MIRACLE-GRO AEROGARDEN HARVEST WI-FI...

A garden on your countertop. Grow herbs, lettuce, tiny tomatoes in this all-in-one hydroponic setup. Companion mobile app is unobtrusive. You'll find yourself checking in on it just to watch the progress as the plants grow.
https://www.wired.com/review/miracle-gro-aerogarden-harvest-wi-fi/

Lab-Grown Meat is Coming...

Food scientists and startups are trying to make meat more ethically appealing by growing it -- cell by cell -- in a lab instead of on a farm. Even some vegans support so-called "clean" meat. But can lab grown meat overcome the dreaded "yuck factor?
https://www.wired.com/category/ideas/

ROBOTS...

A machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically, especially one programmable by a computer.
So what is a robot?
Well it is a system that contains sensors, control systems, manipulators, power supplies and software all working together to perform a task. Designing, building, programming and testing a robots is a combination of physics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, structural engineering, mathematics and computing. In some cases biology, medicine, chemistry might also be involved. A study of robotics means that students are actively engaged with all of these disciplines in a deeply problem-posing problem-solving environment.
http://www.galileo.org/robotics/intro.html

FALLACY...

A DECEPTIVE,  MISLEADING OR FALSE NOTION, BELIEF ETC.

China is investing billions in building pathways to Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East.

One belt, one road...
China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative will expand trade and investment across 68 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.

Zhang Xin...

Property mogul Zhang Xin’s story is a classic “rags to riches” tale. Growing up in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution, the one-time factory worker’s ambition was to be a peasant, a “glorified” job in the eyes of Mao Zedong’s communist regime.

Now, together with her husband Pan Shiyi, her net worth is around $3.3 billion. She’s regularly named one of the top businesswomen in the world and her real estate company SOHO China is credited with bringing color to Beijing’s cityscape. Yet Zhang’s was a life that started in monochrome.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/11/from-factory-worker-to-real-estate-billionaire-soho-chinas-zhang-xin.html

Billionaire Mark Cuban: ‘One of the great lies of life is follow your passions’

"The things I ended up being really good at were the things I found myself putting effort into. A lot of people talk about passion, but that's really not what you need to focus on. You really need to evaluate and say, 'Okay, where am I putting in my time?'" says Cuban.

"Because when you look at where you put in your time, where you put in your effort, that tends to be the things that you are good at. And if you put in enough time, you tend to get really good at it," explains Cuban.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/16/mark-cuban-follow-your-passion-is-bad-advice.html

Steven Pinker...

"There are many battles of history that were lost because of botched communication," says Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard University.

In today's workplace where email and Slack conversations are as common as in-person meetings, the perils of miscommunication are ever-present. And no one is immune.

Pinker, author of writing manual "The Sense of Style," says the chief impediment to clear communication is a phenomenon called the "curse of knowledge."

This cognitive bias basically means that "when you know something, it's extraordinarily difficult to know what it's like not to know it," Pinker tells CNBC Make It. "Your own knowledge seems so obvious that you're apt to think that everyone else knows it, too."

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/20/

Billionaire Richard Branson: A.I. is going to eliminate jobs and free cash handouts will be necessary

"I think with the coming on of AI and other things there is certainly a danger of income inequality," Branson tells CNN's Christine Romans in a piece published Thursday.

The inequality will be caused by "the amount of jobs [artificial intelligence] is going to take away and so on," Branson says. "There is no question" technology will eliminate jobs, he says.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/20/

Why Liberalism Failed

Has liberalism failed because it has succeeded?

Of the three dominant ideologies of the twentieth century—fascism, communism, and liberalism—only the last remains. This has created a peculiar situation in which liberalism’s proponents tend to forget that it is an ideology and not the natural end-state of human political evolution. As Patrick Deneen argues in this provocative book, liberalism is built on a foundation of contradictions: it trumpets equal rights while fostering incomparable material inequality; its legitimacy rests on consent, yet it discourages civic commitments in favor of privatism; and in its pursuit of individual autonomy, it has given rise to the most far-reaching, comprehensive state system in human history. Here, Deneen offers an astringent warning that the centripetal forces now at work on our political culture are not superficial flaws but inherent features of a system whose success is generating its own failure.

