Powered by nothing more than puffs of air, robots molded from paper and silicone rubber can bend, twist, grip and even lift more than 100 times their weight. The pneumatic prototypes aren’t as advanced as their metallic brothers, and the “soft” robots contain no electronics yet. But their creators, funded by Darpa, imagine applications where a soft-bot might be the best tool. “If you want to go through a winding tube or rubble or some other tough environment that’s difficult to reach, you need to be flexible,” said chemist Xin Chen of Boston University,…
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Most Topular Stories
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Origami Robots Run Only on Air
Wired: Wired Science9 Feb 2012 | 11:38 am -
In Struggling Tupper Lake, Resort Project Creates Rift
NYT > Science9 Feb 2012 | 1:47 pmA project in Tupper Lake, N.Y., was approved after a nearly decade-long tug of war between environmentalists and pro-development residents. -
Nanomaterials’ Effects on Health and Environment Unclear, Panel Says
NYT > Nanotechnology25 Jan 2012 | 9:00 pmA National Academy of Sciences committee called for further study of the minuscule substances, which are found in products from makeup to paint and drive a $225 billion market. -
'Scores killed' in shelling of Syria's Homs
AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)9 Feb 2012 | 2:45 pm"Makeshift hospitals overflowing with dead and wounded" as the military bombards opposition areas for a sixth day. -
Euro firms on reports of Greek deal
Financial Times - US homepage9 Feb 2012 | 3:34 pmLack of details puts no damper on upbeat market mood over austerity measures which may pave the way for the country to receive a second bail-out
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Wired: Wired Science
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Origami Robots Run Only on Air
9 Feb 2012 | 11:38 amPowered by nothing more than puffs of air, robots molded from paper and silicone rubber can bend, twist, grip and even lift more than 100 times their weight. The pneumatic prototypes aren’t as advanced as their metallic brothers, and the “soft” robots contain no electronics yet. But their creators, funded by Darpa, imagine applications where a soft-bot might be the best tool. “If you want to go through a winding tube or rubble or some other tough environment that’s difficult to reach, you need to be flexible,” said chemist Xin Chen of Boston University,… -
Black Hole Eats Asteroids, Burps Out X-Rays
8 Feb 2012 | 2:31 pmThe supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy may be constantly snacking on asteroids. A new study finds that asteroids at least 12 miles wide falling into the black hole would account for the regular bright x-ray flares seen through telescopes. Though nothing, including light, can escape a black hole, most are ringed by a disk of gas and dust. As it falls in, this material heats up to incredible temperatures, generating energy. For several years, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has spotted daily fluctuations in the emissions coming from the Milky Way’s central black… -
European Cave Spiders Produce Super-Stretchy Silk
8 Feb 2012 | 2:00 pmScientists have discovered some of the most stretchable spider silk ever, which can elongate up to 7.5 times its initial length. European cave spiders produce the silk to build egg sacs that protect their developing young. Spider silk is a remarkable material known for its strength and toughness. Most species secrete seven or eight types of silk for different purposes. Dragline silk, for instance, anchors spiders to a surface and is used as the backbone of most webs while other silks are used for web scaffolding or to wrap captured prey. Female European cave spiders (Meta menardi), which live… -
Asia and Americas on Course for Arctic Collision
8 Feb 2012 | 1:06 pmIt’ll be a geological showdown for the ages, with North America, South America, Europe and Asia colliding head-on over the North Pole to create a supercontinent called Amasia. Unfortunately, nobody we know will be around to watch the collision, which won’t happen for another 50 million years or more. But it’s still fun to imagine. “The snapshot that is the present is smack-dab in the middle of what we call the supercontinent cycles,” said geologist Ross Mitchell of Yale University, lead author of a Feb. 8 Nature prediction of supercontinental trajectories. -
The Unusual Physics of Floating Pyramids
8 Feb 2012 | 11:00 amBy Kate McAlpine, ScienceNOW Think floating pyramids are more metaphysics than physics? Think again. Results just in from an experiment that levitated open-bottomed paper pyramids on gusts of air reveal a curious phenomenon: When it comes to drifting through the air, top-heavy designs are more stable than bottom-heavy ones. The finding may lead to robots that fly not like insects or birds but like jellyfish. Physicist Jun Zhang and his colleagues at New York University wanted to better understand how flying bugs control the orientations of their bodies. Do they have to work at it, or are they…
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NYT > Science
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In Struggling Tupper Lake, Resort Project Creates Rift
9 Feb 2012 | 1:47 pmA project in Tupper Lake, N.Y., was approved after a nearly decade-long tug of war between environmentalists and pro-development residents. -
Nuclear Commission Expected to Vote on New Reactors
9 Feb 2012 | 1:41 pmThe Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not given a license to build since 1978, a year before the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania. -
Exemestane, Thought to Prevent Cancer, Also Causes Bone Loss
9 Feb 2012 | 1:30 pmA drug that scientists had hoped would help prevent breast cancer has a significant side effect. -
Observatory: Fossilized Skull of Giant Crocodile From Cretaceous
9 Feb 2012 | 1:30 pmA partial skull from the Cretaceous period suggests that the crocodile had a bulging shield of thickened skin on its forehead and was considerably bigger than its modern counterpart. -
Observatory: Tarsiers: Tiny Primates With Ultrasonic Vocal Skills
9 Feb 2012 | 1:26 pmTarsiers, five-inch-tall creatures found in Southeast Asia, produce calls that are entirely in ultrasound, above the range of human hearing, researchers find.
