2017-09-25

Notes.
Got a background in computer vision, embedded systems, or mechanical design and want to work at a female-founded, NYC based urban analytics company? Check out Numina!

And on podcast this week, Zach and I talk to Jonathan Cedar, CEO of BioLite Energy, about the science of combustion, the global health impact of cooking, and what it's like to run a hardware product recall.

Planning & Strategy.

• The startup rate - the number of new companies as a percentage of all firms - has dropped by 50% since 1978.
• An online library of free online courses which, together, add up to a BS in computer science.
• Beijing's transportation authority has halted all new bike share bikes from being placed in the city. If the numbers in this article are accurate, that would mean that Beijing is running at .12 bikes per capita, which is about 100x NYC's rate.

Making & Manufacturing.

• Micah Scott builds a winch-and-paracord driven camera rig. The breadth of skill here is *really* impressive.

Maintenance, Repair & Operations.

• The Hartford, Connecticut business improvement district is offering free roadside bike maintenance in an effort to encourage commuting.

Distribution & Logistics.

• A pretty fantastic 30-day time lapse of a container ship at sea.
• On the changing roles of Amazon fulfillment center employees. Less walking, more manual dexterity.
• The USDA is procuring 31 million pounds of pinto beans for the National School Lunch Program and other Federal Food & Nutrition Assistance Programs.

Inspection & Testing.

• On TOMS get-one-give-one program: "insignificant impacts on overall health, foot health, and self-esteem but small positive impacts on school attendance for boys. Children receiving the shoes were significantly more likely to state that outsiders should provide for the needs of their family. Thus, in a context where most children already own at least one pair of shoes, the overall impact of the shoe donation program appears to be negligible, illustrating the importance of more careful targeting of in-kind donation programs."
• "Consider the 256 GB memory iPhone X: Implemented in vacuum tubes in 1957, the transistors in an iPhoneX alone would have:
• cost 150 trillion of today's dollars: one and a half times today's global annual product
• taken up a hundred-story square building 300 meters high, and 3 kilometers long and wide
• drawn 150 terawatts of power—30 times the world's current generating capacity"

Tangents.

• Buzzfeed has a hardware arm, and it's run by Ben Kauffman, of Quirky (the company that raised ~$185MM without figuring out how to satisfy customers, then collapsed) fame.
• An album written & programed by a person and performed by an ensemble of Kuka robots.

Making plywood, in the 1950s and today.