Notes.
Took the weekend off :)
Wayfinding & Strategy.
- The Maersk group (which you probably didn't realize did non-shipping stuff like oil drilling) might break up.
- Hyperloop One seems to be totally imploding.
- Semil, on additive manufacturing and his investment in nTopology.
- Russia is planning to detach their newest modules from the ISS when it reaches the end of its life in the early 2020s, creating a new Russian Orbital Station.
- A good piece on Tesla and SolarCity, and the strategic benefits that their merger will produce. Note, I'm posting this before Musk's updated Master Plan is supposed to be published; his Twitter feed should be a good place to find updates.
Making & Manufacturing.
- Apparently the 2nd Ave. Subway is now being delayed by change orders asking for new colors of concrete. This seems a bit overblown, but also not out of the realm of possibility.
- A 2 minute time lapse of the 9 year construction of the Panama Canal Expansion.
- Long Island might get an offshore wind farm.
- How e-mattress companies deflate and fold your mattresses for shipping.
- The full ~1hr Wired documentary on Shenzhen.
- An interview with Magnus Rene, the CEO of Arcam.
- Alcoa (soon to be Arconic) opened their new metal AM materials facility.
Distribution & Logistics.
- Honeywell spent $1.5B to acquire Intelligrated, a provider of warehouse automation equipment that sells to companies like Amazon and UPS.
- Some details on Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs' urban infrastructure analytics products.
Inspection & Testing.
- A (good, qualitative) comparison between printed parts made on a Lulzbot ($2500) and a Stratasys Fortus 380MC (~$200k). See also the top few comments on this HackerNews thread, which are smart.
- LLNL's Wayne King & co published their multiscale model of the laser metal powder bed fusion process.
Tangents.
- M vs MM for "millions."
- On Naples' top pizza school.
- Backyard grilling can be traced right back to WWII GIs.
Credit to Tanner, Patricia, Jordan, Jay, and Eric for sending links this week. If you see something, send something :)
And.
Toyota's ~$1B, 100 acre campus in Plano, TX is halfway complete.
Love, Spencer.
p.s. - We should be better friends. Send me a note - coffee's on me :)