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NYT > Nanotechnology
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Nanomaterials’ Effects on Health and Environment Unclear, Panel Says
25 Jan 2012 | 9:00 pmA National Academy of Sciences committee called for further study of the minuscule substances, which are found in products from makeup to paint and drive a $225 billion market. -
Smaller Magnetic Materials Push Boundaries of Nanotechnology
12 Jan 2012 | 9:00 pmFindings from research conducted at I.B.M., being reported Thursday in the journal Science, could lead to a new class of more powerful and efficient nanomaterials. -
Silicon’s Possible Successors Include Carbon Nanotubes
5 Dec 2011 | 9:00 pmAs silicon processors grow more packed with each generation, they lose efficiency, and researchers are looking for a new medium. -
Nanotechnology Gets Star Turn at Speech
25 Jan 2011 | 9:00 pmFour young researchers joined Michelle Obama for the president’s State of the Union address, including one who used nanotechnology for a cancer treatment. -
Sheathing Planes in a New Skin to Repel Frost and Ice
3 Jan 2011 | 9:00 pmM.I.T. researchers say that frost buildup can be better controlled by creating a surface with nanoscale texturing.
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AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE)
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'Scores killed' in shelling of Syria's Homs
9 Feb 2012 | 2:45 pm"Makeshift hospitals overflowing with dead and wounded" as the military bombards opposition areas for a sixth day. -
Greek leaders reach deal on austerity cuts
9 Feb 2012 | 1:07 pmPrime Minister Lucas Papademos' office says coalition partners have reached an agreement on new austerity cuts. -
US banks to pay in $25bn mortgage settlement
9 Feb 2012 | 12:13 pmPrice of loans to about a million home owners to be cut and people forced from their homes to be compensated. -
Spanish court convicts judge Baltasar Garzon
9 Feb 2012 | 11:11 amJudge found guilty of ordering illegal recordings in corruption case and suspended from bench for 11 years. -
Unprecedented cold paralyses life in Europe
9 Feb 2012 | 10:48 amCold snap hits normal life as 2,860km-long Danube river is wholly or partially frozen.
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Financial Times - US homepage
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Euro firms on reports of Greek deal
9 Feb 2012 | 3:34 pmLack of details puts no damper on upbeat market mood over austerity measures which may pave the way for the country to receive a second bail-out -
Citigroup in $50m loss on Libor probe traders
9 Feb 2012 | 12:22 pmEnforcement agencies investigate bid by bank traders to influence global lending rates -
Electricity price gyrations boost power trading
9 Feb 2012 | 11:27 amElectricity has become the stamping-ground not only of utilities and merchants but of hedge funds, proprietary traders and Wall Street banks -
Kodak to shut digital camera unit
9 Feb 2012 | 11:20 amThe bankrupt US photography company is to turn its back on a business that it once hoped would lead it into the digital age -
Greek parties agree €3.3bn austerity cuts
9 Feb 2012 | 11:17 amEurozone finance ministers poised to work late into the night to structure a bail-out package targeted at cutting Greek debt to 120% of GDP
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AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (Asia-Pacific)
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Narcotics case rocks Indonesian aviation
9 Feb 2012 | 11:47 amPublic trust in airlines shaken after at least four pilots test positive for hard drugs amid fears of rise in their use. -
Australia gets tough on vaccination
9 Feb 2012 | 6:14 amParents question government's move to deny tax benefits to parents who do not immunise their children. -
Myanmar political exiles return home
8 Feb 2012 | 12:51 pmAl Jazeera correspondent accompanies a student dissident turned journalist on his return after 8,000 nights in Thailand. -
Myanmar's Mons allowed to mark national day
8 Feb 2012 | 12:03 pmEthnic group publicly celebrates cultural heritage for first time in 15 years amid wave of political reforms. -
'Little hope' for Philippines quake survivors
8 Feb 2012 | 5:58 amRescue officials say hope is fading in search for 71 people still missing in landslides triggered by powerful quake.
