🙅 The trouble with noncompetes

What do you look for in a robot friend? The ability to help you with everyday tasks? To answer questions about the world? Great, but what about a robot that can replicate very specific bodily functions?

Thermetrics built a heat-sensitive “thermal manikin” named ANDI that can walk, breathe, shiver, and sweat.

ANDI’s joints allow it to walk, while its “skin” has 35 independently controlled surface areas that, much like a human’s, contain pores that bead sweat.

Why the heck would anyone want this?

Researchers can use ANDI to study the impact of extreme temperatures on humans without actually subjecting humans to those environments.

At Arizona State University, scientists are using ANDI to measure the effects of extreme heat.

“We can take it to an old mobile home where AC went off and see how long it would take for ANDI to get sick,” Konrad Rykaczewski, principal investigator for Arizona State University’s related research, explained.

But make it fashion

More importantly, they can study how well new inventions, such as particular apparel fabrics, mitigate the negative effects of extreme heat — something that’s apt to be more in demand due to climate change.

Scientists are already experimenting with things like metafabric, a mirror-esque synthetic fabric that reflects light and heat and, in tests on a human, was found to cool the wearer by 5 degrees Celsius.

Also cool: ANDI can be modified to account for different ages, body types, or medical conditions. They even offer a baby manikin that, while likely useful to researchers, will absolutely haunt your nightmares tonight.

Us Americans, we might not always seem united, but there sure are things that unite us.

Among them: noncompetes, nonsolicitations, and other workplace agreements that limit when and where you can work if you leave a company.

For employees, these agreements put the “fun” in “fundamentally annoying to deal with,” because they can help bosses maintain control over not just your current job, but also your next.

Designed to hedge against high-level execs in possession of trade secrets, today these contracts are found across all levels and positions, and, in many instances, are illogical and unnecessary.

Why are they in the news?

In January, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a law banning nearly all noncompetes, arguing they undermine competition by restricting job mobility, technological development, market efficiency, and wage growth.

• The US Chamber of Commerce — which is not a government agency — clapped back with an oxymoron, saying noncompetes actually foster competition by “protecting investments in research and development, promoting workforce training, and reducing free-riding.”

In May, Minnesota became the fourth state to ban post-employment noncompetes, and the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel came out saying overbroad noncompetes violate the National Labor Relations Act.

The bottom line? According to the FTC, a ban would potentially open up career mobility for ~30m Americans — and increase wages by up to $296B annually.