Airline coach seats are getting even worse

There’s a new low for the long-haul traveler. Airlines are ordering new Dreamliner 787s and Airbus A330s and are asking to have them fitted with 16.7″-wide coach seats. These are planes intended for intercontinental flights — six to 14 hours! — and they’re shaving the armrests, squeezing the seats, and otherwise cramming in passengers. The airlines say it’ll all be OK — they’ll just distract you from your terrible circumstances with big meals and TV.

 

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World’s first Bitcoin ATM to launch in Canada

Bitcoin is an emerging digital currency that isn’t controlled by any authority such as a central bank.

The world’s first Bitcoin ATM is believed to launch in Canada this week.  CBC reports, Mitchell Demeter, co-founder of Vancouver bitcoin trading company Bitcoiniacs and part-owner of Robocoin, has invested in five such machines to be placed across Canada.

 

 

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The dangers of stock trading with highly automated systems

High-frequency trading.

Futurist Brian David Johnson describes his job as a “futurehunter” and his fascination with both algorithmic trading and high-frequency trading (HFT) in this excerpt from Humanity in the Machine: What Comes after Greed?. Both methods use computer programs to automate and accelerate the execution of certain financial transactions. Yet heavy reliance on such technology in the finance world can be dangerous—the Flash Crash of 2010 cited by Johnson stands out as a prominent example.

 

 

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Bike sales have outpaced car sales in almost every European country

A bicyclist in Pescara, Italy.

Bicycle are outsold new-cars last year in every one of the European countries, except Belgium and Luxembourg. Car sales reached a low point earlier this year. Recent data shows car sales were recovering. The Millennial generation is more interested in bikes than in cars.

 

 

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Mobile trends in job searching

The number of mobile job seekers will climb to 50% by the end of 2015.

Simply Hired reports in a new survey on job search trends that the use of mobile devices for job seeking continues to increase. Simply Hired found that 30% of its job search traffic came from mobile devices. LinkedIn reported a similar trend in the third quarter of 2013, with mobile accounting for 38% of unique visitors.

 

 

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Companies rush to build ‘bio-factories’ for a wide range of products

Vials of genetically engineered life-forms.

For Jack Newman, a scientist, creating a new life-form has become as simple as typing out a DNA sequence on his laptop. He clicks “send.” And a few yards away in the laboratory, robotic arms mix together some compounds to produce the desired cells.

 

 

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Average Wall Streeter makes 5.2 times more than the average New Yorker

Wall Steeters are richer and harder to find than your average New Yorker.

The Office of the New York State Comptroller each year does a deep dive into Wall Street employment and compensation. The office has released its report for 2012, and as usual Wall Street salaries trounced the average New Yorker’s.

 

 

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Automated future – get used to being served by machines

Industry analysts say humans are disappearing from retail establishments, replaced by kiosks.

It all started in a chain of supermarkets when one section of the check-out aisles suddenly had self-service scanners. Consumers were encouraged to check themselves out, paying with cash or plastic.

 

 

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Massive growth in mobile media consumption in 2013

Even as smartphone sales slow down, mobile-centric social networks, mobile video companies, and location based services are well positioned to feel the biggest benefits from the massive shift in consumer media consumption and usage patterns. But how can companies truly capitalize on this consumer revolution and adapt to their mobile-centric customers?

 

 

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Top female business travel trends

A quarter of women business travelers fly more now than they did five years ago.

The independent research reveals that women have their own distinct travel habits that differentiate female travelers from their male colleagues, according to new research by Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT). Twenty-five percent of women business travelers fly more now than they did five years ago and women tend to plan their business travel further in advance than men, with 39 per cent making arrangements less than four weeks in advance compared to 20 per cent of men, who tend to plan just a few days ahead.

 

 

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Food industry adding larger doses of caffeine to more and more products

Keeping people alert is a prized quality of caffeine in an world that is always on. Caffeine stimulates the pleasure centers in the brain. It is also mildly addictive and that could possible be two reasons ti add it to foods and drinks.

 

 

 

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