Category Archives: Futurist

Uh, that's not good. Bad Break Up

As if the threat of nuclear disaster at the hands of a mad oligarch wasnt enough, sea levels might rise after a section of Antarctic ice the size of Philadelphia abruptly shattered, exposing vulnerable glaciers to the sea and more rapid melting.

A large section of the Larsen Ice Shelf in Antarctica, dubbed Larsen-B, has broken up into the ocean, according to a press release from the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Images from NASA satellites showed the ice shattering from January 19 to 21.

The ice previously helped protect many glaciers along the Antarctic Peninsula from the sea. But now, scientists say, the glaciers are vulnerable to accelerated melt that could raise sea levels even further.

The international team of scientists behind a new study about the breakup in the journal Remote Sensing of Environment still arent sure why exactly the Larsen-B ice shattered so quickly. However, some believe that the warming summer temperatures and winds carrying warm air could be partially responsible.

Its difficult to tell what actually caused the disintegration as the sea ice was already showing cracks prior to the breakup, Stef Lhermitte, a geoscience and remote sensing researcher at the Delft University of Technology, said in the release.

Regardless of the reason it broke up, the event still represents a serious threat to the glaciers it previously protected. The Larsen-B ice used to buttress the glaciers, holding back water flow from pushing them into the sea and minimizing their contribution to sea level rise. With it gone, the glaciers are now exposed and at risk of melting faster.

Sadly, this is just yet another grim example of anthropogenic climate change in action and yet another plodding step toward an uncertain environmental future.

READ MORE: Sea Ice That Slowed the Flow of Antarctic Glaciers Abruptly Shatters In Three Days [Columbia University]

More on glaciers: Welp, Scientists Say Antarctic Sea Ice Is at a Record Low

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The Sea Ice That Protects Antarctic Glaciers Just Completely Shattered, Scientists Say - Futurism

WATERLOO Its a concept seemingly ripped from a science-fiction script levitating pods that could transport cargo or people at breathtaking speeds topping 1,000 km/h through near-vacuum tubes.

The hyperloop concept, popularized by Tesla and SpaceXs Elon Musk, builds on ideas first conceived around compressed air and propulsion more than 200 years ago.

Today, there are several companies around the world working on ever-changing hyperloop technology, while students at post-secondary institutions, including the University of Waterloo, are developing prototypes to prove its feasibility.

I do think its quite likely, said Krista Porter, business lead for UWs 124-member hyperloop design team, Waterloop. As a human population all over the world, people are continuously striving to evolve I think its due time that something new comes up.

Founded in 2015, Waterloop is currently working on its fifth pod prototype, called Goose V, as team members get ready for a return to competition this year after being sidelined by the pandemic.

Propelled and levitated using a linear induction motor, the technology would see the pod reach high speeds through a near-vacuum tube thanks to greatly-reduced friction and air resistance.

Its basically a train, but youre removing all the inefficiencies, said team member Emrys Halbertsma.

At about 1.8 metres (six feet) long, Goose V carries a motor and battery pack, a motor controller, and guidance and braking systems; the hyperloop concept envisions full-size cargo or passenger pods, carrying up to 28 people each, and Waterloop hopes to design and build a working full-size pod in the coming years.

The team is also building its first test track at the Region of Waterloo International Airport; made of I-beams and about 100 metres long, the track is expected to be in use when UW hosts the Canadian Hyperloop Conference at the end of May.

This is just the first iteration of our test track, Porter said. We recently drafted up plans for a vacuum tube track, but we are still very much in the research phase of that, and also, were going to have to work hard to find funding to build that.

Porter said 10 teams from India, the United States and Canada have signed up so far for the upcoming conference. Waterloop will also be taking part in a competition as part of European Hyperloop Week in the Netherlands in July, and theyre hosting a green tech webinar on March 25 showcasing groups and teams at UW with a focus on sustainability.

Much of the teams progress is made possible through the generosity of sponsors that have provided everything from welding services to software and tools.

This is technology that requires money to make, and we are just a student team that does not generate any money ourselves, Porter said. If we didnt have sponsors, our team would not be where it is today.

Hyperloop technology can seem far-fetched and faces considerable challenges, cost and safety among them. Virgin Hyperloop, one of the key corporate players, announced last month that its going to focus on cargo rather than passengers.

Id say cargo is very feasible, said Halbertsma, adding theres clearly demand for the ability to move freight very quickly.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions, but its definitely technology thats worth exploring.

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A University of Waterloo team is working to develop futuristic levitating pods that can move people or cargo at breathtaking speeds - Waterloo Region...

American futurist

Peter Schwartz (; born 1946) is an American futurist, innovator, author, and co-founder of the Global Business Network (GBN), a corporate strategy firm, specializing in future-think and scenario planning.

