Yearly Archives: 2013

A Solar-Powered Plane Travels Light

"In 2003, Piccard approached European companies to sponsor what has become a $148 million project and began assembling a team of 80 engineers and technicians plucked largely from Swiss universities. After seven years of tinkering, they arrived at a machine with a deceptively simple design: Solar Impulse—with its sleek, clean lines, white-gloss finish and rakishly angled 208-foot wings (bent to increase the plane's stability)—resembles what you might get had Steve Jobs reimagined a child's balsa-wood glider in giant form." Continue reading →

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Starting an online store in Greece is no easy business

"It took 10 months, a fat bundle of paperwork, countless certificates, long hours of haggling with bureaucrats and overcoming myriad other inconceivable obstacles for one group of young entrepreneurs to open an online store. Antonopoulos and his partners spent hours collecting papers from tax offices, the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the municipal service where the company is based, the health inspector’s office, the fire department and banks. At the health department, they were told that all the shareholders of the company would have to provide chest X-rays, and, in the most surreal demand of all, stool samples." Continue reading →

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Next to Use 3-D Printing: Your Surgeon

"Surgeons are finding industrial 3-D printers to be a lifesaver on the operating table. This technology, also known as additive manufacturing, has long produced prototypes of jewelry, electronics and car parts. But now these industrial printers are able to construct personalized copies of livers and kidneys, one ultrathin layer at a time. The medical field in particular is expected to benefit greatly from 3-D printing. Scientists are working on ways to print embryonic stem cells and living human tissue with the aim to produce body parts that can be directly attached to or implanted in the body." Continue reading →

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Patent Claims Causing Firms to Exit Business Lines: Study

"Patent demands are taking a big toll on technology companies, with results that range from forcing companies to tweak their products to exiting their business altogether, according to a Santa Clara University study. The study underscores the increasing difficulty of dealing with patent claims. Patents have become a major part of business strategy, with companies like Apple and Samsung battling each other in courts around the world in cases that could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. The SCU report focuses on patent demands from companies that do not themselves make anything. Many detractors call them 'patent trolls.'" Continue reading →

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The Food-Truck Business Stinks

"In the ’80s, the city capped the number of carts and trucks at 3,000. Technically, a permit for a food cart or truck is not transferable, but vendors regularly pay permit holders something like $15,000 to $20,000 to lease their certificates for two years. I was reminded of corrupt countries that I’ve visited, like Iraq and Haiti, where illogical and arbitrarily enforced rules create the wrong set of incentives. Perhaps the biggest winner in our current system is an obscure type of business known as an authorized commissary. By city law, every food cart and truck must visit a licensed commissary each day, where a set of mandated cleaning services can be performed." Continue reading →

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The Startup Yahoo Won’t Be Buying

"Stamped, On The Air, SnipIt, Jybe, Alike and Summly: Yahoo's six acquisitions in recent months under Marissa Mayer's new leadership. The French video-sharing platform Dailymotion was to have been the seventh. Over 20 million videos, 112 million monthly unique visitors, a valuation around $300 million: a crown jewel for Mayer's content strategy and an inspiring success story for French tech entrepreneurs. But it won't be. Yahoo backed out of its deal to buy 75% of the company from main owner Orange/France Telecom after French Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg intervened to stop the sale." Continue reading →

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CFTC’s Chilton Talks Bitcoin Regulation

"Bart Chilton, Commodities Futures Trading Commission commissioner, tells CNBC, 'I’m not 100% saying we should regulate it, but if anyone is going to, it seems like it’s something we should consider.' The volatility in prices, he noted, 'is amazing.' The CNBC anchors grilled him pretty aggressively but I don't think he was showing all his cards during the interview. It looks to me like the CFTC is looking at bitcoins very closely. It was instructive that Chilton was able to provide the penname of the founder of bitcoins, Satoshi Nakamoto, off the top of his head." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin: The Tyranny Test

"Bitcoin is a test for 'the powers that be.' The way they deal with this new method of exchange will reveal their true nature. If they ignore Bitcoin, they refute the charges of tyranny. If they attack it, they verify those charges. After all, what honest reason could there be to attack an inherently peaceful tool for transferring value? Reasons to attack Bitcoin have recently appeared in the 'public square.' Here are the three most popular ones, each followed with some analysis." Continue reading →

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Medical breakthrough: Antibiotics could cure 40% of back pain patients

"Up to 40% of patients with chronic back pain could be cured with a course of antibiotics rather than surgery, in a medical breakthrough that one spinal surgeon says is worthy of a Nobel prize. The shock finding means that scores of patients with unrelenting lower back pain will no longer face major operations but can instead be cured with courses of antibiotics costing around £114. Scientists at the University of Southern Denmark found that 20% to 40% of chronic lower back pain was caused by bacterial infections. The NHS spends £480m on spinal surgery each year, the majority of which is for back pain." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMedical breakthrough: Antibiotics could cure 40% of back pain patients

105-year-old woman says eating bacon every day is her key to long life

"A 105-year-old woman from Richland, Texas says that the key to long life is bacon. Pearl Cantrell’s love of bacon is so strong that the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile made a stop through town last week to wish her a happy birthday, all because she told a local news station her amazing secret. 'I love bacon, I eat it everyday,' she told a reporter for Abilene-based Big Country Homepage in April. 'I don’t feel as old as I am, that’s all I can say.'" Continue reading →

Continue Reading105-year-old woman says eating bacon every day is her key to long life