Wearable gadgets -- from Google Glass to the Apple ( AAPL , Tech30 ) Watch -- are here to stay. But it's not yet clear what purpose many of these wearable gizmos will serve. They're marketed as everything from second screens for your smartphone to fitness trackers to personal assistants. Meanwhile, there's a less talked-about group of wearable gadgets that has a clear, futuristic purpose: To turn people into superhumans by amplifying their senses and abilities. Many of these gizmos are prototypes, but they paint a portrait of a future in which gadgets hack people -- not the other way around. Related: Apple unveils the Apple Watch Sight: A group of British designers developed a mask called Eidos that allows people to see movement better. The device overlays what you're seeing now with images that it recorded just a few milliseconds ago. The effect is a kind of time-lapse video, only in real time. Eidos allows you to see moving objects more clearly and determine patterns in them. For instance, a rower or golfer could trace her ideal stroke, or security professionals could better track suspicious activity. Hearing: SoundHawk is a kind of a hearing aid on steroids. The wearable device doesn't just amplify all sounds like a traditional hearing aid -- it cuts through background noise, focusing on the speech of the person you want to hear. An app lets you tune the device to listen for specific sounds you'd like to make louder (say, your wife), and reduces other sounds. And Eidos makes another mask that works like SoundHawk. It doesn't look nearly as inconspicuous, but it has the same basic function. Strength: The Ekso body suit is a kind of robotic exoskeleton that gives people super strength. It's kind of like a real-life Iron Man suit. Perhaps one day Ekso will be used to make ordinary people into superhumans. Today, Ekso is marketed for people with traumatic injuries, including victims of strokes, spinal cord injuries or disease and brain injuries. The suit works by powering steps when the wearer shifts his or her weight. Motors push the legs forward . Health: Google ( GOOGL , Tech30 ) , Microsoft ( MSFT , Tech30 ) and some other companies are developing smart contact lenses that measure the glucose levels in diabetics' tears. If successful, the contacts could help to eliminate one of the most painful and intrusive daily routines of diabetics. The prototype contacts are outfitted with tiny wireless chips and glucose sensors, sandwiched between two lenses. They are able to measure blood sugar levels once per second. Google is working on putting LED lights inside its lenses that would flash when those levels are too low or high. Wear all these devices, and you can become a real-life bionic woman. Or a $6 million man -- only for much less.
聪明人的10大特征，你具备了么？ 1. They don't talk as much as you, because they know they got smart by listening. 他们不会说太多，因为他们知道多听才能变聪明。 2. They know lots of things other than what they're specialised in. Theirs is the gift of a broad mind, constantly fed with the stimulant of being interested in what everyone else is doing. 除去专业知识之外，他们知道的很多。他们的天赋就是思维活跃，总是对其他人在做的事情充满好奇和兴趣。 3. They juggle home, work and personal interests with dexterity and never fall back on the tired old refrain about "work life balance". And when they're juggling, they somehow manage to seem 100% engaged with what they're doing, on all fronts simultaneously, even though you know they're taking appropriate steps behind the scenes to make sure their lives are perfectly, serenely balanced. 他们把家庭、工作和个人兴趣完美平衡，从来不会为“平衡工作和生活”这样的事情伤脑筋。当他们玩的时候，似乎会全身心的投入在这件事上面，他们面面俱到，虽然你很清楚，其实背后他们努力的走好每一步来让生活更加完美、更加平衡。 4. They probably do social media. Not always, but probably. It is not only another chance to listen, but one they use to ensure they can feed their brains with things they otherwise wouldn't have come across. 也许他们会涉足社交媒体。不是一贯如此，只是有可能而已。这也是另外一个倾听的机会，但他们往往关注的是那些从没有经历过的事情。 5. Even when things go very badly wrong, they'll be smiling. Smart people never get ruffled because their smart brains present them with alternatives faster than the bad stuff can happen. 即使事情发展很糟糕，他们也会面带微笑。聪明的人永远不会被打倒，他们的大脑永远都会在坏事发生之前，火速想好其他的解决方案。 6. They know they are usually the smartest person in the room, but they don't spend their time dwelling on that. Instead, they take it as a personal challenge to see if they can make everyone else the smartest person in the room too. 他们知道自己是屋子里最聪明的人，但不会花时间去沾沾自喜。相反，他们会把这当做对自己的挑战：看他们是不是能把屋子里的其他人也变得一样的聪明。 7. If they are managers, they will make every effort to get people smarter, more connected and more popular than them in their teams. They're not threatened because they know that smartness is synergistic. They also make sure that their smart people get to look smarter than them for the same reason. 如果他们是经理级别的人物，他们会努力让别人在整个团队中看上去比他们还要聪明、亲密和受欢迎。他们不会感到威胁，因为聪明有相互促进的作用。同理，他们也会确保这些聪明人看起来更聪明。 8. They have hidden skills that never get rolled out until they're needed. They don't have any need to show their full capabilities for reasons of proving they're better than others. 不到万不得已，他们不会展现出自己的所有技能，无需仅仅为了证明自己比别人厉害而去秀自己的能力。 9. They may or may not have expensive educations. You'd never know, just by being with them unless you had their CV in front of you. 他们也许没有受到非常高端的教育，除非看到他们的简历，否则你永远都无从得知。 10. They never, ever, under any circumstances, make you look stupid, even though it would be easy to do so. They've learnt through bitter experience that the only thing that happens when you make someone look bad is you look bad yourself. 在任何情况下，他们绝对绝对不会让你看起来很愚笨，哪怕这是件轻而易举的事情。因为从过去的教训中他们学到的是，让别人出丑的唯一结果就是自己也出丑。 Now you should know who the smart people are. If you want to be the smart one, let me give you this extra advice from Steve Jobs "Stay hungry. Stay foolish." 现在你应该知道谁才是聪明人了吧。如果你想变得聪明，再送你一句话，就是乔帮主那句经典的名言：“求知若饥，虚心若愚”。
