Chicagoan Helping Cities Harness Strengths

Imagining a world where GM doubled down on its EV1 has become one of the great “what if’s” of automobile history. Few cars have captured the popular imagination quite like the EV1, the pioneering electric vehicle that General Motors launched a generation ago. Approved for production in 1994 and released two years later, the EV1 wowed the auto industry, seduced the media, and seeded a community of passionate early adopters thrilled to drive a car that rendered gas stations obsolete.

Tracksmith launched as a stylish alternative to synthetic, neon running gear. A decade later, it’s ready to take on Nike. It’s 6:15 a.m. on a Friday in June. All is quiet on Newbury Street, Boston’s usually bustling shopping district with its tidy rows of brownstones. Except, that is, for a dozen runners.

Identify and address the silent productivity killers in your business. In today’s workplaces, many leaders make certain assumptions that end up undermining employee performance and the company’s bottom line. Whether you’re working in an open-plan office in Silicon Valley or bustling coworking spaces in Berlin, these silent productivity killers and workplace culture red flags are omnipresent, yet often ignored.

Kelp Blue is investing in growing kelp in Namibia to grow an ingredient that can help farmers and make an alternative leather. In a remote corner of Namibia, near a ghost town that was once a diamond mining hub, a startup called Kelp Blue is trying to pioneer a new coastal industry.

Enlarge / TDK says its new ceramic materials for batteries will improve the performance of small consumer electronics devices such as smartwatches and wireless headphones (credit: AsiaVision via Getty) Japan’s TDK is claiming a breakthrough in materials used in its small solid-state batteries, with the Apple supplier predicting significant performance increases for devices from wireless headphones to smartwatches. The new material provides an energy density—the amount that can be squeezed into a given space—of 1,000 watt-hours per liter, which is about 100 times greater than TDK’s current battery in mass production.

Metro Denver represents an extreme case when it comes to how much home prices have run ahead of household incomes. But how tough is it for the typical household to get into a home, and what kind of jobs do buyers need to afford something in the middle of the road? The median household income in metro Denver is $99,000, which is above the U.