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Composting is the ultimate act of green frugality, turning unwanted organic material into rich humus for use in the garden rather than sealing it in plastic trash bags to spend eternity in a landfill. But for some of us, composting is something even more special — a hobby, a passion, almost a religion. I’ve even named my beloved compost pile; “Gomer,” as in Gomer Pyle (get it?).

As compost enthusiasts say, “A rind is a terrible thing to waste.” But composting fruit and veggie rinds and other trimmings, along with leaves, grass clippings, shredded paper, and cardboard is only the beginning.

Here are some compostable items you might not think about:

Dryer lint
If you must dry your clothes in an electric clothes dryer (it significantly shortens the lifespan of many garments, plus wastes energy and money) instead of using a clothesline, at least compost the lint.

Hair and fur
With my receding hairline, I don’t have a lot of my own hair to share with Gomer, but our four cats shed enough to make up for it. Hair adds nitrogen and other beneficial nutrients to compost.

Fireplace ashes
Wood ashes (including ashes from charcoal made from wood) help to retain moisture in the compost pile. Wood ashes also contain potassium, a major plant nutrient that can be beneficial depending on the soil type.

Jell-O (gelatin)
“There’s always room for Jell-O.” I recently found a bowl of old, rubberized Jell-O in the back of the fridge and decided to give it Gomer as a special treat.

Cotton, wool, and silk clothing/fabric
After a long and productive second-life as dust rags, worn-out clothing made of natural fibers will decompose faster if you shred them before composting.

Full vacuum cleaner bags
Paper vacuum cleaner bags and their contents — as well as all species of non-synthetic dust bunnies — are welcome in the compost pile.

Nail clippings
The byproducts of pedicures, manicures, and even pet nails — are all compostable, provided that they’re polish-free.

Rope and string
Rope and twine made out of natural fibers (e.g., cotton, hemp, jute, and manila ropes) will decompose in the compost pile.

Leather goods and clothing
From leftover lederhosen to a leather glove that lost its mate, natural leather products will decompose (albeit slowly) in the compost pile.

Skunky beer, wine, and corks
Gomer likes a brewski once in awhile. Leftover alcohol (if such a thing exists) can be added to the compost pile, as can the corks from the bottles.

Pet food leftovers
Dry dog, cat, and fish food is OK for the compost pile (bury it in the pile to deter rodents and other unwanted pests), and even too-chewed rawhide dog chews can be composted.

Spoiled milk and dairy products
Meat products are generally a compost pile no-no, but spoiled dairy products like moldy cheese, sour milk, and yogurt are okay.

White glue and masking tape
Check for toxic ingredients, but most white glues (like Elmer’s brand) and paper masking tape can be composted. (by the way, Post-It-Notes can be, too.)

Teabags and coffee grounds
Of course at our house, we use them at least twice before they’re ready for the compost pile. And remember that paper coffee filters can be composted too.

Latex condoms and cotton/cardboard feminine hygiene products
Yes, it’s true. Yes, it’s gross.

Cotton balls and Q-Tips
Just make sure that your cotton swabs like Q-Tips are 100% cotton and have cardboard or wooden sticks (NOT plastic).

Seaweed/kelp
If you live on an ocean or other waterway and your shoreline is being invaded by washed up seaweed or kelp, add it to the compost pile — it’s often used in organic fertilizers.

Eggshells
Eggshells have many great uses around the house and garden, but composting them is an eggcellent idea, too, since they add calcium to the soil.

Stale bread and other grain products
Of course, I have too many other uses for stale bread to go feeding it to Gomer, but leftover grain-based food products, including pasta, rice, cereal, crackers, pizza crusts, etc., can be composted (again, bury them in the pile to deter unwanted pests).

Organic holiday decorations
If you’re not going to eat your Halloween jack-o-lantern like I do, it can be composted, along with wreaths and pine boughs from Christmas, latex balloons from birthday parties, and that long-dead bouquet you paid too much for at Valentine’s Day. Next year, try planting a rose bush for her instead, using the compost from your own Gomer.

