Free Republic

Get ready to hear a lot more about technological unemployment. The theory holds that automation, especially of the digital variety, is happening more quickly than entrepreneurs and human capital can adjust. And it’s why, says Andrew McAfee, co-author of Race Against the Machines, a boom in US manufacturing wouldn’t bring a boom in job creation: – Manufacturing employment has been on a steady downward trend in the U.S. since 1980 (it increased some after the end of the Great Recession, but this boost appears to be leveling out).– Manufacturing jobs have also been trending downward in Japan and Germany since...

If there's been one topic that has entirely dominated the post-election landscape, it's the fiscal cliff. Will taxes be raised? Which programs will be cut? Who will blink first in negotiations? For all the talk of the fiscal cliff, however, I believe the US is facing a much more serious problem, one that has simply not been talked about at all: corruption. But this isn't the overt, "bartering of government favors in return for private kickbacks" corruption. Instead, this type of corruption has actually been legalized. And it is strangling both US competitiveness, and the ability for US firms to...

What makes cities grow? This question is the subject of countless magazine articles peddling lists of “best cities” and is fodder for consulting firms looking to sell advice. But in reality, the most reliable measure of a city’s future health is whether employment is expanding or contracting. Declining cities are not home to growing businesses that need people. Only true believers in the come-back story would move to Detroit, Cleveland, or Buffalo right now — the three big cities with the highest unemployment rates in the nation. So what features of a city correlate with expanding employment? The index-making experts...

The old man turned back at his coffee, took a sip, and then looked back at me.... “In fact, I’ve done lots of things ....Oh really? Like what types of things?, ...All the while, half-thinking he was going to make up something fairly non-impressive....I invented the first computer.....Um, Excuse me? ..... I created the world’s first internally programmable computer.... It used to take up a space about as big as this whole room and my wife and I used to walk into it to program it.... What’s your name?”. I asked, thinking that this guy is either another crazy homeless...

To encourage innovation in Europe, policymakers should just keep out of the way, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has said. "I agree with the idea of streamlining and simplification. The only thing is that I would be much more extreme," he told EUobserver on Tuesday (8 May) on the sidelines of a conference in Brussels on EU innovation policy organized by global accounting firm Ernst & Young. "The most important thing that Europe needs to do to spur innovation is to eliminate barriers," he added. "To make it easier for investors and entrepreneurs to start businesses and to make it easier...

A start-up called Chamtech Enteprises has an answer to the problems of poor cellphone reception and other shortcomings of traditional antennas. The company has developed a spray-on antenna that it says is more lightweight, energy-efficient and effective than the old-school version. (Where was this stuff when the iPhone 4 came out?) The Sandy, Utah-based start-up’s nanotechnology, unveiled last week at Google’s inaugural Solve For X gathering, can be painted onto a tree, a wall, the ground or even the back of a soldier, enabling a more portable, lightweight way to get reception for a variety of uses. The company has...

Daydreaming during class paid off for UW-Madison student Eric Ronning. He won $11,250 on Friday at UW-Madison's annual Innovation Days for an invention he came up with during an engineering lecture. "I space out a lot," Ronning admitted, a sophomore from Lincolnwood, Ill., who is majoring in mechanical engineering. His invention, called the Manu Print, is an inexpensive prosthetic hand for amputees in developing countries. He said the prototype he created used only $20 of material. Other prosthetic hands on the market cost more than $1,000. More than $27,000 in prizes are awarded at Innovation Days, which is in its...

The class war is on. It's the 99% of "us" versus the 1% of "them." In the rhetoric of this war, we are fighting the 1% because they possess most of the nation's wealth, bankroll their handpicked political candidates, control the banks and get million-dollar paychecks and billion-dollar bailouts; yet they don't pay enough taxes or invest their wealth in creating American jobs. They're the "millionaires and billionaires" President Obama has called out as needing to pony up more for progressive reforms of our healthcare, banking, tax and political systems. They are the enemy of "us" — the 99% who...

It might look like as space hopper surrounded by model helicopters, but the 16-rotor E-Volo is an entirely new kind of helicopter - which can hover motionless in the air without input from the pilot... Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2057423/Multicopter-1-man-flying-space-hopper-air-car-future.html#ixzz1cvmNCoK4

As far as summer fashion goes, clothes with built-in electric fans leave a little something to be desired. But Hiroshi Ichigaya has managed to turn his breezy invention into the must-have item of the summer, thanks to sweltering temperatures and a power shortage stemming from the triple disasters that hit Japan in March. The founder of Kuchofuku, or "air-conditioned clothing" in Japanese, says sales for his clothes have increased 10-fold. Phones at his office haven't stopped ringing. "People ask me, why would I want to wear a jacket when it's so hot," Ichigaya, a former Sony engineer, said. "I tell...

