Alternative News

Petition to name San Francisco’s Bay Bridge after Emperor Norton gains support

"Norton, a successful businessman, immigrated to San Francisco from South Africa during the 19th century. After losing his fortune, Norton took the unusual step of proclaiming himself Emperor of the United States in 1859. He later added 'Protector of Mexico' to his official title. Norton is still remembered today because the people of San Francisco embraced him. Newspapers printed his proclamations free of charge and businesses accepted his imperial currency. He strolled through the streets clad in a blue army uniform and a beaver hat, inspecting his royal domain and speaking with his loyal subjects." Continue reading →

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Bono: “Capitalism takes more people out of poverty than aid”

"Bono (nee Paul David Hewson) is the lead singer in the rock group U2, one of the most successful rock groups in history. Bono also became a major proponent of greatly expanded U.S. foreign aid and other government programs (including debt cancellation) to alleviate the dire plight in the world of HIV/AIDS, malaria, abject poverty, and other issues. In a speech at Georgetown University, Bono altered his economic and political views and declared that only capitalism can end poverty. 'Aid is just a stopgap,' he said. 'Commerce [and] entrepreneurial capitalism take more people out of poverty than aid. We need Africa to become an economic powerhouse.'" Continue reading →

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How Gamers Could Save the (Real) World

"Three years ago, game designer and author Jane McGonigal argued that saving the human race is going to require a major time investment—in playing video games. 'If we want to solve problems like hunger, poverty, climate change, global conflict, obesity, I believe that we need to aspire to play games online for at least 21 billion hours a week [up from 3 billion today], by the end of the next decade,' she said in a TED talk. Her message was not ignored—and it has indirectly contributed to the formation of something called the Internet Response League (IRL). The small group has a big goal: to harness gamers’ time and use it to save lives after disasters, natural or otherwise." Continue reading →

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Startups destroy more jobs than they create – unless they’re tech companies

"While private sector business creation fell 9 percent between 1980 and 2011, the birth rate of new tech businesses was 69 percent higher in 2011 than it was in 1980, according to the report. Over the same period of time, the job-creation rate of those young tech firms – aged between 1 and 5 years old – was twice as robust as the average rate for firms in the rest of the private sector. That’s partly due to what the report cites as the 'up-or-out' dynamic: tech startups tend to either fail quickly or grow rapidly." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingStartups destroy more jobs than they create – unless they’re tech companies

Detroit’s Amazing Pop-Up Anarchy

"Detroit pop-ups are not your conventional, temporary businesses such as those unsightly suburban fireworks stores, or the usual Christmas or Halloween retailers. Instead, the city has attracted art galleries, food and beverage cafes, coffee shops, clothing boutiques, tea houses, vegan restaurants, yoga workshops, antique stores, bike stores, and mercantile-type retailers. Pop-ups are a temporary arrangement, often with a defined start and end time for business operations. Detroit is the perfect place for these temporary pop-up businesses." Continue reading →

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Virgin Galactic “gearing up” for second powered SpaceShipTwo flight

"After a hiatus of more than three and a half months that has raised questions by some industry observers, Virgin Galactic is making preparations for a second powered test flight of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle, the company’s CEO said Friday. He said the company had now signed up about 625 people for suborbital flights, accounting for $125 million in business. That works out to $200,000 per customer, but Whitesides did note that Virgin Galactic had raised its ticket price to $250,000. Those customers come from 54 countries, and range from 'teenagers to 88 years old,' he said. 'We think we can make a really good business out of that.'" Continue reading →

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Grasshopper reusable rocket demonstrates its lateral moves

"While everyone chats about Elon Musk’s 'hyperloop' concept, one of his companies, SpaceX, has been showing off some actual hardware. On Tuesday, SpaceX flew Grasshopper to an altitude of 250 meters, this time including a 100 meter lateral maneuver in the process, before returning the reusable launch vehicle demonstrator back to the center of the pad. 'The test demonstrated the vehicle’s ability to perform more aggressive steering maneuvers than have been attempted in previous flights,' the company said in an emailed statement. 'Grasshopper is taller than a ten story building, which makes the control problem particularly challenging.'" Continue reading →

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Two Weeks Left to Apply for Mars Crew

"The prospect of joining the first team to colonize Mars has proven to be so wildly alluring that more than 100,000 people have applied for a spot – despite the fact they’ll only get a one-way ticket. The Dutch company Mars One plans to launch to the Red Planet in 2022. It’s taking applications through August 31 and will winnow those down to a group of 40, from which the final four will be selected. Applicants must pay $38, submit a resume, a letter outlining their motivation for applying and a video. It’s not clear what, if any, amenities the crew members will get, but PayPal should have its payment system for outer space up and running by then." Continue reading →

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The Long Tail, Revisited

"In 1988, a British mountain climber named Joe Simpson wrote a book called Touching the Void, a harrowing account of near death in the Peruvian Andes. It got good reviews but, only a modest success, it was soon forgotten. Then, a decade later, Touching the Void started to sell again. Random House rushed out a new edition to keep up with demand. Booksellers began to promote it next to their Into Thin Air displays. A revised paperback edition, which came out in January [2004], spent 14 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. IFC Films released a docudrama of the story to critical acclaim. What happened? In short, Amazon.com recommendations." Continue reading →

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Chris Anderson: New Revolution “Bigger Than The Web”

"Chris Anderson is CEO of 3DRobotics and author of 'Makers: The New Industrial Revolution.' He was also a keynote speaker at our 2013 Investment Symposium in Vancouver last month. For the last several years, Anderson has played the dual role of entrepreneur and evangelist for the burgeoning 'maker’s movement.' You can watch him discuss his theories about the new industrial revolution afoot in the movement with Tom Standage of The Economist. Anderson noted the maker movement might have profound implications for human innovation—it might even be 'bigger than the web.'" Continue reading →

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