Distributed teams are rewriting the rules of office(less) politics

When we think about designing our dream home, we don’t think of having a thousand roommates in the same room with no doors or walls. Yet in today’s workplace where we spend most of our day, the purveyors of corporate office design insist that tearing down walls and bringing more people closer together in the same physical space will help foster better collaboration while dissolving the friction of traditional hierarchy and office politics. But what happens when there is no office at all? This is the reality for Jason Fried, Founder and CEO of Basecamp , and Matt Mullenweg, […] […]

​Technofobie of dreigende dystopie?

In China worden grote stappen gezet richting een maatschappij waarin burgers continu worden gevolgd, gemonitord en beoordeeld. Een sociale score moet ervoor zorgen dat men netjes wacht op het stoplicht, vaak op bezoek gaat bij familie en op tijd op het werk verschijnt. Overtredingen leveren strafpunten op en daarmee een lagere score waarmee je minder recht hebt op een goede baan of een appartement. Het is nu nog optioneel, maar in 2020 ontkomt de Chinese burger er niet meer aan. De Volkskrant schrijft in een artikel over de Chinese technologie dat wij, in het westen, nog ‘huiverig’ zijn qua […] […]

Hubble Captures 15,000 Galaxies in a Single Stunning Image

Early in Hubble’s mission, it scanned a patch of sky for 10 days to collect 342 separate images. When assembled, they became the now-famous Hubble Deep Field. NASA has updated this iconic image over the years as the telescope became more powerful, and it’s doing so again. Hubble may be inching toward obsolescence with the upcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), but it’s still producing amazing images. The newest panoramic view of the universe shows more galaxies than ever before . According to NASA, the new image features a whopping 15,000 galaxies, and 12,000 of them […] […]

Robots Won’t Take Your Job—But They Might Make It Boring

Robert Deyrail/Getty Images Whether they believe robots are going to create or destroy jobs, most experts say that robots are particularly useful for handling “dirty, dangerous and dull” work. They point to jobs like shutting down a leaky nuclear reactor , cleaning sewers , or inspecting electronic components to really drive the point home. Robots don’t get offended, they are cheap to repair when they get “hurt,” and they don’t get bored. It’s hard to disagree: What could possibly be wrong about automating jobs that are disgusting, mangle people, or make them act like robots? The problem is that […] […]

China’s ambition to power the world’s electric cars took a huge leap forward this week

China’s grand designs to dominate the future of clean energy paid off spectacularly this week. In a public offering on June 11 in Shenzhen, battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. (CATL) raised nearly $1 billion to fund ambitious expansion plans, and its stock has been shooting up every day since. Thanks largely to the company’s new plants, China will be making 70 percent of the world’s electric-vehicle batteries by 2021, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). The rapid rise of CATL is arguably the clearest, though certainly not the only , payoff from China’s calculated efforts to bolster […] […]

A few big players may have been behind Bitcoin’s huge surge last year

New research (PDF) suggests that a price manipulation scheme may have been behind the cryptocurrency’s extraordinary rally in 2017. The study: Researchers at the University of Texas analyzed blockchain data and found that large purchases of cryptocurrency from multiple trading platforms in exchange for Tether, a crypto-token that’s supposedly pegged to the US dollar , were “timed following market downturns” and, since cryptocurrency prices tend to move as one, resulted in “sizable increases in Bitcoin prices.” This suggests, according to the New York Times , that a few players may have been propping up the price of Bitcoin and […] […]

3D printing in construction, architecture and the built-environment

The use of 3D printing for construction and architecture is a rapidly developing area. Additive manufacturing is used not only in the design stages of construction projects, but is also bringing remarkable full-scale structures to life. This article highlights some of the possibilities that 3D printing brings to the built-environment. These include 3D printed houses, buildings, bridges and infrastructure. The 3D printed Housing 05 Project by CLS Architetti The 3D Housing 05 project from CLS Architetti , an Italian architecture firm, is a sustainable, 3D printed house. The project was showcased at Milan Design Week 2018 . Massimiliano Locatelli, […] […]