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The scars and scars of aging apartments and housing units under the control of the New York City Housing Authority do not immediately convey the idea of innovation. The largest homeowner in the city, NYCHA, home to about 1 in 16 New Yorkers, has seen its buildings literally collapse after decades of delayed maintenance and mismanagement. All told, this abandoned subsidized residence is “in the middle of what local planners call”.destruction by negligenceAn estimated $40 billion or more, at least $180,000 per unit, is required to return buildings to a good repair condition.
Years ago, there was a hidden evidence of innovation inside these units, namely the kitchens. In the late ’90s, NYCHA realized that existing refrigerators in many units were extremely inefficient, obsolete, and costly for the agency. He held a successful competition for appliance manufacturers and asked them to create smaller, more efficient apartment-sized units. The winner Maytag gained access to NYCHA and other housing authorities and sold 150,000 units of the new Magic Chef model between 1995 and 2003.
Now NYCHA wants to do the same with heating and cooling. The Clean Heat for All Challenge asks manufacturers to develop low-cost, easy-to-install heat pump technologies for building improvements. The risks to the agency, the winning company, and society itself could be huge and good for the planet.
After all, renovating existing buildings is much more sustainable than demolishing them and building new ones. Read the full story.
—Patrick Sisson
must read
I scoured the internet for today’s most entertaining/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Amazon wants Alexa to mimic the voices of deceased loved ones
Yes, it looks like a leaked Black Mirror script. (CNBC)
+ How does the data of your life mean that a version of you can live forever?. (MIT Technology Review)
2 Finland turns its spent nuclear fuel underground
First country to set up a full deep geological storage facility. (Economist $)
+ Zap Energy, a fusion startup, claims to inject plasma into a reactor core. (NYT $)
+ Can the US solar panel industry recover? (slate $)
3 Recession? What recession?
The economy is slowing, but if we do go into recession, it may not be as bruising as previously believed. (New Yorker $)
+ It’s not easy to identify a recession anyway, but we’ll know when it’s here. (Bloomberg $)
4 Cash is dying
But even though fewer people use it, it’s still a life buoy for vulnerable people. (New York Magazine)
+ A lament for cash: technology we can never replace. (MIT Technology Review)
+ In praise of the dollar bill. (MIT Technology Review)
How was a group dedicated to canceling missionaries cancelled?
No White Savior has ever been charged with misdemeanors similar to the aid workers he targeted. (Login)
+ How the AI industry profits from disaster. (MIT Technology Review)
6 Mark Zuckerberg shouldn’t be allowed to rule the metaverse
And their current monopoly should be read as warning signs. (Time $)
+ Meta no longer sponsors US anniversary commemorations. (WSJ $)
+ Facebook’s Oversight Board is pushing for more transparency. (WP $)
7 Alibaba has its eyes on South Asia
After conquering China, he wants to expand to new pastures. (FT $)
How did Bored Apes eclipse its crypto origins?
And in the process it became a cultural movement. (block)
+ Cryptogame Axie Infinity May Benefit From Monkeys’ Good Luck. (rest of the world)
+ At least GPU prices are finally dropping. (motherboard)
9 These tiny, robotic fish are cleaning microplastics from the ocean
But we need so much to make a difference. (Guard)
10 Dissociation music reflects the bleak state of our world right now
Fans enjoy detaching themselves from reality. (pitchfork)
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