Farmer-specific e-commerce apps and services — among them, GrazeCart, Farmdrop, Farmigo, and GrownBy — have cropped up in recent years, offering the direct-to-consumer sales, customizable CSAs, preorders and delivery that farmers markets haven’t. When the pandemic began, this tech offered a new world of possibility.
China’s system is not even the most advanced CBDC in the world. Both Cambodia, with the “Bakong”, and the Bahamas, with the “Sand Dollar”, have more comprehensive CBDCs rolled out at a wider scale, according to a report by accounting firm PwC. China, however, is the first major advanced economy to start implementing a digital currency at any scale, and its ambitions seem to far exceed those of the established players in the field.
We are now deep into a decade of lifestyle curation. Our news feeds on Facebook, the movies we catalog on Netflix, the playlists we make and then loop over and over on Apple Music; the need to personalize everything we do, and everything we consume, is meant to remove unnecessary friction from our lives. It’s meant to make things as seamless as possible. Through brainy algorithms and constant curation, singles like “Essence” benefit from that sort of tireless indexing. Eventually, they exist everywhere. But what if that way no longer serves us?
Source: The Case Against Music Curation
“Facebook launches VR remote work app, calling it a step to the ‘metaverse’” — NBC News headline, Aug. 19, 2021
“Do you ever think …” a voice said from what sounded like Greg’s right. Greg turned his cartoon avatar to look in the direction of the voice, “ … that maybe the Metaverse is a stupid waste of everyone’s time?
Source: Opinion | Do you ever think … that maybe the virtual-reality office is stupid?
Not only does 3d-printing allow greater versatility and faster construction, it also promises lower cost and in a more environmentally friendly approach than is possible at present. That may make it a useful answer to two challenges now facing the world: a shortage of housing and climate change. About 1.6bn people—more than 20% of Earth’s population—lack adequate accommodation. And the construction industry is responsible for 11% of the world’s man-made carbon-dioxide emissions
Source: The rise of 3D-printed houses
In 1994 — before most Americans had an email address or Internet access or even a personal computer — Philip Agre foresaw that computers would one day facilitate the mass collection of data on everything in society.
Source: He predicted the dark side of the Internet 30 years ago. Why did no one listen?
Public interest journalism may not be salvageable. But more than being saved, it needs to be radically rethought.
The internet doesn’t take a shift like this lying down. Over the past year, a new home-related polarization has also erupted online, with several publications pitting the decor styles against each other: “Minimalism Is Dead. Meet Maximalism,” crowed one Vox headline while Harper’s Bazaar asked, “Minimalism vs Maximalism: Which Is More Stylish?”
Where last year I was all about growing plants and facilitating life, this year my video game lockdown obsession has been flesh-eating monsters. Bit of a departure from Animal Crossing, I’ll grant you, but I’ve really gone all in with the whole rotting corpse vibe.
Instead of joyfully handing villagers dumbbells or weird outfits, I’ve been playing Telltale’s Walking Dead games, scavenging for cans of food between shotgun shots to zombie faces. I’ve been deep-diving into the pop culture annals for zombie content, from Evil Dead to The Last of Us — and even a dab of Plants vs. Zombies, which is a little too telling, if you ask me.
We are certainly in a very different headspace in the year 2021.
You may not have heard of “Corporate Memphis,” but you’ve almost certainly seen it. The illustration style can be found in the trendiest direct-to-consumer subway ads, within the app you use to split restaurant tabs or on the 404 page that attempts to counter your frustration with cutesiness. In fact, Corporate Memphis has become so synonymous with tech marketing that some illustrators simply know it as the “tech aesthetic.”
But Corporate Memphis has also become a victim of its own success. The once-whimsical, fresh style now feels safe and antiseptic. More conspicuous iterations of it get roasted online, if they get noticed at all; one popular tweet asks, “Why does every website landing page look like this now?” Illustrators are just as often tired of Corporate Memphis, but tech companies continue to commission it.
Both faculty and students at dozens of schools interviewed by The Associated Press say they are concerned about how easy it is to get fake vaccine cards. Across the internet, a cottage industry has sprung up to accommodate people who say they won’t get vaccinated for either personal or religious reasons. An Instagram account with the username “vaccinationcards” sells laminated COVID-19 vaccination cards for $25 each. A user on the encrypted messaging app, Telegram, offers “COVID-19 Vaccine Cards Certificates,” for as much as $200 apiece.
Source: Fake COVID-19 vaccination cards worry college officials
For a cohort famous for feeling stupid and contagious, as Kurt Cobain put it, Generation X has turned downright self-congratulatory. The regular slighting of our generation in pop demographics is officially a source of performative delight.
Source: TikTok Smells Like Gen X Spirit
Fueled by Gen Z, text-heavy meme posts, often paired with nonsensically unrelated pictures, are turning the photo and video app into a destination for written expression.
The concept of a new media ecosystem that’s non-profit, publicly funded and tech-infused is drawing interest in policy circles as a way to shift the power dynamics in today’s information wars. Why it matters: Revamping the structure and role of public media could be part of the solution to shoring up local media, decentralizing the distribution of quality news, and constraining Big Tech platforms’ amplification of harmful or false information.
At a laboratory inside a Google data center in Mayes County , Oklahoma, researchers spent the fall of 2019 disassembling old hard disk drives by hand in order to extract a 2-inch-long component known as the magnet assembly. Consisting of two powerful rare earth magnets, the magnet assembly is a critical muscle within the hard drive, controlling an actuator arm that allows the device to read and write data.
Source: Can you recycle a hard drive? Google is quietly trying to find out
Silicon Valley CEOs keep hailing its imminent arrival as they hawk digital goods, but the metaverse was a dystopian idea from its inception.
We’re seeing a ton of new games, and many of them blur the lines between video games and other types of activities.
Young people can make real money selling vintage clothes online — if they can stay on the right side of the algorithm
Source: The teen tycoons of Depop
When America’s college athletes could begin profiting off their personal brand for the first time this summer, Lauren Burke was ready. The 22-year-old rising senior on the University of Texas softball team had made a name for herself on the field and off.
During the pandemic year’s shortened 2020 softball season, Burke racked up a monstrous .453 batting average, ranking second in the Big 12 conference. But it’s likely that most of her fans know her from TikTok. Burke, who mainly posts about softball and fitness, has 400,000 followers on TikTok and nearly 100,000 on Instagram.
Source: College athletes have long been influencers. Now they’re getting paid like them.
How the pandemic mainstreamed VTubers, Japan’s fictional YouTube celebrities.
Source: Japan’s virtual YouTubers have millions of real subscribers — and make millions of real dollars