March Spending Driven By Surge In Services The latest personal income and expenditure report for March was of particularly interesting reading. However, as opposed to the mainstream headlines that immediately reported that despite higher payroll taxes consumers were still spending, and therefore a sign of a strong economy, it was where they were spending that was most telling. As I searched the various headlines, and read several of the economic releases, I came across only one analysis that questioned the headline report. Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge: "Despite expectations that following several months of subpar income growth offset by rampaging spending and thus a plunging savings rate, March incomes would rise by 0.4%, while spending would be flat, this did not happen, and instead both spending and incomes rose by the same amount, or 0.2% in the past month. Worse, when adjusting for inflation, real disposable income rose just 1.1% compared to last March, and just barely above the 0% breakeven. On the other side, real spending was up 2.2% Y/Y just barely above the 2% recessionary threshold. And even that number is misleading as spending on Total Goods (including durable, already known as being quite abysmal, and non-durable), dropped by $32.8 billion in nominal dollars. What was the offset? Why a massive surge in consumption expenditures on services, which rose by $53.8 billion, which absent the spending aberration for September 11, 2001, which was reversed in the following month, was the biggest monthly increase on record! What drove this record services spending spree is anyone's guess." Tyler is correct and the chart of the monthly dollar change in services spending shows it to be the largest single monthly increase since January 2002. However, we don't have to "guess" at where the dollars were spent - all we have to do is dig down into the report. In the month of March, as noted above, the increase in services related spending offset the decline in both durable and non-durable goods spending. The chart below shows PCE, and its major subcomponents, on a net dollar and net percentage change from February to March. Of course, as Tyler correctly questioned, where were the dollars on "services" actually spent. For clarification the category of "services" comprises any item that is immediately consumed. This category covers everything from housing to financial services to food to transportation. The next chart below shows the major sub-categories of the "services" component of overall PCE. As you can see consumers spent almost 50% of their money on housing and utilities in March. The stuff that we produce, which has the largest multiplier in the economy, declined which speaks to the weakness seen in all of the recent manufacturing reports. However, if we dig down into the services sector, we can quickly find the reason that consumers are spending less on manufactured goods as their utility costs jumped sharply in March as several cold fronts ran accross the nation. The chart below shows the total increase in services consumption in March, the total spent on household utilities and the total of household utilities spent on electricity and gas. However, as we analyze the services sector spending in more detail, there are some other very interesting data points as it relates to the consumer. The chart below shows the various subcomponents of the services category that had the biggest net percentage change in March. What immediately jumps out is the decrease in bank and securities related fees. With the market surging to all-time highs, and the media chastising individuals for not chasing the markets, you would expect to see these figures rising. Alas, that is not the case and more of individuals disposable income is being diverted into not only utilities, but also public transportation, clothing repair, internet access, personal care labor union dues and employment agencies. The ongoing theme seems to be job hunting. With incomes not rising fast enough to offset real inflation, and more individuals having ever tougher times making ends meet, it appears that they are beginning to clean themselves up and go looking for additional work. Of course, when you aren't looking for work, and need to fill some time, it appears that the onset