How well does nature reflect the pattern of real events around the world? It’s natural to assume that people living in a certain part of the world are more likely to read, see and hear about news from their own region. But what of the international news they get—how does that compare to the international news that people in other parts of the world receive?
Continue reading… “Data mining reveals how news coverage varies around the world”
Consumers who are wary of privacy can take some comfort in the settings tab of our smartphones or browsers, which allow us to tell a device not to track our location or monitor what we are reading. But what can they do when the internet-connected device is inside their body or mounted on a city lamp-post? (Video)
A White House gate crasher bypassed an unlocked, manual front door and two guards and made it deep into the White House last month, while two K-9s managed to halt a would-be uninvited guests. So far, this year, there have been at least five intrusions on White House grounds demonstrating that maybe Secret Service officers could use some help protecting President Barack Obama.
Darek Fidyka walks again after pioneering spinal surgery.
The same cells that give him his sense of smell are also helping Darek Fidyka walk again. Fidyka was paralyzed after a knife attack in 2010. He can now walk after doctors in Poland transplanted nerve cells from his nose into his severed spinal cord. The successful operation was the first of its kind for regenerative medicine, and Fidyka is believed to be the first man to walk again after having a completely severed spinal cord.
Thanks to technological advancements in health care, the industry has made remarkable progress in the understanding, detection and treatment of disease, in recent decades. Given that the majority of Americans are healthy most of the time, one might expect that medical progress would dramatically reduce the cost of health care due to preventative education, early detection and more effective treatments.
Continue reading… “Health tech’s promise to patients – pay doctors for results, not treatment”
Steve Jellard’s job is unlikely to exist in 20 years.
Almost a third of New Zealand’s workers believe their job will not exist in 20 years’ time, according to new research.
Continue reading… “Technology will kill many New Zealander’s jobs in 20 years”
Louisville’s Big Four Bridge, built in 1895 and later known as “The Bridge to Nowhere,” reopened to pedestrian and bicycle traffic after a $30 million-plus renovation.
Ron Littlefield: Recently, I visited two cohort communities of the City Accelerator, a program sponsored in part by Governing, sister publication to Government Technology: Louisville and Nashville. I expect to be in the third city, Philadelphia, before the end of the year. The purpose of these visits is to meet face to face with the mayors and their principal innovation staff, to experience how their innovation efforts fit within the context of the community and to see how the City Accelerator project is affecting the overall climate for innovation. In simple terms, I want to sense the air of change and creativity in each place.
Continue reading… “Cities using innovation and imagination in their infrastructure”
Installing solar panels.
Anyone with enough roof space will be leaving the grid within the decade for solar power. And in most cases they won’t be leaving just one grid, they will be leaving two. That’s because solar is going to become, to put a new spin on an old phrase, “too cheap to have a meter”. It just won’t be worth paying daily service charges to have a grid supplied meter and grid access.
Continue reading… “How power companies will commit suicide by solar”
There are 89 tankers sailing for Chinese ports.
The US Shale Oil industry and Venezuala up in arms, Russia is being awkwardly quiet as the ‘secret’ Saudi-US oil deal that pressured prices for crude down to $80 has ‘hurt’ a lot of the world’s producer nations. However, China is the one country that is very grateful, Bloomberg reports.
Continue reading… “Who is quietly buying all of the cheap oil?”
Futurist Thomas Frey: Business owners today are actively deciding whether their next hire should be a person or a machine. After all, machines can work in the dark and don’t come with decades of HR case law requiring time off for holidays, personal illness, excessive overtime, chronic stress or anxiety.
Florida university library lends drones to students.
Justin Ellis is an instructional-technology associate at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s library. He thinks of himself as the gadget guy. He manages a program at the library that lets students and professors check out a growing catalog of computers, cameras, and other electronics—a selection more akin to a Best Buy store than a lending library.
Continue reading… “College libraries are lending out some surprising gadgets”
“Our universities are failing us.”
By Richard Kirby: Universities are failing their graduates in many ways. My purpose in addressing such topics is not to chastise higher education, which I don’t believe can be reformed, but rather to warn future educational consumers and help more recent graduates improve their odds of career success.
Continue reading… “Are universities failing their graduates?”