Category: Science & Technology News

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Business, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Startup scene is thriving in Omaha, Nebraska

omaha

Omaha, Nebraska

Bob Grinnell, the owner of the building where a former furniture factory once occupied in North Downtown Omaha, Nebraska explains to Eric Markowitz of Inc.com,  how this factory, The Mastercraft, takes its name from the furniture brand that had originally inhabited the space.  The furniture company opened in 1941 and manufactured furniture for the better part of the 20th century.  But 10 years ago, the furniture business failed and investors in Iowa bought the company.  The building was abandoned.

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Analysis, Education, Internet, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Biggest challenge for colleges isn’t price, it’s students’ attention

college classroom

As colleges try to deliver more education at the same price, schools will move into the crowded and distractable world of the Web.

Last year, the University of Phoenix enlisted renowned Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen to record a lecture. The university reserved a harbor-view room for Christensen and populated it with young people, so that the camera operators could record their reactions.

Before he began to speak, Christensen noticed that the audience appeared unusually engaged and attractive.

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Business, Internet, Science & Technology News

ICANN reveals new top-level domain name applications

dot-company

The list includes: .tattoo, .ketchup, and .mormon.

The list of new generic top-level domain names that have been applied for and can then be owned has been revealed by ICANN.  There are 1,930 new domain names –with tech titans like Amazon, Apple, and Google in the mix–and they’re going to change how the Internet works.

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Analysis, Business, Great Videos, Science & Technology News

The future of digital display

Tensator

Tensator Virtual Assistant at Dulles Airport

What comes to mind when you thing of the “display of the future”?  Is it the hyper-neon displays of Blade Runner or the holograms from Star Wars? The world of digital display always seems to wiggle its way into the bleeding-edge technology of science fiction, but it’s not unwarranted.(Videos)

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Brain, Health & Fitness, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

Prosthetics of the future will be powered by bodily fluids

prosthetics

Prosthetics of the future may draw their power from juices in the brain.

These days, the most advanced robotic prosthetics take their commands from the brain. And pretty soon, they may be drawing their power from juices in the brain. Cerebrospinal fluid, that is. Electrical engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing a novel platinum-coated fuel cell that runs off the glucose found in bodily fluids. Their specific aim is to implant the fuel cells in liquid pockets of the brain and use them to run low powered components in a neural prosthetic. They described a prototype this week in the journal PLoS One.

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Architecture, Education, Photo Perspectives, Science & Technology News

8 amazing schools, playgrounds and libraries of the future

Helen-Hard-Geopark-1

Geopark: Stavanger, Norway

When an entire school building is covered with astroturf it is a lot more fun. Or when an abandoned oil rig is turned into  a playground.  Architects and educators are finding new ways to engage kids in learning, and the results are out of this world. (Pics)

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Analysis, Globalism, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Most Africans will have smartphones within 5 years

africa-penetration-chart

Feature phones are not the future. Of course that verges on tautology; of course everyone will have a smartphone, until everyone has something smaller and better and even more integrated into the fabric of our lives, like Google Glasses or cybernetic jawbone/retinal implants or whatever Charles Stross dreams up next. But when, exactly?

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Analysis, Health & Fitness, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

41% of young adults skip health care as medical costs rise

medical-debt

41% of young adults between age 19 and 29 failed to get medical care in a recent 12-month period because of cost.

There are millions of young adults who are skipping necessary care and treatment because of rising health care costs in the U.S., according to a new report released on Friday.

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Analysis, App, Health & Fitness, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Mobile health apps just the beginning of the disruption in healthcare

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtjT95YqKkw&hd=1[/youtube]

The potential of government making health information as useful as weather data felt like an abstraction two years ago. Healthcare data could give citizens the same “blue dot” for navigating health and illness akin to the one GPS data fuels on the glowing map of geolocated mobile devices that are in more and more hands.

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Analysis, Brain, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Brainiest cities across America

smartest_metros-map

The map from Zara Matheson of the Martin Prosperity Institute maps the brainy metro index across U.S. metros.

We are often told the smartest cities and nations do the best in the knowledge economy. Smart cities typically are measured  by education level, calculating the cities or metros with the largest percentage of college grads or the largest shares of adults with advanced degrees. Others do it by charting the kinds of work people do and the occupations they hold, differentiating between knowledge or creative workers and others who do more routine manufacturing and service jobs.

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