Unbound: No 108
Pearson Says Blockchain Could Make It Money Every Time E-Books Change Hands
By Thomas Seal | Bloomberg
The chief executive officer of Pearson Plc, one of the world’s largest textbook publishers, said he hopes technology like non-fungible tokens and the blockchain could help the company take a cut from secondhand sales of its materials as more books go online.
The print editions of Pearson’s titles -- such as “Fundamentals of Nursing,” which sells new for £57.99 ($70.88) -- can be resold several times to other students without making the London-based education group any money. As more textbooks move to digital, CEO Andy Bird wants to change that.
Digital artist and virtual reality technologist, Stewart Smith, joins YQI as Artist in Residence
By Duncan Jones | NextGov.com
After the success of Yale’s “Quantum Week” (Spring 2022)—which showcased the artworks of our previous YQI artists in residence such as the art and science museum exhibition “The Quantum Revolution” featuring artwork by Martha W Lewis, and the light show performance and release of the album “Quantum Sound” by Spencer Topel—the Yale Quantum Institute continues its involvement at the intersection of art and science by welcoming digital artist and virtual reality technologist, Stewart Smith, for the academic year 2022–2023.
The Sustainability Scorecard, reviewed
By Jon Smieja | GreenBiz
A version of this article originally appeared in our Circularity Weekly newsletter. Subscribe to the newsletter here.
I was invited to read a new book and interview one of the authors. As someone who has long enjoyed reading books about sustainability, it was very flattering to be sent a copy of a new book, "The Sustainability Scorecard," by Paul Anastas and Urvashi Bhatnagar, and asked to provide my thoughts in a review.
Many of our Circularity Weekly readers are probably familiar with Paul Anastas. A hero of mine since graduate school, Anastas is a deep thinker, a brilliant chemist and an engaging speaker. I was far less familiar with Urvashi Bhatnagar. Fortunately for me, I had the opportunity to chat with Bhatnagar over the phone about her book and immediately became a fan. A healthcare executive and population health expert with a keen eye toward sustainability, Bhatnagar brings a different perspective to "The Sustainability Scorecard" that pairs quite well with Anastas.
"The Sustainability Scorecard" provides a simple and straightforward method for identifying where a company currently is on its sustainability journey and a method to track progress. The book proves that sustainability makes economic as well as ecological sense and guides leaders in creating and scaling their own green supply-chain initiative. I’ve read a lot of sustainability books, and this one provides the most practical steps for corporate improvement. According to Goodreads, "Through repeatable, reliable processes that address operating model design and new key performance indicators to scaling, this book is a practical guide that leaders can rely on to make their existing systems more sustainable and profitable.
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🌙 NASA - Best Photo from Last Week
Ice Stars
Like distant galaxies amid clouds of interstellar dust, chunks of sea ice drift through graceful swirls of grease ice in the frigid waters of Foxe Basin near Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. Sea ice often begins as grease ice, a soupy slick of tiny ice crystals on the ocean's surface. As the temperature drops, grease ice thickens and coalesces into slabs of more solid ice.
This image was acquired 20 years ago today by the Landsat 7 satellite. To learn more about the NASA/USGS Landsat Program, visit https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov.
Image Credit: USGS/NASA/Landsat 7
Last Updated: Aug 4, 2022
Editor: Gary Daines
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