Minimum Wages Increase in 25 States in 2021 | Small Business Trends

January 27, 2021January 26, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

According to a study by Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory 25 states will raise their minimum wage in 2021, with 21 of those states enacting the increases on New Year’s day.

By the beginning of the New Year, New York and Oregon, which both have regional minimum wage rates, will see the highest wages reaching $15.00 in New York City and $14.00 in the Portland Metro Area effective July 1, 2021.

At the end of the spectrum, the lowest minimum wage rates of $5.15 are in Georgia and Wyoming. However, most employers and employees are subject to the higher federal minimum wage rate of $7.25 per hour.

How LA has become the model for keeping art alive during the pandemic | The Startup Magazine

January 26, 2021January 24, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve had to adjust to a huge range of changes to our day-to-day lives, which has had an impact far beyond necessities like buying groceries or socialising. The culture industry has taken a particularly significant hit, with major theater chains and concert venues shuttering permanently in the virus’s wake as they struggle to afford both rent and wages for staff.

The same has been true for the art world, with one recent survey showing that around three quarters of galleries “face severe financial hardship or even closure within the next year”, though only 35% of those have the finances to stay open until this time next year. Even when they have been open, footfall has been down, and those with the means have resorted to taking their collections online to offer the gallery experience to art lovers across the globe.

Coronavirus: How the pandemic has changed the world economy | BBC News

January 25, 2021January 24, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The coronavirus pandemic has reached almost every country in the world.

Its spread has left national economies and businesses counting the costs, as governments struggle with new lockdown measures to tackle the spread of the virus.

Despite the development of new vaccines, many are still wondering what recovery could look like.

Here is a selection of charts and maps to help you understand the economic impact of the virus so far.

L’Oréal’s Water Saver | CoolBusinessIdeas.com

January 21, 2021January 20, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Besides laundry-washing and lawn-sprinkling, the daily washing of hair uses up a lot of water. L’Oréal’s new Water Saver system is designed to help, by reportedly reducing the amount of water used in hair-washing by up to 80 percent.

Intended for use both in salons and users’ homes, L’Oréal Water Saver incorporates “Jet-Fusion” technology developed by Swiss company Gjosa.

In a nutshell, this involves angling two contained water streams diagonally downward toward one another, so that the droplets from the two streams collide at a central meeting point. As a result, the colliding droplets are blasted apart into much smaller droplets – about one tenth the original size – which proceed out of the system’s nozzle at a high velocity.

ColdSnap makes single-serving fresh ice cream from unrefrigerated pods | New Atlas

January 21, 2021January 20, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Along with single servings of coffee, we’ve also seen Keurig-like pods used to dispense cocktails, wine, fresh tortillas and even full meals. ColdSnap forges into different territory, by serving up fresh ice cream and other frosty treats.

Created by entrepreneur Matt Fonte (with input from his daughters Sierra and Fiona), the ColdSnap system consists of a countertop rapid-freezing machine, along with an assortment of pods.

FAA approves first autonomous commercial drones | Mashable

January 20, 2021January 18, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

You can officially claim autonomous commercial drones for your 2021 bingo card.

On Friday, Massachusetts-based industrial drone developer American Robotics announced it had received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to operate its fully-automated “Scout” drones without any humans on-site.

It’s the first waiver of its kind, as the FAA has previously approved the use of autonomous commercial drones exclusively under the condition that human observers be present along the flight path — or that risk of collision be mitigated through otherwise hyper-strict limitations. Advocates of drone technology say those restrictions have long held the industry back.

Dollar General will pay workers to get the covid vaccine | CNN

January 20, 2021January 18, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Dollar General wants its employees to get Covid-19 vaccines, so it’s offering to pay them to do it.

The chain said Wednesday that it will give its workers a one-time payment equivalent to four hours of pay after receiving a completed vaccination.

“We do not want our employees to have to choose between receiving a vaccine or coming to work,” Dollar General (DG) said in a press release, noting that its hourly workers face hurdles to getting vaccinated, such as travel time, gas mileage or childcare needs.

Paris is redesigning the Champs-Élysées into pedestrian gardens | Fast Company

January 18, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In Paris, the Champs-Élysées was originally designed as a place to stroll. But in 2021, around 64,000 cars travel down the eight-lane avenue each day. It’s polluted and noisy, and while the sidewalks are filled with tourists, it isn’t a place where people living nearby want to walk.

As Paris transforms elsewhere—aiming for a vision of a “15-minute city” where it’s possible to easily get anywhere you need to go for day-to-day errands on foot or by bike—the Champs-Élysées will now also be redesigned, in a $304 million project that will turn the mile-long street into what Mayor Anne Hidalgo calls “an extraordinary garden.”

California’s Disneyland to become Covid vaccination site | BBC News

January 13, 2021January 12, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

California’s Disneyland theme park is set to become a massive Covid-19 vaccination site this week, county officials announced on Monday.

The “happiest place on earth” is one of several large distribution sites opening up in the state as cases soar and hospitals near capacity.

The most populous US state has lagged behind in its vaccination rate, doling out around a third of its doses so far.

Windows 10 is rumored to be getting a major redesign. Don’t screw this up, Microsoft! | CNN

January 7, 2021January 5, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Microsoft is rumored to be working on a major redesign of Windows 10 that could bring big changes to the way the PC operating system looks and functions.

Windows 10 could use a refresh. Aside from twice-annual tweaks, Windows 10 been mostly unchanged since its release in 2015. Six years is long in the tooth for any PC operating system, and a revolution is coming to personal computers that threatens Windows’ standing as the dominant productivity operating system.

Still, Microsoft (MSFT) doesn’t exactly have the best reputation for fixing operating systems that ain’t broke. So a lot is riding on Microsoft’s ability to turn the next iteration of Windows 10 into something hundreds of millions of computer owners will want to keep using.