linkstream2 microblog

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“The university, in a countersuit, accused Shaw of illegally breeding with the pipeline cultivars on behalf of his new company, while still employed by Davis. Entrusted with the “crown jewels,” the university contended, Shaw had attempted to destroy the public breeding program in order to enrich himself and his friends. Steven Knapp is a genomics expert, formerly of Monsanto, who was hired as Davis’s new breeder. When I talked to him by phone not long ago, he was apoplectic at what he perceived to be Shaw’s breach of loyalty.
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According to Frances Dillard, Driscoll’s global brand strategist and a veteran of Disney’s consumer-products division, berries are the produce category most associated with happiness. (Kale, in contrast, has a health-control, “me” focus.) On a slide that Dillard prepared, mapping psychographic associations with various fruits, strawberries floated between Freedom and Harmony, in a zone marked Extrovert, above a word cloud that read “Social, pleasure, joy, balance, conviviality, friendship, warmth, soft, natural, sharing.” (Blueberries vibed as status-oriented, demanding, and high-tech.)
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Driscoll’s senior vice-president and general counsel compared the company to its neighbors in Silicon Valley. “Growers are sort of like our manufacturing plants,” he said. “We make the inventions, they assemble it, and then we market it, so it’s not that dissimilar from Apple using someone else to do the manufacturing but they’ve made the invention and marketed the end product.” Like Apple, Driscoll’s guards its I.P. jealously.
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How Driscoll’s reinvented #strawberries
http://www.NewYorker.com/magazine/2017/08/21/how-driscolls-reinvented-the-strawberry Like Apple, invent & market, don’t manufacture. Now in #opendata v IP fight

#3Dprinters…factories of the future
https://www.Economist.com/news/briefing/21724368-recent-advances-make-3d-printing-powerful-competitor-conventional-mass-production-3d digital light synthesis, a software-controlled chem rxn, now economic viable

https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21724369-additive-manufacturing-abandons-economies-scale-3d-printing-transforms-economics

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“Carbon’s printer uses a process called digital light synthesis, which Dr DeSimone describes as “a software-controlled chemical reaction to grow parts”. It starts with a pool of liquid polymer held in a shallow container that has a transparent base. An ultraviolet image of the first layer of the object to be made is projected through the base. This cures (ie, solidifies) a corresponding volume of the polymer, reproducing the image in perfect detail. That now-solid layer attaches itself to the bottom of a tool lowered into the pool from above. The container’s base itself is permeable to oxygen, a substance that inhibits curing. This stops the layer of cured polymer sticking to the base as well, and thus permits the tool to lift that layer slightly. The process is then repeated with a second layer being added to the first from below. And so on. As the desired shape is completed, the tool lifts it out of the container. It is then baked in an oven to strengthen it.

Dr DeSimone says that digital light synthesis overcomes two common problems of 3D printing. First, it is up to 100 times faster than existing polymer-based printers. Second, the baking process knits the layers together more effectively, making for a stronger product and also one that has smooth surfaces, which reduces the need for additional processing.”
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Monitor & Find Everything: Wireless #Sensor Tags
http://wirelesstag.net Useful for temp & motion. Can be combined w/ other stuff via @IFTTT

.@Solar_Puff http://www.Solight-Design.com/product/ Neat cubes that store the day’s sunlight for light during the night. Designed w/ a social angle.

an update on kerosene storm lamps

Betw Bentonville & Bezos
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21699913-lessons-two-giants-american-retailing-between-bentonville-and-bezos $AMZN winning over $WMT (up 30% in ’15 v flat) by focussing on saving shopper time v money

http://www.ambientdevices.com/

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Ambient Devices is the leading provider of displays and systems that deliver instant, effortless access to information at a glance. Ambient’s energy products, including the Energy Orb and new Energy Joule
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How Much Warmer Was Your City in ’15
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/19/us/2015-year-in-weather-temperature-precipitation.html#new-haven_ct Great #viz of NHV’s freezing Feb. & hot Dec. HT@chaubtu

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/19/us/2015-year-in-weather-temperature-precipitation.html#new-haven_ct

Appears to be a victory for amazon

http://www.wsj.com/articles/wal-mart-to-close-269-stores-globally-1452868122

The Life & Death of an $AMZN Warehouse Temp
http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/life-and-death-amazon-temp/ Monitoring every move for max efficiency. Assembly Line of the future?

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“In the years since Amazon became the symbol of the online retail economy, horror stories have periodically emerged about the conditions at its warehouses—workers faced with near-impossible targets, people dropping on the job from heat or extreme fatigue. This isn’t one of those stories. Jobs at Amazon are physically demanding and the expectations can be high, but the company’s fulfillment centers are not sweatshops. In late September, I visited the Chester warehouse for an hour-long guided tour. Employees were working at a speed that seemed brisk yet reasonable. There were no idle moments, but no signs of exhaustion, either.

At the same time, we are living in an era of maximum productivity. It has never been easier for employers to track the performance of workers and discard those who don’t meet their needs. This applies to employees at every level, from warehouse grunts to white-collar workers like those at Amazon headquarters who were recently the subject of a much-discussed New York Times piece about the company’s brutally competitive corporate culture. The difference is that people like Jeff don’t have the option of moving to Google, Microsoft or a tech startup eager to poach managers and engineers with Amazon on their resume.

When it comes to low-wage positions, companies like Amazon are now able to precisely calibrate the size of its workforce to meet consumer demand, week by week or even day by day. Amazon, for instance, says it has 90,000 full-time U.S. employees at its fulfillment and sorting centers—but it plans to bring on an estimated 100,000 seasonal workers to help handle this year’s peak. Many of these seasonal hires come through Integrity Staffing Solutions, a Delaware-based temp firm. The company’s website recently listed 22 corporate offices throughout the country, 15 of which were recruiting offices for Amazon fulfillment centers, including the one in Chester.”
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Begin thinking of your investments in terms of three buckets: one for liquidity, one for longevity and one for legacy

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http://www.worth.com/index.php/component/content/article/3-grow/7469-live-long-and-prosper