of spring, is drawing individuals into movie theaters and sporting arenas - including casinos. As a side note - it is mildly amusing is the casino gambling is up while commissions for the largest casino on the planet, the stock market, are down. Maybe individuals are catching on that they have a better chance of winning in Vegas. However, the bottom line is that if you want to know where individuals are spending the bulk of their money in the most recent month - 73% of the money spent on "services" fell into four major categories. The personal income and spending report does little to brighten the economic picture. As we have been discussing over the past couple of weeks, see here and here , the economy clearly peaked in 2011 and has been slowing since. Despite the Fed's inflation of asset prices - there is little translation into the real economy. As we discussed i n this past weekend's newsletter the disconnect between the economy, and the markets, continues to widen due to liquidity driven interventions, the suppression of interest rates and the Central Bank's direct purchases of equities. The reality is that we now live in a world where "freely traded markets" are an anachronism and fundamental rules simply no longer apply. However, the problem is that such actions continually lead to asset bubbles, and eventual busts, that not only impact economic stability but destroy the financial stability of families. The risk is not lost on the Federal Reserve as Minneapolis Fed President Kocherlakota recently stated: "Unusually low real interest rates should be expected to be linked with inflated asset prices, high asset return volatility and heightened merger activity. All of these financial market outcomes are often interpreted as signifying financial market instability... may only be able to achieve its macroeconomic objectives in association with signs of instability in financial markets. These financial market phenomena could pose macroeconomic risks." In other words the only way for the Fed to achieve its goals of inflating the economy is to create an asset bubble. Of course, the insanity is that once the goals are achieved the asset bubble busts and then the process must be started all over again. Of course, through the long course of the Federal Reserve's ongoing interventions into the economy they have never witnessed an asset bubble before it burst and they are unlikely to do so this time either. The consumer is clearly delivering a message about the state of the real economy. Eventually, the disconnect between the economy and the markets will merge. Unfortunately, there is no historical evidence of such reversions being a positive event. Average: 4.142855 Your rating: None Average: 4.1 ( 7 votes)
Personal Income And Spending Weigh On Economic Recovery Hopes Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/02/2012 11:28 -0500 Core CPI CPI Debt Ceiling Global Warming Gross Domestic Product Guest Post Personal Consumption Personal Income Rate of Change Recession recovery Savings Rate Via Lance Roberts of Street Talk Live , The personal income and spending report Friday morning left a lot to be desired for those expecting a stronger economic environment soon. However, the report fell well in line with what I have been expecting over the past several months (see here , here and here ) as the drag on real wages and incomes have weighed on the consumer. As we discussed in yesterday's report on GDP - personal consumption makes up more the 70% of the economy therefore changes to employment, incomes or credit has an immediate and significant impact to growth. First, let me argue the claim that the impact to personal incomes was due to Hurricane Sandy. While the storm is going to be the excuse for everything from economic reports to global warming the impact from Sandy on personal incomes was most likely very limited. The storm did not occur until the last two days of the month. Even if we assume that everyone in the Northeast was hourly pay, all quit their job five days before the hurricane, and then left town, the overall impact to the entire month of personal incomes for the entire country would still be fairly limited. Secondly, the Hurricane excuse doesn't account for the negative revisions to the personal income data going back to April of this year. The chart below shows the level of personal incomes both pre- and post revisions in October. These revisions also resolve some the imbalances that we have noted between reported personal income data and other economic reports pre-election. We have suggested that many of these anomalies would be revised away in the months ahead which we are now seeing come to fruition. However, for the sake of argument let's assume that the BEA is correct in their statement that 24 states were affected by Sandy for a total of about $18 billion at an annual rate . This still doesn't explain the complete lack of income growth nationwide. The chart below shows the contributions to personal incomes over the last months. More curious