2018 – Page 38 – Impact Lab

Almost 80% of US workers live from paycheck to paycheck. Here’s why

July 31, 2018

America doesn’t have a jobs crisis. It has a ‘good jobs’ crisis – where too much employment is insecure, and poorly paid.

The official rate of unemployment in America has plunged to a remarkably low 3.8%. The Federal Reserve forecasts that the unemployment rate will reach 3.5% by the end of the year.

But the official rate hides more troubling realities: legions of college grads overqualified for their jobs, a growing number of contract workers with no job security, and an army of part-time workers desperate for full-time jobs. Almost 80% of Americans say they live from paycheck to paycheck, many not knowing how big their next one will be.

Continue reading… “Almost 80% of US workers live from paycheck to paycheck. Here’s why”

Analysis, Automobiles, Big Problems

Parking has eaten American cities

July 30, 2018

Parking eats up an incredible amount of space and costs America’s cities an extraordinary amount of money. That’s the main takeaway of a new study that looks in detail at parking in five U.S. cities: New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, Des Moines, and Jackson, Wyoming.

The study, by Eric Scharnhorst of the Research Institute for Housing America (which is affiliated with the Mortgage Bankers of America), uses data from satellite images, the U.S. Census, property tax assessment offices, city departments of transportation, parking authorities, and geospatial maps like Google Maps to generate inventories of parking for these five cities. (The inventories include on-street parking spaces, off-street surface parking lots, and off-street parking structures.)

It not only estimates the total number of parking spaces in these cities and their overall estimated replacement costs, but develops interesting metrics such as parking spaces per acre, parking spaces per household, and parking costs per household—as well as providing maps of parking densities across these cities.

Continue reading… “Parking has eaten American cities”

communication, Education, Human Behavior

Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is taking over the planet

July 30, 2018

No language in history has dominated the world quite like English does today. Is there any point in resisting? By Jacob Mikanowski

On 16 May, a lawyer named Aaron Schlossberg was in a New York cafe when he heard several members of staff speaking Spanish. He reacted with immediate fury, threatening to call US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and telling one employee: “Your staff is speaking Spanish to customers when they should be speaking English … This is America.” A video of the incident quickly went viral, drawing widespread scorn. The Yelp page for his law firm was flooded with one-star reviews, and Schlossberg was soon confronted with a “fiesta” protest in front of his Manhattan apartment building, which included a crowd-funded taco truck and mariachi band to serenade him on the way to work.

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AI, Artificial Intelligence, China

Inter Continental Hotels launch AI smart rooms in China

July 29, 2018

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG®) announced that InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts has collaborated with Baidu to introduce the next generation of intelligent hospitality – smart rooms, which are powered by artificial intelligence.

From now on, guests staying at InterContinental® Beijing Sanlitun and InterContinental® Guangzhou Exhibition Centre will be among the first to enjoy the AI smart rooms. A total of 100 AI powered Club InterContinental suites will be available at InterContinental hotels in gateway cities and key destinations across China within the year.

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Augmented Reality, Healthcare, Virtual Reality

VR treatment, even without a therapist, helps people overcome fear of heights

July 29, 2018

OVERCOMING ACROPHOBIA. Afraid of heights? You’re not alone. In fact, acrophobia is one of the most common fears in the world. Now, a team of European researchers has found a new way to help people overcome their fear, no need to climb on any ledges or even talk to a therapist.

The researchers enlisted 100 volunteers for their study, all of whom had a clinically diagnosed fear of heights but were not receiving treatment for their phobia. The researchers then split the volunteers into two groups. Fifty-one volunteers served as the control, undergoing no treatment, while the other 49 had the opportunity to undergo a two-week-long virtual reality (VR) treatment regimen (47 agreed to the program, and 44 completed it). The researchers published the results of their trial in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry on Wednesday.

Continue reading… “VR treatment, even without a therapist, helps people overcome fear of heights”

cutting edge, Medical Breakthrough, Robotics, Stem cells

Robots grow mini-organs from human stem cells

July 29, 2018

An automated system that uses robots has been designed to rapidly produce human mini-organs derived from stem cells. Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle developed the new system.

The advance promises to greatly expand the use of mini-organs in basic research and drug discovery, according to Benjamin Freedman, assistant professor of medicine, Division of Nephrology, at the UW School of Medicine, who led the research effort.