Jeff Yeager is the author of the book The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches and the forthcoming The Cheapskate Next Door. His website is www.UltimateCheapskate.com. Follow Jeff Yeager on Twitter and friend Jeff on Facebook. Friend TDG on Facebook and follow TDG on Twitter.

More from The Daily Green

• 10 Ways to Spruce Up Your Outdoors
• How to Start an Organic Garden
• Easy Container Gardening for Any Space
• Everything You Need for Glorious Gardens
• Real People Making a Difference

Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc

Our own Gregory White appeared on Russia Today’s The Alyona Show discussing the current economic situation in Europe and how the austerity programs, which have already be enacted in Europe, will soon be enacted in the U.S.

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By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

A nationwide service outage continues to impact customers of AT&T’s VoIP-based U-Verse Voice service — users of its fiber-to-the-home TV and broadband network for phone service as well. Now home-based VoIP phone users are waiting in Internet chat queues numbering hundreds of users long seeking solutions, and at least a few customers are reporting they’re waiting on hold from their (working) Verizon Wireless phones.

Users of AT&T’s U-talk Peer-to-Peer Forum are being advised to register their complaints with someone named “David” in the company’s Tier 2 Technical Support office. This as users in Memphis, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, and elsewhere continue to report no service, although customers in some metropolitan areas such as Sacramento report service has been restored.

Though there has been no official explanation, customers who have gotten through to support personnel have been advised that the cause is some sort of server outage. That diagnosis would appear to be contradicted by evidence that service has been restored to some areas while still down in others; and also that the outage does not appear to affect TV or broadband service.

In lieu of an official word, news of the service outage was first confirmed by contributors to Broadband Reports, then later broadcast over the Associated Press wire. One form of the AP story reads that AT&T restored service to its customers by 2:45 pm ET Wednesday afternoon. Although the AP story contained a dateline of 5:57 pm CT / 6:57 pm ET Wednesday evening, the story actually ran at around noon Wednesday — almost three hours prior to the time in which the story reports services were restored.

“Funny how AT&T doesn’t communicate with transparency,” one U-talk forum commenter noted. “An announcement on their website would go a long way in fostering confidence in their service and their ability to serve their clientele.”

AT&T estimated last January that the number of U-verse customers also subscribing to U-verse Voice surpassed the 1 million mark that month; U-verse service itself currently reaches 2 million customers according to AT&T’s December 2009 estimates. Today’s service outage may give more impetus to a growing number of those 1 million customers who say they may cancel their Voice service, after having planned to pay fixed rates of $25 or $40 per month extra and ending up paying more.

Last week, prior to the service outage, an AT&T U-verse customer reported to the company’s forum of having told the carrier’s customer representative, “If prices keep going up we will get rid of everything. Our bill has been running $162 and some change. We don’t watch that much TV especially this time of year, and with BlackBerrys don’t use the home Internet much either. As such, we are finding it hard to part with the money for what we get in return. We are looking into an antenna and setting up a computer with media center as a DVR with Netflix subscription.”

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
















AT&T U-verse – Verizon Wireless – Telecommunication – Netflix – Voice over Internet Protocol

Ford is all about its “kinetic” design language; however, in the past the brand has felt somewhat restricted in pushing its creativity to the limits. According to J Mays, Ford’s group vice president for design and its chief creative officer, the sale of former PAG (Premier Automotive Group) brands including Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin and Volvo has allowed designers to be a little more… well “creative.”

Mays said that it was difficult to oversee the designs of several different marquees.

“It was like painting the Golden Gate Bridge. I would get to one end and the other end would already start rusting, so I’d run back and start going again,” he said. “I was an inch deep and a mile wide. I would go from one review to the next, and then start the whole thing over again.”

Mays says that since Ford dropped PAG and pursuing its global vehicle strategy, designers have been able to explore their desires in kinetic design.

“There’s a huge array of creativity afforded to our design team,” he said. “Kinetic design applies to both exteriors and interiors, but there’s a framework that keeps them inside of the brand parameters.”

The most recent example of this was seen in the Ford Start Concept.

