Europe’s Biggest Kickstarter Has Gone Bankrupt

After raising a record of 3.6 million dollars to fund a project called Zano Drones. The drones were originally expected to be small and portable devices that would send hd pictures and video directly to your smart phone. The company had claimed to have shipped over 600 drones but reports stated the drones that were shipped fell short of the companies promises. The company as a result has filed bankruptcy and has started liquidation. Backers of the Zano Drone project are obviously not happy and would like to receive their money back but this is unlikely to happen. Kickstarter has stated that backers are not shoppers but instead investors. I think it is bad that Kickstarter is allowing project to make false claims about their products in order to take peoples money. Kickstarter should do a better job of checking up on products to ensure they are legit especially the largest funded project in Europe.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/19/9759834/zano-drone-bankrupt-liquidation-kickstarter

 

GPS Technology changing NFL

NFL football is extremely high stakes and teams look for an advange to give them an edge over their competition. One way teams are attempting to gain an added edge is through the use of GPS technology. A company called Catapult gives coaches a live digital display of each player’s exertion and conditioning levels recorded by a GPS machine embedded in jerseys. Catapult is being used by rugby teams in Australia as well as 400 other sports teams around the world to give additional data when making about playing time and practice schedules. Currently 14 NFL teams are using Catapult’s technology.

The area the NFL is most concerned with is injuries which knock hundreds players out of games each year. The GPS technology provides coaches with objective information during practices and games about player movement during training, practice and games, compiling data on running speed, the force of collisions, friction created by the playing surface and more. This information flows coaches to understand exactly what each individual player needs during a practice so they can design training that better fits their need. It allows gives a total load score a week to inform team personnel the amount of wear the body has absorbed during a given day or week. This information allows coaches to pull a player from practices whose load score is too high and avoid potential injury.

The use of GPS technology is an important shift for the NFL as a way to limit injuries. The NFL is already under scrutiny for the amount of injuries seen during games as a result have created rule changes to limit injuries. This technology would also be beneficial for the NFL by keeping players on the feild instead of missing games due to injuries that could be prevented.