Schwartz was born in 1946 to Klara and Benjamin Schwartz, Hungarian Jews who had been in concentration camps and were living in a displaced persons camp in Stuttgart, Germany.[1] The family soon moved to Norway, where they lived until he was five. At this point, they emigrated to America as stateless aliens on the S/S Stavangarfjord, arriving at the Port of New York in April 1951 and like nearly all displaced persons were taken to Ellis Island. They found a new home in Camden County, New Jersey, and Schwartz graduated from Haddonfield Memorial High School in 1964.[2] He won a National Merit scholarship, and was able to attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) on full scholarship. He served as RPI's May commencement speaker for the class of 2009.[3][4]

According to Stewart Brand, Schwartz was a member of Students for a Democratic Society. After graduating in 1968 with a B.S. in aeronautical engineering, Schwartz taught high school in Philadelphia and worked in the innovative student housing program at UC Davis. In 1972 he became an employee at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), where he began to develop his unique method of scenario planning, and rose to director of the Strategic Environment Center.[1] In 1982, he moved to London to work for Royal Dutch Shell as head of scenario planning. In 1985, while giving a speech at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory of UC Berkeley, he met his future wife, Cathleen Gross. He moved to live with her in Berkeley, California, in 1987. They married and had one child, Benjamin "Books" Schwartz, born in 1990.

Schwartz has written several books, on a variety of future-oriented topics.

He has also worked as a consultant on several movies, including Minority Report, Deep Impact, Sneakers, and WarGames. He serves on the board of directors for the Long Now Foundation.[6] He also serves in the boards of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and the Asia Internet Coalition In 2007, Schwartz moderated a forum titled "The Impact of Web 2.0 and Emerging Social Network Models" as part of the World Economic Forum in Davos. He serves on the Research Innovation and Enterprise Council of Singapore and in 2014 was appointed an International Distinguished Fellow of the Prime Minister's Office. He was also voted into the Futurists hall of fame by the Association of Professional Futurists in 2012. Additionally, Schwartz is also a member of the Berggruen Institute's 21st Century Council.[7]

Schwartz founded the Global Business Network (GBN) in 1988 in his Berkeley basement with several close friends including Napier Collyns, Jay Ogilvy and Stewart Brand. Schwartz called GBN an information hunting and gathering company, and describes it as a high level networking and corporate research agency.[1] In 2001, it was bought by premier strategy consulting firm the Monitor Group, although it continued to operate as a distinct entity. The Monitor Group was acquired by Deloitte in 2013 which elected to shut down GBN.

He left the company in October 2011, to work at Salesforce.com as Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning. His role there includes the job title "Chief Futures Officer".[8]

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Peter Schwartz (futurist) - Wikipedia

David Houle| Sarasota Herald-Tribune

In my last column, I explained why one of the forecasts from A Look Into 2022 A Split Screen Year the ascendant strength of labor and employees this decade was, in fact, happening. I mentioned what has been called the Great Resignation would be looked back upon as the clear demarcation of the beginning of this trend.

The numerical reality of the changing workplace and the changing employment marketplace is truly unprecedented. From April 2021through the fourth quarter of 2021 there had regularly been 400,000 to 500,000 resignations in the U.S. on a monthly basis. When this happened last April, it was a huge historical milestone. That milestone has been surpassed many times since then.

The pandemic has clearly affected us in many ways. One of the most noticeable ways is how much people have changed how they think about work. After one has spent months working from home, being more productive, having more time with loved ones, having more personal time, it becomes difficult to go back to the pre-COVID workplace.

The last full year pre-COVID was 2019. That was a record year in U.S. history for time spent commuting.The average commute distance for Americans that year was 27.6 minutes one way, or almost an hour a day.Five hours a week. In addition, the cost of gas, auto maintenance andparking to do this average commute can be more than $100 a week.

The world has changed. The view of work has been transformed. The old, 20th century model of commuting to an office five days a week is not coming back as the norm.

There is not one person I have interacted with since the first lockdown who has not had some significant change in how they view work, their life, how they work, where they can work remotely from, and how work and personal and family have been rebalanced. When death has been at the door, the pleasures of ones home become ever more important

A fundamental change has occurred, and the sooner employers and companies understand this, the better off they will be.

Iforecast that this decade will see a complete reinvention of work. The workers will gain more power, altering the dynamic with employers. This power will only partially be gained in the old ways of union strikes and stop-work actions. It will be gained as ever more people work from home, choose to become independent contractors and indeed become digital nomads. Talent will have increasing leverage in the area of employment negotiations.

For the last decade, I have consistently spoken and written about how, in the Shift Age, the Physical Reality will give way to the Screen Reality. Since March 2020, it has. We like to be working on our screens, living in a nice place, with family nearby.