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Calculated Risk
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Mortgage Settlement and Negative Equity
9 Feb 2012 | 2:24 pmI don't think the mortgage servicer settlement alone will have a huge impact on housing or the economy, but I do think the settlement will lead to an increase in the number of modifications, and also an increase in the pace of completed foreclosures. I've seen several people argue the settlement is too small to have much of an impact on housing. They compare the size of the settlement to overall negative equity. As an example from the Financial Times: The trouble is that the $32bn is small relative to estimates of a $700bn gap between house values and underwater mortgages: it is just 5 per… -
Hotels: RevPAR increases 8.7% compared to same week in 2011
9 Feb 2012 | 10:07 amFrom HotelNewsNow.com: STR: Upper-midscale hotels top weekly gains Overall, the U.S. hotel industry’s occupancy was up 5.5% to 51.7%, its ADR increased 3.1% to US$100.45 and RevPAR was up 8.7% to US$51.98.This is the weak season for hotel occupancy, but this is solid improvement over the same week last year. Note: ADR: Average Daily Rate, RevPAR: Revenue per Available Room. The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using a four week average. Click on graph for larger image. The red line is for 2012, yellow is for 2011, blue is "normal" and black is for 2009… -
Policy Updates: Mortgage Settlement Reached, Greek politicians agree on Debt Deal
9 Feb 2012 | 7:28 amBack in January I listed several policies and agreements that were expected soon. There were several key announcements today: • From the WSJ: U.S., Banks Agree on Foreclosure PactThe agreement covers five banks: Ally Financial Inc., Bank of America Corp.,Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and Wells Fargo & Co. Together, the five handle payments on 55% of all outstanding home loans ... The agreement will include at least 49 states, and officials were finalizing a separate accord with one remaining holdout, Oklahoma.Following this agreement, I expect the lenders to start reducing the… -
Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims decline to 358,000
9 Feb 2012 | 5:30 amThe DOL reports: In the week ending February 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 358,000, a decrease of 15,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 373,000. The 4-week moving average was 366,250, a decrease of 11,000 from the previous week's revised average of 377,250.The previous week was revised up to 373,000 from 367,000. The following graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims since January 2000. Click on graph for larger image. The dashed line on the graph is the current 4-week average. The four-week average of weekly unemployment claims… -
Zillow: House prices declined 4.7% in 2011, Forecasts 3.7% decline in 2012
8 Feb 2012 | 9:01 pmAnother view on house prices from Zillow: Home Value Declines Pick Up in Fourth Quarter, But Zillow Forecasts Smaller Declines in 2012The Zillow Real Estate Market Reports, released today, show home values decreased 1.1 percent from the third to the fourth quarter of 2011 to $146,900. On an annual basis, this represents a 4.7 percent decline. December’s data show that sequential improvements in year-over-year numbers have stopped, and the pace of monthly depreciation has once again picked up, with December’s monthly depreciation rate at 0.6 percent. ... [W] believe 2012 will be a…
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naked capitalism
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Will Government Bank Mortgage Deal Help or Hinder Prosecutions?
9 Feb 2012 | 2:48 pmThis Real News Network segment was recorded before the deal was announced today, but the observations are still germane. More at The Real News -
Your Humble Blogger is on NBC News Tonight and Democracy Now Tomorrow
9 Feb 2012 | 2:44 pmWhen media rains, it pours. Had to turn down BBC and Cenk Uygur. Also did a recording with Harry Shearer which will run on Le Show probably this Sunday, but if not, next Sunday. NBC told me I needed to really dumb it down, and I thought what I said did sound sorta dumb, but at least they are allowing critical views to be expressed. The lighting was really harsh too, but maybe they think making guests look older confers gravitas. -
Settlement Breakdown by State Plus Other Official Propaganda
9 Feb 2012 | 7:12 amA little birdie sent me some settlement details. You can see how much little your state got, as well as whether your state bothered rewriting the official PR: Settlement Swiss Cheese Release Settlement Graphic State Settlement Amounts -
Links 2/9/12
9 Feb 2012 | 2:16 amThin links tonight, I have media today and should have been in bed hours ago. Please fill in what I missed in the comments section. Blood-sucking flies clue to zebra’s stripes BBC Lizard survives washing machine spin Telegraph (hat tip furzy mouse) Should Plastic Bags Be Banned? New York Times The science fiction effect Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists A Suit Airs Debate on Organic vs Modified Crops New York Times (hat tip reader John L) Brazilian government files lawsuit against Twitter Raw Story (hat tip furzy mouse) Greece Talks Stall as Venizelos Heads to Brussels Bloomberg For… -
The Top Twelve Reasons Why You Should Hate the Mortgage Settlement
9 Feb 2012 | 1:25 amAs readers may know by now, 49 of 50 states have agreed to join the so-called mortgage settlement, with Oklahoma the lone refusenik. Although the fine points are still being hammered out, various news outlets (New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal) have details, with Dave Dayen’s overview at Firedoglake the best thus far. The Wall Street Journal is also reporting that the SEC is about to launch some securities litigation against major banks. Since the statue of limitations has already run out on securities filings more than five years old, this means they’ll clip…
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SeekingAlpha.com: Home Page
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Solar ETFs Recharging Thanks To Big Rally So Far In 2012
9 Feb 2012 | 3:35 pmBy John Spence: Exchange traded funds tracking solar energy stocks such as First Solar (FSLR) rallied 10% on Thursday with volume and performance picking up in the ETFs following a disastrous 2011. Shares of Guggenheim Solar ETF (TAN) and Market Vectors Solar Energy (KWT) are both trading below $6 but have shown impressive percentage gains so far this year. -
tw telecom's CEO Discusses Q4 2011 Results - Earnings Call Transcript
9 Feb 2012 | 3:34 pmtw telecom Inc. (TWTC) Q4 2011 Earnings Call February 9, 2012 9:00 am ET Executives Larissa Herda - Chairman, CEO and President Mark Peters - EVP and CFO Carole Curtin - VP, IR Analysts Simon Flannery - Morgan Stanley Frank Louthan - Raymond James Barry McCarver - Stephens Colby Synesael - Cowen and Company Dave Coleman - RBC David Dixon - FBR Research Tim Horan - Oppenheimer Donna Jaegers - D. A. Davidson Michael Funk - Bank of America Merrill Lynch Presentation Operator Good day, and welcome to tw telecom's fourth quarter 2011 conference call. Today's call is being recorded. With us from… -
