Every day, we read about another brand or technology investing in the metaverse. Virtual worlds like Decentraland—3D digital societies free of physician impediments—will revolutionize how we socialize, shop, seek entertainment, and more, and promises to be a major economic driver around the globe. Less talked about is the metaverse’s digital sustainability. Web 2.0 taught us devastating effects that emphasizing growth over safety when building platforms have on the lives of
When Isoken Igbinedion was 10 years old, she had a “very dangerous encounter” with chemical relaxers that caused her natural hair to fall out. She spent the next 20 years using extensions to give her hair a chance to regrow. And in that time, she realized how much friction there was in the hair products and services market. “In those 20 years, we’ve seen very little innovation used to improve the hair buying and installation process for customers or the manufacturing
One minor quibble with the show Westworld is that there are too few scenes of characters leaving the park to explore less murder-y elements of the near-future. If one company in the world of this show is so advanced that its robots are revolting, what is every other kind of company doing with similar tech? Imagine two guests head out of Westworld to go get some chow. A writer fleshing out this scene might do a bit of research and land on something like a robot salad spot, a fresh pizza kiosk, or
America is in the midst of a Black maternal health crisis, and it is getting worse, not better. According to the most recent data from the CDC, in 2020, Black maternal mortality increased a shocking 26% and has persisted at a rate of at least three-times that of white women for decades. Let’s be clear: It’s racism, not race, that is putting Black women at risk. These data belong to a damning body of research showing how Black women and birthing people go unseen and unheard as they
The state of special education in the U.S. leaves a lot to be desired. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 7.3 million students ages 3–21 received special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 2019-2020. That’s 14% of all public-school students. U.S. law requires education systems to integrate students with special needs, and billions are spent annually to do so. Children with special learning needs—speech-l
In 2014, as Russia launched a proxy war in Eastern Ukraine and annexed Crimea, and in the years that followed, Russian hackers hammered Ukraine. The cyberattacks went so far as to knock out the power grid in parts of the country in 2015. Russian hackers stepped up their efforts against Ukraine in the run-up to the 2022 invasion, but with notably different results. Those differences hold lessons for U.S. national cyber defense. I’m a cybersecurity researcher with a background as
What happens when you’re no longer the hot young cryptocurrency? That’s the question hanging over the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami this week. The mega-event for the original crypto coin’s biggest true believers is lacking a bit of the buzz and excitement that the outside world has come to expect from the blockchain universe. Maybe that’s due to a real lack of actual celebrities who want to come out and endorse the technology, but it could also be that Bitcoin, bey
A RAND study released this week offers more evidence that “both-sidesism” does not belong in an honest discussion of fake news and propaganda in the U.S. People on the Right are simply more apt to fall for it than those on the Left, the research shows, and for a number or reasons. Susceptibility to conspiracy theories and fake news has already been linked by researchers to people in minority groups and lower income brackets. And higher income, higher education levels, and whiteness
Fun fact: Google Maps is 17 years old! Were it a person, it could have its driver’s license by now. And it’s still growing up: A recent round of updates have added to its utility. I use Google Maps routinely because I couldn’t find my way out of a wet paper bag. Here are some of my favorite time-saving features. Share your ETA My wife, bless her heart, likes to know that I’ve arrived at a destination safely. The location doesn’t matter: grocery store, school pi
The Great Resignation has hit the tech industry especially hard over the last few months. Recent surveys reveal that nearly three-quarters of tech employees plan to quit their jobs within the year, citing limited advancement opportunities, lack of flexibility amidst the post-pandemic return to the office push, and toxic workplace culture as key reasons for leaving. Seeking career development, remote work opportunities, and compelling salary and benefits packages, many are trading in their FAANG