Weekend Thoughts - 3.3.18

Image by Marisa04, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. Car ownership is expected to plummet in the coming decades. In fact, the amount of young Americans between the ages of 16 and 24 who hold a driver's license has already dropped from 76 percent in 2000 to 71 percent in 2013. And that trend does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Assuming that this decline continues, the ride-hailing business is poised to expand past Uber and Lyft. New services headed up by companies like Bosch, Sony, and Avis are getting involved in this industry. I'm excited that more ride-hailing services seem to be on the horizon because more competition in this area could end up being better for consumers.

2. In the ever-evolving technology space, security is becoming increasingly more important. Major US cell phone carriers are hard at work on a new open mobile authentication standard. AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon say that they have a solution that could roll out later this year that will replace the flawed two-factor authentication protocol that is currently in use. Currently known as multi-factor mobile authentication, this method will provide better security than the existing two-factor type. If it ends up working as well as these carriers are claiming, we will all benefit.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 2.24.18

Image by suketdedhia, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. A new 3d-printed smartphone microscope attachment will be able to examine samples as small as 1/200th of a millimeter. That's plenty accurate for scientists to conduct research. And as a bonus, the device does not require external light or power sources and can be made by anyone with access to a 3d printer, since the development team is sharing the 3d printing files publicly. This type of innovation is exciting because it will enable more scientific research to be conducted, which will further help us understand our world.

2. Bike-sharing is back again this week with a thinkpiece from Wired that explores the possibility that bike-sharing will become more competitive with car-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft. According to research in other parts of the world, electric bikes can disrupt other travel modes (like public transit, taxi, and ridesharing) because they are easy to use, have the benefit of additional power, and are capable of traveling from point A to point B without reaching as much congestion or experiencing multiple transit transfers. Only time will tell if this proves true in America, the land of the automobile. But here's hoping...

3. Although Amazon opened its first automated grocery store a year late, the company plans to open as many as six more cashierless Amazon Go smartstores later this year. Although the specific locations have not been announced yet, they are expected to show up in Seattle and Los Angeles.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.