A Website by Millennials, for Millennials, PolicyMic is Taking the Next Step

You might not have heard of the news website PolicyMic, but you will. This is because the millennial start-up has been given a boost  of  $10 million in funding from a plethora of investors including Jim Clark, the co-founder of NetScape.  The 3 year-old website is part of new wave of news websites such as BuzzFeed that cater to young people which have caught the eye of investors. "By building a brand for 20-somethings who take pride in staying informed,we want to become the most important news and media company for our generation," said Christopher Altchek, the co-founder and chief executive of PolicyMic. Those are bold words for a website that has flown under the radar for the most part. However, PolicyMic is on the uptick, according to Quantcast, PolicyMic has roughly tripled its monthly unique visitor totals in the past year up to 11.4 million in the United States. 

"Our general view is that news is a growth business," Eric Hippeau, managing director at Lerer Ventures, one of the investors of PolicyMic, told Quartz in March. More people "are accessing and interested in and engaging with news today than ever before, thanks to technology. So we're bullish on content and we're bullish on news." This is good news for the media website as it seems their investors are confident of PolicyMic's success and they are willing to say-so to various media outlets. PolicyMic is a part of new generation of news media outlets that our challenging the status-quo of how people are getting their information and providing feedback on what they learn. The sharp-looking website will be confident that this new influx of cash will help propel them into the mainstream and change the way people get their news. 

3-D Printing Taking Next Step Into Field of Medicine

As the twenty-first century has unfolded, 3-D printing has become one of the most exciting and awe-inspiring technologies to have been invented so far. The ability to create objects from these devices can solve problems ranging from world poverty to printing a chair. This new technology is spreading its wings and now entering the field of medicine, where it has already made an impact on a large scale. It has already produced cheap prosthetic limbs to war victims in Sudan through American Mike Ebeling's organization  "Project Daniel" named after Daniel Omar who was injured in a Bomb explosion in his home village in Sudan. These first forays into medicine show the potential that 3-D printing has and how it could change our lives in the future.

Scientists have now discovered that they will be able to "print" various parts of the human body including: limbs, bones, synthetic skin, noses, ears, and eyes using materials such as thermoplastics. An amazing application of this invention is being worked on at the Wake Forest School of Medicine. At the school they are developing a printer that will print skin straight onto the wounds of burn victims (shown below). This is incredible that there will be a device that, one day, could create skin on sight in a crisis situation better than the best skin graft surgery done today. It will be easier for burn victims to move on from their terrifying ordeal if they are not staring at a reminder in the mirror everyday.

Other uses for 3-D printing in the field of medicine will be creating artificial eyes, noses, and ears that look like authentic body parts. These new plastic surgeries will revolutionize the world of prostheses. The biggest appeal of these new developments is that after they're ordered, replacements can be re-ordered at a fraction of the cost. Also the simple process of scanning a patient's face is more patient-friendly than the current invasive mold process. The most amazing part of all of this is that this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as the future development of 3-D printing goes. Throughout all industries, 3-D printing is going to revolutionize the way we produce goods, objects , tools and will change the way we do business from the ground up.

Netflix streams faster for Comcast in February

Netflix reported this week that its streaming speeds increased 11% from January. This increase was preceded by 4 consecutive months of decline.  Instead of delivering its traffic through third parties, such as Cogent Communications, as Netflix has done previously, Netflix now pays Comcast to feed its videos directly. Comcast and other Internet service providers had been claiming that Netflix was unfairly eating up its bandwidth, particularly during peak TV viewing hours. During prime time, Netflix can account for as much as a third of internet traffic. 

Unfortunately for Netflix subscribers, Comcast appears to be unwilling to allow Netflix direct access to their network without due financial compensation. Netflix is frustrated with Comcast as it is been said that Comcast is extorting Netflix by not allowing the company to stream at optimum speed unless it pays for premium access. Subscribers of Netflix are worried that this financial unfair play will result in Netflix being forced to hike their prices to compensate for the increased expenditures to Comcast.
Verizon and AT&T are taking Comcast's lead on this issue and our looking in to getting their own profitable deals for their streaming services, which rank in the top ten fastest channels in the country. It will be interesting to see over time how this tug-of-war affects the industry and whether or not these deals become commonplace or go extinct. Whatever happens, it does not appear that consumers will be happy as it seems certain that prices will go up. 

Construction Mini Robots could be Way of the Future

In the future, the world's tallest building could be built by termite inspired robots that similar to the insect, are programmed to react directly to its environment and operate individually instead of with a chain of command like we complete our big projects. In this article, these worker drones can allow humans to take a backseat on the dangerous jobs so humans do not have to needlessly risk their lives. The robots are not big measuring to a height of 4.7 inches, with a footprint of 4 x 7 inches. They operate by using their whegs, or wheel-legs, these hook onto the surface allowing them to traverse the surface of the construction project with ease. Unlike science fiction however, these bees are not connected to a hive mind. According to Jason Werfel of the Wyss institute for Biologically inspired Engineering "They do all of their coordination indirectly, by changing their shared environment." This means that they communicate by changing the environment around them and the other robots will react by altering what they come across as well. Thus building in the style of Termites.

These robots might have one really useful ability that would save us time and money and that is building in space. These robots could make repairs on the international space station allowing astronauts and mission control to observe their progress from safety. The robots could also be used to repair rovers or a potential station on another planet such as Mars.  Also by not having a centralized chain of command if one or more robots are damaged and are inoperable the rest of the "colony" will continue to complete the project with ease. This eases the logistical concerns of humans supervising these workers from a distance. These robots could usher in a new age where robots are able to complete the most dangerous and difficult assignments without the risk of losing human life. I am very interested in these robots and am curious to see what other robotic technology is ushered in after these amazing little workers.

The Google Glass Revolution?

By: William Harper-1/28/14

Google has been trying to diversify it's portfolio throughout the last decade and their new innovation is Google Glass. Google Glass is an attempt to take smart technology that is being used for phones and applying it to eye wear. Google is now trying to adapt to consumer needs by adding prescription lens and collaborating with third-party companies. There have been rumors that Google could be partnering with hip eye-wear retailer Warby Parker to add style to this clunky invention. This is indicating that Google has confidence in it's product and are willing to invest time and money into making Glass a success. 

Going forward, Google anticipates the consumer will not want to wear regular eye-wear because it won't be able to do a task that would be desirable and expected. "We're going reach some day, hopefully it will be soon, where people will wonder 'why would i want traditional glasses? They don't do X, Y, or Z'" said Google Glass Product Director Steve Lee. This view expressed by Mr. Lee expresses Google's desire to take over the market and to perhaps to extend their reach into other smart technologies. The company has already made inroads into smart car technologies and innovations that will potentially remove the need to drive as our cars will be driven together by a smart device, similar to a school of fish. These future projects point to the future of Google as a titan of industry.  

It will be interesting to see how Google progresses into this new age of technology with their array of smart devices and technologies that will continue to revolutionize the way we live our daily lives. The Google Glass as well as the Smartwatch will indicate the success of this smart device trend. Also, how will these endeavors affect other interests in the industry such as smart clothing being produced by athletic companies such as Nike and Under Armor? Whatever the answers to these questions it will be enlightening to see how Google finds it's way.