jeremy's Profile

Definitely feels like a land grab for internet payment systems. But good to see some Chinese tradition discussed here as well.

Interesting and important topic! The closer you look, the more fault (crime) you find. These data then feed back into the system for prediction. My point is, the system could be cyclical. It reminds me of the drug war that predominantly affected African Americans. Once you start with American American community for marijuana-related incidents, even without knowing the race of the people involved, the system as you described will increasingly flag African American communities. As we know, US cities are still quite racially segregated. And it is known that white people are much less likely to be searched, arrested, and punished for marijuana possession or use – and would this system lead to less search in white communities? I am just worried that biases could be introduced despite claim of neutrality and the effects can be cyclical.

I certainly noticed this trend as well. I am however not bullish on the model WeChat incorporating too many functions. Certainly maybe it works in China, but at some point this may just breakdown because no one can navigate an app that complicated.

My other thoughts, as a WeChat user, is that the functions are embedded too deep, and there is lack of cross-platform compatibility. For instance, I am not even sure you can look up the WeChat moments on a computer. I think the reason for other companies to break down big apps into smaller ones is to drive overall usage and engagement. WeChat is wildly successful, but just from a pure usability point of view, I think it has been stagnating compared to many popular apps outside of China. And I do not think WeChat has innovated much besides incorporating more and more IWP which I barely use.

Thank you for sharing an interesting topic and company. I wonder what you think of their future over 10 years, given that electronic component makers have very uncertain futures. A few companies that came to mind are AMD/ATi, Motorola Semiconductor/Freescale, Broadcom, Qualcomm, Intel. They all experience significant roadblock as completion in the area is quite high. For IoTs, I believe there will also be many strong competitors for Skyworks. What’s your thoughts on the volatile nature of the industry?

I love art but I have never found looking at photos of art (even high resolution) is nearly as engaging. I wonder whether true virtual reality (where you can truly feel immersed and see it as if you are really there) would change the experience. I would like to see the painting up close, see the texture, and wonder about how the artist put all this together. Until the technology allows me to do that, I will still much prefer to see the art in person.

Interesting comparison! After some thinking, I find Marvel not an ideal collaborator for Niantic. Niantic produced a geographical game call Ingress before,[1] which laid the foundational work for building Pokemon Go. That game is quite similar to Pokemon Go. And the key element that makes it work, is that Pokemons can be found anywhere and there are so many. Existing Marvel universe doesn’t seem to fit into this model, as they are quite single character or characters focused. Marvel could innovate and create new storylines that encourage wider participation. X-Men came to mind. It would be interesting to see if in the future they do create something like this.

[1] Anon, Ingress. Ingress. Available at: https://www.ingress.com/ [Accessed November 20, 2016].

I absolutely agree with the business and operational changes you proposed. I do think that Marvel movies are more accessible for women than the comics or the traditional format digitized or not. The idea about Pinterest is a good one: women are more likely to use it than men and how should Marvel leverage that?

For virtual reality technologies, my suspicion is that men will adopt it faster than women. There is already a fair amount of differences and gender inequality in video games.[1] I am not sure if VR will help change that, but there might be some opportunity there.

[1] 2013. The gender inequality in core gaming is worse than you think. VentureBeat. Available at: http://venturebeat.com/2013/09/19/gender-inequality/ [Accessed November 20, 2016].

That’s an interesting point. I certainly agree that movies themselves are not Marvel’s core business, more like a collaboration now between Marvel and movie arms of Disney. So even though Marvel doesn’t get all the movie money, Disney as the parent will and therefore the entire conglomerate benefit from this “organic growth”. The royalty fee, might be mostly from internal transactions – FRC rules at play here.

Interesting to learn more about an energy and utility company. It is exciting to see the shift in the industry towards renewable energy. Nuclear power used to hold a lot of promise but currently I do not think it is quite renewable. Especially given the increased efficiency in solar panels, nuclear fission will really have no place in our future. However, certainly optimistic that nuclear fusion still might be useful once it is miniaturized and the power generation can be sustained. Wind is variable, as well as solar. A combination of different sources plus mechanism for storage would reduce the overall variability. Do you know NextEra has done anything related to energy storage such as battery?

I had no idea Cenosillicaphobia exists. Obviously water scarcity will impact beer production just as most agricultural or food industries. For groundwater, I think they can filter it and fix the taste.

I like how you laid the ground work before talking about ABInBev. And I am impressed by how much they are doing on various front. I guess it is a sort of risk management. It is inspiring to see a beer company working to reduce their environmental footprint. Everyone can do something. This makes feel more optimistic about the future of our planet.

To related this to my post, it is surprising that MGH has no EV charging station on any of its campuses or parking garages. I also haven’t noticed any solar panel. In the research buildings, the infrastructures are often very old and the hospital is not spending enough to upgrade things like lighting. Most are still using those long fluorescent light, which breaks often and are less energy efficient.

I totally agree as one of the largest employer in the area, Partners Healthcare should prepare itself for climate change, and more importantly be a leader on this front.

Partners Healthcare provide discounted T-pass to its employees, which is great but compared to other institutions such as MIT, the discount is relatively small. It also encourages commute by biking, but I believe it could do more than what they already offer. Their sorting and recycling could also be improved.

It is interesting that you pointed out the poor repairability is a big problem. I agree, primarily on the desktop/laptop end. Their iPhones are primary computing device for everyday use. Compared to old computers, manufacturing these devices use much less resources and materials. Also, led by Apple’s iPhone, mobile devices are much less energy hungry. iPad is known for its durability, and people have few incentive to replace their old iPads. Therefore I think overall their mobile devices really had positive impact on sustainability. Granted, I agree that recycling is key since these gadgets have aggressive upgrade cycles. Apple does accept devices and computer for recycling in their store, but I think few people take advantage of that.

Fossil fuel power plants are still much more efficient than internal combustion engines. And adoption of EVs will boost the infrastructure needed for delivering renewable electricity to drivers. In 10 years it will be very feasible for US families to charge their own car with solar energy generated on premise.

There is few evidence supporting GMO crops have long-term negative effect on human health. The Mayo Clinic blog post cited only talked about the “controversy” with no real studies to back it up. The problem with main Monsanto GMO is the use of herbicide, not the GMO itself.

I also do not think this should be considered as profiting from climate change. I think they are one of the solution providers. Also, scientists have been developing more resistant crops for decades, many are for the purpose of growing them in countries or geographical locations that are unfavorable to these crops. I believe there is tremendous value in these seeds and new varieties, even if they are GMO. Profiting from climate change, is more like fossil fuel industry.