Digital technology has greatly enhanced our lives both inside and outside the workplace. But it is not all positive. Recently, when I was running a workshop, one of the participants (let’s call him Phil) had to excuse himself regularly from the room. My first reaction was that he had a weak bladder or an upset stomach. It was only later that I discovered he was suffering from Digital Addiction Disorder (DAD) or, in layman’s terms, the inability to stop looking at one’s iPhone or iPad. The workshop was a reflective one and I had requested that electronic equipment was not to be used in class. But Phil, physically unable to wait for a coffee break, was driven to leave the room whenever he felt compelled to check and respond to whatever messages were coming in.

The planet's hot streak is crawling to a temporary end, but it's not over quite yet. September was the hottest such month on record, according to NASA, coming in at 0.91 degrees Celsius, or 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit, above average. This marks nearly a year straight of record heat, according to NASA, with 11 of the past 12 months ranking as the warmest on record.

Image: NASA GISS

NEW YORK, Oct. 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Deloitte announced the formation of Deloitte Catalyst, a network of leading startups working to translate the potential of disruptive technologies into practical business solutions for the firm and its clients.

Deloitte Catalyst accelerates digital transformation by bringing together critical assets and capabilities from the domains of cognitive technologies, Internet of Things and blockchain and includes as initial members Narrative Science, Kira Systems, Ayasdi and Loyyal, among others.

Watson, can you grow into a multibillion-dollar business and become the engine of IBM’s resurgence?

IBM is betting its future that the answer is yes. Its campaign to commercialize Watson, the company’s version of artificial intelligence technology, stands out, even during the current A.I. frenzy in the tech industry.

The bad news: 22 percent of Australia's Great Barrier Reef has died.

The good news is, relatively speaking, that the rest of the 1,400-mile-long coral reef is alive — severely threatened, yes, but not yet dead.

A widely shared "obituary" in Outside magazine last week inaccurately claimed that all of the Great Barrier Reef "passed away in 2016" after a brief battle with global warming and ocean acidification.

Thirteen states are using a common tool to evaluate how well their students write, calculate, and think. Can this effort paint an accurate portrait of academic quality?

That’s the sound of Ryan Detert’s invite-only mobile app, Influential, trying to get the attention of one of his select group of users. It emerges from a purse or pocket to signal that a brand such as Kellogg's or Corona is offering money in return for posting a promotional message on social media. If a person taps to agree, Influential can send out the paid message on one of that person's accounts.

In return, Detert’s company will send them a check for anywhere from $500 to tens of thousands of dollars per post.

In late July, augmented reality startup Skully ceased operations. How did it go from the most successful wearable tech Indiegogo campaign to defunct in less than two years? Its investors threw out its founders.

The nature of VC funding always creates the possibility for an investor coup. I have seen this play out first-hand when a tech company founder pursued an acquisition strategy without fully briefing his own executive team or board to ensure internal buy-in. That backfired. His executive team made an end-run to the board to oust him from the company, which they ultimately did.

Large international companies are having trouble keeping up with the pace of innovation. Rockies Venture Club (RVC) is excited to announce a corporate innovation education program in partnership with one of Japan’s most prestigious early stage venture capital firm, Future Venture Capital (FVC).

The Corporate Innovation HyperAccelerator builds upon RVC’s entrepreneur-driven HyperAccelerator program, but focuses on the innovation needs of large corporations.

As one programs any financing, as in corporate finance generally, the objective is to make 2 + 2 = 5; that is to obtain added value for the issuer. In the course of a financing, the insiders are attempting to raise the maximum amount of money for the minimum amount of equity (“equity” meaning claims on the residual values of the firm after its creditors have been satisfied). A corporation will issue at least one class of common stock because it must; many firms stop there; they pursue the simplest capital structure possible in accordance with the KISS principle (“Keep it Simple, Stupid”). However, in so doing, the corporation may close down its chances to pursue the added-value equation (2 + 2 = 5) because that equation involves matching a custom-tailored security to the taste of a given investor. The top line of the term sheet will ordinarily specify the security the VCs opt to own; the following discussion takes up the most common possibilities.