Patrick J. Deneen is David A. Potenziani Memorial Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. His previous books include The Odyssey of Political Theory, Democratic Faith, and a number of edited volumes. He lives in South Bend, IN.

yalebooks.yale.edu

The Craving Mind From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love – Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits

A leading neuroscientist and pioneer in the study of mindfulness explains why addictions are so tenacious and how we can learn to conquer them

We are all vulnerable to addiction. Whether it’s a compulsion to constantly check social media, binge eating, smoking, excessive drinking, or any other behaviors, we may find ourselves uncontrollably repeating. Why are bad habits so hard to overcome? Is there a key to conquering the cravings we know are unhealthy for us?

This book provides groundbreaking answers to the most important questions about addiction. Dr. Judson Brewer, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who has studied the science of addictions for twenty years, reveals how we can tap into the very processes that encourage addictive behaviors in order to step out of them. He describes the mechanisms of habit and addiction formation, then explains how the practice of mindfulness can interrupt these habits. Weaving together patient stories, his own experience with mindfulness practice, and current scientific findings from his own lab and others, Dr. Brewer offers a path for moving beyond our cravings, reducing stress, and ultimately living a fuller life.  

Judson Brewer, M.D., Ph.D., is director of research at the Center for Mindfulness and associate professor in medicine and psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Yale University and a research affiliate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

yalebooks.yale.edu

The Aisles Have Eyes How Retailers Track Your Shopping, Strip Your Privacy, and Define Your Power

A revealing and surprising look at the ways that aggressive consumer advertising and tracking, already pervasive online, are coming to a retail store near you

By one expert’s prediction, within twenty years half of Americans will have body implants that tell retailers how they feel about specific products as they browse their local stores. The notion may be outlandish, but it reflects executives’ drive to understand shoppers in the aisles with the same obsessive detail that they track us online. In fact, a hidden surveillance revolution is already taking place inside brick-and-mortar stores, where Americans still do most of their buying. Drawing on his interviews with retail executives, analysis of trade publications, and experiences at insider industry meetings, advertising and digital studies expert Joseph Turow pulls back the curtain on these trends, showing how a new hyper-competitive generation of merchants—including Macy’s, Target, and Walmart—is already using data mining, in-store tracking, and predictive analytics to change the way we buy, undermine our privacy, and define our reputations.  Eye-opening and timely, Turow’s book is essential reading to understand the future of shopping.

Joseph Turow is Robert Lewis Shayon Professor of Communication and associate dean for graduate studies at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of several books.

yalebooks.yale.edu

Whatever Happened to Thrift? Why Americans Don't Save and What to Do about It

It is no secret that Americans save very little: every economic index confirms as much. But to solve the real mystery, we must ask the questions, “Why?” “What are the effects on our economy?” and “What can be done about it?”

 In this thoroughly researched and thought-provoking book, Ronald T. Wilcox clearly describes not only how the “savings crisis” adversely influences personal lifestyles over the long term but also how it can undermine our national wealth and standard of living. Wilcox cogently explains that savings are essential to fuel our nation’s economic growth, whether it’s putting money in the bank or in the form of direct loans to the government as savings bonds, for example. And, he presents unambiguous facts showing that a high proportion of current wage earners simply will not have enough money for self-support during retirement—and that the government safety nets for income and health can no longer be counted on. Most important, Wilcox examines the many rational and irrational reasons behind individuals’ failures to put money away, what third parties such as corporations and government can do to help, and the steps people can take today to help themselves.

 The book is an attempt to reinvent thrift in the United States, to find practical ways to help people consume less and save more now so that we can be a richer people in the future and a more prosperous nation. It is a must-read for every corporate executive, policy maker, and concerned citizen.

Ronald Wilcox is professor of business administration at the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. His expertise is in the area of marketing financial services, marketing and public policy, marketing research, pricing and auctions. Wilcox joined the Darden faculty in 2001. He is formerly an assistant professor at the Carnegie Mellon Graduate School of Industrial Administration and an economist for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

yalebooks.yale.edu

INNOVATION ECONOMICS...