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Amazon.com, Augmented Reality, Shopping

Watch Amazon’s VR kiosks transform the future of shopping

July 28, 2018

Amazon’s new VR store dispenses with the trappings of a shop in favor of fun — a city full of products to explore in themed rooms.

Transform is the AI event of the year for growth marketers, August 21 & 22, San Francisco. Learn how AI and analytics are changing the growth game. Grab your spot here!

Earlier this week, Amazon announced that it has opened virtual reality kiosks in 10 shopping malls to promote its upcoming Prime Day shopping event. Now you can see the Amazon VR experience for yourself. Prepare to be impressed: It’s significantly more elaborate than expected, and shows how a top retailer is transforming the future of shopping.

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Breakthrough Thinking, cutting edge, Engineering

Making opaque materials totally transparent

July 28, 2018

Most naturally occurring materials have a disordered atomic structure that interferes with the propagation of both sound and electromagnetic waves. When the waves come into contact with these materials, they bounce around and disperse – and their energy dissipates according to a highly complex interference pattern, diminishing in intensity. That means it’s virtually impossible to transmit data or energy intact across wave-scattering media and fully leverage the potential of wave technology.

For an example, you need look no further than your smartphone – the geolocation function works less well inside buildings where radiofrequency waves scatter in all directions. Other potential applications include biomedical imaging and geological surveying, where it’s important to be able to send waves across highly disordered media.

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Analysis, Business, Employment

A 15-year study of 5,000 entrepreneurs finally answers the question: Is it better to quit your day job or keep it?

July 28, 2018

Data doesn’t lie.

There is a sexy image of an entrepreneur as someone toiling away in a garage, tinkering full time on their new venture, or joyously yet feverishly staying up until 3 a.m. working on their latest innovation or iteration of their product.

We love to celebrate these fantasy risk-takers and breakthrough-makers, ones who put it all on the line and then cash in big.

Continue reading… “A 15-year study of 5,000 entrepreneurs finally answers the question: Is it better to quit your day job or keep it?”

Engineering, Future, new technology, Robotics

MIT researchers create an aerosol spray loaded with nanobots

July 27, 2018

AEROSOLS FOR GOOD. You may have sworn off aerosol sprays in the ’90s when everyone was talking about the hole in the ozone layer, but a team of researchers from MIT has found a use for aerosols that could be good for both the environment and our health. This spray contains nanobots, tiny sensors with the potential to do everything, from detecting dangerous leaks in pipelines, to diagnosing health issues. They published their research in Nature Nanotechnology on Monday.

NANO-SCALE SENSORS. Each sensor in the aerosol spray contains two parts. The first is a colloid, an extremely tiny insoluble particle or molecule. Colloids are so small, in fact, they can remain suspended in a liquid or the air indefinitely — the force of particles colliding around them is stronger than the force of gravity attempting to pull them down.

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Amazon.com, Drone, drones, Shopping

Amazon patents aerial fulfillment centers for improved drone delivery

July 27, 2018

Amazon’s drone-centric skyscrapers intended to replace traditional warehouses are old news. The tech giant just patented floating warehouses.

Last June, we reported on Amazon’s patent application for fulfillment center towers: skyscrapers that would replace the traditional warehouse model in favor of modern, drone-friendly versions that could serve as both charging hubs and convenient pitstops for delivery drones to pick up and drop off packages efficiently. According to a 2016 patent which the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted the tech giant today, Amazon realized that making the fulfillment centers airborne, themselves, would serve as one last additional step toward maximizing the idea completely.

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Bitcoin, Latest Trend, Money Talk

Cryptocurrency is just one of seven types of cryptoassets you should know

July 26, 2018

Two years ago, the entire cryptoasset market had a value of $9 billion. Had it been a public company, it would barely have cracked the S&P 500 index. Fewer than two years later, the cryptoasset market is $300 billion in size, roughly double the market capitalization of RBC, Canada’s largest lender.

The explosion (and recent pull-back) of value in cryptoassets like bitcoin and ether has captured the imagination of developers, and the attention of the media, governments, central banks, the investing public, and regulators. It has made enthusiasts euphoric, Nobel laureates skeptical, and old-school billionaires dyspeptic. Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway went so far as to call bitcoin “noxious poison.” Is there any other kind of poison?

To be sure, there is a lot of hype in this market, and the industry must confront such implementation challenges as scaling technology and regulatory uncertainty. But beyond the hype and mania, something profound is happening—the creation of an entirely new digital asset class.

Continue reading… “Cryptocurrency is just one of seven types of cryptoassets you should know”