20% Upside For Honeywell, United Technologies
9 Feb 2012 | 3:26 pmBy Takeover Analyst:With fears looming over cuts for the Department of Defense (DOD), investors should expect elevated volatility among aerospace firms. Based on my DCF model, I find a meaningful amount of upside for high risk-adjusted returns in Honeywell (HON) and United Technologies (UTX). In addition, the firms are more stable than what the market is acknowledging due to customer loyalty. Accordingly, the Street rates both firms favorably. From a multiples perspective, United Technologies is the cheaper of the two. It trades at a respective 14.9x and 12.1x past and forward earnings while… -
iShares Adds Small Cap India ETF
9 Feb 2012 | 3:17 pmBy Michael Johnston:iShares, by far the most active ETF issuer on the product development front to this point in 2012, continued the aggressive expansion of its international ETF lineup this week with the debut of a new product targeting small-cap Indian stocks. The new MSCI India Small Cap Index Fund (SMIN) becomes the third product to specifically target small Indian companies. SMIN will complement existing ETFs from iShares that target primarily large Indian companies, including the S&P India Nifty 50 Index Fund (INDY) and the recently-launched MSCI India Index Fund (INDA). Under The… -
Current Market Volatility? Too Quiet
9 Feb 2012 | 3:04 pmBy Russ Koesterich: When you’re watching horror movies, the time to worry is when things become eerily quiet. Last Friday, the market’s own measure of fear, the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index (VIX), hit its lowest level since last July. This is the financial equivalent of eerily quiet. The VIX tracks the implied volatility on S&P 500 options. When investors are nervous, they’re more likely to purchase put protection, driving up the cost of options and implied volatility in the process. When markets are calm, or investors are too complacent depending on your…
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footnoted.com
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More money for meetings (and drugs for free)…
9 Feb 2012 | 7:33 amAmerisourceBergen (ABC) is one of those companies in your life that you may never have heard of: It distributes prescription and over-the-counter drugs, brand names and generics, home health-care supplies and much, much more. It’s big — the company’s market-cap is over $10 billion, and its revenues in the fiscal year that ended September 30 were more than $80 billion. But the company caught our attention this week because its directors decided to give themselves a big raise, as laid out in an exhibit to the 10-Q the company filed on Tuesday morning. It seems to be that time… -
Slicing into an employment agreement from Coventry…
8 Feb 2012 | 7:56 amEmployment agreements are like cooking – a combination of science and art that result in a dish that some may find tasty (executives) while others (perhaps investors) find a little harder to swallow. Consider, for example, the new Amended Employment Agreement that Coventry Health Care, Inc. (CVH) just gave to its chief executive, Allen F. Wise; the agreement was filed with the SEC along with this 8-K on February 6. The agreement extends Wise’s job through December 31, 2013 and creates the possibility that he could be more than $15 million wealthier by the time the agreement ends. -
Down $100 million, but not entirely out at Nabors…
7 Feb 2012 | 7:38 amEugene M. Isenberg is getting a lot of attention — and deservedly so — for giving up the $100 million that his employer, Nabors Industries (NBR), owed him for naming another man chief executive of the company Isenberg had run for a quarter-century. That give-back is remarkable, as with most things involving Isenberg, Nabors and compensation. But there are a few details that have been mostly overlooked in the coverage, including what could prove to be years of gainful employment for Isenberg and lifetime health-care for him and his wife. It doesn’t begin to add up to what… -
Has HP learned a lesson about time and money?…
6 Feb 2012 | 8:04 amAfter Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) filed its proxy on Friday, news organizations from coast to coast published articles about the compensation that CEO Meg Whitman and the other top executives received last year (see here and here). Each exec got a total compensation package of $9 million or more; and we noticed that former chief executive Léo Apotheker got $30.4 million – a number respectably in the middle of our prior estimate of what he would walk away with. (See our post on the Worst Footnote of 2011 for details.) And yet (other than a nod in passing from CNNMoney here) another well-paid… -
A Super Bowl for more than players & advertisers…
3 Feb 2012 | 8:12 amGame day is almost here, and thanks to the Super Bowl advertising sweepstakes, the event is probably as big a deal for corporate America as it is for sports fans. But a stroll through companies’ public disclosures shows that the Super Bowl looms large for executives and companies in other ways as well. Television networks and station owners, of course, are full of references to the big game, either because they scored big with advertising sales in years when they carried it, or because they’re missing revenues from previous years in which they did. And for other reasons: As of…
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Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
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Familial Linkage between Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Intellectual Interests
9 Feb 2012 | 6:47 amWhen I spoke at Princeton last year, I talked with neuroscientist Sam Wang, who told me about a project he did surveying incoming Princeton freshmen about mental illness in their families. He and his coauthor Benjamin Campbell found some interesting results, which they just published: A link between intellect and temperament has long been the subject of speculation. . . . Studies of the artistically inclined report linkage with familial depression, while among eminent and creative scientists, a lower incidence of affective disorders is found. In the case of developmental disorders, a… -
Charles Murray [perhaps] does a Tucker Carlson, provoking me to unleash the usual torrent of graphs
8 Feb 2012 | 6:07 amCharles Murray wrote a much-discussed new book, “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010.” David Frum quotes Murray as writing, in an echo of now-forgotten TV personality Tucker Carlson, that the top 5% of incomes “tends to be liberal—right? There’s no getting around it. Every way of answering this question produces a yes.” [I’ve interjected a “perhaps” into the title of this blog post to indicate that I don’t have the exact Murray quote here so I’m relying on David Frum’s interpretation.] Frum does me the favor of citing Red State… -
The more likely it is to be X, the more likely it is to be Not X?