Ford Start Concept:

– By: Kap Shah

Source: AutoCar

The next Jetta, aka the New Compact Sedan, is almost ready to roll.

VW design once again is converging with Audi’s, as evidenced by these latest spy shots of the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta. But rather than swiping blatant cues like the horse-collar grille shape, as was done for the last-gen Jetta, this familial resemblance is based more on proportions and crisp lines. Indeed, this Jetta prototype looks more than a little Audi A4–esque from most angles, although that’s not really a surprise. Since the first VW Jetta appeared in the early 1980s as a wimpy four-door Rabbit derivative, the Jetta has been on an upward march in class and elegance. And based on what we saw at this year’s Detroit auto show in the form of the fetching NCC hybrid concept, the newest one would be perhaps the best-looking yet.

Keep Reading: 2011 Volkswagen Jetta Nearly Undisguised – Spied

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Seven years ago, Global Velocity’s data security technology was an interesting invention in Washington University’s Advanced Research Lab. Now it’s the basis of a company with 17 employees, $21 million in funding from investors, and the beginnings of a commercial customer base. The path that Global Velocity has taken from university lab to growing company is not a well-worn one in St. Louis. For various reasons, ranging from a lack of funding sources to a conservative, risk-averse local culture, university-linked start-ups have been relatively rare here. It’s certainly not for a lack of inventiveness. When research universities are ranked by federal grants received or discoveries made, Washington-U often makes the top 10.

When it comes to transforming those discoveries into revenue-producing businesses, though, the university falls to the middle of the pack. In a 2006 study by the Milken Institute, Washington-U was No. 8 on a measure of basic biotechnology research but No. 66 on a measure of technology transfer and commercialization. Although Bradley Castanho, the university’s assistant vice chancellor for research, has the job of improving the latter score, creating companies isn’t something the school can do on its own. “It’s a push-pull exercise,” Castanho says. “You have to have somebody who’s an entrepreneur who sees the value of the technology and sees how it could become a viable business…. Our role is to put it in the hands of people who can be successful.”

The university has trained almost 50 faculty members in the basics of starting a business. Its Bear Cub Fund makes development grants of $25,000 to $50,000. A partnership with the BioGenerator, a privately funded technology development organization, gives biotech companies some mentoring and the opportunity for additional money. Castanho adds, however, that the community still needs to pull technology out of the university. He says the biggest difference between Washington University and an institution like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — No. 1 on Milken’s index — isn’t culture. Rather, it’s that MIT is surrounded by VCs and businesspeople who compete to spot lucrative opportunities. “From a community point of view, you need entrepreneurs, you need capital, and you need facilities to have a successful start-up,” Castanho says. “Some of those things are probably more challenging in a region like St. Louis that’s still coming up the learning curve.”

Source:  STLtoday.com

When it comes to founding spinouts, universities normally provide the technology while companies take on the business development. The School of Entrepreneurship at Sweden’s Chalmers University has reversed that flow, with the academic world picking up technology from industry and providing the business development needed to carry the innovation to market. To date, this business model has driven the creation of a portfolio of 50 companies valued at €70 million. In the case of the spinout Lamera, the model has proved to be especially efficient.

In 2004, the Volvo Group asked the School of Entrepreneurship to explore the potential of a technology previously invented in one of its labs. Engineers Mattias Grufberg and Anders Axelsson, then students in the school, were assigned to analyze the technology’s potential, write a business plan, and eventually launch a start-up as the basis of their Masters degrees. The technology, called Hybrix, was developed by Volvo researcher Roland Gustavsson to reduce the weight of Volvo cars without shifting from steel to aluminum, as many competitors had done. Inspired by the structure of birds’ bones, Hybrix is a “microsandwich” of hollow metal that looks and behaves like solid metal but is much lighter. Nevertheless, the innovation had never made the transition into the car plants.

Chalmers’ School of Entrepreneurship had developed a unique way to translate laboratory inventions into successful, marketed products. Every year, it launched five spinouts that transform students into real-life entrepreneurs. In its model, the owner of the IP — the Volvo Group in the case of Lamera — keeps 45% of the newly created company while the founding entrepreneurs and the university share the remaining 55%. “For students it means a job and ownership,” Grufberg explains. To be chosen as entrepreneurs, however, students must develop a solid business plan.

