Over the past decade and a half the U.S. economy has weathered two significant recessions, including crises in the residential real estate and financial services industries. Despite these economic hardships the self-employed and “solopreneur” workforce grew by 4.3 million workers and is projected to continue growing at double-digit rates. Continue reading
Great advice from Bill George, the former CEO of Medtronic || "A New Era for Global Leadership Development" ow.ly/9clts #leadership—
Marshall Stanton (@marshallstanton) February 21, 2012
When I first saw the video above taken from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory the “Tears In Rain” soliloquy delivered by Replicant Roy Batty in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) immediately came to mind. These twisters are as large (or larger) as the Earth itself, gust at 300,000 miles per hour, and are a relatively cool 15,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Continue reading
Heart-shaped maps are one thing, but maps of the human heart are quite another, and I’ve got both on this Valentine’s Day. The charting of emotional territory, as opposed to physical space, has resulted in the production of several interesting maps from the seventeenth century to the near-present. Below are the companion Map of the Open Country of a Woman’s Heart and Map of the Fortified Country of a Man’s Heart, ostensibly and anonymously drawn “by a lady” and published by the Kellogg Brothers of …
In an adaptation from his upcoming shareholder letter, the Oracle of Omaha explains why equities almost always beat the alternatives over time. By Warren Buffett FORTUNE — Investing is often described as the process of laying out money now in the expectation of receiving more money in the future. At Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) we take a more demanding approach, defining investing as the transfer to others of purchasing power now with the reasoned expectation of receiving more purchasing power — after taxes …
When one imagines worlds undiscovered and untouched by humanity, thoughts of far-flung planets many light-years beyond our own come to mind. However as any oceanographer or polar scientist will tell you, there are worlds filled with alien lifeforms a few thousand feet beyond our grasp. Continue reading
What do all of the world’s social media users have in common? Besides having a rabid obsession with making Mark Zuckerberg even more money, we’re all going to die. Continue reading
I spend a lot of my day (and night) talking to people. In fact, if I were to total all of the activities in my life – and probably the lives of most people I know – the largest single activity on which time is spent (although curiously perhaps not by level of effort) across my entire life has been communication. Words have meaning. Continue reading
The General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania (my alma mater) has produced a number of fascinating experiments lately focused on the uses of quadrotor helicopter robots. Four-propeller aircraft designs were popularized in the 1920s and 1930s to help solve some of the persistent issues with vertical flight (i.e., torque-control). Continue reading
Ever since I first got onto the Internet in the late 1980s and involved in its commercialization in the early 1990s I’ve seen year after year of brilliant (and sometimes silly) innovation and growth. It should be no surprise that pundits the world over are looking to 2012 to be yet another record-setting year wherein more people get online and stay online in ways that are well understood and some that may emerge before our very eyes (Pinterest, anyone?). Continue reading
