An Aircraft Design That’ll Make You Love the Middle Seat. No Joke | WIRED

April 4, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

YOUR HEART THUMPS, then catches. Your breath shortens. Beads of sweat emerge at your temples. Your eyes scan back and forth over the airplane-shaped diagram. Surely there must be at least one solitary aisle or window seat available. The world can’t be so cruel as to wedge you into the middle.

But if Molon Labe Designs gets its way, that panic could give way to placidity. The upstart Colorado aviation design firm wants to kill the middle seat’s middle child reputation. Its “stagger seat” concept sits slightly below and behind its neighbors, so it can be three inches wider than its window- and aisle-adjacent companions. It has its own armrests.

This Female Founder Is Bringing Bees Back To Calgary And Rethinking Honey Production | Forbes

April 4, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Alberta is one of the largest honey producing regions in the world with over 600,000 colonies of bees divided amongst 7,000 beekeepers. Yet Eliese Watson, a native of the prairies, says that modern day residents of Calgary have lost touch with the surrounding agricultural lifestyle.

Bees, she says, are an easy way for urbanites to reconnect with nature. That’s why in 2010, she started an urban beekeeping company, ABC Apiaries, with a $5,000 grant. Seven years later, she has 60 colonies, and produces over 2,000 pounds of honey in a year. But it’s not the traditional honey production; her hives are scattered throughout the city, on rooftops, in urban spaces, and in backyards.

“In my head, it’s like a non-profit, where we just focus on getting people comfortable with beekeeping and urban hives. But I run it as a company,” she says, seated at one of Calgary’s hippest coffee shops.

The Smart Way to Pay Taxes on Retirement Savings | Inc.com

April 4, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Tax season is complicated enough without your having to worry about retirement planning. But if you want to maximize your future spending money, this is exactly the right time to review the taxes you’re paying–or not paying–on what you’re saving.

Just ask Phil Holthouse, co-founder of Los Angeles accounting firm Holthouse Carlin & Van Trigt. You should never “let the tax tail wag the investment dog,” he says, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore the issue, either. “No one wants to pay more than the law requires, but a lot of people do,” he says.

Structuring your retirement accounts with taxes in mind can land you hundreds of thousands of dollars more in spending power. And it can ensure that you have the right amount of money at the right point in your retirement

How to Convert Abandoned Visitors | The Startup Magazine

April 3, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Your site is performing, and you are succeeding in bringing traffic to your site – kudos to you! But wait, then you notice they are dropping off…

This is not a problem that you are alone in experiencing; it’s reported that nearly 68% of online shopping carts are abandoned. In fact, in some cases – they don’t even put items in the cart before they leave; two years ago, the dismal figure of international shoppers that made it to the court was 5.31%.

Just like humans, websites to have issues with abandonment, but there are three underused strategies you can use to retrieve and convert these customers while keeping one step ahead of the competition.

Stores are scooping up A La Mode’s nut-free ice cream | Money CNN

April 3, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Two years ago, restauranteur Marc Roth didn’t know anything about making ice cream.

Today he’s the founder of A La Mode, a completely nut-free, egg-free and sesame-free ice cream that has generated sales of $2 million.

The brand, which has a successful shop in New York City, is already in more than 1,450 stores around the country.

Restaurants are Roth’s passion. By 35, he had launched and sold three of them in New York. Roth’s WestSide Steakhouse was his last one, and it was pivotal because it allowed him to expand as an entrepreneur.

Recruiting College Students? 3 Tips for Finding Entry-Level Talent | Business News Daily

March 31, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

With college graduation just around the corner, the job market is about to be flooded with entry-level talent looking for full-time jobs and internships. For employers, taking advantage of the influx of newly minted professionals can be as simple as having a good campus recruiting strategy in place.

“College recruiting is a smart, predictable, scalable way to bring talent into any organization,” said Tey Scott, director of talent acquisition at LinkedIn. “Smart companies know they need to invest in early-in-career talent to compete in the long term. In tech in particular, getting early-in-career technical talent in the door may be the difference between being able to scale their company fast enough to deliver on product road maps or not.”

What to Expect Now that Internet Providers Can Collect and Sell Your Web Browser History | MSN

March 30, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

After Congress handed President Trump legislation Tuesday that would wipe away landmark privacy protections for Internet users, we received a lot of reader questions about what happens next. The legislation makes it easier for Internet providers, such as AT&T and Verizon, to collect and sell information such as your Web browsing history and app usage. But let’s get into the details: You wanted to know whether the measure could help the government dig up dirt on people. You asked how to protect your privacy. And some of you even asked if it would be possible to buy up the online browsing histories of Trump or members of Congress.

To find out, I spoke to a number of privacy and security experts who have been following these issues closely in the public and the private sectors.

US Hiker Given Warning for Rescuing ‘Abandoned’ Bear Cub | BBC News

March 30, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A hiker in the US has avoided criminal charges after rescuing what appeared to be an abandoned black bear cub from an Oregon trail.

Corey Hancock, 41, spotted the bear lying on his back alone when returning from a hike on Monday evening.

He said he believes the malnourished bear cub’s mother had purposefully left him or been shot by hunters.

It was initially suggested he could face charges for removing the cub from his habitat.