Companies going forward will have fewer employees, more technology and more training. In addition, the corporate world will start to more fully embrace the dynamic of the creative class and will increase the number of contract workers.

It is estimated that by 2030 there may well be one billion people working as digital nomads globally. This entire movement of have laptop and phone, work from nice places really went into high gear during the time of the pandemic.

This, in fact, is significant for Sarasota County in particular. Since the beginning of COVID two years ago, the county has been one of the top counties in Florida, and therefore in the entire country, for digital nomads. There is more than anecdotal evidence that people have left congested cities where they had to live to be close to work, to move to nicer places to live such as Sarasota and Manatee counties where they now work remotely.

This is an entirely new economic development strategy for our area. Clearly, the booming residential real estate market locally is evidence that this is happening. The economic development model from the last century is to lure companies to move here and bring all their employees with them. This usually meant that some special tax incentives had to be offered to lure a company to relocate. Now we can avoid giving out any tax incentives and still reap the benefit of the influx ofwealth and population.

The workplace of 2025 will be vastly different than that of2019.

The key point to make about this is that it is time for both Sarasota and Manatee counties to rethink our vision for the workplace of the future. The old workplace is rapidly receding in the past and the new one is rushing toward us. We can hugely benefit from current dynamics but we must open up our thinking to do so.

Sarasota resident David Houle is a globally recognized futurist. He has given speeches on six continents, written seven books and is futurist in residence at the Ringling College of Art andDesign. His website isdavidhoule.com. Email him atdavid@davidhoule.com.

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THE FUTURIST: The collapse of legacy thinking about the workplace - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

NASAs Mars Exploration Program released an intriguing, beautiful image of what it almost certainly not a flower this week.

The space agencys Curiosity Rover merged six images on Friday to complete a photo of a tiny, microscopic formation that indeed looks like it could be an organism, but is actually created from delicate mineral crystals. The photo was taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) at the end of Curiositys robotic arm, according to NASA.

Abigail Fraeman, Curiositys deputy project scientist, tweeted the image along with a penny added for scale, shown below.

A beautiful new microscopic image from @MarsCuriosity shows teeny, tiny delicate structures that formed by mineral precipitating from water, Fraeman said online.

She went on to share details about similar structures found in the past, explaining via Twitter that flower-like deposits were found on Mars in the Pahrump Hills and made of salts called sulfates. The faux flowers are made of diagenetic crystal clusters, according to ScienceAlert.com. Diagenetic refers to the recombination or rearrangement of minerals, and these three-dimensional crystal clusters are probably made of a combination of minerals that include the sulfates Fraeman mentioned.

In addition, Fraeman retweeted a 3D model of the flower created by Simeon Schmauss using the images the rover captured.

Plenty of fans likened the sandy image to a zen garden, and Fraeman even captioned the photo as a moment of zen.

I would call this a Martian Zen Garden, one user tweeted in response to Schmauss model.

It might not be a real flower, but the mineral structure sure is pretty to look at and provides scientists with much-needed intel on the Martian surface.

More on space photography: The Webb Telescopes Latest Star Photo Is Absolutely Magnificient

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Mars Rover Snaps Image That Looks a Lot Like an Organism, Though of Course It's Almost Certainly Not - Futurism

You might have blinked and missed multi-disciplinary artist Domino among the throngs of party-goers atRolling Stonespre-Super Bowl party. As hundreds of Los Angeles most influential traipsed between the events star-studded performances, roped-off areas, and red carpets, digital-art darling Domino could be found surveying the non-fungible art adorning the walls of presenting sponsor Coinbases, well, base. Sure, iann diormay have been ascending the outdoor stage 100 feet away, but here was a room exhibiting some of the most exciting contributions to the NFT landscapeincluding Dominos own.

The allegiance betweenRolling Stoneand Coinbase served as further evidence of the Crypto Bowl titled such because the Super Bowls highly-coveted commercial airtime was practically dominated by first-time advertisers: cryptocurrency companies. Coinbase itself was no exception. Not only did its bouncing QR code promotion subsequentlycrash the app, but the brand refused to allow a first-time convergence of sport, tech, and entertainment to go by without including NFTs the newest and decidedly hottest way to diversify ones investment portfolio.

As such, Domino is among the 12 creators recruited to collaborate on an exclusive piece available to the partys Coinbase Wallet users. This kind of release represents exclusive access to the NFT big leagues, or for long-time collectors, the opportunity to obtain another piece of history. But for Domino, a musician, magician, and artist, who sold his first NFT in 2021, the marketplace is so much more than a cash grab.

