The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 11 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Ballard: In 3D-printed construction, complex curves cost the same as straight lines
“Yeah, you got things that look expensive. But are the same price to print as a straight line.”
Ballard: Drywall is the worst building material ever invented by humans
“Like if I offered you a million dollar prize, or the whole audience listening to the show, a million dollar prize to come up with a building material that could actually pass building code that was more cheaply and poorly made than drywall, nobody would win th…”
Ballard: Concrete homes produce less lifecycle carbon than traditional stick-built homes
“When you sort of did the whole accounting, sort of the life cycle accounting, there was a good argument to be made then and now that a house made of like more resilient, energy efficient materials on a life cycle actually would produce less carbon than one tha…”
Ballard: Municipal curfews halt automated 3D printers, doubling ICON's labor costs
“There's no hammering, but the building code says you have to stop at seven PM, but these machines are designed to just turn them on and print. And so right now, like I could print homes in one week for sure, but it's taking us two weeks, which means even with …”
Ballard: ICON's 3D-printed homes sustained zero damage in 7.2 magnitude earthquake
“So, yeah, that's a very active seismic area, and not a lot, and so we designed the houses to be seismic. We had to go through a bunch of seismic testing, seismic evaluation, seismic structural and civil engineering, and then not long after we finished the proj…”
Ballard: 3D printing is for large bespoke structures, not cheap small items
“We were using it to make small things that were already mass produced very affordably. Like a lot of times people were, three printing coffee mugs and spoons and stuff. It's like, we already have a lot of those and they're made really cheaply. It's like a, it …”
Ballard: NASA contracted ICON to develop lunar and Martian 3D construction systems
“We got a contract to develop, ah, a construction system as part of the Moon to Mars program. Ah, so it's a construction system that's supposed to be for the Moon, but it should also be easily repurposed for Mars.”
Ballard: ICON's 3D printers lay concrete continuously without pausing for drying
“No, it keeps moving. And by the time you're ready for the next layer, then the layer below it is ready to receive that layer.”
Ballard: ICON hand-loaded concrete into failing 3D printer for first prototype
“For instance, the pumping system completely crapped out and like, it never worked. And so we were actually like with buckets, hand loading the printer. So our joke to this day is like, it was an artisan, three D printed house.”
Ballard: ICON's early Austin 3D-printed homes sold for $400,000 to $800,000
“I think the, there are four, all four different sizes. I think the cheapest of them was like in the 400,000 dollar range. And the most expensive was like in the seven or 800,000 dollar range, if memory serves me correctly.”