98042491
submission
_Sharp'r_ writes:
Stressing jeans used to require 300-400 workers with sandpaper all day. Now Levi Strauss does a better job by shooting their new jeans with computer-guided lasers in intricate patterns generated in CAD systems. Along they way they save water and "will cut the number of chemicals it uses to produce jeans from 1,000 to a few dozen."
97090335
submission
_Sharp'r_ writes:
According to a new study by Uber's Advanced Technology Group widespread adoption of self-driving trucks would happen primarily on long-haul routes. The increase in efficiency would lead to more goods being trucked, causing enough additional local delivery routes driven by humans to overall increase the need for truck drivers. Driver contracts may need to be updated to pay for more time spent waiting/delivering instead of physically driving.
91780623
submission
_Sharp'r_ writes:
Professor Thomas Hazlett of Clemson University analyzed the history of wireless spectrum and concluded the technology was known and available for Cellphones in the 40s, but there was no spectrum available. Based on assumptions cellphones would always be luxury goods without mass appeal, significant spectrum for divisible cellular networks wasn't legally usable until the early 80s. Instead, the unused spectrum was reserved for the future expansion of broadcast TV to channels 70-83.
78532745
submission
_Sharp'r_ writes:
Want to fly a jetpack? Join the fire department in Dubai. In a skyscraper filled city where cops drive Ferraris and Lamborghinis, it was actually cheaper to buy twenty $150K jetpacks (plus two simulators) for fire rescue rather than find 2700 ft ladders. Slashdot has had stories about these coming for five years.
71862467
submission
_Sharp'r_ writes:
In the first 'empirical study of sexism in faculty hiring using actual faculty members', Cornell University researchers found that when using identical qualifications, but changing the sex of the applicant, 'women candidates are favored 2 to 1 over men for tenure-track positions in the science, technology, engineering and math fields.' Male economists were the only university STEM group found not sexist in their hiring.
No word yet on what steps universities are planning to take to remedy this apparent bias in hiring.
67048933
submission
_Sharp'r_ writes:
Two Standford PhDs, Ross Koningstein and David Fork, worked for Google on the RE<C project to figure out how to make renewables cheaper than coal and solve climate change. After four years of study they gave up, determining "Renewable energy technologies simply won’t work; we need a fundamentally different approach." As a result, is nuclear going to be acknowledged as the future of energy production?
