Latest Trend – Page 17

China, Energy, Latest Trend, Solar Power, Space

Supersized solar farms are sprouting around the world (and maybe in space, too)

August 24, 2018

In a quest to cut the cost of clean electricity, power utilities around the world are supersizing their solar farms.

Nowhere is that more apparent than in southern Egypt, where what will be the world’s largest solar farm — a vast collection of more than 5 million photovoltaic panels — is now taking shape. When it’s completed next year, the $4 billion Benban solar park near Aswan will cover an area 10 times bigger than New York’s Central Park and generate up to 1.8 gigawatts of electricity.

That’s roughly the output of two nuclear power plants combined and almost double the planned capacity of the vast Villanueva facility now growing in the Mexican state of Coahuila — currently the largest facility in the Americas. (The largest solar farm in the U.S. is the 580-megawatt Solar Star facility near Los Angeles.)

Continue reading… “Supersized solar farms are sprouting around the world (and maybe in space, too)”

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Business, Employment, Latest Trend

AI will create as many new jobs as it loses

August 16, 2018

PwC, the business consultancy, reckons that as many UK jobs will be created by AI as will be lost by AI.

A PwC report forecasts that about 20% of UK jobs will be automated by 2037—but 20% more jobs will also be created.

That’s 7 million jobs lost and 7.2 million jobs gained.

PwC reckons that manufacturing sector jobs could be reduced by around 25% – a net loss of nearly 700,000 jobs.

Continue reading… “AI will create as many new jobs as it loses”

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Driverless vehicles, Latest Trend, Robotics

Robot laws: Why we need a code of conduct for AI – and fast

August 16, 2018

From election-rigging bots to potentially lethal autonomous cars, artificial intelligence is straining legal boundaries. Here’s what we need to keep it in check.

THE car’s computer saw Elaine Herzberg pushing her bicycle across the highway a full six seconds before it struck her. Travelling at just under 70 kilometres per hour, it had more than enough time to stop or swerve. But it did neither, hitting her head on. Herzberg died in hospital, the first pedestrian to be killed by an autonomous vehicle.

Continue reading… “Robot laws: Why we need a code of conduct for AI – and fast”

Business, Human Behavior, Latest Trend

Companies are buying these portable soundproof rooms like crazy to fix the worst thing about their open floor offices

August 16, 2018

Room is a new company that’s created private, semi-soundproof phone booths for noisy, crowded offices.

Already, the company has snagged high profile clients like NASA, Salesforce, and Nike.

Room says they’re on track to sell $10 million worth of product in their first year of business.

If you work in an open office, it’s likely that you’ve ducked into a hallway, a closet, or even the bathroom to get a few moments of quiet to make a phone call.

With the move to the open office and the collective banishment of cubicles, finding a quiet, private place can sometimes be close to impossible.

Continue reading… “Companies are buying these portable soundproof rooms like crazy to fix the worst thing about their open floor offices”

App, Human Behavior, Latest Trend

Snapchat photo filters linked to rise in cosmetic surgery requests

August 13, 2018

The trend, labelled ‘Snapchat dysmorphia’, suggests some people are experiencing a worrying blur between reality and social media.

Plastic surgeons are reporting a rise in requests to look ‘filtered.’

Plastic surgeons are reporting that patients are coming to them with selfies of themselves edited using the filters on Snapchat or Instagram and asking to look more like the retouched photo.

Continue reading… “Snapchat photo filters linked to rise in cosmetic surgery requests”

Coding, Education, Employment, Higher Education, Latest Trend

News flash:It’s about the skill set, not the suit or the degree

August 8, 2018

High School failed me. As a high school dropout, I knew I was taking a risk by rejecting the ‘normal route’ and knew I always wanted to be in the business world. During one assignment in my computer class, I did not show up in a suit and tie for the presentation. The teacher docked me for not ‘dressing proper’, which I found puzzling. After all, this class was about desktop publishing – why should this be an issue? It should be about the substance of my work and not some preconceived, superficial notion about how I looked. For me, it has always been about the substance and not the suit.

The good news is that federal aid for colleges has reached its high-water mark. The bad news is that millions of young adults feel they have no choice but to enroll in a four-year University, something that brings with it an inordinate amount of debt for many students.