A lot of people still see a chance to get rich quick, but for me, its always been about community, he explains. While I trained in so many different crafts; performance, design, film, which all taught me a lot, I owe my momentum in NFTs to community events like Twitch streams and building relationships with other artists.

RS Collection, Powered by Coinbase was unveiled at Rolling Stone Live: Los Angeles

Wes and Alex for Rolling Stone

Domino sold 20-25 NFTs in the first two months, the first for one ETH (approx US $3,000, which takes 96 days to mine), the second for two, and so forth. He would go on to generate $120k in sales and over 3 million interactions for his musical project,Presessence, Vol. 1,in three weeks. He acknowledges his stratospheric growth within his artwork for the Coinbase collaboration: a series of self-portraits representing his journey.

Its been interesting to watch because it went from digital art being a joke to selling at Chrysties [for] $60 million dollars. I feel like the next step is music how will the Grammys recognize this kind of movement?

Surrounding Domino in the Coinbase camp are the submissions of his peers. Theres KidEight, a graphic designer and animator whose cherub creation EVOL sells out within minutes for tens of thousands. In this instance, a menacing EVOL is a Rolling Stonecover star, decked in his signature ski mask and Cuban link chain. KidEight reflected on his contribution to the collaborative NFT saying, I try to bring a level of humour to my work. When I got approached to be apart of the collaboration it was a no brainer that EVOL should get his own Rolling Stone cover. It is a bit tongue in cheek but also a manifestation of what I believe this characters potential is culturally.

Theres also Emmy Award-winning motion graphic artist Emonee LaRussa, who counts the likes of Kanye West and Lil Nas X as collaborators, with a mind-bending holographic. Famed surrealist Jeff Manning continues his exploration of Afrofuturism with a gilded harp, while industry darling and Apple-favorite Elise Swopes abstractly reimagines a cityscape.

The NFT Gallery at Rolling Stone Live: Los Angeles featured the works of artists who contributed to the RS Collection

Rich Polk for Rolling Stone

In full color-blocked glory is a stand-out piece from Boss Beauties. Unlike the other offerings, Boss Beauties is helmed by a wife-husband duo, who work in conjunction with an artist to characterize female empowerment. Co-founded by Lisa Mayer to benefit My Social Canvas, her non-profit that equips young women with mentorship and scholarships, the Boss Beauties collection features female role models throughout history alongside women simply living their truth. For Rolling Stone x Coinbase, they conceptualized a rocknroll queen complete with a WAGMI pin (an acronymic rallying cry for the crypto community that stands for We are all gonna make it). Co-founder Anthony Furlong hopes Boss Beauties is only the beginning when it comes to mission-oriented NFTs.

A lot of these projects will give back to charity off their initial mint, but its not really built into what they do whereas thats where we come from, he explains. We want people to sell the Boss Beauties and pay off their student loans.

Its still all about the original mission, but we want to build it out on a global scale, adds Lisa Mayer. We want to empower women all over the world to be everything they want to be.

The collaborative NFT will be animated and re-released on Coinbases NFT marketplace soon. The contributors are excited for their availability to the public and the evolution of NFT blockchain Ethereum, which they believe will soon adopt a more eco-friendly proof of stake system that is more circulatory, requiring less electricity. As for whats next for non-fungible tokens, they, like many of us, cant really speak to whats in store. But for now, theyre just happy to be in the room.

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Crypto Futurism and Pop Culture Converged at Rolling Stone Live: Los Angeles - Rolling Stone

A Spanish company is pouring tens of millions of dollars into becoming the worlds first commercial octopus farm, in spite of mounting evidence that the creatures can feel pain and pleasure, nevermind the environmental impacts of cephalopod farming.

A Reuters report about Nueva Pescanova, the company set to start farming octopi pending European Union approval, spotlights the significant ethical and environmental concerns looming over the startup fishery thats already loaded 65 million euros (the equivalent of $74 million USD) into its efforts.

Octopi have been getting unprecedented attention in recent years. From the 2014 video of an octopus walking on land to the endless stream of footage showing octopi adorably (and sometimes ferociously) fighting with other aquatic animals and humans alike, these feisty creatures are beloved online and off, as evidenced by Netflixs stunning, uber-popular documentary My Octopus Teacher.

Yet in spite of the overwhelming public and scientific acknowledgement of their intelligence, which in 2021 led the UK to legally declare them sentient, octopi fishing has boomed, with some analysts declaring it the fastest-growing food production sector globally. Naturally, overfishing octopi has become a major concern hence the desire for octopus farms.

Octopus fishing and potential farming, critics say, is fraught for a number of reasons. Reuters notes that previous captive octopi-breeding efforts have blown up because get this the cephalopods exhibit cannibalism, self-mutilation, and aggression towards each other.

