Uber’s Flying Cars Becoming A Reality
In 2016 the highly successful company, Uber, announced their desire to pursue project “Elevate,” flying cars. While the statement certainly raised some eyebrows. It was not until Tuesday, April 25th, before many in the technology industry world began to take the proposal seriously.
“It’s push a button and get a flight.” This is the vision Uber’s Chief Product Officer looks forward to. The company hopes to launch its first Vertical Take Off and Land (VTOL) airplane in 2020.
The Elevator Pitch
“To do these things well, most lawyers must forget everything they ever learned in law school…” This is the advice that the award winning author, Bryan Garner, holder of three honorary degrees, gives on legal writing.
He urges lawyers to stop muddying the waters for Judges. Identify the main issue and give the Judge a quick and clear brief. Garner’s legal advice mirror the findings from a NYU psychological experiment on quick decision-making. Efficiency and concise argumentation bring success in many different vocations.
Oxford, Number One University
Why has Oxford climbed to the top spot on some surveys of the worlds best Universities? There seem to be a couple of main reasons for the ranking. One is a renewed emphasis on the hard sciences at Oxford in recent years. Oxford’s tradition as a bastion of literary arts and philosophy remain but are giving way to the needs of the modern workplace which requires first rate math and science education…
Natural Gas Future and The US
The future of Natural Gas in the US is a very cloudy picture. Natural gas production around the world continues to march ahead, despite low prices, and Major Oil players like Shell are moving to expand new markets for Nat Gas, but US regulation threatens that expansion in the US. US Natural gas has been on a trajectory that seems good for most people over the last few years with lower prices, higher production, higher consumption, more exports and fewer imports. With the clean burning nature of Natural Gas I would have thought that the pace of use, and new markets, for Natural Gas would have been much faster. Projections for new natural gas cars and filling stations seem never to achieve rosy projections, and millionaire T Boone Pickens attempts to get the government to subsidize the market for Nat gas truck engines has fallen flat. You would think that Natural gas would assume the role that many have called for, that of in making it a cleaner “bridge” to the future of energy. Seemingly solar and wind are not ready for prime time and Nat gas seems the logical choice to get us to a day in the future where alternative energies take over. So why the hesitation? US natural gas has a problem. The “never fossil fuels” crowd. This “never fossils” camp fears that Natural gas will replace oil and entrance itself in the energy structure leading to slow development of alternative energy. President Obama plays to this crowd. As other governments are out there are making deals to expand gas markets (Russia to...
Why Are the Election Polls So Different?
Why Are The Polls Different? This US presidential political season there seems to be extra disparity in the polling data coming out. Personally, and this is just a theory, I think the US presidential race polls are swinging wildly in short time frames because the 2 major candidates are so odious that a number of people are vacillating on who they like less on any given day. That is strictly opinion but there are real reasons why the polls show disparity. First and foremost the various polls use different criteria to determine “likely voters”. Using anything from self-reporting to 7 question indexes pollsters frame how likely someone is to vote. Another issue is cell phones. Most polls include cell phone users (Gallup, NY Times , NBC etc) some do not (Rasmussen, Public Policy). The big outlier this year has been the LA Times Poll which consistently favors Trump by 4-7 points it seems. It uses a methodology that asks respondents on a scale of 1-100 how likely they are to vote for a particular candidate and puts that data into a formula to determine probable voting. There is weighting in the poll that many think skews to Trump. Maybe you should just average all the polls? The folks at 538 don’t think that idea is too helpful. They more reason that you should search for bias and note it in your estimation of accuracy. If you want to dig deeper go here for more in depth study of the polls. Just remember polls can be wildly wrong, ask the Brexit poll followers about that. UPDATE 10.27.16: And just when we thought there...
How Renewable Energy May Unify Political Parties
In the United States, many issues divide along party lines. Historically, the process of replacing non-renewable energy with renewable energy sources has been added to the long list of divisive party issues. But as business models for renewable energy become more innovative and cost effective, the issue of clean energy could become with the potential of unifying political parties…
Tesla’s Controversial Intent to Purchase SolarCity
On June 21st Elon Musk’s renowned electric car company, Tesla, made known that it intended to acquire SolarCity in an all-stock transaction. Taking on the burden of another company presents itself as an obscure deal, especially when Tesla seemingly has their own operational issues. Musk and Tesla have described this proposal as a logical combination of two companies…
Brexit and London’s Tech Sector
Britain recently held a referendum leading them to the notable decision to leave the European Union. This ‘Brexit’ leaves many questions unanswered, including questions on how disbandment from the EU might affect the technology hub that is the city of London. Recent statistics provide us with a picture of what the answers to these questions may look like…
What Made ‘The Greatest’
The world recently lost one of its great icons. On June 3rd, Muhammad Ali (formerly known as “Cassius Clay”), passed away after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Ali was not only proclaimed himself as the “Greatest of All-Time,” but he was and still is, in most eyes, the greatest boxer to ever enter the ring. He dominated and captivated the specific sport he competed in; it could even be argued that he is the greatest athlete of all time. However, Ali was not your typical champion…
The Power of Sleep: Join the Revolution
Arianna Huffington’s widely popular book, The Sleep Revolution, came out this April. Already a New York Times best-seller, Huffington’s book argues for the importance of sleep, relaying staggering statistics on how lack of sleep decreases every aspect of our lives. Huffington and NBA star Andre Iguodala from the Golden State Warriors join forces to show why sleep is so important, and why we don’t get enough good hours of sleep…