The White House on Thursday is expected to unveil its proposal to enhance the nation's cybersecurity, laying out plans to require industry to better protect systems that run critical infrastructure like the electrical grid, financial systems and nuclear power plants. The Obama administration also is insisting that companies tell consumers when their personal information has been compromised. According to cybersecurity experts familiar with the plan, the administration's proposed legislation also would instruct federal agencies to more closely monitor their computer networks. Several House and Senate committees have been working on cybersecurity legislation for the past two years, while waiting for...

The Khan Academy has its roots in a series of educational YouTube videos that founder Sal Khan began making several years ago to tutor his cousin. The videos struck a chord among those who came across them, Sinha said. As the videos became increasingly popular, the organization got a big break last fall, when it received a total of about $3.5 million in grants from Google and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The nonprofit Advertisement now has a Mountain View office and a half-dozen staff members. It's still attracting attention -- NBC Nightly News recently featured the program and...

The California Healthcare Institute (CHI) and The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have released a report highlighting the critical role of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in today’s biomedical research and innovation ecosystem, and the need for a strong, science-based agency and an efficient, consistent and transparent regulatory process. The report, , titled “Competitiveness and Regulation: The FDA and the Future of America’s Biomedical Industry”, has underlined that an increasingly unpredictable approval process at the FDA has negatively impacted public health, the economy, job creation, American competitiveness and innovation. This report represents the first study to quantify approval timelines...

PhRMA’s quiescence on Obamacare badly hurt the industry — and all those who depend on medical innovation. With the release of the president’s budget, it is now beyond dispute — Beltway spin notwithstanding — that the decision by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) to support the health-care bill was one of the worst self-inflicted wounds in the history of lobbying. For biotech and pharmaceutical companies, the president’s budget repudiates one of the most important benefits of their “deal” with the White House: the ability to market biotech drugs without generic competition for twelve years. The president would...

While it is common knowledge that the health care industry is not happy with the rules and regulations of the health care law, the National Review brings up this question: Will the implementation of ObamaCare stifle the creation of new drugs and treatments? To answer this question, the National Review observes that Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) made a deal with the Obama Administration that they would be able to market their drugs without generic competition for 12 years. The administration reneged on that deal and reduced the 12 years to 7 years. And there are many more...

— Africa can feed itself. And it can make the transition from hungry importer to self-sufficiency in a single generation.The startling assertions, in stark contrast with entrenched, gloomy perceptions of the continent, highlight a collection of studies published December 2 that present a clear prescription for transforming Sub-Saharan Africa's agriculture and, by doing so, its economy. The strategy calls on governments to make African agricultural expansion central to decision making about everything from transportation and communication infrastructure to post-secondary education and innovation investment.

So said Joe Biden today on the second-floor bar at the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel at a fundraiser for incumbent Democratic NY-1 Rep. Tim Bishop. “Every single great idea that has marked the 21st century, the 20th century and the 19th century has required government vision and government incentive,” he said. “In the middle of the Civil War you had a guy named Lincoln paying people $16,000 for every 40 miles of track they laid across the continental United States. … No private enterprise would have done that for another 35 years.” For innovation and business, people don't look towards...

There are reasonable people who question whether our health care system is, in fact, "broken," as opined by President Obama. (This is one of the few conclusions he makes with which I agree. Of course, ObamaCare is very clearly not the solution.) Objective, evidence-based analysis of the U.S. health care system leads to the well-worn doctor joke: "I have good news and bad news." Every assertion below has "hard" scientific proof. What follows is fact, not unsubstantiated opinion. First, the good news Americans have better health care outcomes than most others: better survival rates for common cancers than Europeans, better...

Anyone driving the twists of Highway 1 between San Francisco and Los Angeles recently may have glimpsed a Toyota Prius with a curious funnel-like cylinder on the roof. Harder to notice was that the person at the wheel was not actually driving. The car is a project of Google, which has been working in secret but in plain view on vehicles that can drive themselves, using artificial-intelligence software that can sense anything near the car and mimic the decisions made by a human driver. With someone behind the wheel to take control if something goes awry and a technician in...

For many people past the age of 40, focusing on close objects restaurant menus, — for instance — just gets harder and harder. Most people with this condition, called presbyopia, eventually give in and get reading glasses, bifocals or glasses with progressive lenses. But what if there were another alternative that didn't require people to carry an extra set of glasses or have only part of their field of vision in focus at any one time? Zoom Focus Eyewear LLC, of Van Nuys, Calif., has just such an option, and with it won this year's Silver Innovation Award. The solution:...