What’s In This Issue?
This Week’s Main Stories
Story 01The Future Is Respirator Masks That Look Like Your Face
Story 02Revivalism and the Resurgence of Typewriter Classes
Story 03A Bold New Startup Helps Local Bookstores Take On Amazon
Story 04Mumbai Police Create a Clever Penalty For Overhonking Drivers
Story 05The "World's First Vertical Film Blockbuster" Is Coming Soon
Story 06The Bracelet of Silence Is The "Privacy Armor" You'll Need
Story 07The Real Backstory Behind Burger King's Moldy BurgerThe Future Is Respirator Masks That Look Like Your Face
The spread of Coronavirus has many people continuously wearing face masks. In China, this has inspired tech firm Megvii to develop facial recognition technology that can identify people under the mask. In San Francisco, the mask usage has inspired one designer to solve a different problem ... the fact that your face no longer unlocks your phone while wearing a mask. Her solution is a printed mask that looks like the bottom half of your face. It even comes with it's own catchy name: Resting Risk Face along with the bleak reasoning that "it's inevitable that masks become part of our fashion."
Revivalism and the Resurgence of Typewriter Classes
In Philadelphia, one typewriter store is offering typewriter classes for kids and they are becoming surprising popular. In this news report from a local TV station, the owner of the store talks about the benefits of writing on a typewriter to encourage higher thinking - and the kids themselves say that the typewriter really forces them to focus on what they are doing because there is no delete button. This was just one of several stories this week that related to the #revivalism megatrend I wrote about in Non-Obvious Megatrends. Others included the announcement of the cast of Netflix's anime remake of the 80s cartoon He-Man and Hasbro's decision to relaunch classic electronic gaming handhelds.
A Bold New Startup Helps Local Bookstores Take On Amazon
A few weeks ago I went to a trade show in the book industry and met an entrepreneur named Andy Hunter who is implementing a bold vision. He is the founder of a site called Bookshop.org which is in beta mode and designed as a competitor to Amazon fueled by the many people who want to help independent bookstores survive (and prevent Amazon from taking over the world). The site offers affiliate revenue for book reviewers, bloggers and the media to use a Bookshop link instead of sending traffic to Amazon. They split the commissions and give money back to the independent bookstores. Its a worthwhile cause, and one that I plan to support myself and that you should too. We need bookstores to survive in the world - and we can all do more to make sure that happens.
Mumbai Police Create a Clever Penalty For Overhonking Drivers
Anyone who has been on a road in India know that the drivers love to honk. They use it to communicate mainly, but there are some who might be described as "overhonkers." To discourage their noisy behavior, the Mumbai Police launched a cleverly diabolical campaign where red lights at busy intersections were attached to decibel meters. If the noise rose above 85dB, the signal timer would resent and force the driver to wait for longer. It's clever, funny and just the right amount of evil.
The "World's First Vertical Film Blockbuster" Is Coming Soon
While creating a vertical film might seem like a joke, noted Russian producer Timur Bekmambetov has done pioneering things on screen before. He worked on the film Searching with John Cho and previously produced an entirely vertical series shot exclusively for Snapchat. The film, currently promoted as the "first vertical blockbuster film," will open in 2021.
The Bracelet of Silence Is The "Privacy Armor" You'll Need
Want to disappear from all the tracking tech around you? Now you might be one step further to making that a reality with this cartoonishly large bracelet that promises to jam nearby listening devices with a high frequency tone to prevent them from hearing your conversations. Apparently young children might be able to hear the tone too, which means they'll stop listening to your conversation as well. How's that for a side benefit? Jokes aside, I expect we will see many more such "privacy armor" products in the future.
The Real Backstory Behind Burger King's Moldy Burger
This week you might have seen an ad that Burger King posted on its Twitter feed about a Whopper slowly decomposing. It has blown up and gotten people talking. An entire Washington Post article takes a look at how it's a sign of more fast food brands removing artificial preservatives from their meals. The other back story they don't mention, though, is how BK is using it to troll their biggest rival McDonald's, whose burgers famously don't grow mold because "apparently there aren't even enough nutrients in them for microbes."