It’s the year 2120. You feel no hunger, no cold, no heat, no pain. There’s no need to eat or to take medicine, though you can if you like. You are beautiful, intelligent, and charismatic, as are your friends, co-workers, lovers. Though the economy is fiercely competitive, retirement is not far off. You do not fear death. Look out your office window and you see sunlit spires towering over tree-lined boulevards.

Image: Stephen Voss for The Chronicle Review 

It is a given that any political authority wants to know the subjects under its jurisdiction, whether to provide services or to control them. In the words of Josef Ansorge: “The sovereign hungers for data,” and this requires “a reliable process to identify and sort our visceral, constantly reproducing, dying, and migrating mass of humanity into stable, legally constructed categories and socially meaningful graduations.” (p. 2) 

In “Identify and Sort”, Ansorge looks back in history to find three different modalities for identifying and sorting: rituals, archives and digital tools, and how each evolved into its successor. “Each represents a cluster of technical practices and a type of political power.” (p. 3)

It takes money to make money. When it comes to business start-ups, that means venture capital. We told you Sunday how Virginia is only attracting 1 percent of the nation’s venture capital, according to a recent report by the accounting firm Price Waterhouse. If the whole state is only getting 1 percent – and you’ve got to figure a big chunk of that is going to high-tech Northern Virginia – what hope is there for the rest of us? How can we ever hope to grow a technology sector in the Roanoke and New River Valleys – or any kind of new business sector – if there’s so little capital available?

Japan-based telco hopes to grow fund size to $100 billion by attracting additional investors. Softbank late last week launched a venture capital arm that it claims has the potential to become a $100 billion (€91 billion) investment fund.

The Japan-based telco said it will put $25 billion of its own money into the Softbank Vision Fund over the next five years. It has also signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia that could see the sovereign wealth fund invest up to $45 billion over the next five years as well.

Image: http://www.totaltele.com

When General Motors CEO Mary Barra first visited Cruise Automation, the autonomous systems startup GM acquired last spring for $581 million, she told its staffers, "I want to take your energy and speed, and your way of looking at things, and drive it into the core (of GM)."

That would be some feat for the Detroit automaker famous for one of the most dysfunctional bureaucracies in corporate history. But ever since taking the helm in January 2014, Barra has been on a crusade to radically change that culture.

With student loans reaching an all-time high, it's no surprise that many are now questioning whether their education is worth the expense.

The average 2015 college graduate completed their education with $35,051 in student loan debt, according to a study by Edvisor, and a survey by Salary.com found that 35% of 15,000 respondents believe a degree isn't worth the price tag, with another 43% claiming it isn’t necessary to succeed in life.

Chances are there’s more than one horrifyingly long, convoluted email thread sitting in your inbox right now. Sometimes that’s unavoidable—big projects often do take a lot of back-and-forth. But they don’t necessarily take as much as you might think. Here are some steps you can take to write more actionable, efficient emails that get the job done with fewer messages written in fewer words.

Too many business leaders today are out of touch with the employees they lead. Edelman estimates that one in three employees doesn’t trust their employer — despite the fact that billions are spent every year on leadership development. Part of the problem: Our primary method of developing leaders is antithetical to the type of leadership we need.

There’s an urgent need to invest in America’s crumbling infrastructure. Even our politicians agree on that. As anyone who has driven a car, ridden a train, turned on the tap, or lost power during a minor storm can tell you, we’ve fallen desperately behind in maintenance, to say nothing of improvements. The latest “report card” from the American Society of Civil Engineers gives the U.S. an overall grade of D+ for everything from roads and bridges to water systems, ports, public transit, power grids, and schools, estimating that just making critical repairs would cost over $3.5 trillion.

If you read all the things pundits and researchers write about cities these days, you’d be pretty confused: Cities are either growing or shrinking. People either want to live in them or they don’t. Businesses are either gravitating to them or moving away. Maybe young people like cities now, but they won’t like them when they have kids. Or maybe middle-aged people don’t like cities yet, but will later on.