New Discoveries – Page 40

Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Education, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

Why salespeople make bad fundraisers

January 3, 2012

Who is and is not the best one to head up the fundraising?

Company founders are the quintessential cheerleaders, promoting their vision and company every chance they get. But that doesn’t mean that they are necessarily the best at two core functions: selling and fundraising (and many are bad at both but excel at other functions, like technology).

While generating revenue and raising capital require a lot of the same traits, in my experience those who are good at one tend to be poor at the other…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, New Discoveries, New Inventions

Why did this Kickstarter Project raise $400,000?

December 30, 2011

Twine could change your world.

We stumbled on a neat little Kickstarter project this afternoon, and it appears to be a bigger deal than meets the eye.
It’s called Twine, a tiny rectangular gadget that looks like a translucent bar of soap. And it’s become a big deal on Kickstarter.
Twine has built in sensors for detecting movement, temperature, moisture, switches, and inputs from pretty much any other gizmo you can think of.
Oh yeah, it can tweet too…

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Analysis, Crazy Stuff, Culture, Economy, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries

We’ve bought $41 billion in unused gift cards since 2005

December 29, 2011

Are you giving the gift that won’t get used?

Gift cards are the laziest, lousiest, most convenient, popular and widely given present. And this is your yearly reminder of just how much they stink. Since 2005, we’vetossed out more value in gift cards than the entire GNP of Ghana…

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Business, Culture, Economy, Globalism, Historical Perspectives, Internet, Latest News, Latest Trend, New Discoveries

Elance predicts market for online contingent work to double again in 2012

December 29, 2011

Will your future job will be doing online contingent work?

Wondering where all the future jobs are going to be? Online of course! But maybe not exactly in the format you were expecting.

Despite a stagnant employment market in 2011, online hiring has grown at a record pace, up more than 100% from 2010. Elance, the leading platform for online work, released its 2011 Online Employment Review today, which reveals that the future of work will be contingent, global and online. As more companies seek instant access to talent and greater flexibility to run their businesses, individuals are taking control of their future by building careers as independent professionals…

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Analysis, Big Problems, Crazy Stuff, Education, Food, Globalism, government, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Hot Issues, New Discoveries

Is that Flame Retardant in your Soft Drink?

December 29, 2011

Brominated vegetable oil is patented as a flame retardant and it’s banned in food all over Europe and Japan, but it’s on the ingredient list of about 10 percent of sodas in the U.S. It’s not in Coca-Cola, but is in Mountain Dew, Fanta Orange, and in some flavors of Powerade and Gatorade.

What brominated vegetable oil (BVO) does to soda is, Coca-Cola explains, “prevent the citrus flavoring oils from floating to the surface in beverages.” The fruit flavors that are mixed into a drink would otherwise settle out. What BVO does when it’s acting as a flame retardant is not much different: It slows down the chemical reactions that cause a fire…

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Nanotechnology, New Discoveries, Science & Technology News

Amazing magnetic bug could pave way to novel biotech and nanotech uses

December 28, 2011

An international team of scientists have discovered and mined out a new type of magnetic bacteria.

Scientists have dentified, isolated and successfully grown a new kind of magnetic bug that could open the way to biotech and nanotech uses, reveals a study.

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Analysis, Breakthrough Thinking, Education, Health & Fitness, Historical Perspectives, Medical Breakthrough, New Discoveries

How bacteria build homes inside healthy cells

December 27, 2011

Purdue associate professor of biological sciences Zhao-Qing Luo, at right, and graduate student Yunhao Tan look at the growth of Legionella pneumophila bacteria in a petri dish.

Bacteria are able to build camouflaged homes for themselves inside healthy cells — and cause disease — by manipulating a natural cellular process.

Purdue University biologists led a team that revealed how a pair of proteins from the bacteria Legionella pneumophila, which causes Legionnaires disease, alters a host protein in order to divert raw materials within the cell for use in building and disguising a large structure that houses the bacteria as it replicates…

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Analysis, Crazy Stuff, Culture, Education, government, Historical Perspectives, Human Behavior, New Discoveries

Secrets of the Hexagon Spy Satellite

December 26, 2011

Top Secret for years after the project was completed.

In the 1970s, during the heights of the Cold War, more than 1,000 engineers worked on a project so secret that they couldn’t tell their wives and children decades after it was over.

In September 2011, the project – a series of spy satellites so advanced that it could see objects about 2 feet wide from space (mind you, this was in the 1970s before the ubiquity of computers so the satellites were built with slide rules), was declassified and with it, the stories of the men who kept their secret for 45 years…

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Analysis, Big Problems, Breakthrough Thinking, Globalism, Green Friendly, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

Computerized air-traffic control could save CO2 equivalent of Denmark’s economy

December 26, 2011

Bringing Air-Traffic Control in the 21st Century could really save CO2.

If you are going somewhere in a vehicle that burns a lot of fossil fuels, it’s never a good idea to take unnecessary detours. Sadly, most airplanes can’t take the most elegant and efficient route to their destinations because of the limitations of the air-traffic control system that guides them. It’s not the fault of the traffic controllers – they do a good job – but rather of the technology with which they have to work; the foundations of the system are 50-60 years old and produce flight paths that are far from optimal when it comes to saving fuel (and thus reducing CO2 emissions), saving money, and saving time for passengers. So what can we do about it?

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Breakthrough Thinking, Entertainment, Historical Perspectives, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

Exploding holiday tree ornaments

December 25, 2011

BANG! Color.

If you’ve had about enough holiday cheer for one year, you can take comfort in the fact that you’re not alone. Photographer Alan Sailer likes to shoot Christmas ornaments with a high-powered pellet gun and photograph them with a high-speed camera as they explode into a million shiny pieces. Bah-humbug, indeed!

(more explosions after the jump…)

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Analysis, Big Problems, Globalism, Health & Fitness, New Discoveries

Mysterious nodding syndrome spreading through Uganda

December 25, 2011

Onchocerca volvulus

Large areas of northern Uganda are experiencing an outbreak of nodding syndrome, a mysterious disease that causes young children and adolescents to nod violently when they eat food. The disease, which may be an unusual form of epilepsy, could be linked to the parasitic worm responsible for river blindness, a condition that affects some 18 million people, most of them in Africa.

The current outbreaks are concentrated in the districts of Kitgum, Pader and Gulu. In Pader alone, 66 children and teenagers have died. More than 1000 cases were diagnosed between August and mid-December…

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Analysis, New Discoveries, New Viewpoints

Monday night sky show

December 25, 2011

Look up on Monday!

If the day after Christmas strikes you as a letdown, make a note to yourself now to get outside on Monday evening. NASA tells us there’s going to be a conjunction of heavenly bodies.

The action begins shortly before sunset. Around 4:30 pm to 5:00 pm local time, just as the sky is assuming its evening hue, Venus will pop into view, glistening bright in the deepening twilight. No more than 6 degrees to the right lies the crescent Moon, exquisitely slender, grinning like the Cheshire cat with his head cocked at humorous attention. This is a wonderful time to look; there are very few sights in the heavens as splendid as Venus and the Moon gathered close and surrounded by twilight blue…

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