Exothermic is the leader in self-reliance brand marketing, but we like to share our wisdom with the world. Here are the top stories we’ve identified this week in our markets:

Survivalism

• Tesla starts taking solar roof orders next month, It’s still unclear exactly how much they’ll cost or when the orders will be delivered. Musk did mention in an investor call back in October that a full set of power-generating tiles would likely cost less than a roof made of shingles. This is going to be a huge advancement for off-grid living.
• Smart home system uses predictive algorithms to warn of impending disasters, Thanks to machine learning, connected devices, and the growing range of available sensors, our homes are getting smarter all the time.
• This ready-made tiny home can be shipped to any destination, Those looking to go off grid hassle free can order it to be delivered to their desired location – perfect for a bug-out location.
• Norway Gets a New Doomsday Vault That Stores Data, Officially known as the World Arctic Archive, the vault opened this week and has already taken submissions from two countries. This time, instead of storing seeds that will survive the apocalypse, the vault is archiving data using specially developed film. As long as the internet and servers are still functioning, the data will remain searchable online.
• Companies start implanting microchips into workers’ bodies, the company offers to implant its workers and start-up members with microchips the size of grains of rice that function as swipe cards: to open doors, operate printers or buy smoothies with a wave of the hand. This is insane and hopefully not the future of modern workplaces.
• Graphene sieves are a cheaper way of making saltwater drinkable, A graphene-based sieve developed by a team of researchers from the University of Manchester could give millions of people access to clean water.
• Incredible edible landscape map shows you where to find free food, Falling Fruit, a massive collaborative mapping project, provides foragers with the tools they need to track down a nutritious snack.

Sustainability

• New Toyota Mirai billboards in California help clear the air, The Mirai, which needs hydrogen fuel to power its electric motor, emits nothing but water vapor. The FCV will be featured on a new billboard (nothing new about cars on billboards) but this one, fittingly, helps to clean the air. Love this.
• ‘Moore’s Law’ For Carbon Would Defeat Global Warming, A group of European researchers have a refreshingly straightforward solution that they call a carbon law — or, as the Guardian has coined it, a “Moore’s law for carbon.” The overarching goal is simple: globally, we must halve carbon dioxide emissions every decade.
• Sungevity Declares Bankruptcy, Sells Assets, Gains up to $20M to Continue ‘Uninterrupted’ Operations, The VC- and utility-funded residential solar sales firm enters Chapter 11 after nine years and $850 million. Not all renewable energy efforts are succeeding.
• Tel Aviv’s trash is being turned into fuel, A new waste collection plant has begun processing the trash in Tel Aviv from an endless stream of garbage trucks, turning much of it into fuel for a nearby factory.
• Sierra Club Hits New Milestone — 25 Cities Now Committed To 100% Renewable Energy, The Sierra Club shared this week that its Ready for 100 program has reached a milestone with 25 US cities now committed to transition to 100% renewable energy.
• In Its New Factory, Impossible Foods Will Make 12 Million Pounds Of Plant-Based Burgers A Year, The new plant-based burger that bleeds like real meat is scaling up to reach more customers: It wants to be in 1,000 restaurants by the end of the year. Will you try one out this year?
• The World’s Largest Brewer Commits To 100% Renewable Electricity, The world’s largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, the maker of such beers as Corona, Budweiser, and Stella Artois, has announced it has committed to transitioning to a 100% renewable electricity future by 2025.
• Scientists discover shortcut for turning grass into plane fuel, It takes millions of years for natural processes to convert plants into crude oil (which is refined to gasoline), but researchers at Ghent University have figured out how to do it much faster.
• Riding Hopes For Model 3, Tesla Overtakes Ford In Market Value, By the end of trading Monday, Elon Musk’s Silicon Valley automaker — which also works in energy storage — had passed the venerable Detroit titan in market value, riding a 7 percent share-value surge to a market capitalization of about $48.7 billion. Meanwhile, a 1.7 percent dip brought the house that Henry Ford built to a value of $45.6 billion.
• Before-And-After Photos Show How Horrifyingly Fast The World’s Glaciers Are Melting, In 1850, there were 150 glaciers in Glacier National Park. Now there are 25. Within 15 years, scientists project, all the glaciers may have melted away. The numbers are pretty stark.

Self-Improvement

• Student Loan Debt Has Nearly Tripled, Recent college graduates who borrow are leaving school with an average of $34,000 in student loans. That’s up from $20,000 just 10 years ago. However, there’s hope –>
• This College Alternative Only Makes Money If You Make A Salary, Rather than saddle students with debt, MissionU charges grads 15% of their pre-tax income for three years. This is fantastic and I really hope it’ll take off.
• The Most Educated Place in Each State, It’s interesting to see how drastically the numbers vary across the country. In North Dakota, for example, Fargo is the most educated city with 39% of adults having earned a bachelor’s degree, whereas Lareda, California leads the country with an impressive 89.5%.
• This Evil Alarm Clock App Is the Only Reason I’m Awake Right Now, “I believe my dreams. Say I’m dreaming about getting to the airport, or finding the room with the final exam I haven’t studied for. When an alarm goes off, I snooze it: I am on a very important mission and cannot be interrupted. That is why I need this evil, terrible alarm clock app.”
• Libraries have become a broadband lifeline to the cloud for students, The role of the library in the digital age has grown thanks to cloud tools.
• Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman to host crafting competition on NBC, Parks And Recreation buddies Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman are teaming up again for a new show called The Handmade Project.
• Wellness Apps Evade the FDA, Only to Land In Court, Smartphone apps are great at lots of things, from sending selfies, to solving late-night taco cravings. And even if they occasionally fail, the stakes are usually low—unless you consider being carnitas-less at 2 am a life-threatening situation. The exception is with apps that claim to measure your heart rate, monitor your blood pressure, and improve your memory, coordination, or vision.
• Brain zapping helps US Navy SEALs learn faster, The Navy wants soldiers who can concentrate better and learn faster, and it’s looking at a controversial piece of tech to do that: transcranial electrical stimulation.
• Yes, you can now cook dinner in your washing machine, At the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, a student designed something pretty interesting — TV dinners you can cook in your washing machine.
• And lastly, the perfect cooking annotations, courtesy reddit:

   

  Did we miss anything this week? Let us know!