This Mug Keeps Your Coffee a Constant Temperature for Hours | WIRED

October 26, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

IT WAS 2009 when Clay Alexander, a thermal scientist who had recently sold a lightbulb design to GE, was in his kitchen staring at his plate of recently cooked scrambled eggs, which had already gone cold. He thought to himself: “The plate hasn’t changed since the caveman days, when it was a flat stone.” Alexander engineers temperature controls for a living—surely, he thought, he could come up with a better plate than this primitive one.

Thoughts just like these have launched a thousand smart gadgets. Some are true game-changers (like the Nest Thermostat), others are just parodies of Silicon Valley’s get-rich-quick culture run amok. (Does the world really need Wi-Fi-enabled diapers?) As for Alexander, his musings led him to start Ember, a new company that plans on using thermal science to make our kitchen devices smarter and our food better.

Why Is Water So Essential for Life? | Live Science

October 23, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Water. It’s found everywhere on Earth, from the polar ice caps to steamy geysers. And wherever water flows on this planet, you can be sure to find life.

“When we find water here on Earth — whether it be ice-covered lakes, whether it be deep-sea hydrothermal vents, whether it be arid deserts — if there’s any water, we’ve found microbes that have found a way to make a living there,” said Brian Glazer, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who has studied astrobiology.

That’s why NASA’s motto in the hunt for extraterrestrial life has been “follow the water.”

10 Surprisingly Simple Strategies for Saving Money on Food – The Simple Dollar

October 23, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The big strategies are useful to think about, but it’s often the little specific tactics that you add to your routines that make a big difference. Whenever you find a little step you can take that just changes your normal routines a little bit to save you some cash while still giving you the non-financial results that you want, that’s a big victory. When that change also has a few additional side benefits, that’s an even bigger victory.

Here are 10 little tactics that Sarah and I use (or have used in the past) in our food routines at our house. These aren’t grand strategies – instead, they’re just little tactics that will save a dollar or two without changing the desired results, or tactics that cost the same but provide some other benefit that will save a few bucks down the road.

How to Argue With a Customer . . . and Live Happily Ever After | All Business

October 23, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

At some point a customer is going to disagree with you, oppose you, or argue with you. There’s a right way and a wrong way to have a disagreement with a customer.

Be Prepared

The best way to successfully have a difficult conversation is to avoid creating tension. The way you do that is to be ready and aware when the conversation is heading in the wrong direction–you don’t want to add to the tension.

Notice when your customer is talking louder or faster. Watch when he repeatedly points his finger at you. You have a problem when his face gets redder and he has more animated facial expressions. Stop thinking about your response when you see these signs and start listening very, very well.

From waste to water: It’s like Brita, for the ocean | CNN Money

October 22, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

750 million people don’t have access to clean water. Desalination, or the removal of salt from seawater, is not a new concept and has been widely criticized for the amount of energy used during the reverse osmosis process. Trevi Systems is using a new technology, “forward osmosis,” to make fresh water without the high price tag.

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Here’s What Really Happened at That Company That Set a $70,000 Minimum Wage | Inc.com

October 22, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Before Dan Price caused a media firestorm by establishing a $70,000 minimum wage at his Seattle company, Gravity Payments… before Hollywood agents, reality-show producers, and book publishers began throwing elbows for a piece of the hip, 31-year-old entrepreneur with the shoulder-length hair and Brad Pitt looks… before Rush Limbaugh called him a socialist and Harvard Business School professors asked to study his radical experiment in paying workers… an entry-level Gravity employee named Jason Haley got really pissed off at him.

It was late 2011. Haley was a 32-year-old phone tech earning about $35,000 a year, and he was in a sour mood. Price had noticed it, and when he spotted Haley outside on a smoking break, he approached. “Seems like something’s bothering you,” he said. “What’s on your mind?”

“You’re ripping me off,” Haley told him.

YouTube Will Completely Remove Videos Of Creators Who Don’t Sign Its Red Subscription Deal | TechCrunch

October 22, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

YouTube made its top video creators an offer they literally couldn’t refuse, or they’d have their content disappear. Today YouTube confirmed that any “partner” creator who earns a cut of ad revenue but doesn’t agree to sign its revenue share deal for its new YouTube Red $9.99 ad-free subscription will have their videos hidden from public view on both the ad-supported and ad-free tiers. That includes videos by popular comedians, musicians, game commentators, and DIY instructors, though not the average person that uploads clips.

It’s a tough pill to swallow that makes YouTube look like a bully. Though turning existing fans into paid subscribers instead of free viewers could earn creators more than the ad revenue, forcing them into the deal seems heavy-handed.

Google says the goal is to offer consistency, so people thinking about subscribing to Red don’t have to worry about their favorite content not being available in the ad-free service. But there’s no explanation why it couldn’t just flag videos of those who don’t sign the deal as “Not On Red”, and instead had to go with a sign-or-disappear strategy.

Forget Raises. Employers Lean on Health Benefits to Retain Workers | Bloomberg Business

October 21, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Wages are still stagnant, yet employers have found something else to help attract and retain employees: health-care benefits. A good insurance plan has become a more vital tool than ever for hiring, according to a recent survey from the Society of Human Resources.

In general, the study found, companies are leaning on benefits to woo current and potential employees. Of the 460 human resources professionals in the survey, 33 percent said that in the last year their organizations used benefits of some kind—ranging from paid leave to wellness programs—to keep employees at all levels from leaving the company. That marks a surge from just 18 percent who relied on benefits to retain staff in 2012.

Telecoms Mistakes to Avoid When Starting Your Business | The Startup Magazine

October 21, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

There is no getting away from it – telecommunications are an integral part of any business today, so much so that the internet has now been hailed as the “4th Utility” – because many businesses simply couldn’t function, let alone grow without it. The impending internet takeover, the ‘Internet of Things’ will eventually stretch to every corner of a business; so having the equipment and capacity at the very beginning of your business venture that will allow you to utilize the forth coming platforms and opportunities so that you can effectively reach the next generation of prospects and clients.

In the same way that a robust and future proofed telecoms infrastructure can provide an avenue for the acquisition of new business, a poor infrastructure can act as a barrier. In a monopolised industry that is constantly evolving and is confusing to most, how do we know which provider and services to choose? The team at Microbyte Solutions offer some advice.

Alabama judge orders defendants to give blood to avoid jail | BBC News

October 21, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

An Alabama judge encouraged defendants who could not pay court fines to donate blood rather than spending time in jail, a US civil rights group has said.

“If you do not have any money and you don’t want to go to jail, consider giving blood today,” Judge Marvin Wiggins said in a recording released by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

Some of the 500 defendants gave blood to avoid jail, but their debt remained.

The practice violates the US Constitution, legal experts said.

Judge Wiggins declined to comment on the allegations when contacted by the New York Times.

“Far too often in Alabama, we find that your legal rights are tied to your bank account,” Sara Zampierin, a staff attorney in SPLC’s Montgomery, Alabama, office said in a statement on Tuesday.