The worlds of wanderlusters and coffee addicts are merging. Delta Air Lines and Starbucks have paired up to launch a joint loyalty program rewarding miles and ‘Stars’ with every drink you buy. Starbucks and Delta Air Lines have launched a partnership that allows customers to link their Delta SkyMiles and Starbucks Rewards accounts, the companies announced Wednesday.Participating Starbucks cus...

A new proposal from the US Department of Labor could uproot the way the gig economy operates by forcing companies to recognize workers as employees rather than contractors if they meet certain criteria, tackling the current system of ‘misclassification’.This news is a big deal for companies who have come to rely on, and ultimately benefit from, their contractor workforce — shares in Lyft and...

Italian pasta company Barilla is on a mission to make the widely-loved comfort food be a little more sustainable in the kitchen, with a brand new device that reduces active cooking time and saves energy.The revolutionary, open source Passive Cooker is designed by the brand to be simply clipped onto a cooking pot lid where it can sync up to your smartphone to start the process. Once it detects b...

India's GDP grew by 4.1 percent in the first three months of 2022, slightly truncating annual growth in 2021-22 to 8.7 percent due to Omicron restrictions putting a damper on economic activity in this last quarter of the Indian fiscal year. In Q1 of the new fiscal year (April to June), growth was back to 13.5 percent.Looking at the big picture, Indian GDP growth is also still doing quite well o...

Inspired by the way trees work, this clay humidifier brings comfort with no power consumption, all thanks to some clever 3D printing.Here’s a clever device that is both deceptively simple and surprisingly effective: a humidifier made of clay, inspired by the way trees absorb and evaporate water, that works without any external power whatsoever. Just physics. And 3D printing.The device—called...

The State of AI Report analyses the most interesting developments in AI. We aim to trigger an informed conversation about the state of AI and its implication for the future. The Report is produced by AI investors Nathan Benaich and Ian Hogarth. Now in its fifth year, the State of AI Report 2022 is reviewed by leading AI practioners in industry and research. It considers the following key dimens...

For Marc Powell, a seemingly simple trip to the store to buy medication or other consumer health products is often an onerous, complicated undertaking.Powell, who is blind, usually must ask a store employee to help find what he needs and then read the information on the packaging to him, which can feel intrusive. At home he’ll ask his partner, who has partial sight, for help, but the print is...

With geopolitical turmoil, soaring inflation and sinking stock markets, you might not imagine the current economic landscape would make the best backdrop for luxury goods spending sprees. LVMH’s latest results, however, strongly suggest otherwise.Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) reported on Tuesday that its sales had jumped 28% in the first 9 months of 2022, a remarkable growth rate on a ye...

Smart polymers with “life-like” properties: due to dynamic chemical bonds the micrometric 3D structures can grow eight-fold in just a few hours and harden. Scale: 20 micrometers (µm). Credit: Christoph Spiegel (Heidelberg University). Although just cute little creatures at first glance, the microscopic geckos and octopuses fabricated by 3D laser printing in the molecular engineering labs at...