Why America no longer leads the world in innovation, why we should be concerned, and what must be done about it

This important book delivers a critical wake-up call: a fierce global race for innovation advantage is under way, and while other nations are making support for technology and innovation a central tenet of their economic strategies and policies, America lacks a robust innovation policy. What does this portend? Robert Atkinson and Stephen Ezell, widely respected economic thinkers, report on profound new forces that are shaping the global economy—forces that favor nations with innovation-based economies and innovation policies. Unless the United States enacts public policies to reflect this reality, Americans face the relatively lower standards of living associated with a noncompetitive national economy.

The authors explore how a weak innovation economy not only contributed to the Great Recession but is delaying America's recovery from it and how innovation in the United States compares with that in other developed and developing nations. Atkinson and Ezell then lay out a detailed, pragmatic road map for America to regain its global innovation advantage by 2020, as well as maximize the global supply of innovation and promote sustainable globalization.

Robert D. Atkinson is president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and one of the world’s foremost thinkers on innovation economics.
Stephen J. Ezell is senior analyst at ITIF.

yalebooks.yale.edu

WHY NUDGE?

The bestselling author of Simpler offers a powerful, provocative, and convincing argument for protecting people from their own mistakes

Based on a series of pathbreaking lectures given at Yale University in 2012, this powerful, thought-provoking work by national best-selling author Cass R. Sunstein combines legal theory with behavioral economics to make a fresh argument about the legitimate scope of government, bearing on obesity, smoking, distracted driving, health care, food safety, and other highly volatile, high-profile public issues. Behavioral economists have established that people often make decisions that run counter to their best interests—producing what Sunstein describes as “behavioral market failures.” Sometimes we disregard the long term; sometimes we are unrealistically optimistic; sometimes we do not see what is in front of us. With this evidence in mind, Sunstein argues for a new form of paternalism, one that protects people against serious errors but also recognizes the risk of government overreaching and usually preserves freedom of choice.

Against those who reject paternalism of any kind, Sunstein shows that “choice architecture”—government-imposed structures that affect our choices—is inevitable, and hence that a form of paternalism cannot be avoided. He urges that there are profoundly moral reasons to ensure that choice architecture is helpful rather than harmful—and that it makes people’s lives better and longer.

Cass R. Sunstein, the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard University, is the author of several books, including Simpler: The Future of Government and, with coauthor Richard H. Thaler, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. He lives in Cambridge, MA.

yalebook.yale.edu

A GREAT LEAP FORWARD...

This bold re-examination of the history of U.S. economic growth is built around a novel claim, that productive capacity grew dramatically across the Depression years (1929-1941) and that this advance provided the foundation for the economic and military success of the United States during the Second World War as well as for the golden age (1948-1973) that followed. 

Alexander J. Field takes a fresh look at growth data and concludes that, behind a backdrop of double-digit unemployment, the 1930s actually experienced very high rates of technological and organizational innovation, fueled by the maturing of a privately funded research and development system and the government-funded build-out of the country's surface road infrastructure. This significant new volume in the Yale Series in Economic and Financial History invites new discussion of the causes and consequences of productivity growth over the last century and a half and on our current prospects.

Alexander J. Field is the Michel and Mary Orradre Professor of Economics, Santa Clara University, and executive director of the Economic History Association.

yalebook.yale.edu

LEARNING BY DOING...

An important study of the relationship between technology, skills, and economic inequality that answers some of the most pressing economic questions of our time

Today’s great paradox is that we feel the impact of technology everywhere—in our cars, our phones, the supermarket, the doctor’s office—but not in our paychecks. In the past, technological advancements dramatically increased wages, but for three decades now, the median wage has remained stagnant. Machines have taken over much of the work of humans, destroying old jobs while increasing profits for business owners. The threat of ever-widening economic inequality looms, but in Learning by Doing, James Bessen argues that increased inequality is not inevitable.

