16-Year-Old Thinkspace Pioneers

Via Business Insider:

A few months ago three British teens launched a project called Thinkspace, a school club of sorts that teaches kids to create websites and apps by making coding fun, social and student-led.

Thinkspace is different than an ordinary computer club because it can't use any old classroom. The room has to "look like you have entered Google HQ," says one of the project's 16-year-old founders, James Anderson.

That means plain walls, Thinkspace logos, bean bag chairs and modern computers.

They also created and launched their own Thinkspace social network and landed some huge names in tech as backers and advisors. Supporters include Virgin's Richard Branson, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and British actor Stephen Fry.

As of Friday, Thinkspace is going global, looking for teens worldwide to join them in a new project called Thinkspace Pioneers. They want to show kids how to launch Thinkspace in their own schools.

Click the link to see more: 16-Year-Old Thinkspace Pioneers - Business Insider

Points:

• “Today, education is all about drilling the facts into people’s minds and it restricts their creativity and imagination. Thinkspace is all about bringing the creativity out of these young people and encouraging them to create real-life projects through teamwork and collaboration.”
• “We're now experiencing the making of young entrepreneurs with the help of Thinkspace, and these people are going to be the ones who will change the world tomorrow.”
• “We’re actively looking for talented young individuals who have a deep passion for technology.”

Tongue Drive System is a piercing that controls wheelchair

Via Instapundit and Daily Mail:

A headset detects the tongue's position when the user flicks that magnetic stud. Touch a spot on the right bottom tooth to go right, for example.

The headset wirelessly beams that information to a smartphone the user carries. An app then sends the command to move the wheelchair or the computer cursor.

Click the link to see more: Tongue Drive System is a piercing that controls wheelchair | Mail Online

Research ethics: 3 ways to blow the whistle

Via Instapundit and Nature:

Retractions of scientific papers have increased about tenfold during the past decade, with many studies crumbling in cases of high-profile research misconduct that ranges from plagiarism to image manipulation to outright data fabrication. When worries about somebody's work reach a critical point, it falls to a peer, supervisor, junior partner or uninvolved bystander to decide whether to keep mum or step up and blow the whistle. Doing the latter comes at significant risk, and the path is rarely simple. Some make their case and move on; others never give up. And in what seems to be a growing trend, anonymous watchdogs are airing their concerns through e-mail and public forums.

Click the link to see more: Research ethics: 3 ways to blow the whistle : Nature News & Comment

Points:

• “…one option would be to require researchers to post raw data, thereby making them more open to checks by watchful data-sleuths.”
• “…a 'qui tam' lawsuit…allowed under the US False Claims Act, can be brought by any citizen to aid the government in recouping taxpayers' funds allocated under false pretences.”
• “…anonymous whistle-blowing is likely to increase, given the increased access to papers by people all around the world and the availability of online tools for spotting potential plagiarism and image manipulation. One site, called PubPeer, is already becoming a venue for anonymous comments.”

Ponder:

• As knowledge increases exponentially, how will the checkers keep up?
• If the number of faulty papers is increasing and it’s not just a function of checkers being more willing to report such instances, what does this say about peer review?

How the business of bionics is changing lives

Via CNBC and Drudge:

…doctors and scientists at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) are developing cutting edge prosthetics to improve the lives of amputees. Today, advances in technology are enabling amputees to ride bikes, grip bottles and even run.

The market is lucrative: Össur, one of the world's leading prosthetics makers, estimates that in 2012, the size of the prosthetic market in the U.S., EMEA and Asia regions was between $850-$950 million.

Click the link to see more: How the business of bionics is changing lives

Points:

• “…people with upper arm amputations are able control their prosthetic devices by merely thinking about the action they want to perform.”
• “Developing cutting edge prosthetics requires time, and funding.”
• “It benefits those who have lost their limbs as a result of domestic and work accidents, and has the potential to improve the lives of service men and women returning from conflict zones.”

