Yearly Archives: 2013

More than 1,000 escape in Libya prison break organized by area residents

"More than 1,000 inmates, mostly common law offenders, escaped during a prison riot and attack on Saturday in the restive Libyan city of Benghazi, a security official told AFP. 'There was a riot inside Al-Kuifiya prison, as well as an attack from outside. More then 1,000 prisoners escaped. Special forces called in as reinforcements were given orders not to fire at the prisoners,' he said, asking not to be named. Prime Minister Ali Zeidan confirmed the incident, without giving the number of fugitives. 'Residents of the area carried out the attack because they don’t want the prison near their homes,' he said." Continue reading →

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Australian firm launches ‘anti-shark’ wetsuits

"An Australian research firm Thursday launched what is being touted as the world’s first anti-shark wetsuit, using new discoveries about the predators’ eyesight to stave off or evade an attack. The blue-and-white 'Elude' range, designed for divers and snorkellers, uses research about sharks’ perceptions of light and their colour blindness to essentially 'hide you in the water column', Anderson said. The 'Diverter' — mainly for surfers — is based on what sharks perceive as danger signs in nature, with a bold black and white banding patten to imitate an 'unpalatable food item', according to UWA researcher Shaun Collin." Continue reading →

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French farmer’s industrial snail-slime harvesting process to feed cosmetic industry

"The French have long appreciated snails on a plate with butter and garlic. But one rural snail farmer believes the humble molluscs have more to offer alive than dead. Louis-Marie Guedon says the mucus secreted by snails are full of collagen, glycolic acid, antibiotics and other compounds that regenerate skin cells and heal cuts. He is busy turning the innovation into France’s first industrial-scale snail mucus extraction operation with a target to harvest 15 tonnes of it next year. He has secured three supply contracts with local cosmetics labs and a Paris company that mixes cosmetics for some of the biggest names in consumer beauty products." Continue reading →

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Pippa Malmgren on Success

"I've been very lucky; a lot of interesting things came my way. I used to be like the old Soviet Union with a rigid Five Year Plan. That worked very well but I also learned to make room for surprises outside the original plan; it's a matter of finding a balance between the two. If you love what you do, you'll be better at it than anybody and the money will follow." Continue reading →

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How to Self-Publish a Bestseller: Publishing 3.0

"My most recent book, 'Choose Yourself!' sold 53,000 copies since its release on June 3, hit the Wall Street Journal Bestseller list, was No. 1 on Amazon for all non-fiction books for a few days and is still flirting with No. 1 in its various categories. This post is about what I did differently, why I did it differently, and how I think anyone can do this to self-publish a bestseller. I describe all the numbers, who I hired and why, and how I made the various choices I did." Continue reading →

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How Hackers Use Bots to Score Prime Restaurant Reservations

"Forget about hacking an app or database: for a small cadre of hackers in San Francisco, it’s all about writing code that can score them a great table at a hot restaurant. According to the BBC, these developers and programmers have designed bots that scan restaurant Websites for open tables and reserve them. Diogo Mónica, a security engineer with e-commerce firm Square, is one of those programmers. A self-described foodie, he decided to get around his inability to score a table at the ultra-popular State Bird Provisions by writing a script that sent out an email every time the restaurant’s reservation page changed." Continue reading →

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Inside TimeSpace, the New York Times’ new startup accelerator

"The program is the first experiment of its kind by the owner of the country’s second largest newspaper. It’s goal is to infuse the 162-year-old Times Company, battered, bruised and barely profitable thanks to digital disruption, with some of that sweet innovation nectar startups are known for. In exchange, the startups get access to decision makers, lawyers, and editorial staff at the New York Times, with a little prestige and credibility to boot. The unspoken hope is that the entrepreneurial spirit will rub off on the slow-moving Times Company like osmosis." Continue reading →

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Girl Scouts auction off plantation amid financial troubles

"The camp in South Carolina is one of dozens of Girl Scout camps in 28 states that have closed, been sold or are for sale as chapters across the United States face financial struggles. The realignment that took full effect in 2009 consolidated local councils. It reduced their number by two-thirds, eliminated staff jobs and set new Girl Scout priorities for building leadership skills. Girls Scouts has about 2.3 million youth and about 800,000 adult members nationwide. The organization is struggling with plummeting membership, a dearth of adult volunteers, declining cookie sales and a pension fund that is hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt." Continue reading →

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Transforming the Future of the Automotive Industry

"More often than not, innovation is born from destruction. That’s why it’s all too fitting that Tesla’s facility in California was once the site of a now-defunct joint venture between two traditional automotive powerhouses. General Motors and Toyota. In Early 2010, Tesla purchased the 5 million-square-foot facility for $42 million. Tesla took advantage of the soft economy, buying one of the biggest auto factories in the country for just pennies on the dollar (the factory is valued at approximately $1 billion). And that’s not the end of it. After the purchase of the factory itself, Tesla scooped up the usable NUMMI assembly equipment at fire-sale prices." Continue reading →

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Spain museum uses robot to spot cracks in artwork

"In the basement of Madrid’s Reina Sofia museum, a giant robotic machine painstakingly scans a painting by Catalan surrealist artist Joan Miro, slowly snapping hundreds of microscopic shots. The pictures taken by the machine, which uses infrared and ultraviolet photography, will help experts determine the condition of the 1974 oil on canvas painting in unprecedented detail. The device lets restorers see cracks, scratches and creases as well underlying preparatory sketches and all subsequent touch-ups that would be otherwise undetectable. The robot can work unsupervised round-the-clock and can be controlled by a computer from a remote location." Continue reading →

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