the increasing use of smart speakers (statista)

Alexa, how can you help me? According to research conducted by comScore, checking the weather, asking general questions and streaming music are the most popular use cases for Alexa and her fellow assistants. As the following chart shows, smart speaker owners are gradually learning to appreciate the many capabilities of their devices or at least they like to experiment with them. comScore survey data from Q1 2017 and 2018 shows that the adoption of all the use cases listed below has increased significantly over the past 12 months. Read more.

The Promise of Artificial Intelligence 70 applications. Daniel Castro and Joshua New

http://www2.datainnovation.org/2016-promise-of-ai.pdf?mc_cid=5d310c47c2&mc_eid=96c86bbed9

CONCERNS ABOUT SELF-DRIVING CARS

THE CITIES WITH THE HIGHEST COST OF LIVING (STATISTA)

You'll Need A Thick Wallet In Singapore  The research compared the price of over 150 items in 133 different cities using New York as a benchmark. Singapore had a score of 116, making it 16 percent more expensive than the Big Apple. It was joined in the survey by three other cities in the Asia-Pacific region - Hong Kong, Seoul and Sydney. Their presence in the upper echelons of the ranking can be attributed to a regional trend of economic expansion which has in turn pushed up costs. Read more.

Dropbox Gets Ready To Go Public (cBinsights)

Dropbox Gets Ready To Go Public Ahead of its initial public offering, Dropbox raised the price range for its IPO by $2 on Wednesday, indicating healthy demand for the company’s shares. The cloud storage firm will be listed on the Nasdaq on Friday in what will be the first major tech IPO of the year. At the current price range of $18 to $20, Dropbox could raise up to $720 million at a valuation of $7.8 to $8.7 billion. The following chart shows how the company's valuation measures up against other high-profile tech IPOs of the past few years. Read more.

ΟΙ ΜΕΙΩΣΕΙΣ ΜΙΣΘΩΝ ΣΕ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ ΚΑΙ ΑΛΛΕΣ ΧΩΡΕΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΕ. Wage Squeeze in EU countries

Wage Squeeze When looking at the EU countries which have seen negative growth in real wages over the past few years, the UK is in bad company. According to analysis in the new report 'Benchmarking Working Europe 2018' by the European Trade Union Institute, workers in the UK earned 2.4 percent less in real terms in 2017 than they did in 2010. This though is eclipsed by the devastating 19.1 percent fall experienced in Greece.

How to Stop Eating Sugar (ny times)

Ο ΒΡΩΜΙΚΟΣ ΚΛΑΔΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΒΙΟΜΗΧΑΝΙΑΣ ΤΗΣ ΖΑΧΑΡΗΣ

Chuck Feeney had an $8 billion fortune. Then he gave everything away

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/chuck-feeney-the-billionaire-who-gave-it-all-away-1.3413084

The Tech World Is Still a Man's World

The Tech World Is Still a Man's World While the tech industry tends to take pride in changing the world of work, and often, with a bit of hubris the world per se, the technology sector is actually further away from achieving gender equality than the U.S. economy as a whole. While the percentage of women in the United States labor force has gradually climbed to 46.8 percent over the past decades, it is still significantly lower in the tech sector. Read more.

These tech jobs can earn you the most money

In order to best negotiate your salary, being equipped with the knowledge of what other people are making can be immensely helpful. Generally speaking, you’re going to earn more money working at a public tech company versus a private tech company, according to new data from culture workplace and salary comparison platform Comparably. And the bigger the company, according to Comparably’s data, the more money you’ll make.

A senior developer at a private tech company with little funding earns about $73,000 a year while a senior developer at a public company earns an average of about $130,000. No matter where you work, however, you’re going to make the most money as an architect or senior product manager, according to Comparably.

Elite colleges that enroll the highest percentage of low- and middle-income students (NYTimes March 5 2018)

Elite colleges that enroll the highest percentage of low- and middle-income students

COLLEGE		PCT. FROM BOTTOM 40%
-	Bernard M. Baruch College	40.6
1.	University of California, Los Angeles	19.2
-	Rutgers University	16.8
2.	Emory University	15.9
3.	Barnard College	15.3
4.	New York University	14.3
5.	Vassar College	13.8
6.	Bryn Mawr College	13.7
7.	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	13.5
8.	University of Miami (Fla.)	13.1

Rankings are shown for “elite” colleges only.

the Wearables Market (statista)

Apple Tops Global Wearables Market According to IDC’s latest estimates, Apple took the crown for the largest wearables brand of 2017, thanks to its strong performance in the holiday quarter. Apple shipped 17.7 million watches in the past year, up from just 11.3 million units in 2016. Apple’s return to the top was helped by the weakness of 2016’s market leader Fitbit. In the process of transitioning from affordable fitness trackers to more expensive smartwatches, Fitbit’s shipments declined by more than 30 percent in 2017, causing the company’s stock price to crater following its latest earnings report. Read more.

High-wage earners have continued to pull away from everyone else since 2000

High-wage earners have continued to pull away from everyone else since 2000Cumulative percent change in real hourly wages, by wage percentile, 2000–2017

Year	10th	30th	50th	70th	90th	95th
2000	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2001	2.9%	3.0%	2.6%	2.0%	2.8%	1.8%
2002	4.0%	4.7%	2.6%	3.5%	5.1%	5.9%
2003	2.8%	3.2%	4.3%	4.7%	5.2%	4.1%
2004	1.0%	1.0%	4.3%	3.1%	5.0%	5.2%
2005	-0.7%	-1.6%	3.3%	2.8%	5.0%	5.6%
2006	0.3%	0.3%	4.1%	1.5%	6.3%	6.4%
2007	2.3%	1.0%	2.3%	3.4%	6.9%	8.6%
2008	0.4%	1.6%	2.8%	3.3%	7.3%	9.2%
2009	1.0%	2.5%	4.8%	6.1%	10.5%	11.1%
2010	0.0%	0.9%	3.4%	5.7%	10.7%	10.0%
2011	-2.4%	-0.9%	0.5%	3.0%	8.3%	9.1%
2012	-3.6%	-1.5%	0.0%	3.0%	9.0%	10.6%
2013	-2.5%	-2.4%	0.7%	3.5%	9.8%	12.2%
2014	-1.8%	-3.4%	0.4%	2.2%	8.8%	11.2%
2015	1.9%	-0.7%	1.7%	5.8%	13.0%	17.7%
2016	4.9%	2.1%	4.8%	5.3%	15.6%	19.7%
2017	8.9%	4.1%	5.0%	7.1%	17.9%	21.5%

ChartData

Notes: Sample based on all workers ages 18–64. The xth-percentile wage is the wage at which x% of wage earners earn less and (100 − x)% earn more.

Source: EPI analysis of Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group microdata