Make Way For Green Collar Jobs
As the Going Green Train picks up more and more steam, new domaining opportunities are presenting themselves. And today, I have another list for you!
Fast Company magazine has published the best green jobs for the next decade. I’ll post a little comment about each, but you may also want to check the article out for what they have to say about their choices.
- Farmer - They claim that America has just 2 million farmers, and sustainable agriculture will require tens of millions. The new farmers will be small-scale local farmers. Sound familiar? That’s because back in November I claimed that local farming was going to get big. The article offered these related careers: urban gardener; farmers market and CSA coordinator; artisanal cheesemaker (artisinalcheesemaker/s.com are available).
- Forester - The modern forester will be moving away from the mass deforestation of doing things and more towards silviculture; the more efficient and environmentally conscious way of harvesting timber.
- Solar Power Installer - A bit of an obvious choice. This is more along the lines of personal solar power and not commercial. Again, personal solar power is something I blogged about last June. Couldn’t agree more with this choice.
- Energy Efficiency Builder - The article claim that buildings account for 48% of the U.S.’s energy use and greenhouse gas. So this should be one of the primary targets of a carbon cap/trade system. They point out that Passivhaus, which- and sorry for sounding like a broken record- I blogged about just days ago, would be a good standard for the U.S. to adapt.
- Wind Turbine Fabricator - The article claims that wind is the leading and fastest-growing source of alternative energy. They’re not citing any sources for this stuff. But they do make an interesting point: turbines are 90% metal by weight, creating an opportunity for auto workers to adapt.
- Conservation Biologist - Pretty much is what it says it is: biologists whose primary focus is to preserve the integrity of ecosystems.
- Green MBA and Entrepreneur - This time they cite a source and claim that legal, research and consulting account for the majority of green jobs. I think they’re dead on here. 10 or so years ago, companies began hiring their own IT people. Now, you’d be hard pressed to find a successful company that doesn’t have it’s own IT. And now, they’ll begin hiring their own green people.
- Recycler - Again, perhaps one of the more obvious choices. But stop thinking paper and plastic and start thinking steel, clothing, glass and other various construction materials.
- Sustainability Systems Developer - Green code writers!
- Urban Planners - I suppose I see it. I mean, due to the limited number of urban areas that would require persons such as this, this probably won’t be as popular as, say, solar power installers.
I think there is plenty of opportunity here, not just in domain names but also for those looking to develop them. The government threw a good deal of stimulus money at this area.
I’ll throw in a few of my own as well:
- Auto Mechanics - Though the article says that auto workers can adapt their skills to the wind industry, why not get a couple new skills so they can work on the new cars? You know, whatever ends up succeeding the petrol-based cars we have now: electric vehicles, hybrids, whatever. When I worked in the auto field, I personally saw old timey mechanics fade away as the mechanical-based vehicles disappeared off the road. These guys found it hard, and some simply refused, to work on the new cars that had computers and electrical systems. The current set of auto workers can learn from those earlier mistakes. Oh, and being that people have not been buying new cars as of late, that means they are driving more and more used cars. Those will eventually need service. So the auto workers in the service field may start seeing better days sooner rather than later.
- Smart Home and Auto Software Programmers and Interface Designers - I’ve been convinced that our appliances and other home items will be connected on a home network. Your fridge will know when you used your last stick of butter and put it on your grocery list for you. Your home security system will be on the network, allowing you to monitor it from work. I know, those aren’t green. They’re just the most obvious examples of a wired house. For green examples: your house will be able to tell you how much energy you are using in a more friendly way. Your car will give immediate feedback on your gas mileage (not new, but most cars still don’t do it) and your hypermiling techniques (new). These things will need programs to operate, and perhaps more importantly they will need smart, easy and friendly interfaces for the non-tech savvy to be comfortable enough to use them.
- Green Lawyers - Environmental lawyers will be en vogue. Not just those fighting FOR the green, but also against it. Yea, something tells me the oil companies can, and will, afford better lawyers.
Know of any green jobs not listed here? Share your ideas!
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Is Wikipedia Among Your Domaining Tools?
So, my wife and I are about halfway done with building a house. We’re having one built just outside a booming suburb of Houston. It’s taken up a lot of my time and energy as of late, but it will be worth it. (<— excuse for lack of posts)
While researching ways to make our new house energy efficient, I came across an interesting Wikipedia article on the Passive House. This article is a great example on how you can search for new hot keywords on Wikipedia.
This idea originates in Sweden and Germany, and is otherwise known as Passivhaus. In short, it’s the idea of making your house energy efficient using passive means of heating and cooling. While reading the article, I was bombarded with new ideas and keywords that I haven’t heard before. Immediately, my Domainer-Sense (much like Spidey-sense) kicked in and I found myself checking to see if any of them were registered.
This article is loaded with info for a hot niche: green energy. Whether you trust in the accuracy of Wikipedia or not is moot, really. These articles can provide you with new avenues to research.
