Fast Company Articles

How Facebook Devalued the Birthday
Facebook notifies you about your friends' birthdays and wants you to "wish them well." Facebook is really into their users encouraging the birthdays of those in your social circle. It may seem like not a big deal, but think back a couple years ago and how people's birthdays were relatively private. It used to be something you could choose to share or not and many people did not share their birthdays with others. Some would only celebrate their birthday with family and their close friends, and some even celebrated it themselves. It used to be more of a private business matter, but now many people have their birthdays easily accessible to others on their Facebook page. In the past it used to be difficult to find someone's birthday out, but now Facebook has made it especially easy for its users to find out other people's birthdays. This could possibly allow criminals a better chance to use identity theft, and results in a major privacy issue. Some people have a friend on Facebook with a birthday almost everyday so when a user is so used to getting birthday notifications, it devalues their view on birthdays and then when it is someone special in their life's birthday, they tend to think of it as lesser importance. You can set your birthday to private or "only me" on Facebook but many people do not because they don't think anything of it. Some people do put their birthdays on private because they don't want people who would otherwise not know about their birthday wishing them a happy birthday. Facebook is making birthdays less authentic and makes birthdays artificial by informing your friends when it is your birthday.

This All-Electric Plane Could Change Everything About Regional Air Travel
Eviation is an Israel-based startup and they are building a new all-electric, nine seat airplane called the Alice Commuter. This plane is expected to make its first commerical flights in 2021 and will take hundreds of routes in the U.S. over the upcoming years. Lightweight materials, energy density of batteries, power of electric propulsion, and the computer power help to manage this plane. Eviation decided to focus on going all electric for their first plane because they believe it makes the flights the most affordable for customers because it will be available to all. Overall the technology required for the electric plane is cheaper because electricity is cheaper and overall electric planes cost cheaper to maintain over hybrid options. The plane is made to be comfortable and steady so passengers are willing to ride it and won't be intimidated by the small size. After this first plane joins the market the next goal is to make a larger plane that can carry up to nineteen passengers.