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If youre feeling a little apprehensive about your next flight because of Trump administration policies, thats not unreasonableand not just because Elon Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency fired hundreds of workers at the FAA, including some whose roles supported air safety, according to a union representing workers. Now, job cuts are imminent at NOAA, the agency in charge of weather forecastingwhich supports air travel with critical data and analysis around the clock. NOAA’s work “isn’t a ‘nice’ thing to havethis is an absolute essential for aviation,” says Rick Spinrad, who served as NOAA administrator until January. “I would argue that NOAA’s weather information is as important as jet fuel to the aviation industry. You can’t fly without it.” The agency has 22 weather service units around the country that provide detailed analysis and support to FAA air traffic controllers as the weather changes. “They provide all of the information that’s used to make predictions about delays, times, flight times, optimal routes for the aircraft, and this has been done for decades,” Spinrad says. “That’s one critical function. There are literally hundreds of NOAA weather service employees who are involved in providing that information to the FAA. This is not just when there’s a storm. This is all the time, 24/7/365.” NOAA also operates and maintains hundreds of automated observation systems at airports that track things like precipitation, cloud cover, and temperature so the FAA can clear flights for landing and takeoff. The agency also tracks weather in space, including solar flares and geomagnetic storms that can disrupt GPS navigation and communication systems. “NOAA has the responsibility for space weather forecasts,” Spinrad says. “We’ve seen that being used to redirect flights. If you’re flying from San Francisco to New York, if there’s a solar storm and it may impact GPS, your flight may be redirected to the south.” Internal weather teams at major airlines also rely on NOAA data. So do the private companies that offer weather forecasting; it’s not the case that NOAA’s work in this area could be easily replaced. “There really is no substitute,” says Spinrad. “NOAA is the primary source.” “If NOAA gets broken up and privatized, like Project 2025 recommends, the threats to aviation safety will increase dramatically,” says Jeff Masters, the cofounder of Weather Underground, who now writes for Yale Climate Connections. “The aviation industry heavily relies on NWS forecasts for safety. While private companies add value, they ultimately build on the foundation of NWS-provided weather information, and the years-long transition period to a system where private companies do aviation forecasting would bring chaotic and unpredictable consequences to a system that needs utmost stability. ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!’ definitely applies here.” In fact, private weather companies have been successful because of their reliance on NOAA forecasts, Spinrad wrote in a recent LinkedIn post: Its NOAA that operates 122 Doppler weather radars, 16 environmental satellites, 15 ships (that provide accurate nautical charts and sustainable seafood), and 10 airplanes (including the Hurricane Hunters, and the planes that monitor atmospheric rivers). Without NOAA, someone would have to pick up the bill for all of those assets, and their continuing operations and maintenance costs. And that someone will be the privileged few willing to pay the private sector the fees and subscriptions that would have to be charged… Wanna know when that hurricanes going to make landfall, or where those tornadoes are going? Pay up. It’s not clear yet which specific jobs at NOAA will be cut. (A NOAA spokesperson said that the agency could not discuss internal personnel and management matters based on long-standing policy.) But it was arguably already understaffed: The agency has around 12,000 employees now, which is small for its duties. Spinrad argues that it needs around 5,000 more workers to fully meet its mission.
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E-Commerce
David Droga is a legendary advertising creative and executive. Hes also CEO of Accenture Song, one of the largest advertising and marketing services firms on the planet. For those two reasons, we kick off Brand New World with Droga at the 2024 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. Why there and then? Its the worlds biggest convergence of media, marketing, entertainment, technology, and brands, and a mirror of what’s happening and a bellwether of what’s to come, on a global scale. Theres no better time and place to start a conversation about how brands, and the marketing and advertising industries, are approaching AI at this crucial and nascent moment. In this episode, I talked to Droga about what Accentures $3 billion commitment to AI means for his work, how it compares to the first digital revolution two decades ago, where it may be headed in the not-so-distant future, and the impact it will have on the art of persuasion and pop culture. On AI’s existential threats Fundamentally, I think we have to look beyond job preservation. This is not about preserving specific jobs within an agency. What we look at is what it unleashes for the skillsets that you have, and how you can parlay that into new things. AI is going to open up possibilities that we don’t understand quite yet and allow us to do things we wish we could have done, or didn’t anticipate being able to do. And if we have that attitude, then we will move forward. On AI vs human creativity Not all creativity is worth saving. I know that’s a provocation, that’s probably going to annoy some people. But I really mean it, because just turn on the TV. Look at most advertising. Look at most of the stuff that follows you online. Who wrote this shit? Who’s creating this stuff? Does that need saving? A lot of it’s written by something more alarming than AI, which is research and conformity. And that’s why it’s bland. Now, what’s interesting about that is, that it does not erase the need for incredible things, innovative things. Things that touch you and [allow you to] experience the new. There’s always room for things that are really, really wonderful and delightful. That’s where our role as creators and shapers is always going to be needed and necessary. That’s where my optimism is. Listen to the full episode for more.
