Are apps to blame, or are millennials just lazy and poor?
As a “younger millennial,” I will admit that any negative news about the millennial generation gets my defensive hackles up. But a new study about millennials and our socializing habits doesn’t seem totally off-base to me. Apparently, younger millennials aren’t going out to drink and date, and there are a lot of pretty good reasons why.
Continue reading… “Millennials aren’t going out to drink and date, study says – but why?”
As someone who wears glasses, the idea of corrective laser eye surgery is certainly tempting. But then you start reading about how the invasive surgery is actually performed, along with some of (admittedly rare) risks, and suddenly glasses don’t seem so bad. Things could change, however, thanks to research coming out of Columbia University. Researchers there have developed a new noninvasive laser eye surgery which could permanently correct vision — minus any of the less pleasant-sounding aspects of regular laser surgery.
Continue reading… “A new laser eye surgery fixes your vision without any gnarly eyeball slicing”
Developers hope Babcock Ranch will become America’s first self-sustaining city; Phil Keating reports on the progress.Video
America’s first solar community coming to life in Florida
Developers hope Babcock Ranch will become America’s first self-sustaining city; Phil Keating reports on the progress.
Continue reading… “Florida’s ‘city of the future’ is first solar-powered town in America”
Sotheby’s acquired startup Thread Genius, whose machine learning tech can discern clients’ artistic and style leanings–and suggest customized purchases.
Just a few doors down from its CEO and the wood-paneled cubicles where sharply dressed professionals sit, the eighth floor of Sotheby’s New York takes on a very different vibe.
Suddenly, it’s more Silicon Valley than Upper East Side as staid formality gives way to a group of millennials, some in T-shirts with their sneakered feet on desks. Computer code is scrawled on whiteboards and the room’s glass wall. It is here where the storied auction house–founded in 1744–meets its future.
Continue reading… “Can AI have good taste? Auction giant Sotheby’s is counting on it”
A futurist says the industry may have nowhere to go but down. What does the slide look like?
Maybe higher education has reached its peak. Not the Harvards and Yales of the world, but the institutions that make up the rest of the industry—the regional public schools who saw decades of growth and are now facing major budget cuts and the smaller, less-selective private colleges that have exorbitant sticker prices while the number of students enrolling in them declines.
Tech jobs are exploding – as well as the pay that goes with them. In fact, technology can really advance your career in ways we never thought possible. Now is the time to begin positioning yourself for a career in this field as the salaries seem to increase monthly. But what are the best emerging tech jobs; the ones set to pay the most in 2019? There is a wide variety, and we’ve listed the best below.
Continue reading… “7 emerging tech jobs that are going to pay well in 2019”
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has thrown his weight behind Jack Dorsey’s hope that Bitcoin will emerge as the global currency of the internet.
The Twitter (TWTR, +3.02%) and Square CEO said last month that the internet is “going to have a native currency” and he hoped Bitcoin would be it.
No cash here.
The Dutch central bank DNB said on Tuesday it had concerns about the decline in the use of cash, saying the lightning-fast rise in digital payments could lead to vulnerable groups having limited access to goods and services.
While apps and other digital methods of payment are rising in popularity, ‘there is a risk that certain groups of consumers could be left behind and cut out of the payment systems,’ the bank said in a new report.
‘To make sure that everyone can continue to participate, paying in cash must remain an option. At the same time, the accessibility and ease of electronic payment systems should be improved.’
Continue reading… “Dutch central bank warns about the rise of the cashless society”
Japan is shrinking. Fast.
The health ministry recently announced that only 946,060 babies were born in Japan in 2017, the fewest births since official statistics began in 1899. At the same time, 1,340,433 Japanese people died last year. This means that the non-immigrant population declined by nearly 400,000 people.
It’s an astonishing shift. The Japanese population grew steadily throughout the 20th century, from around 44 million in 1900 to 128 million in 2000. The gains were primarily due to increased life expectancy, but also buoyed by families that typically had at least two children. But beginning in the late 1970s, birth rates crashed. While the average Japanese woman had 2.1 kids in the 1970s, today, they only have about 1.4—far lower than in comparably wealthy countries like the US and Sweden.
Continue reading… “The world is running out of Japanese people”
A pioneering project in north-west England will turn air into liquid for energy storage to help electricity grids cope with a growing amount of wind and solar power.
The world’s first full-scale “liquid air” plant is based on a technology that advocates say is cheaper and able to provide power for longer periods than lithium-ion batteries.
Continue reading… “Pioneering ‘liquid air’ project can help store excess electricity”
Employee burnout and stress is a big problem in the average American workplace, but it’s especially true among some of the country’s biggest tech companies, many of which have famously rigorous workplace cultures that often encourage long hours, favor young people, and sometimes require unreasonably high levels of productivity.
Blind, a message board app created for employees to talk about work anonymously, surveyed more than 11,000 employees at 30 of the biggest tech companies to find out just how many of them feel burnt out by their work.
YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat are the most popular online platforms among teens. Fully 95% of teens have access to a smartphone, and 45% say they are online ‘almost constantly’
Until recently, Facebook had dominated the social media landscape among America’s youth – but it is no longer the most popular online platform among teens, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Today, roughly half (51%) of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 say they use Facebook, notably lower than the shares who use YouTube, Instagram or Snapchat.
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.
