Ford is introducing a new, eco-friendly electric four-door crossover. The Mustang Mach-E is making waves in the electric car community and will compete with Tesla for satisfied drivers. Some car enthusiasts challenge Ford’s decision to replace Mustang’s namesake 8 cylinder engine. But others argue a Mustang is a Mustang.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a deeply interconnected ecosystem of billions of devices and systems that are transforming commerce, science, and society. As part of the 2019–2020 Fellows’ Presentation Series at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Francine Berman RI ’20 explores the larger social and environmental ecosystem needed to develop an IoT that maximizes benefits, minimizes risk, and promotes individual protections, the public good, and planetary responsibility.
Berman is the Edward P. Hamilton Distinguished Professor in Computer Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). She is the 2019–2020 Katherine Hampson Bessell Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
For more: https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/peo…
For seven years, Ikea has treated the smart home as a hobby. That’s changing now that Björn Block’s Home Smart division has been promoted to the same importance as Living Room, Bedroom, and all the other Ikea businesses that have come to define the company.
Ikea faces the challenge of teaming up with Google, Amazon, Apple, and other tech giants while also battling them for primacy in the home.
Read the full feature here: http://bit.ly/38VyVH9
Lucasfilms’ Doug Chiang and Amy Beth Christenson explain each and every type of starfighter from the Star Wars movie franchise. These small, combat-focused spacecrafts have become a canvas for some of the most iconic designs in all of cinema.
Ever wondered why the “snout” of the X-Wing is so pronounced, or why the Y-Wing’s paneling is so bare? Amy Beth and Doug offer all these insights and much more!
From a Harvard Gazette online article:
“This work cements the idea that, for the right patients, we can deliver hospital-level care outside of the four walls of the traditional hospital, and provides more of the data we need to make home hospital care the standard of care in our country,” said corresponding author David Levine, a physician and researcher in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care.
“It opens up so many exciting possibilities — it’s exciting for patients because it gives them the opportunity to be in a familiar setting, and it’s exciting for clinicians because we get to be with a patient in that person’s own surroundings. As a community-minded hospital, this is a way for us to bring excellent care to our community.”
The home hospital model of care — in which select patients receive hospital-level care for an acute illness from the comfort of their own home instead of in a traditional hospital — has become increasingly popular across the U.S.
To read more: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/12/home-hospital-model-reduces-costs-by-38-improves-care/
Produced by WIRED Brand Lab with American Institute of Architects | How can design transform emergency rooms from one of the most stressful and chaotic places into a place of healing? Dr. Bon Ku and architect Billie Faircloth, AIA, break down the science behind designing a better work environment for hospitals.From a Harbour Air Seaplanes online release:
“Today, we made history,” said Greg McDougall, CEO and founder of Harbour Air Seaplanes. “I am incredibly proud of Harbour Air’s leadership role in re-defining safety and innovation in the aviation and seaplane industry. Canada has long held an iconic role in the history of aviation, and to be part of this incredible world-first milestone is something we can all be really proud of.”
December 10, 2019 – Harbour Air, North America’s largest seaplane airline and magniX, the company powering the electric aviation revolution, today announced the successful flight of the world’s first all-electric commercial aircraft. The successful flight of the ePlane, a six-passenger DHC-2 de Havilland Beaver magnified by a 750-horsepower (560 kW) magni500 propulsion system, took place on the Fraser River at Harbour Air Seaplanes terminal in Richmond (YVR South) this morning. The plane was piloted by Harbour Air CEO and founder Greg McDougall. This historic flight signifies the start of the third era in aviation – the electric age.
To read more: https://www.harbourair.com/harbour-air-and-magnix-announce-successful-flight-of-worlds-first-commercial-electric-airplane/
Lo—TEK, derived from Traditional Ecological Knowledge, is a cumulative body of multigenerational knowledge, practices, and beliefs, countering the idea that indigenous innovation is primitive and exists isolated from technology. It is sophisticated and designed to sustainably work with complex ecosystems.
Three hundred years ago, intellectuals of the European Enlightenment constructed a mythology of technology. Influenced by a confluence of humanism, colonialism, and racism, this mythology ignored local wisdom and indigenous innovation, deeming it primitive. Today, we have slowly come to realize that the legacy of this mythology is haunting us.
With a foreword by anthropologist Wade Davis and four chapters spanning Mountains, Forests, Deserts, and Wetlands, this book explores thousands of years of human wisdom and ingenuity from 20 countries including Peru, the Philippines, Tanzania, Kenya, Iran, Iraq, India, and Indonesia. We rediscover an ancient mythology in a contemporary context, radicalizing the spirit of human nature.
To read more or purchase: https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/architecture/all/04698/facts.julia_watson_lotek_design_by_radical_indigenism.htm
British architect Norman Foster reflects on his first high-tech building and how it shaped offices to come, in this exclusive video produced by Dezeen. Named after the electronics manufacturer that commissioned the building,
Reliance Controls was an industrial facility located in Swindon in Southwest England. Completed in 1967, the building was the last to be designed by Team 4, an architecture practice comprising Foster, Richard Rogers, Su Brumwell and Wendy Cheesman, before the group disbanded. The single-storey rectangular shed, which was designed to house the company’s factory and offices, was one of the first buildings labelled as high-tech – a style of architecture that Foster defines as a celebration of a building’s functional components.
Reliance Controls was the first building to dissolve the traditional boundaries between factory workers and office workers. “There was only a glass screen that would separate the assembly line for electronics from those who are managing the sales force,” said Foster. “They would all share the same kitchen and dining facilities, the same bathrooms. That we take for granted now but at that time it was it was really revolutionary – unheard of.”
Website: https://www.dezeen.com/2019/12/13/norman-foster-reliance-controls-video-interview/
Boomers Daily 