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E-Commerce
Parents, rejoice: For the first time ever, theres a Lego brick so tiny that you cant see it, let alone step on it. The brick in question is a microscopic sculpture created by U.K.-based artist David A Lindon. Its made from a standard red square Lego, and it looks like one, too, aside from the fact that it measures just 0.02517 millimeter by 0.02184 millimeter (about the size of a white blood cell). As of this month, the brick has snagged the Guinness World Record for the smallest-ever handmade sculpture, measuring four times smaller than the previous record holder. We’ve seen lunar Legos, renewable Legos, and giant Legos, but this brick might just be the most innovative one yetand the process of creating it was almost as unusual as the object itself. The world’s tiniest Lego is the smallest of three micro Legos Lindons created, according to his website. Materials science firm Spectrographic professionally measured each Lego to confirm the Guinness record. With all three sculptures, one smaller than the other, they are so microscopic that even though you know where they are, on the head of a pin, when you look with your own eyes you still cannot see them, Lindon writes. [Image: David A Lindon/Hammond Gallieries/SWNS] Lindon has been creating micro paintings and sculptures since 2021. His past works include a version of Stonehenge small enough to live atop a miniature pushpin, a statue of Beetlejuice thats less than half the size of a match head, and a rendition of Vincent van Goghs Sunflowers that fits inside the eye of a needle. To bring his works to life, Lindon uses a Nikon SMZ25 microscope that requires a foot pedal to control zoom and focus. Then, he works with what he calls micro precision tools and materials such as micro-size pigments, dust, minerals, Kevlar strands, carbon, and carpet fibers to carve and shape his creations. Unsurprisingly, this niche practice presents a host of specific design challenges. In an interview with the BBC, Lindon shared that hes trained himself to work between the beats of his heart to prevent the pulse in his fingertips from destroying his work. To create his record-breaking Lego, he said, he worked 6 to 10 hours each night so as to avoid the vibrations brought on by passing traffic. On his website, Lindon details a slew of other threats to his work, including static electricity, sneezing, coughing, or a breath of wind from an open window. My first Amy Winehouse is still somewhere in our bedroom carpet or stuck on the sole of my shoe, we never found her, Lindon writes. Luckily, he adds, his concentration has since improved, allowing him to hold still enough to create his microscopic works of art. Still, his practice takes time: Each piece may take several months to get right, he says. While the record-holding Lego brick is unlikely to go on sale anytime soongiven that its essentially invisibleit remains a fascinating testament to the human capacity for artistic perseverance.
