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As the IPO market continued to heat up in 2014, the number of new Silicon Valley millionaires purchasing high-performance all-electric Tesla automobiles surged. The growing number of Tesla owners recharging their batteries on the hottest day of the year was cited as a contributing factor to the massive grid blackout that rocked the San Francisco Bay area on September 4, 2014.
10
My Car.
Following Samsung’s 2013 announcement of a self-repairing smartphone, BMW officials unveiled the “world’s first self-repairing automobile exterior” at an auto show in Seattle in October. In related news, a massive fog-related 250-car pile up on Route 28 outside of Boston was used by advocates of autonomous automobiles to tout the superior safety and driving record of self-driven robotic cars. The reason? The only vehicle to escape the pile-up unscathed was a Google driverless vehicle.
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Just in time for the 2014 holiday shopping season Microsoft, using technology acquired in its purchase of Nokia’s electronics device business in 2013, released the first functional foldable tablet computer in November. The product sold well but most analysts predict Samsung and Apple will soon improve upon the technology. Tim Cook is slated to give a highly anticipated talk at Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2015, where he is expected to unveil iPaper, Apple’s new flexible, foldable tablet.
12 Former Professor Signs a Contract Larger Than Football Coach. A
well-known psychologist became the first online “super-star” professor after signing a $2.5 million contract to deliver his popular course on the psychology of human happiness as a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). When asked about his pay, the professor replied, “More than 250,000 individuals completed my class last semester and I’m confident each received well more than $10 worth of value. If anything, I’d suggest I’m grossly undercompensated. Alas, I understand money can’t buy happiness so I’m cool with the agreement.”
Jack Uldrich is a renowned global futurist and the best-selling author of 11 books.
He is a frequent guest on national media and regularly appears on the Science Channel’s new television program, “FutureScape.” He is the founder and “chief unlearning officer” of The School of Unlearning—an international change management consultancy.
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