Workers can benefit by acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary to implement rapidly evolving technologies; unfortunately, this can take years, even decades. Technical knowledge is mostly unstandardized and difficult to acquire, learned through job experience rather than in the classroom. As Bessen explains, the right policies are necessary to provide strong incentives for learning on the job. Politically influential interests have moved policy in the wrong direction recently. Based on economic history as well as analysis of today’s labor markets, his book shows a way to restore broadly shared prosperity.

James Bessen, an economist, is a lecturer at Boston University Law School. He was founder and CEO of a software company that developed the first desktop publishing program.

yalebook.yale.edu

DICTATORS WITHOUT BORDERS...

A penetrating look into the unrecognized and unregulated links between autocratic regimes in Central Asia and centers of power and wealth throughout the West

Weak, corrupt, and politically unstable, the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are dismissed as isolated and irrelevant to the outside world. But are they? This hard-hitting book argues that Central Asia is in reality a globalization leader with extensive involvement in economics, politics and security dynamics beyond its borders. Yet Central Asia’s international activities are mostly hidden from view, with disturbing implications for world security.

Based on years of research and involvement in the region, Alexander Cooley and John Heathershaw reveal how business networks, elite bank accounts, overseas courts, third-party brokers, and Western lawyers connect Central Asia’s supposedly isolated leaders with global power centers. The authors also uncover widespread Western participation in money laundering, bribery, foreign lobbying by autocratic governments, and the exploiting of legal loopholes within Central Asia. Riveting and important, this book exposes the global connections of a troubled region that must no longer be ignored.

Alexander Cooley is director, Harriman Institute, Columbia University, and professor of political science, Barnard College. He lives in New York City. John Heathershaw is associate professor of international relations, University of Exeter. He lives in Exeter, UK.

yalebook.yale.edu

INNOVATION ILLUSION...

Conventional wisdom holds that Western economies are on the threshold of fast-and-furious technological development. Fredrik Erixon and Bjorn Weigel refute this idea, bringing together a vast array of data and case studies to tell a very different story.

With expertise spanning academia and the business world, Erixon and Weigel illustrate how innovation is being hampered by existing government regulations and corporate practices. Capitalism, they argue, has lost its mojo. Assessing the experiences of global companies, including Nokia, Uber, IBM, and Apple, the authors explore three key themes: declining economic dynamism in Western economies; growing corporate reluctance to contest markets and innovate; and excessive regulation limiting the diffusion of innovation. At a time of low growth, high unemployment, and increasing income inequality, innovation-led growth is more necessary than ever. This book unequivocally details the obstacles hindering our future prosperity.

Fredrik Erixon is the director and cofounder of the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE). Björn Weigel is a business strategist and investor/entrepreneur with extensive experience in working with innovative companies and start-ups. They both live in Sweden.

yalebooks.yale.edu

ROADS TAKEN...

yalebooks.yale.edu

Between the late 1700s and the 1920s, nearly one-third of the world’s Jews emigrated to new lands. Crossing borders and often oceans, they followed paths paved by intrepid peddlers who preceded them. This book is the first to tell the remarkable story of the Jewish men who put packs on their backs and traveled forth, house to house, farm to farm, mining camp to mining camp, to sell their goods to peoples across the world. Persistent and resourceful, these peddlers propelled a mass migration of Jewish families out of central and eastern Europe, north Africa, and the Ottoman Empire to destinations as far-flung as the United States, Great Britain, South Africa, and Latin America.

Hasia Diner tells the story of millions of discontented young Jewish men who sought opportunity abroad, leaving parents, wives, and sweethearts behind. Wherever they went, they learned unfamiliar languages and customs, endured loneliness, battled the elements, and proffered goods from the metropolis to people of the hinterlands. In the Irish Midlands, the Adirondacks of New York, the mining camps of New South Wales, and so many other places, these traveling men brought change—to themselves and the families who later followed, to the women whose homes and communities they entered, and ultimately to the geography of Jewish history.

Hasia R. Diner is Paul and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History and director, Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History, New York University. Among her numerous books is We Remember with Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence after the Holocaust, a National Jewish Book Award winner. She lives in New York City.