up to?
This reminds me of a recent Daily Show segment that showed how Time magazine offers different cover stories for their international and their US issues on the same date. One example was the Arab Spring (international) and something on "doing chores" for us here in the US.
Yeah, and puppies. Sometimes when I take a glance at American news it looks like there'd be a conspiracy going on not to expose citizens to any issue possibly widening their field of view on world affairs. It's pathetic.
Though it's not mentioned in the transcript, late in the nine-minute piece, the Excel VP takes the reporter into Excel's R&D where he's shown one of their latest inventions, a faucet that dispenses soap, water, and then drying air...
[1] http://www.npr.org/2013/02/04/171090394/how-one-company-rein...