With oil prices starting to shoot up, Grufberg and Axelsson realized that any technology that could reduce the weight of planes, trucks, wagons, boats, and cars would be welcomed. Recognizing that the transport industries also have high barriers to entry, they focused on a niche. “In the car industry, a weight reduction of one kilo translates into savings between €5 and €15 over the lifespan of the vehicle,” Grufberg says. “But in the aircraft industry, one kilo less translates into a savings of between €100 and €140 on kerosene a year.” So a ton less on a 361-ton Airbus A380 saves €140,000 a year for the carriers. Given this value proposition, Lamera knew where to focus. With a technology that can reduce the weight of steel by 70% and aluminum by 30%, Grufberg and Axelsson had a clear business plan that convinced not only the Volvo Group but also Midroc New Technology — the venture arm of billionaire Mohammed el Amoudi — to take a stake in Lamera, which has raised €2 million to date. With its first factory ready to start shipping, Lamera also has proven the value of its business plan.

Source: Science Business

Interesting Reuters story via ForexLive

Greece is trying to renegotiate the terms of a drastic pension reform required under the terms of an economic rescue deal agreed this month with the EU and the IMF, senior government officials said.

In the first sign of glitches over the 3-year bailout plan, officials said they wanted the EU and IMF to agree full pensions should be payable after 37 years of contributions instead of 40, as set out in the deal, and allow the reform to be implemented later than foreseen.

Definitely something to watch

Read the whole thing >

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Luke Timmerman wrote:

aTyr Pharma, the San Diego-based developer of a new class of protein drugs, said yesterday that John Mendlein has joined the company as executive chairman of the board. Mendlein is currently the chairman of Fate Therapeutics and Alevium Pharmaceuticals. He was previously the CEO of Adnexus Therapeutics before that company was sold to Bristol-Myers Squibb for more than $400 million. aTyr Pharma was co-founded by Paul Schimmel, the prolific biotech entrepreneur, and a scientist at The Scripps Research Institute.

UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS

A “coalition agreement” has been struck between 13 universities in the U.K. and British Design Innovation (BDI), the trade organization for industrial design, service design, and innovation consulting groups. The universities have joined BDI in forming a national University Design Industry Partnership Scheme (UDIPS) — the first of its kind in the UK — in a bid to create world-changing innovations, products and, processes. The scheme hopes to leverage the value that private-sector industrial design companies can bring to discovery-led university research by acting as a bridge between the technology and consumer-focused market applications and between originators and industry.

Each of the UDIPS universities was hand-picked to reflect a representative mix of disciplines, students, staff, geographical spread, and commitment to collaborative innovation. They include the Universities of Anglia Ruskin, Brunel, Cambridge, Cranfield, Hertfordshire, Loughborough, Middlesex, Nottingham Trent, Queen’s Belfast, Staffordshire, Sussex, the Open University, and the University for the Creative Arts (UCA). The coalition was formalized following a national conference co-hosted by BDI and UCA thought to be the first national face-to-face debate between universities and strategic designers in the U.K. “Collectively, BDI members share 3,000 years of IP commercialization experience that has generated over £1,000,000,000 in revenues for organizations of all sizes, in all markets,” explains Maxine Horn, BDI’s CEO. “Our proven knowledge transfer processes are accredited by the Institute of Knowledge Transfer, and our designers’ abilities to validate the visual business case not only assists universities, spinouts, start-ups, and SMEs to communicate their potential to investors, venture capitalists, and other stakeholders but also prevents market application mistakes from occurring.”

A report summarizing the context for a national strategic UDIPS was published in March. (Click here to view the report.)  Action points arising from the conference included the need for clearer terminology, roles, and capabilities and the formulation of robust remuneration models, rules of engagement, and collaborative working practice business models.

Source:  British Design Innovation

Brad Lidge(notes) is once again slouching from the shadows, threatening to blow saves for the Phillies. Lidge has told reporters that he hopes to return from the DL in time for next week’s series at Atlanta.