While Nueva Pescanova director David Chavarrias stressed to Reuters that the company hasnt yet observed cannibalisticbehavior in its octopi, the company hasnt provided many details on the creatures conditions at its facilities.

To foster a quality of life high enough to keep such intelligent animals comfortable would cost much more than would be profitable, according to the World Wildlife Foundations Raul Garcia, who directs the organizations fishing conservation efforts in Spain.

Octopuses are extremely intelligent and extremely curious, Garcia toldReuters. And its well known they are not happy in conditions of captivity.

Eduardo Almansa, a scientist whose employer, Spains Oceanography Institute, developed Nueva Pescanovas farming technology, told the news wire that if we want to continue consuming octopus we have to look for an alternative because the fisheries have already reached their limit.

Environmental researchers,though, have warned that farming octopi harms the environment just as much as fishing for them would.

Octopus farming would increase, not alleviate, pressure on wild aquatic animals, Jennifer Jacquet, a professor of environmental studies at New York University, wrote in a 2019 analysis where she and fellow researchers came out against the proposed practice. Given the depleted state of global fisheries and the challenges of providing adequate nutrition to a growing human population, increased farming of carnivorous species such as octopus will act counter to the goal of improving global food security.

This rock-and-a-hard-place scenario, as many activists point out, is good cause to simply stop buying and eating octopus. But short a global vibe shift away from eating these intelligent cephalopods or the EU deciding not to let octopi farming go ahead, its hard to imagine this wont be an ethical flashpoint for years to come.

READ MORE:Worlds first octopus farm stirs ethical debate [Reuters]

More octopi:Scientists: Octopuses Love to Fling Objects at Each Other

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Critics Horrified by World's First Octopus Farm - Futurism

Honda has set the goal of becoming the first Japanese brand to go fully electric by 2040 but instead of rolling out electric versions of existing models, the automaker kickstarted the new era with a clean-sheet design. The Honda e is more than an urban EV, it is a halo modelbringing the brands heritage into the future, heavily betting on design and technology to make electrification desirable.

Last week we got the keys to the flagship Honda e Advance and spent a lot of time behind its wheel. We got to discover its quirks, test its fun-to-drive factor, charge it, and even fight with range anxiety. It is admittedly one of the most charming EVs on the market, but did it win us over?

Head-turning design thanks to uncluttered retro-futurism

Small cars with retro-inspired styling are not a new thing. The Honda e is the Japanese answer to a trend that started with the VW Beetle in the 90s and continued with the MINI Cooper and Fiat 500 in the 00s. However, Honda did it in a different way, with a focus on technology for its niche product.

Those who know their bit of Honda history will spot the references to the first-gen Civic from the 70s in the proportions, toned fenders, character line, and C-pillar. Thankfully, Honda struck a fine balance between heritage and modernity, making its smallest car head-turner as proven by the fair bit of attention we got from different demographics. In fact, the e is one of the rare cases where the production version looks better than the concept, making us wonder whether this design language could be used in more models.

See Also:Would You Rather Have The Fiat 500 Or The Honda e?

I dont need my design degree to appreciate the surfacing and the minimalist yet eye-catching styling cues. Look closely and youll see that the curved glossy-black plastic surfaces connecting the full-LED lights on both ends are mirroring the surrounding environment upside down. Features like the mirror-replacing cameras, the pop-up door handles, and the frameless windows, make the e look premium despite its size.

The Honda e is pretty compact, measuring 3,894 mm (153.3 inches) long. This is 262 mm (10.3 inches) more than the Fiat 500 and 49 mm (1.9 inches) longer than the MINI Cooper SE, making room for a proper five-door bodystyle. Due to the short overhangs, the 2,538 mm (99.9 inches) wheelbase is typical of a modern supermini and is nearly identical to the rival Peugeot e-208.

Small but tidy cabin packed with tech

Moving inside, it is hard not to get drawn by the elephant in the room which is the full-width, five-screen layout on the dashboard. Infotainment features are among the key priorities for most buyers, even though some complain about screens getting larger and more distracting. Surprisingly, Honda managed to satisfy both parties by making the screen ultra-wide and placing it at the right height for the driver to stay focused on the road. The truth is that you probably dont need as many pixels to complete everyday tasks, but the crisp wallpapers create a nice atmosphere for all passengers.

The 6-inch digital mirrors on each corner work great in all lighting conditions and dont require as much getting used to as you would initially expect. Having cameras instead of mirrors means you can easily navigate through tight spaces and benefit from the wide angle of the lens to limit blind spots. However, due to the strength of habit, youll often find yourself moving your head in a quest to see different angles, which obviously doesnt work with the fixed image on the screens. In the Advance trim, the central mirror can also turn into a screen showing the unobstructed feed from the rearview camera but for this case, we prefer the regular mirror which makes it easier for the eyes to focus and adjust.

