innovation

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Music Legend Les Paul Dead at 94
 Music Legend  
 Les Paul Dead at 94 
obituary
Aug 13, 2009 1:05 PM CDT

Music Legend Les Paul Dead at 94

Inventor, guitarist 'changed the course of 20th-century popular music'

(Newser) - Musical innovator and guitar legend Les Paul died today in White Plains, NY. He was 94. A “virtuoso guitarist” himself, in the early 1940s Paul pioneered the “log” guitar, “probably the first solid-body electric guitar," writes Jon Pareles of the New York Times. His popular Gibson...

Top American Inventions
 Top American Inventions 
Aug 4, 2009 5:06 PM CDT

Top American Inventions

(Newser) - President Obama has called on Americans to innovate their way to a speedy economic recovery. In that spirit, Live Science rounds up the top 10 US innovations:
  1. Flight. The Wright Brothers’ 12-second flight in 1903 ushered the world into the age of aviation.
  2. Atomic bomb. The Manhattan project left a
...

Rejection of Google iPhone App Sets Dumb Precedent

(Newser) - Apple has rejected Google’s application to distribute its Voice application through the App Store, and that shows that Apple is dead-set against innovation, Adam Pash writes on Lifehacker. The official line is that Google Voice “duplicates features already on the iPhone—namely the Phone and Messages app,”...

How to Free Creative You
 How to Free Creative You 


May 10, 2009 7:57 AM CDT

How to Free Creative You

Tips for innovation in troubled times

(Newser) - Tough times tend to foster innovation. If your wallet is feeling a pinch, capitalizing on your creativity may be a way to help, says ABC News. Here are some tips on how to get your brain moving:
  • Let your thoughts wander. Allowing your ideas to roam freely can "trigger
...

R&amp;D Dollars Flow Even as Revenues Slump
R&D Dollars Flow Even as Revenues Slump
ANALYSIS
Apr 6, 2009 11:11 AM CDT

R&D Dollars Flow Even as Revenues Slump

Firms see innovation as key to post- recession success

(Newser) - Revenues may be plummeting, but US companies spent as much on research and development in 2008’s fourth quarter as they did in 2007's, the Wall Street Journal reports. Analysts point to products like the iPod, introduced during the last recession, as proof that continued R&D outlay can lead...

Astronaut Slams NASA Bureaucracy in Video

(Newser) - NASA is abuzz over a satirical video posted on YouTube that takes on the space agency’s innovation-stifling bureaucracy, reports NPR. Written, shot, and edited by astronaut Andrew Thomas and starring NASA employees and contractors, the video tells the fictional story of a young engineer’s frustrating attempts to propose...

Time to Give Netflix Its Dot-Com Due
 Time to Give Netflix 
 Its Dot-Com Due 
OPINION
Jan 28, 2009 4:47 PM CST

Time to Give Netflix Its Dot-Com Due

Disciplined growth has helped it through many setbacks

(Newser) - Despite plenty of naysayers, Netflix boasts success like few other dot-coms, Chris O’Brien writes in the San Jose Mercury News. The movie-rental service reported record earnings despite the recession, “a neat trick that eBay and Yahoo could only dream of emulating.” Netflix’s innovative distribution system, inventory...

Bailout? Detroit Needs a Brain
 Bailout? Detroit 
 Needs a Brain 
OPINION
Nov 12, 2008 10:28 AM CST

Bailout? Detroit Needs a Brain

US auto industry needs to re-learn how to innovate; Mich. lawmakers not immune, either

(Newser) - The appalling prospect of a $25 billion bailout for Detroit automakers—“ an industry that became brain dead”—has Thomas Friedman, writing in the New York Times, outraged. He blasts “a very un-innovative business culture, visionless management, and overly generous labor contracts” for the mess, and heaps blame...

Gray Smog Conceals a Greening China
 Gray Smog Conceals 
 a Greening China 
analysis
Nov 11, 2008 4:26 PM CST

Gray Smog Conceals a Greening China

Green innovator gets unfair rap as environmental offender

(Newser) - The world's attitude toward China's environmentalism is "hypocritical and decidedly unfair," writes Fred Pearce in Yale Environment 360—this coming from someone who has "literally held my nose at the foul air." Yes, China's "development zeal" has it doing "the bad things that most...

Scientists, Artists Dominate MacArthur 'Genius' Grants

25 innovators receive this year's $500 prizes

(Newser) - Of the 25 recipients of this year's MacArthur Foundation "genius award," 13 are scientists and eight are artists, the New York Times reports. This year, they are “people working on the very edge of discovery and people at the edge of a new synthesis,” says the...

