Floridians working at a variety of mostly small manufacturers make everything from bottle caps and handmade knives to fishing reels and personal submarines. (Photos)
Global wind power capacity expected to skyrocket
Wind power could generate as much as 18 percent of global electricity by 2050.
Wind energy only accounts for a small percentage of global electricity production even though we have seen more wind farms popping up over the last few years. Wind power generates only 2.6 percent of the world’s electricity, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency, but that number is expected to grow significantly over the next few decades.
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Utah State University develops a wireless electric bus that charges itself at every stop
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z3mqi9kcZE[/youtube]
Researchers at the Utah State University have tested an electric bus that charges wirelessly through induction and will revolutionize the transit industry. The technology was designed by Utah State University’s Wireless Power Transfer Team and the Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative’s Advanced Transportation Institute.
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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Competing for the World’s Largest Infrastructure Project: Over 100 Million Jobs at Stake
Elon Musk and Daryl Oster, competing for what could become
the world’s largest infrastructure project
Futurist Thomas Frey: When Tesla Motors CEO, Elon Musk, mysteriously leaked that he was working on his Hyperloop Project, the combination of secrecy, cryptic details, and his own flair for the dramatic all contributed to the media frenzy that followed.
The benefits and barriers of self-driving cars
Some day in the near future, cars will drive themselves.
A study by the ENO center for transportation has been done to see what needs to be done to prepare for a nation where cars will be driving themselves sometime in the near future. (Videos)
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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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The future of brain-to-brain communication
University of Washington researchers.
The first brain-to-brain communication occurred when a rat pressed a lever, anticipating the tasty reward it’d been trained to expect. An implant in the rat’s brain converted its neural activity into an electronic signal and beamed the impulse to the brain of the second rat, which leaped forward and pressed a lever in its own cage . But rat #2 had never been trained to press the lever. Its movement impulse came not from its own brain, but directly from the brain of rat #1 – despite the fact that the two were separated by thousands of miles.
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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.
Our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming: Neil Gaiman
Libraries and librarians need to exist and help foster a love of reading and places in which reading can occur.
Neil Gaiman gives The Reading Agency annual lecture on the future of reading and libraries. He explains why using our imaginations, and providing for others to use theirs, is an obligation for all citizens.
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