Continue reading… “News flash:It’s about the skill set, not the suit or the degree”

Energy, Latest Trend, Solar Energy, Solar Power

Power worth less than zero spreads as green energy floods the grid

August 7, 2018

Wind and solar farms are glutting networks more frequently, prompting a market signal for coal plants to shut off.

Bright and breezy days are becoming a deeper nightmare for utilities struggling to earn a return on traditional power plants.

With wind and solar farms sprouting up in more areas — and their power getting priority to feed into the grid in many places — the amount of electricity being generated is outstripping demand during certain hours of the day.

The result: power prices are slipping to zero or even below more often in more jurisdictions. That’s adding to headaches for generators from NRG Energy Inc. in California to RWE AG in Germany and Origin Energy Ltd. in Australia. Once confined to a curiosity for a few hours over windy Christmas holidays, sub-zero cost of electricity is becoming a reality for hundreds of hours in many markets, upending the economics of the business in the process.

Continue reading… “Power worth less than zero spreads as green energy floods the grid”

Housing, Latest Trend, New Viewpoints

Are real estate agents still relevant in the age of tech?

August 2, 2018

Technology has forever changed how Americans shop for homes. Thanks to sites like Zillow, Trulia and the dozens of others like them, buyers can now brown se listings, find homes and narrow their search all on their own—without ever calling in an agent.

And with online mortgage lenders cropping up left and right, they can even take it a step further, getting pre-qualified for a loan long before they’ve honed in on that dream home.

But though tech has allowed homebuyers to do all this legwork themselves, in most cases, they’re still forced to go through agents to finalize the transaction. And those agents? They get the same 3% commission they did decades ago—for seemingly doing a fraction of the work.

Continue reading… “Are real estate agents still relevant in the age of tech?”

Bitcoin, Latest Trend, Money Talk

Cryptocurrency is just one of seven types of cryptoassets you should know

July 26, 2018

Two years ago, the entire cryptoasset market had a value of $9 billion. Had it been a public company, it would barely have cracked the S&P 500 index. Fewer than two years later, the cryptoasset market is $300 billion in size, roughly double the market capitalization of RBC, Canada’s largest lender.

The explosion (and recent pull-back) of value in cryptoassets like bitcoin and ether has captured the imagination of developers, and the attention of the media, governments, central banks, the investing public, and regulators. It has made enthusiasts euphoric, Nobel laureates skeptical, and old-school billionaires dyspeptic. Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway went so far as to call bitcoin “noxious poison.” Is there any other kind of poison?

To be sure, there is a lot of hype in this market, and the industry must confront such implementation challenges as scaling technology and regulatory uncertainty. But beyond the hype and mania, something profound is happening—the creation of an entirely new digital asset class.

Continue reading… “Cryptocurrency is just one of seven types of cryptoassets you should know”

Health & Fitness, Human Behavior, Latest Trend

Why are obstacle – course races so popular?

July 20, 2018

As marathon participation declines, more people are signing up for extreme events such as Spartan and Tough Mudder.

Completing a marathon has long been the ultimate feather in the cap of an amateur endurance athlete. But the idea of trotting along a boring old paved road for 26.2 miles doesn’t thrill everyone. For the endurance athlete who gets bored easily, a new genre of race has emerged—peppered with obstacles requiring feats of strength and dexterity (Crawling under barbed wire! Climbing a rope! Throwing a spear! Burpees!), and designed to be an over-the-top spectacle where participants emerge covered in mud (and maybe blood), as if they’ve survived a battle.

Continue reading… “Why are obstacle – course races so popular?”

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”

Automation, Employment, Latest Trend, Robotics, Science & Technology News

Robots will lead to more human trafficking, slavery, report says

July 17, 2018

Tens of millions of workers could lose their jobs to automation, particularly in southeast Asia, over the next 20 years.

Garment workers among those most at risk of losing their jobs, finding few low-skill alternatives and facing exploitation, according to the Verisk Maplecroft report.

The rise of robot manufacturing will dramatically alter the labor market in southeast Asia and result in a spike in human trafficking, slavery and other labor abuses, according to a report released Thursday.

Continue reading… “Robots will lead to more human trafficking, slavery, report says”