In this episode, a mayo that isn’t, a crowdfunded vertical takeoff airplane and robots taking U.S. jobs.
JUST ADD EGGS
The FDA recently sent an official warning to Just Mayo, a maker of plant-based, eggless mayonnaise. Well, it turns out that marketing a product as mayonnaise means that it must actually contain eggs.
Additionally, the FDA said that the Just Mayo products contained too much fat for the company to imply that their products were “heart healthy.”
This isn’t the first time the company has been cited for questionable behavior; last year, Unilever filed a lawsuit against the company, which was later dropped. Even more recently, a report from Business Insider claimed the company was skirting federal labeling laws.
VTOL
In first fundraising effort of its kind in aviation history, enthusiasts and crowdfunders nationwide can now actively participate in a crowdfunding campaign from XTI Aircraft Company to develop the TriFan 600 — a six-seat fixed-wing airplane designed to compete with other business jets, but with the ability to takeoff and land vertically.
In development for over two years, the TriFan 600 is being designed and developed to become the first commercially certified high-speed, long-range vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) airplane to provide true door-to-door travel.
Yeah, take that helicopters!
ROBOT OVERLORDS
Most experts believe continued advancements in robotics and artificial intelligence will dramatically impact the job market in coming years. A widely circulated report in 2013, for example, estimated that robots could replace 70 million U.S. jobs — nearly half the country's workforce — over the next 20 years.
A recent analysis, however, is more optimistic.
Forrester Research estimated that although the U.S. could lose more than 22 million jobs due to automation through 2025, robots would also help generate enough new employment to offset all but 9 million of those positions.
What's more, many of those new jobs are likely to be very high-tech; after all, one analyst said, “it's much harder to repair a robot than a vending machine.”
SO, WHAT DO YOU THINK?
The robotic revolution is already here in many different industries and capacities.
Are fears about the future of jobs overblown? Is it good that robots could replace some of the marketplace's more mundane tasks? Or will society need to figure out a way to address millions of displaced workers?
Email us or leave your comments below.
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