New Florence. New Renaissance.

The future of work - the sci-fi view

Wired has perspectives of 8 authors who

“..are our most humane, necessary futurists, imagining not just what the future holds but how it might look, feel, even smell. In the following pages are stories from eight sci-fi specialists. Some are set in the near term; others, a bit farther out. All remind us that, no matter the inevitable upheavals, we don’t struggle alone—but with and for other people. And robots.

• Real Girls by Laurie Penny
• The Trustless by Ken Liu
• Placebo by Charles Yu
• The Farm by Charlie Jane Anders
• The Third Petal by Nisi Shawl
• The Branch by Eugene Lim
• Maximum Outflow by Adam Rogers
• Compulsory by Martha Wells

Forbes "Just 100"

Forbes partnered with Just Capital, which asked 81,000 Americans about what they most want to see from the nation’s biggest businesses. The most popular answers? Pay workers fairly; treat customers well and protect their privacy; produce quality products; minimize their environmental impact; give back to the communities they operate in; commit to ethical and diverse leadership; and create abundant job opportunities. With those seven priorities in mind, we ranked 890 of America's largest publicly-traded companies to determine which are the best corporate actors. The result of this data-crunching: the 2019 Just 100.

9 out of the top 10 are tech companies.

Masayoshi Son’s empire

On the surface, the story of the Vision Fund is about money. How could it not be? The numbers are eye-popping. The Vision Fund’s minimum investment in startups is $100 million, and in just over two years since its October 2016 debut, it’s committed more than $70 billion. Son, 61 years old, will also back companies he likes via SoftBank itself or other means: He’s put some $20 billion–and counting–into Uber and WeWork through a combination of financial instruments.

FastCompany

Super Bowl Ads

Here's a look at the advertisers buying ads in the big game. Colgate became the first advertiser to release its full Super Bowl spots, while Pepsi, Avocados From Mexico, Doritos and Bumble have unveiled short teasers. Our definition of a Super Bowl ad includes all national spots between the coin toss and end of play.

AdAge which will update the page all week long

Here's the ads for Samsung's 75 inch QLED TV

The future of medicine

At the vanguard of human health, scientists tweak genes to create precision medicine, and a body donated to science becomes a holographic virtual cadaver. Meanwhile a new generation embraces ancient Chinese remedies— and the United States posts one of the developed world’s highest rates of pregnancy-related deaths. Where does all this lead?

Stunning, thought provoking issue from National Geographic

Winery Closet

Not a typo – not a wine closet it’s a winery in your closet

The GOfermentor system was designed in 2014 by biotech scientist Vijay Singh. It uses a series of medical-grade, biodegradable plastic bags, eliminating the need for cleaning and sterilizing of fermentation tanks at every step of the process. Because no oxygen permeates the sealed system, no sulfites are needed to preserve the wine as it ferments and ages. The machine uses roughly 80 percent less water than a traditional winery, according to Singh.

Specialty Foods

Boeing folding wings

Boeing's latest innovation in the travel field is an extremely thin, folding wing that it says will let planes fly at just below the speed of sound at higher altitudes than before, while offering unprecedented aerodynamic efficiency, according to a news release from the company.

The Transonic Truss-Braced Wing boasts an extended wingspan of 170 feet, made possible by a truss that supports its weight.

During development, which is still at conceptual phase, engineers have also been able to obtain an increased top speed from a planned Mach 0.70-0.75 to Mach 0.80, only slightly below the speed of sound, or Mach 1.

CNN Travel

BTW folding wings are already showing up on the new Boeing 777X

 

The future of your work!

From Workhow

Decade Planner is one-of-a-kind wall calendar that holds 10 years’ worth of calendars inside of a beautifully crafted scroll. This original 10-year design allows for easy navigation to an event from the past or to plan for a special date years in advance. As the months go by, simply turn the top knob, and up to two years will be visible from any given date! 

With longevity in mind, Decade Planner has an astounding build quality and is made of materials that have never been used on a calendar before. The knobs and rope brackets for scrolling are made of 100% CNC machined aluminum to provide a timeless look.

Your hands as the only interface you need

Soli tracks and recognizes dynamic gestures expressed by fine motions of the fingers and hand. In order to accomplish this with a single chip sensor, we developed a novel radar sensing paradigm with tailored hardware, software, and algorithms. Unlike traditional radar sensors, Soli does not require large bandwidth and high spatial resolution; in fact, Soli’s spatial resolution is coarser than the scale of most fine finger gestures. Instead, our fundamental sensing principles rely on motion resolution by extracting subtle changes in the received signal over time. By processing these temporal signal variations, Soli can distinguish complex finger movements and deforming hand shapes within its field.

Google

The new neighborhood watch

Neighbors, an app launched by Ring, Amazon's smart-doorbell company. It's free to download and use, and lets people share, view and comment on crime and security information in their communities. Most of the posts are video clips shot by Ring video doorbells and security cameras.

Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff said in an interview last month that he sees Neighbors as a major part of his company's development, using the app to help more people work together to reduce crime in their communities. The app, which launched in the US in May, has over a million active users sharing information on alleged crimes and suspicious behavior, Siminoff said.

CNET