After receiving a cortisone shot in his surgically repaired right elbow on May 17, Lidge is apparently feeling much better. He threw a 25-pitch bullpen session on Tuesday, and another is scheduled for Thursday. If all goes well, Lidge may make an appearance at Single-A over the weekend — so far this year, he’s actually pitched more innings for Clearwater (4.2) than for Philadelphia (3.1). 

And after the short rehab stint, he’ll presumably want his old job back.

But is there even a remote possibility that Lidge can pitch as brilliantly as interim closer Jose Contreras(notes) has to this point in the season? (OK, maybe there is, seeing as how no reasonable person thought Contreras himself could ever pitch this well). Jose has allowed just eight hits and one run over 14.1 innings, while striking out 20 batters and earning two saves. As we’ve mentioned before, the move to the ‘pen has allowed Contreras to throw harder than ever. He’s been ridiculously good. No one — except for a few thousand Lidge owners — wants to see him leave the ninth inning. 

Thankfully, Charlie Manuel won’t reassign Contreras to a lesser role right away. This from the Philadelphia Daily News:

Manager Charlie Manuel said his decision-making in tight games will depend largely on how Lidge performs after he recovers. But he also has said repeatedly he thinks the 38-year-old Contreras, who entered the season as a full-time reliever for the first time in this, his eighth season, has the potential to be a successful closer.

"We’re trying to build him up where he can go at least 3 or 4 days in a row," Manuel said. "That’s a process, but stuff-wise, what he’s done so far, he’s been very good, and he’s got the talent to pitch at the end of the game and to be a closer."

Now that Alfredo Simon(notes) is on the DL for Baltimore and Carlos Villanueva(notes) is losing his tenuous grip on the ninth in Milwaukee, Contreras is the last of the SP-eligible closers. Stay strong, Jose. Lidge has a mysterious hold over Manuel, though, so he can never be written off. 

(And yes, we’re paid a little extra to write about the Phillies’ bullpen. That should be obvious by now).

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Photo via US Presswire

Chicago-based Intellectual Property Exchange International (IPXI), which bills itself as “the world’s first financial exchange focused on intellectual property,” is laying the groundwork for what it anticipates will be a formal launch later this year. The exchange will allow owners of IP to monetize their assets much as firms do now on the major stock exchanges, while giving investors access to trading, investment, and arbitrage opportunities. “We are trying to address some of the causes of inefficiency in intellectual property — lack of standardization, efficiency, transparency, and prejudice against smaller IP holders,” explained Gerard Pannekoek, president and CEO of IPXI, during a recent webinar sponsored by the firm.

Pannekoek used Ford Motor Company as a hypothetical example of an IP holder who might participate in IPXI. “Say Ford needed a market for a valve designed for automobiles and light truck engines that burn ethanol,” he posited. “The IP owner would form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) jointly with the exchange to assign the patent portfolio and grant the right to sublicense Unit License Rights (ULRs). So, Ford would contact us, create the SPV, and then proceed with the help of an IP advisor or investment bank to put together a prospectus.” Such a process, he explained, is best compared to a public offering — of patents. “Instead of a bilateral transaction, they list the IP on the exchange and start with an initial offering of Unit License Rights (the right for a buyer to use a technology or patent in the manufacture or sale of a product); potential buyers might be Nissan, BMW, or Mercedes, for example. All they have to do in principle is call their broker, and depending on their anticipated needs for months or years to come instruct them to purchase a number of unit license rights consistent with their anticipated use. So, for example, if BMW expected to build 5 million trucks requiring this valve, they would instruct their broker to purchase 5 million units.”

Pannekoek anticipates that the units would be offered in several tranches on a sliding price scale, with each tranche having a higher cost per ULR. “This is a typical arrangement; it rewards early buyers,” he explained. The exchange will then create a secondary market, providing buyers with the opportunity to either purchase additional ULRs from other market participants or, in the event they have overbought, to sell them to other users or institutional investors. A detailed article on the new IP exchange, including analysis of its utility for TTOs, appears in the May issue of Technology Transfer Tactics. To start a subscription, including access to the entire three years of archived articles filled with success strategies and best practices, CLICK HERE.

