Quick Takes, February 21st

_Part of a series of simple internal newsletters I did for a client, posted early 2015 but back-dated to the original dates._

Paul Bennett, Chief Creative Officer at Ideo, explains how he managed to get out of a heavy meeting schedule and into a more fluid, spontaneous mode where serendipity and availability play a greater role.
Where the Fish Swims, Ideas Fly

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According to Devon Maloney of Wired, we can forget dystopian fiction, we already are in a dystopia. “Sochi is the Dystopian Singularity because we accept it as reality—and thus are complicit in its success.”
Forget Dystopian Fiction. Sochi Is Pure Dystopian Reality

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Massive flooding in the UK has led to many questions and worries. George Monbiot went to the source of the Thames and researched the regulatory framework which seems to have contributed to the flooding.
How we ended up paying farmers to flood our homes

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“One sentence and six charts to explain why Comcast is buying Time Warner Cable.”
Quartz

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One of the “themes” for our time has to be how technology evolves faster than laws, policy and public discourse. This New York Times piece about new lights at Newark that incorporate networked cameras and data collection is a good (and unnerving) example of this.
At Newark Airport, the Lights Are On, and They’re Watching You

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The Internet of Things is gaining momentum—more products, talk, articles and conferences are appearing. One of the problems with the products so far is there is not much interconnection.
The Trouble with Things

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“Project Tango strives to give mobile devices a human-like understanding of space and motion through advanced sensor fusion and computer vision, enabling new and enhanced types of user experiences – including 3D scanning, indoor navigation and immersive gaming,”
Google Launches Project Tango Smartphone To Experiment With Computer Vision And 3D Sensors

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An interesting look at how a baker and an Assemblyman managed to get a cottage food law passed, helping to create a niche for small scale food companies.
California Legalized Selling Food Made At Home And Created Over A Thousand Local Businesses