We’ve noticed a number of retailers experimenting with virtual display formats over the last 18 months. These types of stores allow for almost any environment to be easily transformed into retail space, with very low startup costs and space requirements. By utilizing simple technology, transitional urban spaces such as subway and train platforms can be repurposed for entirely new uses.

via Example: Shop For Groceries On Train Platforms From Virtual Grocery Displays – PSFK

Minneapolis-based startup Miinome is already building a platform that will help consumers control what offers they get from retailers based on their genetic makeup, and to possibly cash in on the value of their DNA by selling the data back to marketers and researchers.

via Selling Your Most Personal Item: Your DNA | Wired.

The Purple Line Project created a fake train station to demonstrate what Miami could be like with a better transportation system.

via Students Set Up Fake Train Station To Protest For Better Public Transit – PSFK.

London tube posters have always been notable for using a commercial platform to display unique and interesting works of art. These are not mere advertisements and PSAs, they are a history of graphic design and artistic style.

via London Underground Anniversary Celebrated With 150 Vintage Posters – PSFK.

“Patenting Prosperity: Invention and Economic Performance in the United States and its Metropolitan Areas” is the first analysis of its kind to present patenting trends on a regional level from 1980 to 2012. The report ranks all of the nation’s roughly 360 metropolitan areas on patenting levels and growth, while noting the firms and organizations responsible. It also analyzes how patenting has affected productivity levels in each region, comparing patents—which embody novel inventions—to other sources of economic dynamism, such as educational attainment.

Top 10 Metropolitan Areas that Patent the Most:

#1: San Jose, CA

#2: San Francisco, CA

#3: New York, NY

#4: Los Angeles, CA

#5 Seattle, WA

#6: Boston, MA

#7: Chicago, IL

#8: San Diego, CA

#9: Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN

#10: Detroit, MI

via Patenting Prosperity: Invention and Economic Performance in the United States and its Metropolitan Areas | Brookings Institution.