The importance of finger sleeves The value of a human thumb is worth on average $35,000, according to some insurance companies, which is almost six times as much as a pinky, and twice as much as a pointer finger. Worker’s compensation and accident insurance have to put precise values on all sorts of outcomes,…
LingoPie
Rapid learning through content In some English-as-a-second-language demographics, groups that spent significant time watching American movies had better English than those that didn’t. Today, consuming video content as a language-learning tool is being formalized into a purpose-built product: LingoPie is a service that teaches languages through movies and shows, and adds features that assist with…
Username ideas
Solutions and alternatives for new user names Early in its existence, Twitter noticed that new users were getting to the username selection page, typing in a few ideas, then, unable to come up with a username, abandoning their signup attempt when they couldn’t get their desired username. A simple change was made to fix this:…
Disposable vapes
Disposable vapes are becoming more and more popular in the market. Some disposable vape companies escaped strict regulations by using synthetic nicotine which frees the products from being classified as a tobacco product. This let companies launch certain flavors and youth-targeting marketing campaigns that could more easily evade other regulations too. This is not the only kind…
LoRa antenna
The future of LoRa antennas Some churches have a very surprising source of income: cell phone towers hidden inside their tall steeples. In many towns, church steeples are the tallest structure around, especially because churches are often exempt from height restrictions. Telco companies like Sprint will even approach churches that don’t have steeples and offer to…
Mudlarking
The treasures of the Thames One of the newest trends in leisure used to be a full-time job for the desperately poor. In eighteenth-century London, so-called “mudlarks” would walk along the banks of the Thames, looking for lost goods they could scavenge and sell. Today, tourists take the same walk and look for the same…
Catalytic Converter Protection
The black market for catalysts Thieves are increasingly stealing a car part that’s nearly worth its weight in gold and is attached to 98% of cars in America: the catalytic converter. Not only have material prices risen drastically, but the device is getting easier to steal. Catalytic converters, which reduce cars’ pollution, utilize several rare metals,…
Wow Bao
The evolution of Chinese food Some of the most successful companies of the last ten years built an asset-light version of an existing industry: Airbnb is famously the world’s largest hotel chain despite not owning any hotels, just as Uber is the biggest taxi service despite not owning any taxis. Wow Bao is a ghost restaurant…
Gather town
Connecting to work in a different way When Steve Jobs was designing Pixar’s new headquarters, he famously designed the layout to make employees walk long distances to the nearest bathroom in an effort to increase collaboration, serendipitous meetings, and chance encounters. An office isn’t just a place where people work in isolation at desks or…
Allulose
Sweeteners and their continuing evolution In 2020, the FDA made a simple yet hugely consequential change to nutrition label requirements, requiring a larger font size for the calorie count. This set off a surge in demand for low-calorie sweeteners, as sweeteners usually constitute a significant portion of total calorie count. Allulose, a synthetic sugar that has…