Successful inventors, entrepreneurs and writers say they are often asked where their big ideas came from. They will acknowledge that serendipity often plays a role. But equally as important, they say, is having an open mind - especially in tumultuous times like these. Big and small ideas are out there, they say, if you are looking for them. Consider the experience of Lopa Mehrotra, who was studying to be a political scientist. One hot summer day, she said, she was watching her 6-year-old daughter outside playing. ‘Look,’ her daughter said, as she scraped two gray rocks on stone and watched them turn white. ‘It’s magic.’ ‘I said, ‘Actually, it’s science,’ ‘ Ms. Mehrotra said recently, explaining how that moment inspired her to create TestToob.com, a social networking site that allows students to showcase scientific experiments. Jacques Heim, who founded Diavolo Dance Theater, was in Aspen with his dance company, using an elementary classroom as a dressing room. Naturally, it was full of toys, he recalled. He saw a box of blocks, including three in particular that caught his interest: identical five-sided pyramids that created a cube. ‘I was inspired by the geometry behind it,’ he […]
Needles are often equated with pain and discomfort; however, for a horse named Gypsy the tiny sharp objects brought about much needed relief as Dr. Mark Crisman, a professor in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech, administered acupuncture therapy. Gypsy had an infection in her ankle and Crisman was using acupuncture — along with traditional therapy — to help strengthen her bones and immune system, and provide pain relief. Acupuncture, which has its roots in eastern countries, is a technique of inserting and manipulating very fine needles into specific points on the body with the intention of relieving pain and other therapeutic purposes. This ancient practice has long been used among human patients and, over the past few decades, has gained popularity and recognition in veterinary medicine. ‘Acupuncture has proven to be a safe and relatively painless treatment for a variety of illnesses in animals,’ said Crisman who has been practicing the therapy for over a decade on equine patients and now teaches others who desire certification. The Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital offers this therapy to both large and […]
Will the GOP’s campaign to deter new voters and discard Democratic ballots determine the next president? These days, the old west rail hub of Las Vegas, New Mexico, is little more than a dusty economic dead zone amid a boneyard of bare mesas. In national elections, the town overwhelmingly votes Democratic: More than 80 percent of all residents are Hispanic, and one in four lives below the poverty line. On February 5th, the day of the Super Tuesday caucus, a school-bus driver named Paul Maez arrived at his local polling station to cast his ballot. To his surprise, Maez found that his name had vanished from the list of registered voters, thanks to a statewide effort to deter fraudulent voting. For Maez, the shock was especially acute: He is the supervisor of elections in Las Vegas. Maez was not alone in being denied his right to vote. On Super Tuesday, one in nine Democrats who tried to cast ballots in New Mexico found their names missing from the registration lists. The numbers were even higher in precincts like Las Vegas, where nearly 20 percent of the county’s voters were absent from the rolls. With their status in limbo, […]
DETROIT — Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian’s decision to begin dumping his Ford Motor Co. (F) shares may leave the auto maker without a funding source, as losses mount and a global automotive slowdown extends into 2009. Kerkorian’s Tracinda Corp. announced Tuesday that it sold 7.3 million shares of Ford common stock Monday and may sell all of its remaining 133.5 million shares – about 6.09% of the shares outstanding – depending upon market conditions and available sales prices. The move comes just months after Kerkorian, who has a long history of investing in Detroit auto makers, started building his stake in Ford, expressing confidence in the company’s management team and pledging to possibly inject additional capital to aid Ford’s turnaround efforts. ‘Ford is losing one of its last-resort strategies – the ability to tap Kerkorian’s deep pockets to help with any future liquidity crises,’ said Global Insight analyst Aaron Bragman. Were Ford’s liquidity position to fall to dangerously low levels, Kerkorian might have been able to offer up a few billion dollars to buy the company time, Bragman noted. News of Kerkorian’s exit, an indication he lost confidence in the company’s ability to recover, helped push Ford […]
Economic inequality is growing in the world’s richest countries, particularly in the United States, jeopardizing the American Dream of social mobility just as the world tilts toward recession, a 30-nation report said Tuesday. The gap between rich and poor has widened over the last 20 years in nearly all the countries studied, even as trade and technological advances have spurred rapid growth in their economies. With job losses and home foreclosures skyrocketing and many of these countries now facing recession, policy makers must act quickly to prevent a surge in populist and protectionist sentiment as was seen following the Great Depression, the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said. ‘What will happen if the next decade is not one of world growth but of world recession? If a rising tide didn’t lift all boats, how will they be affected by an ebbing tide?’ Oxford University economist Anthony Atkinson said at a conference at the OECD headquarters. In a 20-year study of its member countries, the OECD found inequality had increased in 27 of its 30 members as top earners’ incomes soared while others’ stagnated. The United States has the highest inequality and poverty rates […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
