Design:
- How the design of homes makes life needlessly difficult for aging populations, people with disabilities and robots. As the article suggests, looking to ADA guidelines is helpful for creating domestic spaces that will work better for all of us.
Technology as a Threat:
- Police re-purposed a robot to kill. This is the first time this has happened within U.S. borders. It's a very, very bad development - hopefully legal challenges to this action can make sure that this first time is also the last time.
Building Things:
- We're big fans (and friends) of GRIT, the company making lever driven off-road wheelchairs. They have a good post about leveraging a more localized supply chain and shorter production runs to innovate quickly and continuously develop their product to meet user needs. It's certainly a more complicated way to go about manufacturing products, but it offers better outcomes for customers and greater agility for the company.
- Achieving the promise of compostable plastics is proving to be so troublesome that some early adopters are ending the practice and instead looking to post-consumer recycled content as a more "sustainable" option.
Upgrading Ourselves:
- Gaining a super powered grip: a glove to boost grasping power and reduce fatigue for factory workers. It looks to be one of the least cumbersome strength-boosting technologies to date.
Bias and Brains:
- When the decision makers at VC firms are mostly men, it makes it much harder to raise money for companies founded by women that are building products for women. In the familiar pattern of double standards many startups with female founders have to prove market traction while their male peers are finding willing investors at the concept stage.