The rest of the digital dashboard includes a pretty basic instrument cluster partly hidden behind the steering wheel that shows everything you need with a focus on driving aids, and the significantly more configurable dual 12.3-inch touchscreens. Hondas infotainment is simple to use with menu options instantly accessible from the customizable shortcut icons on both sides.

You also have the ability to swap pages from one screen to the other with the touch of a button. For example, you can place the built-in navigation in one and the Bluetooth media in the other, swapping them when needed. Weirdly, some features cannot be accessed by the co-driver when the vehicle is on the move for safety reasons.

Due to an unknown bug, I wasnt able to connect Android Auto but I made good use of the dual USB charging ports located next to the HDMI outlet and the very useful standard AC power outlet on the bottom of the center console where you can connect your laptop.Finally, the physical buttons for home, changing brightness, switching off the screens and the volume knob are neat, as are the climate controls that were thankfully in a separate section.

See Also:Electric Honda e Gains Genuine Accessories For Its Japanese Launch

Setting aside the massive screens, the interior looks like a modern reinterpretation of the original Honda Civic. In terms of build quality, the fabric upholstery and the wood trim look and feel quite nice but there is still a lot of exposed hard plastic for the price segment. Practicality is city car average, with a not-so-easy-to-reach fabric smartphone pocket, a retractable cup holder, bottle holders on the doors, a small glove box, and a modular storage compartment in the central tunnel that comes handy for larger items.

The Honda e can fit up to four adults with relative comfort for a vehicle of this size. Rear passengers have more space than in a Fiat 500 but a lot less than in an ICE-powered supermini like the VW Polo. They do, however, get four reading lights right next to the standard sunroof and USB ports for charging. Generally speaking, if you are up to 6 feet (1.83 m) tall you will have no issue with headroom and legroom but it is always nicer to sit at the front. The seats look and feel nice creating a cozy lounge-room atmosphere. The cargo space, though, is very limited with a capacity of 171 lt (6 cubic feet). This is smaller than all of its rivals but at least the rear seats fold flat for more demanding trips to the supermarket or when you need to pick someone up from the airport.

Agile, quick, and refined on the road

With an advertised WLTP range between 200-220 km (125-137 miles) depending on the variant which is less than equally-priced rivals, the Honda e is clearly designed for city use. Indeed, the small footprint, the light steering wheel, and the tiny 4.3 m (14.1 feet) turning radius make it quite agile in narrow roads, while the Single Pedal Control System in its most intense braking mode controlled from the paddles is ideal for traffic.

The birds-eye view camera and the sensors make it easy-peasy to park but you can also ask the Honda Parking Pilot to do all the work for you although this will likely take more time than doing it yourself. Speaking of driving aids, the Honda Sense suite has everything youd ask for. The adaptive cruise control with stop & go function works smoothly and none of the passengers could tell that it wasnt me in charge of the pedals. The lane centering also works well at times but it can get distracted from hazy lines.

In the more powerful Advance variant we drove, the single rear-mounted electric motor produces 152 hp (113 kW / 154 PS) and 315 Nm (232 lb-ft) of torque, rather than the 134 hp (100 kW / 136 PS) of the base model. While those numbers dont sound mind-blowing, in reality the Honda e feels quicker than the advertised 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) time of 8.3 seconds, especially in Sport mode where it becomes even more responsive. It can easily reach highway speeds or even the top speed of 145 km/h (90 mph) where it remains quiet inside thanks to Hondas great effort in NVH.

Ride quality is where the small Honda excels, being on par with vehicles from larger segments. The fully independent suspension strikes a great balance between firmness and comfort. While you wont get Citroen levels of plushness, it is amazingly refined for its size and results in almost no body roll in the corners. Although the steering feel is not on par with the MINI Cooper and the Ford Fiesta when it comes to spirited driving, its light nature is more suitable to an electric city car while still being fast and direct.

The RWD powertrain, the sophisticated chassis setup, the low center of gravity, and the 50:50 weight balance are the ingredients of a fun-to-drive machine. Indeed, the Honda e will put a smile on your face every time you push it, giving full control and being friendly close to the limit. With the ESP turned off it even becomes tail-happy but it always keeps its composure. The weight of 1,527 kg (3,366 pounds) doesnt really show other than under heavy braking. The only issue here is the battery juice that gets drained when you step all the way into the gas pedal.

