Model Airplanes

Ripple has caused quite a stir (we resisted the pun) in the cryptocurrency market. Recent dips and spikes of XRP, Ripple’s cryptocurrency, have caused many commentators to question the long-term durability of the currency.

However, few can deny that Ripple is being closely watched by the banking goliaths, and is tipped by many to be the first mainstream use of blockchain technology in the financial sector.

bobsguide sat down with Marcus Treacher, Global Head of Strategic Accounts at Ripple and Ed Metzger, Head of Technology Innovation at Santander UK, to discuss what the recent deal with American Express to provide frictionless cross-border payments between the US and UK, using the Ripple network, means for them, for blockchain and the future.

For the sake of addressing the hype, Marcus, can you spell out what blockchain can and can’t do in payments?

Marcus Treacher (Ripple): The technology that makes up blockchain has incredible potential, but it’s been introduced into a world that is not equipped to realise that potential yet. The way information is recorded, reported and managed today is still the same, unsophisticated way it has been for decades. Blockchain will have a profound impact but because the world is so dysfunctional today it will take time to embed that technology and begin the transformation.

Wouldn’t the status quo companies, such as SWIFT, be scared of that transformation, and do everything possible to halt it?

Ripple: I think it comes down to a tipping point. Blockchain is happening at the same time as a number of emerging

Article source: http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2018/Jan/16/how-santander-will-use-ripple-to-execute-cross-border-payments-analysis-of-the-deal/

Paul Catala

DAVENPORT — From 1908 to 1940, between 70,000 and 75,000 homes in the United States were built through using the mail-order Sear, Roebuck and Co. Modern Homes program.

And although thousands have become victims to neglect, despair or progress, Sears Catalog Homes can still be found across the United States, from Ohio, Illinois and New York, down into Central Florida and Polk County.

For 32 years just prior to World War II, Sears designed 447 housing styles with customers choosing an architectural style that fit their budgets, according to the online Sears archives. They were ordered through a catalog in what was called a “house in a box.” Within months, customers received their purchases via railway cars containing as many as 30,000 parts of a home and, like a toy kit, ready to be assembled on-site.

Although other towns and cities in Florida have higher concentrations of Sears homes, examples of what Sears called in its catalog “Honor Bilt Modern Homes” can be found in Polk County. One of those homes, in Davenport, is being marked for demolition.

The Sears homes weren’t ever considered particularly innovative, but they could be built within the framework of a homeowner’s imagination, using touches from multistory homes with elegant French doors and artistic glass windows to simple, quaint three–room, no-bath vacation summer cottages. They were built based on the current architectural trends using the homebuyer’s taste and preference.

According to Sears, its homes could be “assembled” at least 40 percent more quickly than

Article source: http://www.theledger.com/news/20180114/house-in-box-polk-county-homes-from-pages-of-sears

When it comes to paper airplanes, designer Luca Iaconi-Stewart probably has the ultimate one.

WIRED recently visited him to check out an incredibly detailed model of a Boeing 777 that he’s been making over the past decade.

The model is so detailed, you can see tiny seats inside, there’s moving landing gear and engine parts. It is all made uusing only paper folders and glue.

Article source: https://www.ballerstatus.com/2018/01/11/guys-spends-10-years-making-insanely-detailed-boeing-777-paper-airplane/