Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin American IQ test scores have dropped during a recent 13-year period, a remarkable finding that runs counter to the well-established trend of increasing IQ scores throughout much of the 20th century. That’s a main result reported in a new study published in the journal Intelligence , entitled Looking for Flynn effects in a recent online U.S. adult sample: Examining shifts within the SAPA Project by Elizabeth M. Dworak, William Revelle, and David M. Condon. The study found evidence of a reverse “Flynn effect” in a large U.S. sample of almost 400,000 individuals tested between 2006 and 2018 in several ability areas. The Flynn effect refers to the well-replicated finding that IQ scores increased consistently through much of the 20th century, with increases ranging from three to five IQ points per decade. As part of the study, the authors analyzed data from the Synthetic Aperture Personality Assessment (SAPA) … [Read more...] about American IQ Test Scores Show Recent Declines, According To New Study
What was the american dream
This startup is reviving American manufacturing with robots as a service
Formic is No. 39 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2023 . Explore the full list of companies that are reshaping industries and culture. Formic ’s insight about automation comes from a very human observation: Many of the business owners who could benefit from robots don’t have the time to research their options because they’re maxed out dealing with their humans. “What I realized was that 99% of places that need robots don’t have robots,” says CEO Saman Farid. “The vast majority of manufacturers in America are these SMBs,” he says of his small- and medium-size business customers. “All of these people have very little automation but are extremely short-staffed.” That results in expensive downtime for factory equipment: “They have to pay for all the time where everything’s just sitting around.” Formic’s solution offers robots-as-a-service. The Chicago-based company, founded in 2020, formally launched in August 2021; and now past its 50th … [Read more...] about This startup is reviving American manufacturing with robots as a service
This startup has raised $600 million to give lower-income Americans better healthcare
Cityblock Health is No. 29 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2023 . Explore the full list of companies that are reshaping industries and culture. Cityblock Health was founded in 2017 to answer the question, as cofounder and CEO Toyin Ajayi puts it: “Why does it cost so much money to deliver care that doesn’t actually drive the outcomes we would expect?” Cityblock provides healthcare services to Medicaid and dually eligible Medicare beneficiaries, who account for a disproportionate amount of dollars spent on healthcare in the U.S., according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. It blends primary care, behavioral health, and disease management services, taking into account environmental and societal factors—such as insecure housing and living in a food desert—that can lead to chronic health conditions and hospitalizations. Cityblock’s clinics are staffed with teams of doctors, nurses, social workers, and mental health providers, and it … [Read more...] about This startup has raised $600 million to give lower-income Americans better healthcare
Cruise Line Announces Longest-Ever U.S. River Cruise
Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin American Cruise Lines is announcing a 60-day river cruise that starts in Portland, Oregon on the West Coast and ends in New York City. Called “ The Great United States,” this ambitious voyage will mark the longest domestic river cruise itinerary ever. It will enable guests to visit 20 states and cruise four major American rivers, the Columbia and Snake Rivers, the Mississippi, and the Hudson. Complimentary daily shore excursions include private, guided tours of three national parks (Glacier, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton). Additional excursions will allow guests to explore the country’s maritime heritage in historic cities (including Boston and New York) and other towns and villages along the East Coast from Plymouth, MA; to Mystic, CT; to Newport, RI; to Port Jefferson, New York. Although the trip is divided into discrete segments on three of the line’s small ships— American Jazz , American Symphony , and … [Read more...] about Cruise Line Announces Longest-Ever U.S. River Cruise
The Greatest Show on Earth gets a second chance
When the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus—back after a six-year absence—begins its 50-city tour of North America this September, it will include 75 highly trained performers and a litany of extravagant acts. Tightrope walkers will flit across a triangular rope, 30 feet in the air. Acrobats will launch themselves between four spinning wheels suspended from stadium ceilings. BMX bikers will spring off a giant trampoline. And a 360-degree set studded with massive video screens and enhanced with sonic spatial technology will envelop audiences in the spectacle. There won’t, however, be any lions, tigers, or bears. Oh my! “When you have a brand called ‘The Greatest Show on Earth,’ you can’t downscale,” says Juliette Feld Grossman, chief operating officer at Feld Entertainment, which acquired the iconic circus in 1984. “You really have to reimagine and reinvent.” Founded in 1871, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus delighted American families … [Read more...] about The Greatest Show on Earth gets a second chance
