Bob Pritchard

The Business Leader's Advisor

Tech innovations to survive climate change

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In the 1970s, the U.S. Department of Energy poured money into creating a miraculous technology: converting sunlight into electricity. Solar energy was a pipe dream, far too expensive and unreliable to be considered.  Solar power installations cost 80% less today than a decade ago. Alternative energy (like wind and solar) is now cheaper than conventional […]

Researchers race to perfect brain implants

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Labs are currently competing to develop brain implants. Advances in cognitive neuroscience and brain imaging technologies have started to provide us with the ability to interface directly with the human brain.  Researchers have used these technologies to build brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), communication systems that do not depend on the brain’s normal output pathways of peripheral nerves […]

Airlines monitoring your bathroom visits

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Attention airline bathroom loiterers: The next generation of Airbus aircraft will track how long you spend in the loo.  It’s all part of an effort to make commercial cabins a digitally aware domain. The program is Airbus’s bid to raise the Internet of Things — that buzz-phrase for connected household gadgets—to cruising altitude.   The Airbus Connected Experience […]

New Technology to Catch Drivers on Phones

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Governments are attempting to persuade people to put down their smartphones while driving by rolling out cameras to prosecute distracted motorists.  Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, is the first jurisdiction in the world to use such technology to punish drivers distracted by social media, text messages or phone calls.  Road safety experts worldwide […]

When China Leads the World

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How our world functions in another five, 10, or 20 years will depend significantly on China. They are and will become the most influential world economy in just a year or two.  They already are significantly influential and powerful. But there’s still a view in the ‘Western world’ that the US will continue to ‘reign […]