7 Feb 2012 | 4:25 pmThis post is by Phil Price. A paper by Wood, Douglas, and Sutton looks at “Beliefs in Contradictory Conspiracy Theories.” Unfortunately the subjects were 140 undergraduate psychology students, so one wonders how general the results are. I found this sort of arresting: In Study 1 (n=137), the more participants believed that Princess Diana faked her own death, the more they believed she was murdered. In Study 2 (n=102), the more participants believed that Osama Bin Laden was already dead when U.S. Special Forces raided his compound in Pakistan, the more they believed he is… -
Philosophy of Bayesian statistics: my reactions to Hendry
7 Feb 2012 | 6:45 amContinuing with my discussion here and here of the articles in the special issue of the journal Rationality, Markets and Morals on the philosophy of Bayesian statistics: David Hendry, “Empirical Economic Model Discovery and Theory Evaluation”: Hendry presents a wide-ranging overview of scientific learning, with an interesting comparison of physical with social sciences. (For some reason, he discusses many physical sciences but restricts his social-science examples to economics and psychology.) The only part of Hendry’s long and interesting article that I will discuss,… -
Bayesian model-building by pure thought: Some principles and examples
6 Feb 2012 | 6:52 amThis is one of my favorite papers: In applications, statistical models are often restricted to what produces reasonable estimates based on the data at hand. In many cases, however, the principles that allow a model to be restricted can be derived theoretically, in the absence of any data and with minimal applied context. We illustrate this point with three well-known theoretical examples from spatial statistics and time series. First, we show that an autoregressive model for local averages violates a principle of invariance under scaling. Second, we show how the Bayesian estimate of a…
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Marginal Revolution
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How large is the output gap really?
9 Feb 2012 | 11:31 amVia Mark Thoma, and drawing upon James Bullard at the St. Louis Fed, MacroMania writes: I think that Bullard makes a persuasive case that the amount of household wealth evaporated along with the crash in house prices should likely be viewed as a “permanent” (highly persistent) negative wealth shock. Standard theory (and common sense) suggests a corresponding permanent decline in consumer spending (with consumption growing along its original growth path). The implication is that the so-called “output gap” (the difference between actual and “trend” GDP) may… -
Failing versus Forgetting
9 Feb 2012 | 10:38 amBryan Caplan has a very good post on the human capital and signalling models of education. The key point is this, under the human capital model someone who forgets knowledge is no better than someone who failed to learn the same knowledge. Under the signaling model, however, failing and forgetting are very different. Bryan illustrates: If I’d failed Spanish, I couldn’t have gone to a good college, wouldn’t have gotten into Princeton’s Ph.D. program, and probably wouldn’t be a professor. But since I’ve merely forgotten my Spanish, I’m sitting in my… -
Simple truths about Greece
9 Feb 2012 | 9:29 amFrom Ricardo Hausmann: Greece will have to bring its current account deficit down to zero at some point. This can happen in two ways: either Greece exports more or spends less. Adjusting the current account by spending less would require an additional fall in GDP of 25 per cent, given that in Greece only one in four US dollars of spending cuts goes abroad. This is clearly not a pretty picture. But adjusting by raising exports would require they increase by 50 per cent, not an easy feat. Achieving it through tourism alone would require the industry to triple in size – an unlikely prospect. -
Assorted links
9 Feb 2012 | 7:24 am1. There is no great stagnation: the horizontal shower. 2. What if Star Trek had social networks? 3. The culture that is Iceland. 4. New economics blog from Phillips Exeter Academy. 5. TGS for musical instruments? 6. Profile of Scott Stern’s work on the economics of science. 7. Kristof has quite a reasonable review of Murray; by the way if you think dysfunctional social mores all boil down to economics, how are those Albertan tribes with the oil revenues doing? Ex football players in bankruptcy? etc. Here is more Krugman on Murray, now totally on the mark. Matt nails it too. -
The Secret Agreement that Revolutionized China
9 Feb 2012 | 4:28 amIn our principles textbook, Modern Principles: Macroeconomics, Tyler and I illustrate the importance of property rights with the incentive effects of collective farming and the secret agreement of Xiaogang village. We write: Farmers from 18 households in Xiaogang signed a secret life-and-death agreement ending collective farming with their thumbprints. (From Cowen and Tabarrok, Modern Principles: Macroeconomics) The Great Leap Forward was a great leap backward – agricultural land was less productive in 1978 than it had been in 1949 when the communists took over. In 1978, however, farmers…
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footnoted.com
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More money for meetings (and drugs for free)…
9 Feb 2012 | 7:33 amAmerisourceBergen (ABC) is one of those companies in your life that you may never have heard of: It distributes prescription and over-the-counter drugs, brand names and generics, home health-care supplies and much, much more. It’s big — the company’s market-cap is over $10 billion, and its revenues in the fiscal year that ended September 30 were more than $80 billion. But the company caught our attention this week because its directors decided to give themselves a big raise, as laid out in an exhibit to the 10-Q the company filed on Tuesday morning. It seems to be that time… -