It seems that Motorola is pumping out a lot of Android handsets as of late, and another new phone has been outed thanks to the Bluetooth SIG.  The new Motorola XT502, titled Greco by the file name on the Bluetooth SIG, is a touchscreen device running Android, though we’re unsure which version of the OS is on it.  The quad-band GSM device has a touchscreen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB, a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack, and a camera, possibly with a flash.  The model number of the device suggests that it will launch in China since many other Moto devices with model numbers XT have launched there in the past.  However, it has 3G bands compatible with AT&T here in the States, so we may see a launch here some time in the future.

Via Unwired View

Next month will see our cloud computing conference, Structure, return for its third year, which got me thinking about the impact of cloud computing on my web working.

Coupled with the increase in Internet bandwidth, cloud computing has facilitated the development of many of the fantastic web apps that I use and love today as services like Amazon’s EC2 and S3 and Google’s App Engine has lowered the app vendors’ startup costs and provided reliable scalability for when their user bases grow.

When it comes to mobility and collaboration, cloud computing has delivered advances that I already take for granted. Because I primarily work in the cloud, I can access my work from anywhere, using a multitude of devices. This is beneficial beyond just being able to hop between a desktop machine and a laptop. When most of one’s tools live online, switching from PC to Mac (or vice versa) is much less burdensome than it could have been in the past. And if I suddenly found that my main laptop had died, my Time Machine backup was corrupted and I only had in iPad  to work on — as happened to designer Shane Pearlman recently — it wouldn’t be an absolute disaster.

Having my work available online makes collaboration far easier than it ever was before. Rather than emailing files to my colleagues and trying (and failing) to keep track of all the different versions, using a tool like Google Docs means I can have one document that everyone can access — it’s even possible to have more than one person editing that document at any one time, if I wish. Couple that kind of access with project management and corporate social networking features and collaboration with the rest of my team, which is spread all over the globe, is a snap. And developers have seemingly only scratched the surface of the collaborative possibilities.

Personally, I love having all of my main work tools available in the cloud. It means I can always get at my work, whether I’m logging on with either of my laptops, on my phone, on a desktop machine or even using someone else’s computer — I simply open a browser, load up a few tabs and I’m ready to go.  If a hard drive failure or some other catastrophe strikes my computer, I know that my work is safe and I can get back up and running with minimal downtime.

While this veritable explosion of web apps has made all of our web working lives considerably easier, it’s also made things cheaper. While running a virtual team like WebWorkerDaily’s would still be possible without the cloud, it would probably be a lot more expensive. Instead of using an array of fairly inexpensive cloud-based tools, not only would we have to either buy or develop all the software we need, we’d also have to have the infrastructure on which to run it and hire additional staff just to keep the systems running. Without the cloud, many of the virtual businesses that have sprung up over the past few years wouldn’t exist, because the costs would be too prohibitive. And I probably wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now.

Of course, working in the cloud is not without its drawbacks and risks. It requires an Internet connection, and such connectivity is not yet ubiquitous. Data portability is also an issue, because once you start using a particular web app, it can be tricky to move your data to another service. There’s also the question of trusting web app vendors with your data — what happens if the vendor goes bust, corrupts your data somehow, or is hacked? Many of these issues can be mitigated, however — by having appropriate local backup strategies, for example — and some of them are being addressed by web app vendors themselves.

Cloud computing has clearly had a huge impact on my working life over the past few years, but I wanted to get the thoughts of the WWD readership: How has cloud computing changed the way that you work?

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According to insiders at Molsheim, France, Bugatti has produced an 800-hp electric supercar prototype, which may never be displayed to the public… at least that’s what the sources told AutoExpress.

The working electric supercar Bugatti is said to be built on the chassis of a Bentley Continental GT and features an advanced lithium-ion battery pack and two huge powerful electric-motors that can deliver a neck-snapping 1,622 lb-ft of torque from 0 mph.