Range anxiety is still a thing

And this is where we need to talk about the main point of criticism for the Honda e; its limited range of up to 220 km (137 miles). The reason for that is the comparably small floor-mounted 35.5 kWh lithium-ion battery which was a strategic decision by the engineering team in favor of lower weight and cost.This characteristic limits the use of the Honda e as a second car to a target group with easy access to a charger. In other words, if you live in an apartment you should probably look elsewhere. While there are competitors with smaller batteries like the base Fiat 500 Action (23.8 kWh) or the MINI Cooper SE (32.6 kWh), the more competitively priced variants of the Fiat 500 (42 kWh) and the Peugeot e-208 (50 kWh) will leave the Honda behind in terms of range.

In our Honda e Advance fitted with 17-inch wheels, the WLTP range is 125 miles (201 km). In real life, you wont see more than 170-180 km (106-112 miles) on the trip computer. Thankfully, in normal driving, the estimate proved to be quite precise but if you have a little bit of fun behind the wheel youll notice the battery level dropping fast. As with all EVs, city driving and heavy traffic are being kind to its efficiency in contrast with high speed or heavy acceleration which will drain the battery fast. Having said that, if you charge overnight and start your day at 100 percent, you will likely never face range anxiety issues. After all, most Europeans dont drive that much on a daily basis according to Eurostat, the average persons daily distance for urban trips is anywhere from 5.6 km (3.5 miles) in Greece to 19 km (12 miles) in Germany.

The advantage of a small battery is quick charging. A full charge on a 7.4 kW Type 2 AC charger takes 4.1 hours, although 100 kW DC rapid charging (good luck finding one) can get you to 80 percent of charge in 30 minutes. During our review we used the 6.6 kW onboard charger on a public charging network, taking us from 1 to 99 percent in around 5 hours. Things are not looking that great on a standard home outlet though. While our Honda e had a second charging cable allowing us to plug it on the wall, it only added 4 percent in a little over an hour with more than 15 hours needed for the remaining 60 percent charge according to the trip computer.

Pricing and availability

The Honda e is only available in Europe and Japan, with the automaker choosing not to bring it Stateside. In Greece, where we drove it, pricing starts from 35,990 ($40,304) for the Honda e and from 38,990 ($43,641) for the Honda e Advance before you add the government incentives that shave 15-20% off the cost.In the UK the EV is listed for 34,365 ($45,989) and 36,865 ($49,334) respectively, which is similar to what youd pay for mid-spec Honda CR-V Hybrid AWD.

Sub-compact EVs from other automakers can be a lot cheaper although high-spec variants end up being more expensive. Those include the Fiat 500 (28,300-38,600 / $31,675-43,207), the Peugeot e-208 (32,300-40,900 / $36,158-45,785), and the MINI Cooper SE (33,960-38,357 / $38,013-42,935). Alternatively, you can get the base-spec VW ID.3 which starts from 34,000 ($38,068) despite being a segment above. Note that the aforementioned prices do not include government incentives.

Our verdict

The Honda e is an EV for those who prioritize style and technology over value-for-money and outright usability. Pricing is steep for its size, but the gadget-filled interior feels like a cozy living room with retro design cues brought into the future. Driving the e puts a smile on your face and the styling makes you look twice over your shoulder every time you park it. Besides the obvious cool factor of its design and the rather full list of standard equipment that comes with the high price, the Honda e offers a refined ride and good performance. A larger or more efficient battery is the only thing that is missing to allow greater freedom and more fun behind the wheel, since the range is limited compared to rivals, narrowing its use primarily in the urban cycle as a second car.

more photos...

We would like to thankHondain Greece for lending us the press car.

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Driven: The Honda e Advance Is A Retro-Futuristic Gadget On Four Wheels - CarScoops

US President Joe Biden announced a fresh wave of sanctions aimed at Russia over its invasion of Ukraine on Thursday.

The goal: to cut off Russias economic ties to the rest of the world, starve its military and put its space industry on ice.

We estimate that we will cut off more than half of Russias high-tech imports, and it will strike a blow to their ability to continue to modernize their military, Biden said during an announcement on Thursday. It will degrade their aerospace industry, including their space program.

The Biden administration and NASAs considerable bargaining position not to mention US access to the International Space Station, a decades long collaboration between the two countries is greatly indebted to SpaceX, a company which has allowed NASA to send astronauts into orbit without leaning on Russia.

Thats a new development. Ever since NASA retired the Space Shuttle in 2011, the agency hadto rely exclusively on Russian-operated Soyuz spacecraft to send astronauts to the orbital lab.

That picture changed considerably in 2020, when SpaceX successfully launched the first NASA astronauts to the station in its Crew Dragon capsule, the result of the space agencys Commercial Crew contract.

NASAs hand in navigating the current Russia crisis is immeasurably strengthened by the availability of Crew Dragon and its regular, reliable access to space, Ars Technicas senior space editor Eric Berger wrote in a tweet. Absent that, they would face the choice of quietly submitting to Russian demands or abandoning the ISS.

