Japan as a power in aerospace + more

1 minutes estimated reading time

Quietly, Japan as a power in aerospace industry | Ars Technica – really interesting analysis of Japan as a power aerospace sector. What people don’t realise is that Japan supplies key components to Boeing. It also has a set of indigenous plane designs to solve problems like being able to land on water or long range marine patrol. In addition, Japan as a power in aerospace also includes outer space; creating both rockets and payloads for the Japanese space agency

‘No Morals’: Advertisers React to Facebook Report – The New York Times – “Now we know Facebook will do whatever it takes to make money. They have absolutely no morals.”  Surprised that advertising execs are going hard on Facebook

Asda beats Waitrose and Harrods in Which? mince pie taste test | Business | The Guardian – Having done a student job at Cereal Partners I realise how arbitrary taste tests can be. With many products, the same manufacturer might be making the same product for a number of different retailers, with only the boxes changing. It caused some amusement reading the taste test on cereal that was exactly the same, except for the box.

However the most interesting part of the article was the sub headline: Supermarket tops consumer group’s chart but general standards drop due to rising cost of ingredients. More related content here.

Inside the hype and reality of Alexa, Siri and the voice assistant ‘revolution’ – Recode – “Smart speaker listeners are much more passive,” she added. “People with voice interfaces tend to accept what’s given to them.”

The seven deadly paradoxes of cryptocurrency | Bank Underground – great write-up that everyone should read

A contest wants to build an environmentally friendly air conditioner — Quartz – people generally choose their air conditioners based on price, there is little innovation in the market for a more- efficient AC. There is a need to re-engineer the incentives as well as the technology