Why is it that we may never get to see the electric supercar from Bugatti? Insiders say that the model is being built just to study the technology and allow engineers to explore the ultimate performance available from an electric powertrain.

This isn’t the first time that Bugatti has ever built a battery-powered car. Ettore Bugatti, founder of the company, made an electric-car called the Type 56 that he used to tour around the factory in Molsheim, France.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: AutoExpress

The new Cosworth Impreza STI CS400 is the result of a collaboration between Subaru and Cosworth. The 2.5-litre turbocharged ‘Boxer’ engine is transformed to produce 33 per cent more power. The engine, which drives all four wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox, boasts an impressive 400 ps and the new model reaches 62 mph in just 3.7 seconds, going on to cover a quarter mile in 12.75 seconds at a terminal speed of 107 mph. Top speed is limited to 155mph.

The Subaru Cosworth Impreza STI CS400 production will be restricted to 75 cars and available in a choice of three exterior colors (Spark Silver, Dark Grey and San Remo Red), and is priced from £49,995 on-the-road.

Source: Lincah.Com – New Car and Used Car Pictures

In the Canadian Rockies, a horde of 91 squid-like animals have risen from the depths, millions years after their demise. This isn’t the plot of a terrible B-movie; it’s the doing of Martin Smith and Jean-Bernard Caron from the University of Toronto. Together, they have solved a mystery some 500 million years in the making.

Smith and Caron have been giving a makeover to an enigmatic creature called Nectocaris. Until recently, only one specimen had ever been found. Its poor state and puzzling combination of features made it nigh impossible to classify. But not anymore – by finding a staggering 91 extra specimens, Smith and Caron have revealed that Nectocaris is the earliest known cephalopod. It’s the great-great-great-(etc)-granduncle of today’s octopuses, squids and cuttlefish.

Nectocaris pteryx or “swimming crab with wings” was first described by Simon Conway Morris in 1976. It’s one of the stars of Canada’s Burgess Shale formation, arguably the planet’s most important collection of fossils. Its rocks preserve an extraordinary diversity of animals from the Cambrian period, some 505 million years ago. It was a time of great evolutionary experimentation, when the ancestors of all of today’s animal groups mingled with bizarre creatures that have left no living descendants.

Until now, Nectocaris’s allegiances have shifted all over the place. Conway Morris himself had no idea where to place it. Some scientists suggested that it was an early arthropod, a relative of crabs, shrimp and the like. Others placed it within the chordates, the group that includes us and all other back-boned animals. But Smith and Caron think that both of these possibilities are unlikely. Their new specimens reveal a host of features that are distinctly cephalopod-like.

Around four centimetres in length, Nectocaris had a soft, flattened, kite-shaped body with two fins running down its sides. Its small head was adorned with two long tentacles and two stalked eyes. Unlike the compound eyes that were common among Cambrian animals, probably had the camera-like structure that modern cephalopods use. From its neck protruded a flexible funnel, which opened into an internal cavity containing pairs of gills.

The funnel lay behind some of the earlier confusion about Nectocaris. In the original specimen, it was flattened so that it looked like a shield-like plate behind the eyes, reminscent of a crustacean’s body armour. The new specimens put paid to that interpretation. The structure is clearly a funnel, similar to those used by modern cephalopods. Nectocaris probably used it to swim the same way, giving it an extra boost of jet propulsion to complement the beating of its large fins.

It was either a predator or a scavenger, grabbing small, soft-bodied animals with its long tentacles. And it probably spent most of its time close to the seabed; some specimens had sediment-filled gill chambers, suggesting that they were caught by a sudden fatal mudslide. The sediment helped to preserve their bodies with such quality that 500 million years later, their position in the animal tree of life has suddenly become clearer.

Nectocaris’s new status pushes back the rise of the cephalopods by 30 million years, telling us that this popular group arose far earlier in earth’s history than previously thought. Smith and Caron think that two other Burgess Shale oddities – Vetustovermis and Petalilium were also members of the same family.