Here's What a Shooting War in the East China Sea Might Look Like

Via Instapundit and Popular Mechanics:

The war of words and maritime move–countermove has been under way for years, but this latest escalation could be the fuse to ignite a war that can't easily be stopped. Here's how a hypothetical scenario might unfold.

Click the link to see more: Here's What a Shooting War in the East China Sea Might Look Like - Popular Mechanics

Points:

• “Drones are great tools of escalation. National leaders will fly them in areas where it might be too dangerous for a pilot. Other national leaders are not as hesitant to attack them. After all, it's only a robot.”
• “The United States is bound by treaty to protect Japan if it is attacked, but pundits debate whether the events in the East China Sea meet that standard.”
• “…missiles, not airplanes, will determine who dominates the airspace over the disputed islands.”

Ponder: Understanding capabilities of military technology can provide insights into what military operations would be like.

The Reluctant Visionary

Via Instapundit and Foundation for Economic Education:

…more than 25 years after the publication of Engines, Drexler returns to the subject of nanotechnology with Radical Abundance. Eschewing as tainted both by hype and bureaucratic mismanagement the word he introduced to the world, Drexler refers in his new work to “atomically precise manufacturing” (APM), which he says reflects the concepts he originally introduced.

Click the link to see more: The Reluctant Visionary : The Freeman : Foundation for Economic Education

Points:

• “Today’s assembly lines can produce a finished car from premanufactured parts in a relatively compact space and in an impressively short period of time, but where did those parts come from? How long did it take to make them, and the materials they were made from? And what is the origin of those materials?”
• “…Drexler’s APM factory produces a finished car directly from raw materials, cutting years down to minutes and shrinking a globe-spanning supply chain to the size of the (remarkably small) factory.”
• “In Drexler’s vision of atomically precise manufacturing, the production of material goods becomes an instance of information technology: The finished car is a digital product comparable to a movie burned onto a DVD. All of the know-how required to turn a few basic materials into a working automobile is written into the software that governs the operation of the APM factory, which begins its assembly process by quite literally putting molecules together.”

Ponder: Is 3D printing a step toward turning physical objects into information?

From Balkanized Cleveland to Global Cleveland: A Theory of Change for Legacy Cities

Via Newgeography.com:

The real problem with legacy cities is an absence of newcomers, as it is this lack of “demographic dynamism”, or “churn,” which has inhibited economic evolution.

Click the link to see more: From Balkanized Cleveland to Global Cleveland: A Theory of Change for Legacy Cities | Newgeography.com

Points:

• “…the mistake cities make when it comes to reinvestment is to settle with the low-hanging fruit of gentrification.”
• “Ohio City needs to be made into a neighborhood that produces, not simply one that consumes.”
• “…no city has systematically ensured a process of policies that prioritizes the long-term benefits of integrated communities over the short-term benefits of consumer-driven gentrification.”
• “…simply developing “creative class” enclaves in the likes of Ohio City and Tremont will do nothing to transition Cleveland from a segregated, siloed city with high rates of poverty into a globalized, integrated city comprised of neighborhoods that produce human capacity.”

Tech Jobs Of The Future

Via Business Insider:

Some people say new tech will destroy jobs. No doubt that's true, in part. We just don't need a lot of typewriter repair people today.

But new tech will also lead to new jobs, some of them incredible to ponder. Want to be a 3D body-part printer? Or an augmented reality architect? These are the job vacancies that will be open tomorrow.

Click the link to see more: Tech Jobs Of The Future - Business Insider

Prepare today for tomorrow’s jobs.

Affordability: Seattle’s Ace in Becoming the Next Tech Capital

Via Newgeography.com:

Silicon Valley has been well recognized as the nation’s hub of technology, having easily surpassed both Southern California and Massachusetts, but it’s now Seattle that may emerge as its greatest rival. Home to tech giants such as Microsoft and Amazon, Seattle has attracted creative and entrepreneurial talent, which has been the foundation to its low unemployment rate of 5.9% and continuous economic growth. Many former employees from Microsoft and Amazon have founded startups and small businesses in Seattle.

