Timing & trends
On behalf of Michael Campbell and the whole MoneyTalks team we wish you all the best for 2015.
Thank you again for your support and we look forward to continuing to provide the finest independent financial and market information available.
‘Tis the season to make lists, and a list shall be made. We tend to see each year as extraordinary, and in some senses, each year is. But in a broader sense, 2014 was merely another year in a long chain of human triumph and misery. Wars have been waged, marvelous things have been invented, disease has broken out, and people have fallen in love. Nonetheless, lists are called for, and this is my list of the five most important events of 2014.
1: Europe’s Persistent Decline
The single most important event in 2014 was one that did not occur……
Read more: The Top Five Events in 2014 | Stratfor
Follow us: @stratfor on Twitter | Stratfor on Facebook
Oil. Russia. Interest rates. The United States. Europe. Commodities. China. Trade. Japan. The global economy enters 2015 with a lot on its mind, and a long list of competing storylines set to develop as the year progresses. Here, four notable economists share their views on the key issue that will grab their attention in 2015 – and how it might unfold, for better or worse….
Back on the market after cost-cutting upgrades, Luna wants to serve drinks and bring about an app revolution
In 2011, Gizmag and other publications noted the “mysterious debut” of Luna, a home-service robot then retailing for $3,000 in a small batch. Recently, her creators have brought Luna back into the spotlight with a new Kickstarter campaign, and have dropped the bot’s price in keeping with their belief that “every home deserves a personal robot.”
Developed by RoboDynamics and design studio SchultzeWORKS, Luna is 5 feet tall, weighs 60 pounds, can navigate flat surfaces on her own (like similarly sized follow-bots), and has position-able metal arms. She’s also equipped with a capacitive touchscreen and a hi-def camera, among other features, but RoboDynamics CEO Fred Nikgohar stresses that her simple design is meant to enable owners and developers to customize Luna and create any number of new uses for her…
We live in a world made of computers. Your car is a computer that drives down the freeway at 60 mph with you strapped inside. If you live or work in a modern building, computers regulate its temperature and respiration. And we’re not just putting our bodies inside computers—we’re also putting computers inside our bodies. I recently exchanged words in an airport lounge with a late arrival who wanted to use the sole electrical plug, which I had beat him to, fair and square. “I need to charge my laptop,” I said. “I need to charge my leg,” he said, rolling up his pants to show me his robotic prosthesis. I surrendered the plug.
You and I and everyone who grew up with earbuds? There’s a day in our future when we’ll have hearing aids, and chances are they won’t be retro-hipster beige transistorized analog devices: They’ll be computers in our heads.
And that’s why the current regulatory paradigm for computers, inherited from the 16-year-old stupidity that is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, needs to change….
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