In the TED Talk above, Stanford professor Daphne Koller shares her excitement about making the college experience available to anyone through her startup, Coursera. With classes from 16 top colleges, Coursera is an innovative model for online learning. While top schools have been putting lectures online for years, Coursera's platform supports the other vital aspect of the classroom: tests and assignments that reinforce learning.
Saturday, 4 August 2012
Markets in Everything: 3D Printed "Magic Arms"
From Venture Beat: "The heartwarming video above documents the story of a small child whose life has been radically changed for the better because of 3D printing technology.
Two-year-old Emma was born with a rare disease called arthrogryposis that makes it so she can’t raise her arms without assistance. Through the use of 3D printing, a Delaware hospital created a mobile plastic exoskeleton that now allows Emma to use her arms for many things.
3D printing ensures that a new exoskeleton can be created if Emma breaks or outgrows it. Emma is now on her second 3D-printed jacket and calls the device her “magic arms.”
The video was created by 3D printing business Stratasys, which recently merged with Objet in a $1.4 billion deal. A Stratasys 3D printer was used to create Emma’s jacket."
MP: The 3D printing revolution has just begun. We can expect hundreds and probably thousands of more examples like this in the future, as this amazing, innovative technology revolutionizes manufacturing and our entire world.
Markets in Everything: A Private Lottery in Massachusetts for Skilled Gamblers
The Boston Globe reports on "A game with a windfall for a knowing few: High-rolling gamblers are exploiting a quirk in Cash WinFall, raking in huge profits every 3 months as the Lottery looks on":
"For a few days about every three months, Cash WinFall may be the most reliably lucrative lottery game in the country. Because of a quirk in the rules, when the jackpot reaches roughly $2 million and no one wins, payoffs for smaller prizes swell dramatically, which statisticians say practically assures a profit to anyone who buys at least $100,000 worth of tickets.
During these brief periods - “rolldown weeks’’ in gambling parlance - a tiny group of savvy bettors, among them highly trained computer scientists from MIT and Northeastern University, virtually take over the game. Just three groups, including the Selbees, claimed 1,105 of the 1,605 winning Cash WinFall tickets statewide after the rolldown week in May, according to lottery records. They also appear to have purchased about half the tickets, based on reports from the stores that the top gamblers frequent most.
"It’s a private lottery for skilled people,’’ said Secretary of State William Galvin."
"It’s a private lottery for skilled people,’’ said Secretary of State William Galvin."
HT: W.E. Heasley
Friday, 3 August 2012
From Today's Jobs Report: Demand for Temporary, Manufacturing, and Oil/Gas Jobs Remains Strong
1. The number of "temporary help services jobs" increased by 14,100 in July to the highest employment level since January of 2008 when the recession was just getting started (see chart above). This part of the labor market has now made almost a complete recovery from the effects of the recession, and suggests that the overall labor market will continue to gradually improve because the demand for temporary employment is generally considered to be a leading indicator of future, broader-based labor demand. The increased hiring of temporary workers also suggests that many U.S. firms are probably cautiously hiring new workers on a temporary basis to meet increasing demand for output and production, and will gradually switch to more permanent hiring as the overall economy improves and uncertainty about future tax policy and pending fiscal issues are resolved.
2. Manufacturing employment increased in July for the tenth consecutive month, which brings the total number of new manufacturing jobs added over the last year to 222,000, and the total number of new factory jobs created since 2010 to 524,000.
3. For the tenth straight month, the manufacturing jobless rate in July (7.2%) was less than the national rate.
4. "Oil and gas extraction" employment increased in July to the highest level in almost 24 years, since August 1988. Compared to a year ago, the number of oil and gas jobs in the U.S. has increased by 11.6% and by 27.4% compared to the onset of the recession in December 2007.
MP: Several of the bright spots in the labor market in July include strong demand for temporary workers, factory workers, and workers in the oil and gas industry. Here's some additional commentary on today's employment report:
Scott Grannis: "In any event, no matter how you slice and dice these numbers, jobs are growing and there is absolutely no sign of a recession."
Thursday, 2 August 2012
Wednesday, 1 August 2012
More on Why So Many Empty Olympic Seats
Tim Worstall provides some related commentary in the The Daily Telegraph article titled "Of course there are empty Olympic seats: our Victorian government is arresting anyone who tries to sell them," here's an excerpt:
"Think it through for a moment. There are some people over here that have something they don't value, while there are other people over there who value those things highly. What we'd like is for those things, whatever they are, to move from those who assign little value to them to those who assign a higher value to them.
This is true of anything: this movement of resources from lower to higher valued uses is known as "creating wealth." It is the single most important contributor to the wealth of nations. It is known as "trade."
And our government, in its wisdom, has made it illegal for anyone to broker this increase in individual and national wealth, resulting in the TV cameras of the world panning across rows of empty seats."
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