Scanning the fine print on almost any processed food in the grocery store and you’re likely to find ingredients such as polysorbate 80, lecithin, carrageenan, polyglycerols, and xanthan and other gums, all of which are emulsifiers, which are used to keep oils and fats from separating. Continue reading… “How emulsifiers are making us fat and messing with our guts”
Many people predict that artificial intelligence is about to take off in a big way. A new report from Goldman Sachs defines AI as “any intelligence exhibited by machines or software.” That can mean machines that make that make sense of huge amounts of disparate data, or that learn and improve their operations over time. Continue reading… “Who is set to make money from the coming AI boom?”
Mass incarceration has become a giant industry in the U.S., so it’s no coincidence that the United States now imprisons more of its people than any other country in the world. This industry generates huge profits not only for private prison companies, but also, for everything from food companies and telecoms to all the businesses that are using prison labor to cut their manufacturing costs. Continue reading… “Surprising industries profiting from mass incarceration”
The digital currency and network protocol, Bitcoin, has commanded a great deal of attention lately. Money has poured into Bitcoin related businesses from investors, and many people believe that it will has the same disruptive potential today as the internet did in the mid-1990s. So what does education have to do with Bitcoin? Continue reading… “What can Bitcoin teach us about education”
As its production costs have fallen far enough in some regions to compete economically with fossil fuels, companies like Apple are now buying mass quantities of solar power. Continue reading… “Solar business employs more Americans than coal mining”
In a recent “tweetstorm,” venture capitalist Marc Andreessen offers 16 “somewhat-less obvious ideas for how to expand the number of “unicorn” great tech startups over time.” Continue reading… “Marc Andreessen’s 16 ideas for a more dynamic US economy”
Photo booths are making a comeback, kids and parents (all certainly equipped with smartphones that take much better pictures) line up all in good cheer, gaily running off with low quality photostrips of themselves. Now if people think photo booths are cool, just wait until they enter the high-tech world of a Shapify booth. Continue reading… “Will ‘Shapies’ replace Selfies?”
General Motors pioneered a version in the 1950s, in the 1970s Ford engineers predicted their own version would be on the road by the year 2000, but self-driving cars have remained a science fiction dream for decades. Continue reading… “Study: People are ready for self-driving cars”
For more than two decades now presidential candidates have been arguing about whether free trade is hurting middle-class workers. 2016 may launch a similar debate about robots and computers, automation may be the new outsourcing. Continue reading… “Time for presidential candidates to deal with robots”
The hurricane season passed off relatively quietly last year. Category 2 hurricane Gonzalo hit Bermuda in October 2014, briefly making the world’s headlines, but it did relatively little damage, apart from uprooting trees and knocking out power temporarily to most of the island’s inhabitants. Continue reading… “Where are all the Hurricanes?”
China has used more concrete from 2011 to 2013 than the United States in the entire 20th century, 6.6 gigatons vs. 4.5 giatons, according to the USGS cement statistics. Continue reading… “China has used more concrete in 3 years than the US did in 100 years”
Yi Cui of Stanford and his students have used a material commonly used in surgical gloves into a low-cost, highly efficient air filter that could be used to improve facemasks, window screens, and could even reduce the exhaust from power plants. Continue reading… “New air-filter design may help Beijing and L.A. breathe easier”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
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