Our Economic Cure? Innovation
 Our Economic Cure? Innovation 
OPINION
Sep 14, 2008 1:37 PM CDT

Our Economic Cure? Innovation

Innovation, and making it more efficient, can turn gray skies blue

(Newser) - Democrats and Republicans do have something in common: Both parties are wrong on how to resuscitate the flat-lining US economy, Michael Mandel argues in BusinessWeek. Tax cuts or increased government spending aren’t the cure. “Innovation is the best—and maybe the only—way the US can get out...

Goodbye, Autos; Hello, Podcar
 Goodbye, Autos; Hello, Podcar
OPINION
Sep 8, 2008 12:27 PM CDT

Goodbye, Autos; Hello, Podcar

Driverless taxis could transform public transit

(Newser) - Forget alternative fuels and dump rusting gas guzzlers altogether for the driverless podcar, which offers "the convenience of an auto without the negatives," Catherine G. Burke writes in the Los Angeles Times. The sleek, electric-powered compartments seat four and use monorail-esque "guideways" to reach select destinations. It...

Candidates Should Be Talking Innovation, Not Abortion

Innovative new products, services will keep nation vigorous, Friedman writes

(Newser) - If America hopes to keep its economy strong, our next leaders need to prioritize support for innovation, writes Thomas L. Friedman in the New York Times. “The ability to create the new products and services that people want” is key to “growth, prosperity, environmental sustainability and national security,...

Algae: Lean, Green Biofuel?
 Algae: Lean, Green Biofuel? 
OPINION
Jul 2, 2008 2:47 PM CDT

Algae: Lean, Green Biofuel?

Firm says it can produce algae oil at $60 a barrel; US dare not miss its chance, writer says

(Newser) - The steam engine wasn’t invented in the eighteenth century—it was invented in AD 60. But Romans instead stuck to their old standby technology: slaves. Now, we’re in danger of repeating that mistake with biofuels, writes David Ewing Duncan for Portfolio. While Congress is pumping subsidies into corn-based...

Prize Philanthropy: A Winning Concept

Donors make innovators compete for cash

(Newser) - When the X-Prize foundation offered $10 million to anyone who could develop a viable commercial spacecraft, it didn’t just send innovators scurrying, and it didn’t just grab headlines. It also began the next big trend in philanthropy. Donors are in love with prize philanthropy, Portfolio reports, and causes...

GM Gambles All on the Volt
 GM Gambles All on the Volt 
Jun 11, 2008 12:38 PM CDT

GM Gambles All on the Volt

Electric car a massive gamble

(Newser) - The Chevy Volt will either revolutionize cars forever and rocket GM back to the top of the automotive world, or it’ll be an embarrassing disaster that will further cripple the giant. And right now, lots of industry types are betting on the latter. GM is so desperate to get...

Wine Whiz Mondavi Dead at 94
 Wine Whiz
 Mondavi Dead at 94 
May 16, 2008 7:54 PM CDT

Wine Whiz Mondavi Dead at 94

Dapper vintner proved California grapes could rival Europe's

(Newser) - California wine master Robert Mondavi died peacefully today in his Napa Valley home at age 94, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Disciples and critics alike have praised the vintner for elevating West Coast wine from jug juice to world-class vino. "His legacy and his vision for what California could...

Silicon Valley Startup Craves Chocolate

Tcho founders predict a coffee-like revolution for the sweet stuff

(Newser) - San Francisco startup Tcho has all the sweet Silicon Valley trimmings, the Economist reports; high-profile tech alums, online beta testing and stock options for all. But its product is even sweeter: top-quality chocolate. The company has developed a means to grade cocoa beans' complex nuances on a "flavor wheel,...

Got Junk? Call These Guys
 Got Junk? Call These Guys 
Mar 26, 2008 12:56 PM CDT

Got Junk? Call These Guys

Company turns trash into profit

(Newser) - A shed full of roller skates, 400 wedding dresses, 18,000 sardine cans, a diffused bomb—1-800-GOT-JUNK? hauls away more than just trash in its custom-built dump trucks. The largest junk-hauling company in North America turned clutter into revenues of $150 million this year, says NPR, while professionalizing the industry...

It's Not Too Late for Old School Technology
It's Not Too Late
for Old School Technology
opinion
Mar 23, 2008 4:17 PM CDT

It's Not Too Late for Old School Technology

If inventions can evolve, they can survive, says New York Times

(Newser) - Older technologies frequently face predictions of their demise as they are replaced with cutting-edge innovations, but so-called progress is rarely the sea change it’s chalked up to be, writes Steve Lohr in the New York Times. If old tech can adapt, it can often stay alive. Case in point:...

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