I took a screenshot and circled many keywords in the article: click here to view the image. (I’ve tried making a thumbnail and a nice popup, but it’s either too early in the morning or my mojo is rusty)
So, after reading the article you now have:
- New ideas to hand register domain names
- Recognition of keywords that will help you identify domain names on drop lists and auctions that other domainers may pass up
- Tons of extra content for an existing green site
- Several small niche ideas, such as a site about passive solar design or one about ground heat exchangers
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Materials Of The Future: Magnetic Ink, Stone Paper And More
I have another list for ya. I’m a fan of lists, even biased lists (not that unbiased lists exist, right?). But my main problem with lists are putting them across a ton of pages. Forbes does this. I can’t stand it!
This list is brought to you by Popular Mechanics, who also puts one per page. I know they are getting impressions for their advertisers, and they have a right to. But we also have a right to bitch about it. Not to mention their crappy Sharp expanding-ad that won’t close. CLOSE DAMNIT!
So anyways, this list is 16 Wild Materials You May Find In Future Products. The people over at Inventables picked the 16 materials. I found this one fascinating and loaded with keywords.
- Magnetic Ink. This ink contains particles of iron, making it magnetic and conductive. How could this be useful? instead of circuit boards, we could have circuit paper made using your printer and using circuit fonts.
- Ceramic Cloth. Can be used to insulate against extreme temperatures.
- Flavor Changing Additives. Nanospeheres encapsulated in microspheres. You taste the microspheres first, and then later the nanospeheres. Willy Wonka wants his everlasting gobstopper recipe back.
- Electronic Paper. Flexible display technology.
- Conductive Velcro. They call it “Hook & Loop” since Velcro is technically a trademark. Anyways, this is interesting because once you connect the Velcro, it completes a circuit. Backpack alarms!
- Translucent Concrete. Concrete that allows light to pass through. Perhaps a way to collect solar energy?
- Temperature Sensitive Glass Tiles. Not sure how useful these can be as they seem to be just novelty. But novelty has its uses…
- Anti-graffiti Film. Quite interesting and obviously quite useful.
- Stone Paper. Paper made from calcium carbonate as opposed to wood. In other words, it’s environmentally friendly.
- Water Expanding Plastic. Plastic that expands in water. I sat and thought about this and am really unsure how this can be useful. The article says it can be used to produce a cast for enlarging sculptures or fossils. But why?
- Anti-fog Film. Water slides off the surface instead of fogging it up.
- Water Soluble Glass. Again, quite interesting. But not sure how it can be used.
- Magnetic-attracting Paint. The paint contains iron powder, making it magentic and conductive.
- Compostable Stretch Fabric. Contains wool and ramie. Ramie is strong and expensive. It is used as industrial sewing thread and fishing nets.
- Edible Glitter. Um… Looks like fish food.
- Paper Honeycomb. Lightweight and strong packing material.
Now, before you go registering anything based off of these keywords, be sure to check the trademarks. It’s possible the companies are trying to trademark these, if they haven’t already.
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Stem Cell Breakthroughs Found In Top Medical Stories Of 2008
With 2008 coming to a close, people are publishing oodles of “Best of” and “Top 10″ lists. Back in May on the third post I ever made on this blog, I talked about Top 10 lists and why domainers should read them, even if they are a bit lame or biased. This still holds true today. These lists, no matter how flawed, provide you with trends and the pulse of consumers, technology or whatever.
I ran across an interesting one the other day on ABC News. The article is the top 10 medical stories of 2008, spread across four pages of course. And they are:
- The JUPITER trial. A cholesterol pill that some think may be too good to be true.
- Birth from a whole ovary transplant. On Dec. 10th a girl was born using the first ever ovary transplant.
- The ENHANCE trial. More cholesterol drugs. This showed that Vytorin may not be as good as originally thought.
- Malaria vaccine. On Dec. 8th, the testing of a new vaccine showed that it was 50% successful among infants and toddlers in preventing malaria.
- Continuous glucose monitoring. In September, a 24/7 blood sugar monitoring device was unveiled.
- Stem cell genes and Alzheimers. In January, scientists discovered Lhx2, a critical gene in cortical development. And it’s probable that it can be treated with stem cells. Um… Lhx2.com is available…
- Progress on parasites. The Guinea worm has been defeated. It’s rare for diseases to be completely eradicated.
- Early blood test for Down syndrome. The test can show signs of Down syndrome 12 to 13 weeks into the first trimester.
- Stem cell trachea transplant. A 30 year old woman in Spain was the first to receive a full trachea transplant grown from her own stem cells.
- Face transplant breakthroughs. This made some big headlines in the past few weeks.
Remember, Obama is a strong supporter of stem cell research, some of which I have previously written about.
Using lists like this, you can better inform yourself when buying domains or building new sites.
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A Few Trends The November Elections Could Bring Into The Spotlight
Some have already speculated on how the Obama Administration will affect our domaining industry. Even a few domainers tackled this subject:
Mike over at The Domains
Steve over at SimplyGeo
There are others who have commented, but these are good reads if you want to do some trend domaining on our next four years.
