Analysis – Page 21

Analysis, Automation, Employment, Future

Will you be employed? Skills demanded by the changing nature of work

August 2, 2018

In 1997, Garry Kasparov, one of the greatest chess players in history, lost a chess match to a supercomputer called Deep Blue. Some years later Kasparov developed “advanced chess,” where a human and a computer team up to play against another human and computer. This mutation of chess is mutually beneficial: the human player has access to the computer’s ability to calculate moves, while the computer benefits from human intuition.

This is the future of work – not just machines replacing humans but also machines augmenting humans. The future is: Human & Machine.

However, our collective imaginations (say for instance in Hollywood) continue to be gripped by dystopian visions of machines replacing humans wholescale. Researchers are paying attention to these ideas. One paper suggests that around 47 percent of US employment is at risk of automation.

Continue reading… “Will you be employed? Skills demanded by the changing nature of work”

Analysis, Business, Employment

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.

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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”

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?”

Analysis, Healthcare, Inventions, Medicine

These mind-blowing images of the human body were made by a new kind of scanner

July 22, 2018

Phil and Anthony Butler aren’t just father and son. The physics professor and bioengineering professor (respectively) are also business partners. And this week, their company, MARS Bioimaging, unveiled a first-of-its-kind x-ray scanner 10 years in the making.

First, a quick recap of how x-ray imaging works. When x-rays travel through your body, they’re absorbed by denser materials (bones) and pass right through softer ones (muscles and other tissues). The x-rays that pass through unimpeded hit a film on the opposite side of your body. These show up as areas of solid black. The places where the x-rays couldn’t pass through appear solid white.

Continue reading… “These mind-blowing images of the human body were made by a new kind of scanner”

Amazon.com, Analysis, Latest Trend, Shopping

Amazon, Alibaba and Nike all point to the next innovation in retail: Personalized physical spaces

July 18, 2018

Last week I wrote a piece entitled, “Amazon Go Means Goodbye Status Quo.” The piece not only heaped praise on Amazon but also highlighted how Amazon Go, over the long-run, is about far more than the mere buzzwords of “checkout-free shopping.” The thesis is that if one studies Amazon Go closely, he or she will see that it already hints at the next great innovation in retail history: the personalized physical store.

While I expected and even predicted the news back in February that Amazon would roll out more stores this year, I did not expect, in less than one week from publishing this most recent Go piece, that new activities would emerge that would validate this thesis even further.

Continue reading… “Amazon, Alibaba and Nike all point to the next innovation in retail: Personalized physical spaces”

Analysis, Automation, Robotics, Robots

America’s robot geography

July 18, 2018

Robots, it seems, are everywhere these days. They clean our floors, mow our lawns, make many of our industrial products, and are even being trained to give hugs and serve as pets. As robots increasingly become a part of our daily lives, a growing chorus of commentators warns that they may take away our jobs and further damage the once great Rust Belt cities that once powered the American economy and served as the backbone of the middle class.

But which cities and regions will house the robot revolution? Will the rise of robotics correct or reinforce America’s growing spatial inequality?

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Analysis, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior

The history of a city, as told through its trash

July 14, 2018

Today’s garbage is tomorrow’s archaeology.

Humans have been tossing stuff into rivers for thousands of years, whether it’s trash, wished-upon coins, lost items, or dramatically dumped, once-significant objects. That makes the river bed into a microcosm of human history and the development of cities–and a rich source for archaeologists.

A 15-year project to excavate two locations in Amsterdam’s river Amstel, one in the city center and one at the river’s mouth, is currently reaching its conclusion. Prompted by a complex civil engineering project–a north-south metro line that goes underneath the river–archaeologists got the go-ahead to dig two immense holes, each about 100 feet deep, and excavate whatever they could. The fruits of the project, called Below the Surface, are now online, with an interactive photo catalog designed by Netherlands-based firm Fabrique showcasing 20,000 objects uncovered beneath the project. The items range from 1980s cell phones, contemporary ID cards, and a plastic camera film case, to centuries-old coins, pottery, and fishhooks. And that’s just a small fraction of the 700,000 items they found in these two small cross-sections of the riverbed.

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Analysis, Big Problems, Human Behavior

Which 7 countries hold half the world’s population?

July 14, 2018

People at a water park in China, which is home to the world’s largest population. Half of the world’s population lives in just seven countries. (VCG via Getty Images)

As of this month, the world’s population is 7.63 billion, according to the United Nations, which celebrates World Population Day today. More than half of all people around the globe (3.97 billion) live in just seven countries, according to the UN’s estimates. China has the world’s largest population (1.42 billion), followed by India (1.35 billion). The next five most populous nations – the United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan and Nigeria – together have fewer people than India.

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Analysis, Business, DaVinci Institute, Employment, Science & Technology News, Tom Frey

7 emerging tech jobs that are going to pay well in 2019

July 9, 2018

Tech jobs are exploding – as well as the pay that goes with them. In fact, technology can really advance your carrier in ways we never thought possible. Now is the time to begin positioning yourself for a career in this field as the salaries seem to increase monthly. But what are the best emerging tech jobs; the ones set to pay the most in 2019? There is a wide variety, and we’ve listed the best below.

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Analysis, Big Problems, Children, Human Behavior

Nearly 50% of teens in the US say they’re now online ‘almost constantly,’ according to new research

July 7, 2018

A new study from Pew Research Center found that one out of two teens reports being online “almost constantly.”

The study found that another 44% say they go online multiple times each day.

The time teens spend online has gone up significantly since Pew’s 2014-2015 study. Back then, only 24% of teens reported being online constantly.

Nearly half of US teens report being online on a near constant basis, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center.

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Analysis, Big Problems, Human Behavior

Only 23% of Americans get enough exercise, a new report says

July 2, 2018

Less than a quarter of Americans are meeting all national physical activity guidelines, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

Federal physical activity guidelines recommend that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week, in addition to muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week. But according to the new NCHS report, which drew on five years of data from the National Health Interview Survey, only about 23% of adults ages 18 to 64 are hitting both of those marks. Another 32% met one but not both, and almost 45% did not hit either benchmark.

Continue reading… “Only 23% of Americans get enough exercise, a new report says”