Future Commerce ~ Rebooting Money & Markets!

Together with Brian Forde from MIT’s new Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) and Media Lab colleagues Alex (Sandy) Pentland and David Shrier, we explore new financial innovations via our Future Commerce offering this Fall 2015 every Tuesday afternoon 1-2:30p starting September 15th. Participants learn how to build new businesses and translate ideas to impact, in collaboration with experienced fintech executives, entrepreneurs and thought leaders.

Students will explore emerging technologies that will disrupt existing marketplaces and financial services by spending a semester building new business models, products or technical concepts, resulting in a substantial deliverable at the end of the term.

Fishy Business ~ Globe Seafood Fraud Expose...

Great Globe journalism spots rampant fraud in the seafood sector. In their cover-story expose piece on this seriously Fishy Business, Jenn Abelson, Beth Daley, and Scott LaPierre reveal it's On the menu, but not on your plate...

"...among the findings of a five-month Globe investigation into the mislabeling of fish [were] that Massachusetts consumers routinely and unwittingly overpay for less desirable, sometimes undesirable, species -- or buy seafood that is simply not what it is advertised to be. In many cases, the fish was caught thousands of miles away and frozen, not hauled in by local fishermen, as the menu claimed. It may be perfectly palatable -- just not what the customer ordered. But sometimes mislabeled seafood can cause allergic reactions, violate dietary restrictions, or contain chemicals banned in the United States. The Globe collected fish from 134 restaurants, grocery stores, and seafood markets from Leominster to Provincetown, and hired a laboratory in Canada to conduct DNA testing on the samples. Analyses by the DNA lab and other scientists showed that 87 of 183 were sold with the wrong species name -- 48 percent."

Thanks to Ian Lamont for emphasizing this great example of a strong and vibrant Fourth Estate in action.