The revised family tree also repaints our picture of the group’s origins. Until now, scientists had thought that the group’s first representatives – the nautiloids – evolved from a group of creeping snail-like creatures called monoplacophorans, whose backs were covered with cap-like shells. These casings were gradually modified so that the animals could float. The living nautiluses and the extinct (but frequently fossilised) ammonites belong to the same shell-bearing group.

But Nectocaris had no shell despite being the earliest known cephalopod and an active swimmer. If Smith and Caron’s interpretation is right, the cephalopods didn’t inherit hard coverings from a monoplacophoran ancestor. These shells were a later innovation all their own.

There are a few parts to the puzzle that haven’t been fitted yet. For example, did the cephalopods start off with two tentacles as in Nectocaris only to evolve more over time, or were Nectocaris’s arms formed by fusing multiple pairs? Also, all modern cephalopods have a sharp, horny beak and a nightmarish, rasping tongue called the radula; it’s unclear if Nectocaris shared these features, for its mouthparts have never been well preserved.

The radula is a particularly big deal – it’s a uniting feature of all molluscs (the group that includes cephalopods, monoplacophorans, snails and others), including some that are supposedly more primitive than Nectocaris. Finding a radula would be the clincher for Smith and Caron’s argument; failing to do so puts their analysis in a tricky position.

Reference: Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature09068

Images: reconstruction by Marianne Collins; fossil photo by Jean-Bernard Caron

More on cephalopods:

• Scientists solve millennia-old mystery about the argonaut octopus
• Glowing squid use bacterial flashlights that double as an extra pair of “eyes”
• What the stomach contents of sperm whales tell us about giant squid and octopuses
• Camouflaged communication – the secret signals of squid
• A squid’s beak is a marvel of biological engineering

Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

Lucine Biotechnology founder Chandler Marrs won the “Best Overall” and “People’s Choice” awards at last night’s Tech Coast Angels’ Quick Pitch event in Irvine, CA. Most of the 12 finalists making 90-second presentations were entrepreneurs from Orange County and nearby communities. Lucine is developing low-cost salivary tests for horomone-related Obstetrics-Gynecology conditions. FlexCell Systems, a startup supplying electro-deposition equipment for silicon wafers, won “Best Presentation,” and Lillium Industries was named “Best Funding Opportunity” for its FDA-approved alternatives for improving lifespan.

BP will attempt to shut down the oil well that’s been spewing into the Gulf of Mexico later today. Step one: the “top-kill” method, wherein heavy drilling mud is forced deep into the well. Let’s pray it works. Video explanation: More »










Oil Spill – BP – Gulf of Mexico – Environment – Business

With the Massachusetts economy based on knowledge, the state has become home to some of the nation’s largest IP law firms, supported by growing numbers of technology specialists and attorneys with advanced degrees in science. The ability to practice business law successfully in Massachusetts now often relies on an attorney’s knowledge of molecular science, physics, or biology, which explains the past decade’s trend of students with advanced degrees in chemical engineering or molecular biology being recruited by law firms and heading to law school. “Many IP law firms like to have technologists onboard to provide real-world insights into technology,” says Dan Young, a patent agent with Boston’s Wolf Greenfield & Sacks PC, which is one of the largest IP law firms in the Northeast. “So our firm, like many others, recruits scientists directly out of grad school or industry to work on project teams as a scientific adviser. That role often enables them to evolve into a patent attorney, going to law school at night, paid for by the firm.”

Nathan Edwards, an associate at Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP in Cambridge — and a Harvard University graduate with a PhD in biology — says a technical background provides valuable, tangible advantages to his firm and its practice of law. “Our technologists enable our attorneys to jump into a case without the factual underpinnings of the case getting in the way,” he says. All agree that the speed of technological innovation is driving the law, as the courts struggle with issues for which there is no precedent, affected by laws decades old. “Everyone’s screaming about patent reform these days,” says Leigh Martinson, a partner at McDermott Will & Emery. “That’s a result of the law not keeping up with how fast technology is moving, so you’re hearing about patent reform in every Congressional session now. You’re seeing the courts taking matters into their own hands now, too. You’re seeing changes in how damages are calculated and what reasonable royalties are. If anything, changes in technology are driving changes in the law.”

Source: Mass High Tech Business News