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E-Commerce
The latest Big Tech-funded effort to improve affordable housing sees the solution in people’s backyards. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative announced today that its providing seed funding for a startup that helps turn backyard dwellings into new homeownership opportunities for Americans who are increasingly getting locked out. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) announced a $750,000 investment in BuildCasa, a California-based startup seeking to increase the supply of ADUs, or accessory dwelling units. The funding is part of CZI’s Affordable Starter Home Initiative, which aims to provide funding for a number of pilot programs addressing housing accessibility and affordability. Were excited about BuildCasas model because it is creating new homes within existing, high-opportunity communities that can be sold for less than typical market rate homes without utilizing public funding to subsidize the projects, which is extremely limited, Amaya Bravo-France, a program officer at the CZI, told Fast Company. [Image: BuildCasa] Founded in 2022 and named one of Fast Company‘s Most Innovative Companies last year, BuildCasa utilizes California law SB 9, which allows owners of large lots to split them up. The startups model, and its proprietary means of analyzing building opportunities, pairs landowners with developers, allowing a homeowner to sell part of their land to a developer, who can add one or two housing units and then sell them separately. The process creates additional density in existing residential areas, and adds much-needed supply to a state in the throes of a growing housing shortage. The grant will fund construction for eight housing units for those making 80% of AMI (area median income, a measure used to guarantee affordable housing goes to those in need). BuildCasa recently closed on a pair of properties in Sacramento using these grant funds, and the other six should be finished in the next two years. The Sacramento two-bedroom homes will be 650 square feet each and go for $325,000 (the area median price is $477,000). BuildCasa expects to break ground in the third quarter of this year. These kinds of lot split arrangements needs parcels that measure at least 2,400 square feet. [Image: BuildCasa] Decades of regressive housing policy and NIMBY activism on the local level has blocked this crucial missing middle development, leaving us with a catastrophic shortage of housing that young, lower, and middle-income families can afford to buy, said Paul Steidl, BuildCasas cofounder and CPO, in a statement. The only way out of this generational crisis is to build more housing. So far, BuildCasa has helped add nearly 100 units, which are either approved or under construction, across California, concentrated mostly in Sacramento and the Bay Area. One reason they havent finished any units yet is that under Californias new laws, subdividing a lot via this process can take 10 to 18 months alone. [Image: BuildCasa] Can backyard building provide affordable housing at scale? CZI says it chose BuildCasa because it believes the startup can help fill a gap in affordable housing production and provide more entry-level homeownership opportunities. [Image: BuildCasa] BuildCasas model stuck out because they utilize private capital to build these homes, but are able to offer them for more affordable rates, says Bravo-France. They also partner with homeowners to leverage their excess land to build these new affordable homes, allowing homeowners to receive a financial benefit from their land value while also contributing to solving CAs housing crisis. Part of the appeal of this model, says BuildCasa CEO Ben Bear, was the ease of land acquisition. Often, affordable housing, especially larger apartment projects, requires substantial land, which adds to the cost, and the dense collection of new units can trigger neighborhood and NIMBY pushback. By using surplus land in oversize lots, and spreading a handful of units across numerous sites, the new housing blends into the neighborhood, Bear says. Its just there, coexisting side-by-side, which is really the way development used to be 100 years ago, he says. You have different types of units, apartments, and single family homes, all on the same street. BuildCasa believes theres significant opportunity for more such units, both statewide an nationally, if laws can be amended to mirror those in California. The firms algorithm has identified 1 million parcels of land in California alone where a lot split and ADU development would be possible.
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E-Commerce
Spring is just around the corner, ushering in new growth, brighter days, and the heady anticipation of summer. For those of us with sizable screen time, springs arrival also means that the dreary weather is no longer an excuse for spending hours doomscrolling TikTok and Instagram Reels until our eyes glaze over. And now there’s an app that can help you feel like it’s spring year-round. Rhys Kentish is a senior software engineer at the London-based app design firm Brightec. Hes spent the past four months building an app that makes users literally touch grass before they can open social media. I was sick and tired of my reflex in the morning being to reach for my phone and scroll for upwards of an hour, Kentish says. It didn’t feel good and I wasn’t getting anything out of it. [Image: courtesy Rhys Kentish] His solution is an app called Touch Grass, currently available for preorder and expected to debut on the App Store for iOS devices around mid-March. The apps premise comes from a jab that gained popularity during the early pandemic, typically used to inform chronically online users that theyd become disconnected from real life. Touch grass [is] used when someone is doing something weird, stupid, or pointless, according to Urban Dictionary. It means they need to come back to reality, they need to get some fresh air and get back in touch with how the real world works. Kentishs app works by allowing users to select their most distracting apps, then blocking said apps by default until the user ventures outside to touch grass. Once they take a photo of grass and submit it to the app, they can then choose the amount of time theyd like their problem apps to be unblocked. Currently, the app uses Google’s image-labeling Cloud Vision API to verify that the grass has, indeed, been touched. However, Kentish says, the app has gone so viral that hes considering training his own image-detection model for cost-reduction purposes before Touch Grass makes its App Store debut. The apps current iteration includes a pixelated 8-bit logo and a grass-scanning screen inspired by retro sci-fi aesthetics. Kentish plans to use a freemium model to support the app, wherein subscribers can pay a fee to block unlimited apps and categories, view their screen time history, and purchase extra monthly skips to get around touching grass (free users get one monthly skip). According to Kentish, 50% of skip purchase profits will go toward wildlife conservation projects in the U.K. The proposition of the Touch Grass app is simple: Before your digital fatigue drives you to embark on a full-on social media detox, maybe just try getting some fresh air.
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E-Commerce
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