Entrepreneurship

Cat caught smuggling banned cell phones into Russian prison

"The Russian prison service said Monday it had caught a cat being used as a courier to smuggle banned cell phones and chargers into a prison camp in the country’s remote far north. The prison service in the Komi region said on its website that the cat was detained Friday evening as it climbed the fence of the region’s Number One corrective labour camp with two cell phones, batteries and chargers strapped to its back using tape. It posted a photograph of the black-and-white cat held up by the scruff of its neck by a guard with the bulky package still stuck to its fur." Continue reading →

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With Cigarettes Banned In Most Prisons, Gangs Shift From Drugs To Smokes

"With tobacco products now banned by the federal Bureau of Prisons and the majority of state prison systems, the price of a single Marlboro inside now reaches twenty dollars. A policy intended to produce health benefits and reduce fire risk has created a cash cow for prison gangs like the Mexican Mafia and Aryan Brotherhood, and the guards willing to work with them. Everyone involved in bringing the tobacco in gets paid by PayPal or Western Union. 'This one Sureño dude had shit on smash here. He literally made over $100,000 in a couple of years getting tobacco in like this. The homie came up. He was about his business,' the prisoner says." Continue reading →

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SpaceX rocket blasts off only to return to its launch pad — without exploding

"The first-of-its-kind reusable rocket made its highest leap to date last month before gently returning to Earth. Video recently released by the private space company showed the 10-story tall vertical takeoff and landing (VTVL) vehicle blast off to more than 1,000 feet and then slowly descend back to its launching pad in McGregor, Texas. For the first time, the rocket 'made use of its full navigation sensor suite with the F9-R closed loop control flight algorithms to accomplish a precision landing' on its June 14 launch, according to SpaceX. SpaceX founder Elon Musk has explained he hopes to revolutionize space travel with the reusable rocket." Continue reading →

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Manhattan Law Firm Accepts Bitcoin

"On July 1, Nesenoff & Miltenberg LLP ('N&M') made the decision to give its clients the option to pay legal fees in Bitcoin. The full-service commercial law firm is among a few that offer legal services for businesses in the Bitcoin space. Led by attorney Marco A. Santori, who also serves as Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation’s Regulatory Affairs Committee, Nesenoff & Miltenberg LLP is uniquely positioned to offer exclusive insight into the complex and evolving legal and regulatory issues surrounding Bitcoin commerce." Continue reading →

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300 Year Old Russian Watch Factory Raketa Accepts Bitcoins

"Just this week, Russia’s historical watch factory Raketa, began accepting Bitcoins. Raketa was founded in 1721 by Peter the Great and is the oldest factory in Russia. For almost 300 years, Raketa, formerly known as Petrodvorets Watch Factory, has produced and sold wristwatches to individuals in Russian and those around the world. Petrodvorets Watch Factory was renamed Raketa in 1961 to honor the World’s first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. Yuri was the first human to travel to outer space." Continue reading →

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Portrait of a Bitcoin miner: How one man made $192K in virtual currency

"Eric has been mining Bitcoins since 2010, and at one point quit a high-paying job as a software engineer to devote all of his time to, figuratively speaking, extract gold from silicon. His move was bold and risky, but yielded an awesome reward: To date, Eric has accumulated 2500 bitcoins, which is worth a cool $191,900 as of this writing. (At Bitcoin’s highest exchange rate, that amount was $665,000.) He doesn't trade them and has no immediate plans to cash out. Instead, he's hanging on to them, and waiting to see how their value changes." Continue reading →

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Hacking Law and Governance with Startup Cities

"Startup Cities compete to provide new and better functions—in this case, to provide citizens with services they want and need. One new zone hosting a Startup City might pioneer different environmental law or tax policy. Another may offer a custom-tailored regulatory environment for finance or universities. Still another may try a new model for funding social services. Startup Cities are a powerful alternative to risky, difficult, and politically improbable national reform. If bad social techs lead a zone to fail, we don’t gamble the entire nation’s livelihood. People can easily exit a Startup City—effectively putting the project 'out of business.'" Continue reading →

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3D Printer for $1,000

"A British firm is selling a 3D printer for home use for about $1,000. It’s for people who are technologically savvy, and who want to be on the cutting edge. Watch it build a gadget. This is the equivalent of the Altair 8800 microcomputer in 1975. Soon, there will be an Apple I, then a TRS-80. Then a PC. Then there will be the equivalent of Visicalc, a 'killer app' for business. That is when this technology will get into the general population. This will change the world. It will take a decade or two, but we can see what’s coming. When a home brew version starts out at $1,000, the cost will fall, and capabilities will increase." Continue reading →

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OKC hospital posting surgery prices online, creating bidding war

"An Oklahoma City surgery center is offering a new kind of price transparency, posting guaranteed all-inclusive surgery prices online. The move is revolutionizing medical billing in Oklahoma and around the world. Dr. Keith Smith and Dr. Steven Lantier launched Surgery Center of Oklahoma 15 years ago, founded on the simple principle of price honesty. 'What we’ve discovered is health care really doesn’t cost that much,' Dr. Smith said. 'What people are being charged for is another matter altogether.' Surgery Center of Oklahoma started posting their prices online about four years ago. The prices are all-inclusive quotes and they are guaranteed." Continue reading →

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