Mainstream News

Famous ‘Fantasy Island’ plane used to smuggle drugs into Oklahoma

"It was the centerpiece of the classic ’70s and early ’80s TV classic 'Fantasy Island.' But when the show was canceled, the plane went from 'famous' to 'notorious.' The production company unloaded the sea plane. It would later be used to smuggle drugs from Columbia into the United States. Years ago, OBN agents intercepted the aerial icon during a cocaine drop in S.E. Oklahoma. After years of secrecy, OBN revealed the unique drug bust on their Facebook page Monday morning." Continue reading →

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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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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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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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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 →

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Lawyers say case against Kim Dotcom threatens Internet freedom

"Lawyers for Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom accused the US government Wednesday of launching a flawed prosecution against their client with 'frightening' implications for all Internet users. The New Zealand-based Internet tycoon’s legal team released a 'white paper' to coincide with a visit to Auckland by US Attorney General Eric Holder, which argues that online piracy allegations against Dotcom are baseless. The 38-page document says that while copyright issues are normally treated as a civil matter, US prosecutors are trying to use anti-racketeering criminal statutes normally used against gangsters to press their case." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox hit by $75 million lawsuit

"A lawsuit against Bitcoin’s main trading exchange Mt. Gox was filed this week regarding rights to the North American market. And no, the plaintiff is not seeking damages in Bitcoins. CoinLab, backed by venture capitalist Peter Vessenes, said it entered into an agreement with Mt. Gox in November that gave CoinLab access to Mt. Gox’s technology – its computer servers and the 'exclusive right to certain intellectual property' – so that CoinLab could provide exchange services to North American customers as Mt. Gox’s exclusive partner in the region. Mt. Gox is based in Japan. The suit alleges that Mt. Gox beached its contract with CoinLab." Continue reading →

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A Push for a Bitcoin Buttonwood

"Amid the incense, cheap art and herbal remedies for sale in Union Square in Manhattan on Monday, a very different kind of product was changing hands: bitcoins. Just feet from the park’s statue of George Washington, a crowd of young men gathered on Monday afternoon to buy and sell the digital, crypto-currency. The men – and there were only men – were brought together by an online posting from Josh Rossi, 31, a bitcoin aficionado who works in technology at the World Trade Financial Group. He had proposed what he called Project Buttonwood, a reference to the where the New York Stock Exchange had its beginning in 1792." Continue reading →

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