Slicing into an employment agreement from Coventry…
8 Feb 2012 | 7:56 amEmployment agreements are like cooking – a combination of science and art that result in a dish that some may find tasty (executives) while others (perhaps investors) find a little harder to swallow. Consider, for example, the new Amended Employment Agreement that Coventry Health Care, Inc. (CVH) just gave to its chief executive, Allen F. Wise; the agreement was filed with the SEC along with this 8-K on February 6. The agreement extends Wise’s job through December 31, 2013 and creates the possibility that he could be more than $15 million wealthier by the time the agreement ends. -
Down $100 million, but not entirely out at Nabors…
7 Feb 2012 | 7:38 amEugene M. Isenberg is getting a lot of attention — and deservedly so — for giving up the $100 million that his employer, Nabors Industries (NBR), owed him for naming another man chief executive of the company Isenberg had run for a quarter-century. That give-back is remarkable, as with most things involving Isenberg, Nabors and compensation. But there are a few details that have been mostly overlooked in the coverage, including what could prove to be years of gainful employment for Isenberg and lifetime health-care for him and his wife. It doesn’t begin to add up to what… -
Has HP learned a lesson about time and money?…
6 Feb 2012 | 8:04 amAfter Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) filed its proxy on Friday, news organizations from coast to coast published articles about the compensation that CEO Meg Whitman and the other top executives received last year (see here and here). Each exec got a total compensation package of $9 million or more; and we noticed that former chief executive Léo Apotheker got $30.4 million – a number respectably in the middle of our prior estimate of what he would walk away with. (See our post on the Worst Footnote of 2011 for details.) And yet (other than a nod in passing from CNNMoney here) another well-paid… -
A Super Bowl for more than players & advertisers…
3 Feb 2012 | 8:12 amGame day is almost here, and thanks to the Super Bowl advertising sweepstakes, the event is probably as big a deal for corporate America as it is for sports fans. But a stroll through companies’ public disclosures shows that the Super Bowl looms large for executives and companies in other ways as well. Television networks and station owners, of course, are full of references to the big game, either because they scored big with advertising sales in years when they carried it, or because they’re missing revenues from previous years in which they did. And for other reasons: As of…
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FlowingData
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Why I want to quit cable
9 Feb 2012 | 12:24 amGrowing up, most of my friends had cable television, but whenever I brought it up, my parents would always say that I watched enough TV already (which was true). So it was always a treat when we went somewhere like a hotel, where there were more than five channels. I didn't know what any of the shows were, but it sure was fun pressing buttons on the remote. Today, I still don't know what most of the shows are, but the novelty is gone. Nowadays, I have different choices (and priorities). I can entertain myself online, and services like Netflix and Hulu make that easier. When I do turn on the… -
Taxi migration in Manhattan
8 Feb 2012 | 9:45 amWhile we're on the topic of things moving on a map of changing camera angles, class project Taxi, by Tom McKeogh, Eliza Montgomery and Juan Saldarriaga, shows the movements of said vehicles in Manhattan, over 24 hours. Geographic location data for the origin and destination of each ride is combined with waypoint data collected from the Google Maps API in order to generate a geographically accurate representation of the trip. We used data from taxi rides originating or ending in the neighborhoods of Lincoln center or Bryant Park. The visualization recreates a 'breathing' map of Manhattan based… -
Animation shows national migration patterns
8 Feb 2012 | 12:24 amEven Westvang uses tax return data to visualize migration patterns of 300,000 Norwegians. When running at full speed the visualization is clearly lacking in terms of salient features, yet I find it interesting. Then again, I like looking at Pachinko machines and waterfalls — processes comfortably stuck between the random and the ordered. When slowing the animation down and filtering for certain demographies it becomes more useful. At its best laymen, like myself, can visually perceive facets of the natioal Norwegian migratory process that before were only available through the… -
Weave for visualization development
7 Feb 2012 | 2:39 amWeb-based Analysis and Visualization Environment, or Weave for short, is open source software intended for flexible visualization. Weave (BETA 1.0) is a new web-based visualization platform designed to enable visualization of any available data by anyone for any purpose. Weave is an application development platform supporting multiple levels of user proficiency — novice to advanced — as well as the ability to integrate, disseminate and visualize data at "nested" levels of geography. It looks like everything is done through a click interface, and you can piece together modules and… -
Members Only: How to Make a Contour Map
7 Feb 2012 | 1:32 amFilled contour plots are useful for looking at density across two dimensions and are often used to visualize geographic data. It's straightforward to make them in R — once you get your data in the right format, that is.
