The above piece aired on 60 Minutes last night. It was part of an overall interesting show that profiled volcanoes, clean tech, and Kim Dotcom (who has 60 lush acres in New Zealand and thinks of himself as James Bond for some… Continue Reading
Here’s the chain of events on this one: Warren Buffett, about two weeks ago, spent $1 billion (through his utility company, MidAmerican Energy Holdings) to help finance five different wind turbine projects in Iowa. That was the largest-ever order (for land-based… Continue Reading
You can read all about Tvilight at the Smithsonian’s website, but essentially the idea is simple: we have smart phones and we’re developing smart houses and smart umbrellas, so why not smart street lights? Tvilight’s lights will dim when no one is… Continue Reading
Everyone has heard about the Koch Brothers by this point, it seems, but less people have heard of Tom Steyer, who is the liberal election-alterer of the moment. He made his money via hedge funds in the Bay Area, and now… Continue Reading
There are roughly 178 million Google hits for “Twitter IPO.” There’s 1.6 million Google News hits right now, and it went public on November 6 — so essentially a month ago. Now, contrast that with Google hits for “Plains GP… Continue Reading
Here’s the essential idea: it’s a small device, and relatively cheap ($49.99). It’s produced by General Electric and Quirky, which is basically an open forum for ideas (you submit, people vote on them, every Thursday a panel in NYC moves… Continue Reading
Consider this: only 20 years ago, the Russian army still had troops in Poland. Democracy in Poland didn’t even start to gain steam as an idea until June of 1989, and that followed a long period where many economic observers… Continue Reading