Solar Flair: Wearable tech that tracks your sun exposure

These articles were first published in 2014 in The Financialist
 
We've already got wristbands that measure how many calories you’ve burned, how many steps you’ve taken and how many hours you’ve slept. Now there’s a wearable device to tell you how much sun exposure you’ve had – and when it may be time to duck into the shade.

Paris-based tech company Netatmo recently unveiled “June,” a device that claims to track both UV intensity as well as the level of cancer-causing rays a wearer is absorbing in real time, information it relays to an iPhone app. (The wristband is not yet compatible with other smartphones.)

June promises to send users notifications about when it’s time to apply more sunblock and even calculates the recommended maximum daily sun exposure based on the user’s skin type.

​Aimed at women, June resembles a large diamond and can be attached to a slim leather band or worn as a brooch. And although it may look like a pretty piece of jewelry, at $99, it doesn’t cost as much as one.


The “Financialization of Gold”

Every once in a while you run across a data point that stops you in your tracks. A recent Credit Suisse report “Commodities Advantage: Rumbling Along” highlights a gap in 2013 of 290 metric tons between reported mainland demand for gold from normal industrial and commercial applications and the actual imports.

Credit Suisse analysts say at least some of the missing gold has been absorbed by its increasing “financialization” and its use as a “mechanism for onshore/offshore transfer of capital and as straightforward loan collateral.” In plainer language, it means rather large amounts of gold are being used in ways that might otherwise provide plot lines for Hollywood thrillers in an effort to evade government rules.

How much space does that much gold take up? Less than you might think. Only about half of an industrial-sized 30-cubic yard dumpster. Still, even a fraction of that would fill a lot of briefcases.