With the approach of the Rio Summer Olympics, the role of technology in sport comes naturally to the fore. Many of those questions center on issues of enhancement.
The aptly named Product Design Studio of Japan has improved on an old piece of design, namely the hand loop grasped by straphangers on public transit.
The classic handle for someone standing on the bus, streetcar, or subway was a loop of plastic hanging from a bar overhead. This solution helps to prevent people from being knocked over by jolts experienced during normal operation but is not very comfortable to hold onto.
Pokémon Go is hard to avoid. Players wander the highways and byways, and the halls of academe, collecting Squirtles and the like.
Like any broadly adopted technological phenomenon, the game comes with trade-offs, that is, features that work to the advantage of some and disadvantage of others. As ever, opinions may differ about what exactly those are.
The New York Times reports that Funai Electric of Japan will cease production of its VHS VCR lines this August. After that, there will be no more producers of this venerable technology.
VCRs were first produced in the mid-1950s and cost $50,000 each! The first consumer versions were marketed in the 1960s but serious household use got underway in the mid-1970s with the so-called Betamax-VHS format war.
Toronto's City Council recently approved a plan to construct a subway extension in Scarborough, in the eastern region of the city. The decision riles many urban planners because it provides only one stop at a cost likely well in excess of $3 billion.
An alternative plan calling for construction of light rail transit (LRT) through the same section of the city would provide more stops, serve more people, and cost significantly less.
Myriad Genetics is perhaps best known for its ultimately failed defence of its patents on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes associated with elevated risk of breast cancer.
A new article describes another way in which the company has offended some cancer patients, namely by keeping details of their test results a proprietary secret.
It may not surprise you to learn that the Pokémon Go phenomenon continues to grow. As such, here are a few more items that may interest readers of this blog:
You cannot swing a virtual cat on the 'net without hitting a news item about the appearance of Pokémons everywhere. The little Nintendo critters from the 1990s are back amongst us, visible only to those who have downloaded the Pokémon Go app on their smartphones.
The app allows users to view their surroundings but inserts pocket monsters where it sees fit. Players can ambulate through their surroundings spotting and collecting them, or something like that.
Stories about the app abound. Here are a few:
The Seattle City Light utility is preparing installation of the Denny Street substation. Why is this news? Because the new substation does not look like a substation. Behold!
(Courtesy NBBJ Architects.)