Machine learning is advancing at exponential rates. Many highly skilled jobs once considered the exclusive domain of humans are increasingly being carried out by computers. That may be good or bad depending on whom you talk to. Technologists and economists tend to split into two camps, the technologists believing that innovation will cure all ills, the economists fretting that productivity gains will further divide the haves from the have-nots.
The Knox home has geothermal loops buried under the backyard.
Andrew Know, manager of Naval Facilities Energy Initiatives, decided to go “net zero” on his home in Washington, D.C. What Knox got was a true zero-energy home, done right on a budget.
Continue reading… “Naval Facilities Energy Initiatives manager goes ‘net zero’ on his home in D.C.”
The parafacial zone (PZ) in the brain stem produces half of all the brain’s sleep-promoting activity.
For the first time ever, neuroscientists have used an innovative new method to identify a circuit in the brain that promotes deep sleep, which reinvigorates the brain from its daily activities.
Continue reading… “Neuroscientists discover on/off switch in the brain for deep sleep”
Larry Hester is the 7th person in the U.S. to have a bionic eye implanted.
Thanks to bionic eye technology, people diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease are seeing a new future. And Larry Hester is the seventh person in the U.S. to have a so-called bionic eye – an Argus II Retinal Prosthesis Device — implanted. It allows him to see for the first time in 33 years. (Videos)
Continue reading… “Blind man regains partial sight thanks to bionic eye”
Consumers are embracing the digital currency even though the value of Bitcoin has fallen 55% against the dollar.
Earlier this year Mary Fons joined the Bitcoin economy. She uses the digital currency to buy gift cards and office supplies. Her partner reimburses her with Bitcoin for his portion of the rent. Thirty-five year old Fons isn’t a nerd or a self-proclaimed libertarian like many of the currency’s early adopters. She lives in New York and co-hosts the Love of Quilting show on public television. “Why Bitcoin?” she asks. “Because I want to have options. I think it’s a beautiful thing open to everyone.”
Continue reading… “Bitcoin isn’t just for anarchists and libertarians anymore”
39 percent of millennials worry about their financial future at least once a week or more.
When it comes to information about financial matters, about a third of millennials trust their parents most, but nearly one in four say they trust “no one” when it comes to advice about money, according to Fidelity Investments.
Continue reading… “1 in 4 Millennials trust ‘no one’ when it comes to advice about money”
Breakthrough technologies and new destinations will shape the global travel industry by 2024.
Skyscanner, a travel booking site, released a report earlier this year predicting what travel will be like in 2024. Skyscanner teamed up with 56 experts to analyze and present the breakthrough technologies and exciting new destinations that will shape the global travel industry over the next ten years.
Continue reading… “Top 3 ways travel is going to be different in 2024”
73 percent of teens expect their next smartphone to be the iPhone.
Created by Piper Jaffray, the ‘Taking Stock With Teens’ study from the spring of 2014, has been followed by the Fall 2014 edition of the study that was published last week with a particularly harsh outlook for social networking giant Facebook. When teens were asked what social network they typically use, only 45 percent responded with Facebook. That’s down from 72 percent responding Facebook just six months ago.
Continue reading… “Teens in the U.S. abandon Facebook and cling to iPhones: Study”
Mateo Jaramillo, Tesla’s Director of Powertrain Business Development, was the keynote speaker at last week’s Energy Storage North America. He spoke of Tesla’s aggressive efforts in stationary storage.
Continue reading… “Tesla to focus on the grid-scale energy storage business”
The Industrial Internet has the potential to drive trillions of dollars in new services and overall growth.
A new study from GE and Accenture, “Industrial Internet Insights for 2015,” reveals there is a growing urgency for organizations to embrace big data analytics to advance their Industrial Internet strategy. However, less than 29 percent of the 250 executives surveyed for the study are using big data across their company for predictive analytics or to optimize their business.
Chuck Feeney
Chuck Feeney is a self-made billionaire who is an extreme philanthropist. He believes that charity shouldn’t go on forever and his fellow billionaires, from newly minted Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, are learning from his example.
2015 trends are focused on merging the real world with the virtual one.
The Internet of Things, and everything that’s part of its universe, including smart machines, pervasive analytics and 3D printing, are on annual list of strategic technologies for the year ahead presented by Gartner analyst David Cearley at the firm’s annual Symposium/ITxpo.
Continue reading… “Gartner’s top 10 tech trends for 2015”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.