was the very large jump in interest income for the month of October after two previous months of decline. Absent that bump in interest income overall personal incomes would have been negative for the month. However, in the next month or two we should see the estimates used to account for the impact of the storm revised with actual data. This could show a minor increase to the October data. Moving on to personal spending it is not surprising that the previous estimates to spending were likewise revised down in October to reflect weaker income growth . The chart below shows the revision to the major categories of spending for the months of July, August and September. These negative revisions show that spending in the previous months was far less robust than previously estimated which is likely to lead to a downward revision of Q3 GDP next month. The continuing problem that faces the economy remains the impact of rising cost of living which is offsetting increases in compensation. We stated in our last report that: "...it is important to note that wage and salary disbursements have risen since the beginning of the year which has contributed to the increase in personal incomes. However, the recent rise in wages has been very nascent and has come very late in the current economic expansion. Secondly, the rise in wages has been more than offset by a large surge in food and energy costs in recent months as shown in the chart below. While the annualized rate of change in wage and salary disbursements rose again September continuing a steady trend since the beginning of this year, food and energy as a percentage of wages and salaries surged substantially more . The problem with this is that it grossly impacts the consumer. In the most recent report - personal incomes rose by 0.4% while consumer spending surged by 0.8%. Unfortunately, when spending outstrips income the difference has to come either from savings or credit. The chart below shows food and energy as a percentage of disposable personal incomes (DPI) versus the personal savings rate as a percentage of DPI. See the problem here? While core CPI remains very mild - rising food and energy costs at the headline have an immediate impact on the consumer's ability to make ends meet ." This is still the case this month. In October that annualized rate of change in wages showed an increase of 3.04% which was enough of an increase to keep food and energy at 22% of wages. Are We There Yet? When it comes to the economy, and particularly the ongoing recession watch that has nearly become a sporting event, it is real (inflation adjusted) incomes that matter. In the most recent report we see that real personal incomes declined for the month from $11,546 to $11,532 billion for the month reflecting a -.12 change. Doug Short always does an excellent job of tracking the four primary indicators used in distinguishing periods of economic expansion from contraction: "At this point, with all indicators for October on the books, the average of the Big Four (the gray line in the chart above) shows us that economic expansion since the last recession has been hovering around a flat line for the past seven months . Are we tipping into a recession? ECRI has reinforced its claim that we are in a recession and puts the cycle peak in July (more here ). On the other hand, a post-Sandy rebound, good holiday sales and favorably received outcome to Fiscal Cliff negotiations could easily put the economy into indisputable expansion mode. As for the recent data, of course they are subject to revision, so we must view these numbers accordingly." He is correct in his assessment that we are not currently in a recession. However, I am not optimistic the post-Sandy rebound will be enough to stem the tide of contracting wage growth. I am also less than convinced that Washington will come to a resolution for the fiscal cliff and the debt ceiling before it impacts the economy further. The next couple of months will be very telling about the strength of the underlying economy. The manufacturing data continues to point to further economic weakness, hiring plans have deteriorated and the main drivers of economic growth have all stagnated. With the recession in Europe continuing to erode exports, and impact corporate profitability, this leaves investors exposed to a sharp valuation adjustment in the months ahead. While we can hope to get lucky that things will work out for the best - "hope" rarely works out as an investment strategy. Average: 4 Your rating: None Average: 4 ( 2 votes) Tweet Login or register to post comments 2960 reads Printer-friendly version Send to friend Similar Articles You Might Enjoy: Guest Post: CFNAI: Not Seeing The Growth Economists' Predict Overnight Sentiment: Cloudy, If Not Quite Frankenstormy Guest Post: GDP And Durable Goods - Heading To Recession? Europe's Recessionary Collapse Beating Even Most Optimistic Expectations Guest Post: New Home Sales - Not As Strong As Headlines Suggest
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