The primary reason for Seattle’s continuous expansion: the metro beats Silicon Valley in affordability on many different avenues.

Click the link to see more: Affordability: Seattle’s Ace in Becoming the Next Tech Capital | Newgeography.com

Points:

• “Increasing wages in Silicon Valley have been matched with skyrocketing housing prices in the Bay area, which has become one of the most expensive places to live in the nation.”
• “Seattle’s lower office rent and expanding office space development also have made Seattle become an appealing alternative to Silicon Valley.”
• “Washington also has no income tax and offers a plethora of tax incentives to high tech companies.”
• “Seattle could be highly appealing for tech companies and individual entrepreneurs simply because the cost of living is cheaper.”
• “Washington also has the fourth lowest electricity prices in the nation, another major incentive for tech companies.”
• “…unlike Silicon Valley, Seattle’s economy also rests on a healthy composition of many different established industries.”

Growth In The Internet Of Things

Via Business Insider:

The Internet Of Things represents a major departure in the history of the Internet, as connections move beyond computing devices, and begin to power billions of everyday devices, from parking meters to home thermostats. 

Estimates for Internet of Things or IoT market value are massive, since by definition the IoT will be a diffuse layer of devices, sensors, and computing power that overlays entire consumer, business-to-business, and government industries. The IoT will account for an increasingly huge number of connections: 1.9 billion devices today, and 9 billion by 2018. That year, it will be roughly equal to the number of smartphones, smart TVs, tablets, wearable computers, and PCs combined.

Click the link to see more: Growth In The Internet Of Things - Business Insider

How Americans Spend Their Time

Via Business Insider:

NBER, NYT

Click the link to see more: How Americans Spend Their Time - Business Insider

Ponder:

• TV and movies take up more time than socializing. This was in 2008, so by 2013, the Internet probably takes up more time.
• We spend more time at work than we do with our loved ones.

All Around The World, Labor Is Losing Out To Capital

Via Business Insider:

The “labour share” of national income has been falling across much of the world since the 1980s (see chart). The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a club of mostly rich countries, reckons that labour captured just 62% of all income in the 2000s, down from over 66% in the early 1990s. That sort of decline is not supposed to happen. For decades economists treated the shares of income flowing to labour and capital as fixed (apart from short-run wiggles due to business cycles). When Nicholas Kaldor set out six “stylised facts” about economic growth in 1957, the roughly constant share of income flowing to labour made the list. Many in the profession now wonder whether it still belongs there.

Click the link to see more: All Around The World, Labor Is Losing Out To Capital - Business Insider

Points:

• “A falling labour share implies that productivity gains no longer translate into broad rises in pay. Instead, an ever larger share of the benefits of growth accrues to owners of capital.”
• “A greater reliance on imports, they found, is associated with a bigger decline in labour’s take.”
• “Yet trade cannot account for all labour’s woes in America or elsewhere. Workers in many developing countries, from China to Mexico, have also struggled to seize the benefits of growth over the past two decades. The likeliest culprit is technology, which, the OECD estimates, accounts for roughly 80% of the drop in the labour share among its members.”
• “Trade and technology’s toll on wages has in some cases been abetted by changes in employment laws.”

How Computers Have Changed Chess

Via Business Insider:

Thanks to powerful computers, a player can gain incredible insight into the weaknesses and strengths of a given opening strategy. This to combat this, a player must have a varied opening repertoire, and not rely too much on any one line, lest their opponent beome too knowledgeable about the possible positions.

Click the link to see more: Anand On How Computers Have Changed Chess - Business Insider

Maybe it’s time for 3D chess.

Why 'Fail Fast' Isn't Good Advice

Via Business Insider :

"Fail fast" has become standard entrepreneurial advice. Startups and small businesses are told they shouldn't worry about messing up, because it's better to quickly realize that something's not working and move on. 

That's the right idea but very much the wrong attitude, according to Rob Shelton, the global innovation chief of PwC.

Click the link to see more: Business Insider - Why 'Fail Fast' Isn't Good Advice