Amazon’s stock price has been on a tear over the last year, gaining 46%.
A Barclays equity research team led by Ross Sandler thinks that the party may just be getting started, initiating coverage of the stock with $1120 price target, or 29% upside.
In a flurry of notes released from their Internet & Media desk on March 29, Barclays picked Amazon as one of their favorites in the sector and made the case for the stock’s market cap to reach one trillion dollars.
Over the last decade, the stock price of Domino’s Pizza has crushed that of Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook mainly because it stopped making pizza that tasted like cardboard. Now it’s innovating on the labor front with plans to test robots as substitutes for your friendly pizza delivery guy. “With our growth plans over the next five to 10 years, we simply won’t have enough delivery drivers if we do not look to add to our fleet through initiatives such as this,” Domino’s chief executive said in a statement announcing the pilot program.
Growing up, computers were mainly tools for automating secretarial tasks, not for professional work. Economist Robert Solow observed around that time, “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.”
But in the late 1990’s information technology became truly transformative. Combined with the commercial Internet and email, they became conduits to a continuous flow of information that could be processed, analyzed and turned into action. It’s likely that we’re in the early days of a similar productivity boom today, as connectivity begins to transform physical machines.
Continue reading… “How the Internet of Things is transforming industries you never imagined”
Thousands of mall-based stores are shutting down in what’s fast becoming one of the biggest waves of retail closures in decades.
More than 3,500 stores are expected to close in the next couple of months.
Department stores like JCPenney, Macy’s, Sears, and Kmart are among the companies shutting down stores, along with middle-of-the-mall chains like Crocs, BCBG, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Guess.
Continue reading… “The retail apocalypse has officially descended on America”
Editing bots on Wikipedia undo vandalism, enforce bans, check spelling, create links and import content automatically, whereas other bots (which are non-editing) can mine data, identify data or identify copyright infringements.
Continue reading… “Wikipedia bots act more like humans than expected”
In a major price surge, Dash has nearly doubled market cap over the last month, overtaking Litecoin and Monero to become the fourth most valued cryptocurrency.
This week one year ago, Dash was the #7 ranked cryptocurrency with a market cap of about $23 mln. This number grew steadily over the course of the year, finishing out the year with a market cap of $69 mln and maintained #7 ranking. Over the course of 2017 so far, however, Dash’s growth has significantly picked up steam, exceeding $100 mln over January. This month Dash has risen to a nearly $200 mln market cap, currently with a value of over $27 and 0.23 Bitcoin at present time.
Continue reading… “Dash Passes Litecoin and Monero to Claim Number 4 Cryptocurrency Status”
When “little green men” invaded Crimea in early 2014, they left a data trail that went largely unnoticed by the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). Distracted by a large Russian exercise to the west, the IC did not connect the digital dots that indicated the impending invasion. In the Information Age, the “dots” are more plentiful and glaring as everyone now leaves a data trail. Given that, how can intelligence analysts better gather, share, organize, and view data to reveal intent, more accurately predict behavior, and make better decisions with limited resources?
Continue reading… “The Data-Driven Transformation of Intelligence”
In 2012, Futurist Thomas Frey predicted that 2 billion jobs would disappear by 2030, roughly half of all jobs that exist today. Oxford University researchers reinforced this with their estimates that 47 percent of U.S. jobs could be automated within the next two decades. But which ones will robots take first?
First, we should define “robots” as technologies, such as machine learning algorithms running on purpose-built computer platforms, that have been trained to perform tasks that currently require humans to perform.
Continue reading… “Which 5 jobs will robots take first?”
A little over two years ago I mentioned a new anticipatory thinking tool I’ve developed called “situational futuring.” It helps me gain better insight into the world ahead. Until now I hadn’t given too many details about how it worked, but I recently decided to reveal the entire process and how to apply it.
While I’ve been very protective about the crazy brain games I use for developing predictions, this will give you a sneak peek into one of the secret tools I use for thinking about the future.
Continue reading… “Inside the Mind of a Futurist – April 10-14, 2017”
It’s the kind of stat you might casually tell a friend at a bar: For the last six years, Japan has sold more adult diapers than baby diapers. But Japan’s fertility problems are far more grave than toilet-related trivia. Over the last decade, Japan has seen its elderly population swell, new family-planning stall, and its economy shrink because of persistently low spending. Economists are now calling the situation a “demographic time bomb,” and some Japanese researchers have even created a doomsday clock that ticks off the seconds until Japan’s population extinction.
Continue reading… “How Japan can solve its huge sex problem”
Line-us is by far the cutest drawing robot we’ve ever seen. Currently raising funds on Kickstarter, this little bot is essentially a USB-powered arm that connects to an app on your tablet or smartphone and copies anything you draw in real time. (The software also works on Macs and PCs.) You can use it to just play around by mimicking your doodles, or connect it to the internet via Wi-Fi and send and receive messages from anywhere in the world. If someone has the app, they can send a drawing straight to your Line-us over the internet. Okay, so it’s hardly a practical way to get in touch with someone, but who cares: it’s got personality.
Continue reading… “This robot will draw anything you do”
It’s not every day that scientists are able to create an entirely new substance, but Harvard researchers managed to do just that, and in the process created what could be a world-changing material with a bunch of different applications. It’s called atomic metallic hydrogen, and it’s exactly what it sounds like: hydrogen in the form of metal. If that sounds weird, it probably should, because it’s literally never existed on the planet before now.
Continue reading… “Scientists find a way to turn hydrogen into a metal”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.