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Wired Top Stories
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Avoid a Watery Grave
9 Feb 2012 | 3:13 pmDrowning is the third leading cause of unintentional death among adults worldwide. Read on for the best tips to either keep your head ? or at least get it back ? above water. -
Texas Jury Strikes Down Patent Troll's Claim to Own the Interactive Web
9 Feb 2012 | 2:26 pmAfter threatening web companies for more than a decade, Michael Doyle and his patent-holding company Eolas -- named after the Irish word for knowledge -- may be finished. -
Protesters Crash Apple Stores, Demand Apple 'Manufacture Different'
9 Feb 2012 | 2:12 pmToday at Apple Stores around the globe, users gathered to deliver a petition calling for Apple to make its next iPhone model "ethical." The petition's more than 250,000 signees want Apple to respond to allegations of worker abuse in its Chinese factories, and dedicate itself to developing ethical products in the future. -
Dell Puts Crosshairs on World of Storage
9 Feb 2012 | 1:56 pmDell has a lofty goal in mind: to become the world's number three storage vendor, and the first step is to surpass the number five player: the Sunnyvale, California-based NetApp. -
Built to Last
9 Feb 2012 | 12:56 pmMotorola's newest Droid Razr is just like its predecessor in almost every way -- except for the addition of a positively huge battery.
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Holy Kaw!
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Bear and wolf, friends for life [video]
9 Feb 2012 | 2:12 pmAll too often we lose track of our friends from childhood, but this bear and wolf appear to be BFFs despite the differences. Full story at YouTube via io9. Can’t we all just get along? Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Can dessert for breakfast help you lose weight?
9 Feb 2012 | 1:39 pmNew research suggests that, in the early morning, you can have your cake and shed pounds too A new study from Tel Aviv University finds that eating a small dessert as part of a balanced breakfast can actually help you shed unwanted pounds. Staying skinny and eating chocolate? Here, a brief guide to what sounds, frankly, impossible: Full story at The Week. Photo: CC by ::paqman:: All the top stories from The Week. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Romance survey [infographic]
9 Feb 2012 | 12:02 pmVia Hotels.com. Infographics to put you in the mood. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Do aliens go invisible by 'going green'?
9 Feb 2012 | 11:24 amAs we discover more and more planets around other stars, the Fermi Paradox is becoming, well, more paradoxical. The Fermi Paradox simply asks the question "where are they?" Our Milky Way galaxy is so big and so old -- and we are estimated to be accompanied by at least 100 billion planets -- that aliens should have visited us by now. Instead, when we peruse the heavens, we are faced with the Great Silence, which is one of the biggest challenges to modern astronomy. Full story at Discovery News. More news from Discovery Communications. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink | Leave a… -
Mysterious sounds reported around the world
9 Feb 2012 | 11:23 amPeople around the world have reported hearing strange sounds from the skies over the past month. Sometimes they describe it as a hum or low rumble; other times it’s a whine, thump, or even a melody. Often the sounds have been recorded and posted online, fueling rumors and conspiracy theories. One blogger wrote, "either the world is ending, aliens are landing or everyone is getting hoaxed. Or, possibly, there’s an actual scientific explanation for the mass amount of YouTube videos capturing bizarre sounds that are being heard around the globe. Are we witnessing the beginning of a…
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How to Change the World
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Raising Money: What Not to Say and What Not to Believe #OfficeandGuyK
20 Jan 2012 | 10:46 amOver the past two weeks via my partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve provided templates of models for you to create enchanting PowerPoint pitches, Word business plans, and Excel financial models. They are all available for you to download from my SkyDrive account. I hope these documents and blog posts help you save a boatload of time and increase the quality of your efforts.I leave you with two sets of top ten lies: one of entrepreneurs and one of investors so that you know what not to say and what not to believe. Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs “Our projections are… -
Design a Sam Adams beer
20 Jan 2012 | 8:24 amNow this is a fun project. I’m helping Sam Adams “tap” the knowledge of beer drinkers and crowd source its next brew. Join the party by getting the app and designing your beer: The final brew will be released in Austin in the first week of March. #sponsored -
How to Create an Enchanting Financial Forecast #OfficeandGuyK
17 Jan 2012 | 1:52 pmThis is the third post in my Microsoft partnership, and it’s all about numbers. The topic is crafting your financial forecast to include in your pitch. Bill Reichert, my partner at Garage Technology Ventures, created an Excel model and wrote this blog post. There’s a lesson in this too: Get the best person for the job. His grasp of financial models and how to present them exceeds mine by two orders of magnitude. The Purpose of Financial Projections When it comes to financial projections, there are two types of entrepreneurs: first, the “visionary entrepreneur” who… -