I’ve also blogged about how the election of Obama will affect stem cell research and help coin the next big green term: carbon credit. The stem cell research I believe will receive the biggest boost of them all.
Today I want to go a little further on speculating how President Obama will affect our industry. But beyond that, there are some other trends that showed up unrelated to Obama.
Net Neutrality
Perhaps the biggest victory of them all is keeping the net neutral. Obama is strongly for net neutrality, making it a top priority in his first year and saying that
“a key reason the Internet has been such a success is because it is the most open network in history.”
I don’t think people really understand this topic, especially republicans. The most puzzling thing of the entire election, to me, was this monstrous internet support for Ron Paul, a candidate against net neutrality! The internet addicts supported a candidate who wanted to destroy their addiction! Don’t get me wrong, net neutrality isn’t the most important issue of all. But I think it’s a hell of a lot more important than it’s been treated. And it’s a far lesser worry now.
College Football Playoff System
As soon as he said it on 60 Minutes, it was the talk of all news media. Obama would like to see an eight-team playoff series replace the bowl championship series we have now, much to the delight of millions of fans. And perhaps that’s all that’s needed to push this idea into a real possibility.
Not that it lacks it, but this would breathe new life into college football overall. And a playoff system would bring big money to the cities that host it.
Marijuana
Though not exactly related to Obama, research for medical marijuana is accelerating. And last month, several states took another step forward to what ultimately could be the legalization of marijuana on recreational level.
Michigan legalized medical marijuana this past November while Massachusetts decriminalized it. Now, I’d like to tell you exactly which states have legalized medical marijuana and which have decriminalized it, but that’s a fuzzy line. You see, each state has it’s own law and definition of “legalized.” Let’s just say about a dozen states have legalized medical marijuana and about a dozen have decriminalized it.
However, the fact remains that it’s a Schedule 1 drug, meaning it’s against the federal law anyways. There is movement to change this, however.
And I think it will be legalized. There is just too much money involved. And if you want a say in it, this may be your chance.
Czars
One of the big new keywords is Czar. The word isn’t used literally, but more as a slang for people in high authoritative positions. For instance, the Chief Technology Officer referred to in Mike’s post on The Domains would otherwise be known as the Tech Czar. Obama is considering creating a position for someone to oversee the U.S. auto industry. He would be known as the Car Czar.
Keep an eye out for the Pirate Czar, Climate Czar, Energy Czar and Cyber Czar. And expect this word to be attached to many other keywords.
Change you can conceive in
Oh yes, it’s true. People celebrated on November 4th with sex. Think I’m joking? Mainstream media have reported this fact everywhere. They are called Obama Babies. This could possibly get real big. First, August of next year will be the boom. If you have a baby or baby name site, put in a special Obama section now. Second, if it gets big enough to include any baby conceived during his entire presidency, it becomes the Obama Generation.
Green
I’ve blogged about many green technologies. The election of Obama strengthens these technologies. Everything from alternative energy such as wind and solar on a large scale, and on a small scale, to alternative materials such as bamboo and alternative transportation such as lightrails and perhaps even zeppelins.
Fashion
The slim suit, slim tie look is in now, especially in the black community. His suits are made by Hart Schaffner Marx, who have an affiliate program with CJ. But perhaps the biggest fashion piece will be…
Sunglasses
Ok, this may be a bit of a reach. But if he is the Celebrity in Chief, then things like this don’t sound too far fetched, do they?
Infrastructure Stimulus Package
This time the stimulus package is not (most likely) going to be a deposit into all of our bank accounts. This time it will be for national infrastructure; things like roads, bridges, public transit and energy projects, such as work on the electrical grid to transfer wind and solar power from place to place. It doesn’t sound like it will immediately help the economy. But it will do some good, such as creating jobs and introducing more efficient transportation to areas, such as lightrails and perhaps maglevs.
Another area that may benefit on a local level are schools. This money can go towards repairs, modernization and additional teachers.
If you would like to read more about what this package may affect, read this article.
Generic Drugs
Obama wants to make it easier for Americans to import safe generic drugs from developed countries like Canada. He also supports funding for biotech generic drugs. Both of these industries will see a good boost.
Renegade
Again, perhaps too far fetched. When given the choice by the Secret Service of choosing a name that begins with R, Obama chose Renegade (Though some reports say the name was given to him and not a choice). You will now see this word have a mighty resurgence.
Patriotism
After 9/11, everyone had an American flag somewhere: on their car, their house, a shirt, a hat. American patriotism was at a long-time high. But it didn’t take long for it to disappear. How often do you see cars with flags on them? Or drive by a house with a flag on it? It’s not so common now. Americans have been waiting 7 years for something to be proud of. Perhaps this is it. Seeing how many people have shown to his rallies and his winning speech, and the anticipated turnout for the inauguration speech, I think patriotism will make a comeback.
Peace Corps
Obama wants to double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011. This is a trend I predicted back in August when I blogged about baby boomers retiring. Not sure how you can capitalize on this, other than adding it to a site aimed at baby boomers.
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