While NASA and Russias ties extend far beyond shuttling astronauts into space, controlling access to the ISS is the ultimate trump card right now in low-Earth orbit, Berger argued in a followup tweet.

With its unprovoked invasion of a European nation, Russia has chosen a scorched-Earth approach and its space program will likely suffer the consequences as well.

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russias space corporation Roscosmos who has close ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin, made his stance clear.

Glory to Russia, he tweeted on Monday.

Rogozin also attempted to flip the script in a different tweet on Monday.

We really value our professional relationship with NASA, but as Russian and citizen of Russia, I am completely unhappy with the sometimes openly hostile US policy towards my country, he wrote.

Its not just the US that has been relying on Russian-made rockets to reach orbit. For instance, Europes Arianespace has been leaning on Russian Soyuz rockets to deliver satellites into orbit, an effort to establish Europes own version of GPS.

How the international space community will react to Russias invasion remains to be seen.

NASA continues working with Roscosmos and our other international partners in Canada, Europe, and Japan to maintain safe and continuous International Space Station operations, a spokeswoman for NASAs Bill Nelson told Ars Technica on Wednesday.

That tenuous relationship is under some serious pressure, given Russias aggression. The country is unsurprisingly aiming to launch its own space station over the next decade or so, having announced plans to abandon the ISS last year.

Where that leaves operations on board the International Space Station is anybodys guess.

But as the Russian invasion goes on, that picture may end up changing rapidly. Given Bidens sanctions, all eyes are on NASA. And thanks to SpaceX, theyre in a much stronger position.

More on the situation: NASA Says Everything Is Perfectly Chill on the Space Station Despite the War

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There's a Reason NASA Doesn't Have to Submit to Russia: SpaceX - Futurism

Plenty of countertop kitchen appliances sell themselves as versatile, and these days, even common toasters come with secondary cooking capabilities. The Omni Cook is a new smart cooking device that actually doubles as a sous chef, and this review will touch on its greatest features.

The device comprises a smart dock complete with a gorgeous touchscreen that the mixing bowl nestles into. Powerful blades grind, crush, and puree as well as any high-end blender. But unlike a blender or food processor, the TOKIT Omni Cook also adds precision heat to cook while the blades spin. With these combined capabilities, along with its built-in scale, the TOKIT Omni Cook can replace up to 21 different common kitchen appliances. Heres a peek at what kitchen alchemy the TOKIT Omni Cook is able to pull off.

Related: Breville Control Freak Review

Hands-free Pastry: Tricky, temperature-sensitive foods like eggs and dairy can go from silky smooth and delicious to curdled nightmare before you can reach for your probe thermometer. The TOKIT cooks eggs into custard and whips cream to soft peaks without constant stirring over a hot stove.

Ready, Set, Bake: The paddle attachment creams butter and sugar as handily as a countertop KitchenAid mixer for your next batch of cookies or cupcakes. It works equally well when it comes to whipping egg whites into meringue so thick you can practically stand on it. The blades are powerful enough to not just knead pizza or shokupan dough, but provide the perfect temps to let them rise to perfection.

Mealtime, Without the Guesswork: The gorgeous interface syncs up to cookNjoy, a worldwide database with thousands of guided step-by-step recipes. Browse through the platform depending on what youre craving, gather ingredients, and let Omni Cook do the rest. When youre done, simply fill with water and a little soap and run the cleaning cycle. The heat combined with the blades will melt away any caked-on food, leaving the machine pristine for next time.

Seriously Powerful, Seriously Safe: Omni Cooks blades run as slow as 40 rpms and as fast as 12,000 rpms, to not simply puree food, but pulverize it. These blades wont start until the stable safety lock is engaged, making it just as safe as less powerful appliances.

Possibilities are Almost Endless: Eleven different cooking modes let you customize everything from blade speed to cooking temperature, which let the Omni Cook work as not one device, but 21. Its a food processor, but its also a juicer, shredder, kettle, ice crusher, slow cooker, meat grinder, and can even be used as a dedicated steamer and rice cooker.

Because of its versatility, its a fantastic option for folks looking to scale down the amounts of bulky kitchen appliances clogging up countertops. For those living in spaces with tiny kitchens (RVs, college dorms, tiny apartments) TOKIT Omni Cook contains plenty of cooking power in a very small, very sleek space.

Buy on TOKIT

This post was created by a non-news editorial team at Recurrent Media, Futurisms owner. Futurism may receive a portion of sales on products linked within this post.

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Byte-Sized Review: TOKIT Omni Cook is (Maybe) the Last Kitchen Appliance Youll Ever Need - Futurism