How to Create an Enchanting Business Plan #OfficeandGuyK
12 Jan 2012 | 8:16 amHere is the second post in my series about planning, pitching, and launching a new business venture. In partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve created a Word document that outlines a good business plan. It’s saved to my SkyDrive folder here. Feel free to download it and use it as inspiration. And if you’re working with a partner, you can use the free Word Web App to stay in sync. I provided the PowerPoint document before the Word document because a good business plan is an elaboration of a good pitch as opposed to a good pitch being a distillation of good business plan. -
How to Create an Enchanting Pitch #OfficeandGuyK
9 Jan 2012 | 8:01 amWelcome to the first in a series of blog posts I’ll be doing as part of a partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps. Over the next two weeks, I’ll cover everything a budding entrepreneur needs to turn an idea into an enchanting investment opportunity—from the perfect pitch to a killer business plan to financial forecasts. I’m going to start with a little dissertation on creating effective PowerPoint pitches for your company. I embedded the sample deck for you to click through by using the PowerPoint Web App. When you’re ready to get started, you can download the…
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Seth's Blog
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The Weird interview
9 Feb 2012 | 12:06 pmTo celebrate the launch of Squidoo's new UpMarket magazine, we got permission to post an audio interview I recently did with Darren Hardy of Success. You can find it here. Thanks for listening. -
Inaccurate labels and why we need them (and need to improve them)
9 Feb 2012 | 2:46 amIf I tell you, "I'm going to the baseball game," it seems as though you're likely to understand what I mean. Of course, you won't. When George Will goes to a baseball game, it's a religious experience. Me, I don't even like baseball. Or maybe it's my nephew's ball game (the playoffs), or maybe going to the game causes me to miss an important event, and on and on. We label the experience with just two words, and two words can't possibly capture the emotions and circumstance surrounding an event. The same thing is true with brands. If I tell you that a new business was funded by USV, that might… -
How do they know you're not a flake?
8 Feb 2012 | 2:43 amBefore your link gets clicked or your proposal gets read, a busy person is going to triage it to find out if it's even worth glancing at. Since everyone is now connected, the new permeability has created a deluge of noise, and just about everyone worth contacting is taking defensive measures. Do I know this person? Did someone I trust send them over? Where does she work? (Ideo? the FDA? The New York Times?) Has she won an award? Is she famous? Are there typos and is the design sloppy? Are they pestering me? Do I already follow this person online? Does music play when I visit the website? Will… -
Horizontal marketing isn't a new idea
7 Feb 2012 | 2:09 amBut it is the new reality for just about every organization. Vertical marketing means the marketer (the one with money) is in charge. Vertical marketing starts at the top and involves running ads, sending out direct mail and pushing hype through the media. Your money, your plans, your control. It might not work, but generally the worst outcome is that you will be ignored and need to spend more money. Horizonal marketing, on the other hand, means creating a remarkable product and story and setting it up to spread from person to person. It's out of your control, because all the interactions are… -
Who is your customer?
6 Feb 2012 | 2:26 amRule one: You can build a business on the foundation of great customer service. Rule two: The only way to do great customer service is to treat different customers differently. The question: Who is your customer? It's not obvious. Zappos is a classic customer service company, and their customer is the person who buys the shoes. Nike, on the other hand, doesn't care very much at all about the people who buy the shoes, or even the retailers. They care about the athletes (often famous) that wear the shoes, sometimes for money. They name buildings after these athletes, court them, erect…
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NYT > Fashion & Style
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Off The Runway: Day One
9 Feb 2012 | 2:32 pmScenes from the first day of New York Fashion Week at Lincoln Center. -
At Stella & Dot, Hostesses With a Percentage
9 Feb 2012 | 2:07 pmThe jewelry company has adopted a retro approach to marketing: the direct-sale party. -
Boîte: The Wren, a Gastropub in the East Village
9 Feb 2012 | 2:07 pmNo cover or guest list, but capacity crowds may dictate “one in, one out.” -
Scene City: Anna Wintour’s Party for an Obama Re-election Campaign
9 Feb 2012 | 1:48 pmOn Tuesday night, Anna Wintour, the Vogue editor, gathered 20 American designers to support Runway to Win, as part of the Obama re-election campaign. -
Fashion Week Scheduling
9 Feb 2012 | 1:48 pmA guide to navigating New York Fashion Week, from the runway’s front row to your iPad.