The 10 most innovative companies producing live events in 2023
Explore the full 2023 list of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies , 540 organizations that are reshaping industries and culture. We’ve selected the firms making the biggest impact across 54 categories, including advertising , beauty , design , and more. How do four septuagenarian Swedish pop stars pull off a dazzlingly energetic 20-song set list before thousands of fans in a custom-built stadium? Easy: They get their holograms to do it. ABBA Voyage , a stunning marriage of art and technology architected by the visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), has been a critical and financial success. It’s also a symbol of how the live performance industry is being transformed by technology, as digital elements are deployed to deepen fan immersion while staying true to what makes a live music experience so irreplicable. With concerts becoming increasingly visual extravaganzas, artists have access to new mediums to explore their creative … [Read more...] about The 10 most innovative companies producing live events in 2023
These 6 brands are growing by letting fans pursue their passions
A good product will win you customers, but it takes a lot more to create, cultivate, and keep true, actual fans. The magic word for most is community, and the brands here, being honored as part of Brands That Matter 2022, have found ways to foster and excite growing communities around them. Decades-old brands, including Fender guitars and Magic: The Gathering, are using new content to stay relevant. For Fender, this past year was about building a content hub full of tools for the millions of new people who started to play over the past few years as a COVID-19-lockdown-induced new hobby. Magic: The Gathering has leaned into celebrating a more diverse set of players with its direct-to-consumer platform, Secret Lair. Meanwhile, three-year-old wrestling upstart All Elite Wrestling has taken on a Goliath by showing a different side of its diverse lineup of stars. Here are the brands making the most of fun and fandom: All Elite Wrestling As discussions around mental … [Read more...] about These 6 brands are growing by letting fans pursue their passions
The lie of the hustle
One of the ways that gig companies have been able for years to define their workers as independent contractors is by exploiting the allure of individualism. The contractor has their freedom, the thinking goes, so why would they exchange that for a full-time job with benefits? “These words have gained a strange kind of prestige from downwardly mobile, college-educated tech workers,” said John Patrick Leary, the author of Keywords: The New Language of Capitalism . It was part of what Reddit’s founder, Alexis Ohanian, has called “hustle porn,” cheerleading multiple jobs and their backbreaking exertions, giving a cheerful spin to the full 30% of Americans who do something else for pay in addition to their full-time jobs, according to an NPR/Marist survey. Hustling and nimbleness and the like implied, however, that there is a slinky joy in picking up gear at a studio and dropping it off across town or selling CBD oil part time. Once called drably “another job,” these … [Read more...] about The lie of the hustle
From video games to Bad Bunny, this Argentinian studio is breaking new ground in AR and VR
3dar is No. 47 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2023 . Explore the full list of companies that are reshaping industries and culture. 3dar, which started almost 20 years ago as an animation studio led by two filmmakers and brothers, has grown its profile and expanded its scope, growing into a leading production studio in virtual and augmented reality, using the technology to engage users and tell stories. The Buenos Aires, Argentina–based company was among Meta’s biggest AR filter partners in Latin America last year—creating selfie filters and social games for Instagram and Facebook throughout the year. It also earned a Lion at the 2022 Venice Film Festival in September for Eggscape , an immersive, mixed-reality game that turns a player’s environment into the backdrop for VR gameplay, in which players use the Meta Quest 2’s pass-through mode to guide an anthropomorphic egg through an AR obstacle course. 3dar’s mix of real-world … [Read more...] about From video games to Bad Bunny, this Argentinian studio is breaking new ground in AR and VR
‘Bullsh*t’: Ex-Ambassador Accuses Biden Admin Of Engaging In Coverup Of Afghanistan Disaster
A former American diplomat literally called “BS” on the Biden administration, according to Republican Texas Rep. Michael McCaul. McCaul, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has been asking the Biden State Department since 2021 for a dissent cable from American embassy staff in Afghanistan in which those staffers expressed disagreement with the administration’s Afghanistan policy around the withdrawal process. The State Department has not turned over the cable, claiming that making it public could have a “chilling effect” on department employees. . @RepMcCaul says a former ambassador is literally calling “bullshit” on the Biden administration’s coverup of a cable of dissent from Afghanistan in 2021 @DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/oVEfN5yxMK — Dylan Housman (@Dylan_Housman) March 23, 2023 McCaul shared a message from Ambassador Thomas Boyatt, who served as Ambassador to Burkina Faso from 1978-1980 and Colombia from 1980-1983. Boyatt was involved in a … [Read more...] about ‘Bullsh*t’: Ex-Ambassador Accuses Biden Admin Of Engaging In Coverup Of Afghanistan Disaster