McCain Proposes $300M Better-Battery Prize

Ellen Gibson — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:48:39 -0400

In a speech today at Fresno State University, John McCain proposed a $300 million government prize for the development of an alternative car battery. He called for a more efficient and affordable battery than those currently powering our hybrid vehicles, saying the reward would be “a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency.”

Comment on Node ant

Ellen Gibson — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:07:44 -0400

Google doesn’t serve up the exact info you need right away on every search. Once Google returns a list of sites relevant to your search terms, you need certain higher-order thinking skills to assess which site has the most relevant information, coming from the most authoritative source. Theoretically, Google should help young people develop BETTER critical thinking skills and information literacy. That said, when I was teaching ESL, my students almost always clicked on the first return. So much for that. ...

Comment on Node ant

Ellen Gibson — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:43:46 -0400

I agree with Duncan Riley: "FriendFeed seems to be nothing more than a fancy RSS service with commenting thrown in for good measure." He also makes the point that discussing a blog post or an article is a much richer experience when that discussion takes place in the article's original (source) community, where you can engage with other readers who aren't your friends.

Are Those Rebate Checks Helping?

Ellen Gibson — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:40:06 -0400

Buffalo Bills season tickets, Obama campaign donations, cannabis indica, a "mom" tattoo, lottery tickets, two leather-bound bibles, Terminator collectibles, wedding expenses, and a divorce attorney -- all purchases people have posted on the website HowISpentMyStimulus.com, exposing what Rudy Adler calls the "idiosyncratic spending habits of the American public."

12 Cities to Watch

Ellen Gibson — Mon, 19 May 2008 09:06:06 -0400

Peer through the shroud of smog, and you'll see Beijing all dressed up for the Olympics, with daring new buildings like Rem Koolhaas's CCTV HQ. China's economy is booming, and the arts scene is too. The newest draw in the hip 798 district is the Ullens Center for Contemporary art, funded by a Belgian baron.

Cold Stone Mixes It Up

Ellen Gibson — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:53:34 -0400

Cold Stone Creamery may have the highest unit volume in the ice cream category, but its aggressive expansion plan has hit the skids over the past two years. In May, the Scottsdale-based chain, known for its marble-slab mixtures and crooning employees, was acquired by Kahala Corp, a quick-service-restaurant franchisor that holds Blimpie and Samurai Sam's. Taking a page from Starbucks, which has proved that cranking out new stores can be antithetical to brand building, Kahala-Cold Stone is shifting strategy and testing more-inventive approaches to growing their business.

Music Lover, Can You Spare a Dime?

Ellen Gibson — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:34:55 -0400

According to indie rocker Jill Sobule, there's only one thing record labels are still good for and that’s financing albums. Everyone is preoccupied over which music-distribution model will win out, but the fallout of the Internet's attack on record companies is that it's increasingly difficult for bands to get their music produced in the first place. DIY rough cuts made with GarageBand or Pro Tools might help a band amass a fan base on MySpace, but the goal is still to graduate to a professionally mixed studio album.

The Best and the Brightest (Literally) at the Dyson Awards

Ellen Gibson — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:35:14 -0400

Last night the 2008 Dyson Product Design Awards were handed out in New York City. (Yes, that’s Dyson as in Sir James Dyson, TV’s most pretentious vacuum peddler.)

Boeing's 787 Leaves Us Hanging

Ellen Gibson — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 10:49:47 -0400

In our Fast 50 issue, we praised Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner for its lightweight construction and streamlined design--features that contribute to the aircraft's remarkable fuel efficiency. The interior of the plane is roomy, with wider seats and aisles, and it has cool passenger-comfort features like overhead lighting that imitates the changing colors of the sky and a cabin that is pressurized at lower altitudes. Aviation geeks who were present when the prototype was unveiled last July described it as an almost religious experience.

The Fast 50

Fast 50 Face-off: A Conversation with Innovation Guru Dev Patnaik

Ellen Gibson — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:36:14 -0400