Alien-Themed Businesses to Make Hay From the Government’s ‘Flying Objects’ Report | Inc.com

July 8, 2021July 7, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Few phenomena excite the American public like aliens. And with last month’s publication of the U.S. government’s highly anticipated Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena document–referred colloquially the “flying objects” report–alien-themed businesses are predicting a surge in tourism, and with it, rocketing sales.

“People will start coming after they read the report,” says Cindy Campbell, the owner of the Atomic Inn, an alien-themed hotel located a few miles from Area 51, a United States Air Force facility, formally known as the Nevada Test and Training Range. The site was developed during the Cold War as a testing and aircraft development facility, and has since become the seat of popular UFO conspiracy theories. “Area 51 is extremely famous, and people will travel here just to be close to it,” she says.

SoftBank buys perpetual Yahoo trademark license for $1.6 billion | TechCrunch

July 6, 2021July 5, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

As firework volleys launched out of New York City harbor last night, a very different celebration was likely taking place just a few blocks down the street at Verizon’s official headquarters in Midtown.

The telco, which owns TechCrunch for hopefully just a few more weeks pending the close of the Apollo acquisition of our parent company Verizon Media, announced overnight that it had signed an agreement with Z Holdings, a division of Japan’s SoftBank Group, to sell trademarks within the Japan market around the Yahoo brand and related tech infrastructure for approximately $1.6 billion.

These Are The Ten Most Profitable Companies In Texas | Entrepreneur

July 1, 2021June 28, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Texas is the world’s ninth-largest economy. As of 2019, the U.S., with a GDP size of $21.4 trillion, is the world’s largest economy, followed by China, Japan and Germany.

As per the IMF ranking of global economies, Texas, with a GDP of $1.9 trillion, is technically at ninth place with Italy being at eighth with a GDP of $2 trillion, and Brazil at tenth with a GDP of $1.8 trillion. Moreover, the state is ranked among the top in the U.S. when it comes to growth prospects, owing to robust employment and income growth forecasts. Texas is home to several world-class companies, and last year, many companies have either moved to or expanded their operations in the state. Let’s take a look at the ten most profitable companies in Texas.

“Smartpen” could monitor patients’ anesthetic levels during surgery | New Atlas

June 30, 2021June 28, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Everyone responds to general anesthetics differently, which can make administering the correct dose tricky. A new device is designed to help, by continuously monitoring anesthetic levels in patients’ bloodstreams during surgical procedures.

Ordinarily, anesthesiologists base initial dosages on factors such as age, weight and gender.

One thing that they don’t know ahead of time, however, is how much of the drug will end up actually circulating within an individual patient’s bloodstream. For this reason, they may end up administering supplemental doses of the anesthetic during the operation, in order to keep the patient asleep and unaware. For safety reasons, though, they should still be using as little of the drug as possible.

Stocks week ahead: Wall Street dealmakers have never been busier | CNN

June 29, 2021June 27, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

There’s never been a better time for companies to raise funding from hot markets or make moves to scoop up their competitors.

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That’s been a huge boon to investment bankers, who are gearing up for another summer of juggling dealmaking with vacations.

What’s happening: The US market for initial public offerings has been on fire this year, setting post-2000 records in the first and second quarters, according to Renaissance Capital. In the April to June period alone, there were 113 IPOs raising nearly $40 billion.

“It was the busiest quarter for IPOs in over two decades, a record that was just broken last quarter, as well as the biggest second quarter by proceeds ever,” the group wrote in a report published Friday.

Lay’s is building community soccer fields out of recycled potato chips | Fast Company

June 25, 2021June 24, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

As the next generation of young soccer whizzes in South Africa breathlessly out-dribble opponents and score mesmerizing free kicks, many of those future Cristiano Ronaldos might already be showcasing those tricks on a pitch made of potato chip bags.

Chips company Lay’s is making inroads into its impact goals by, well, putting up goals. In a project that combines environmental sustainability with community youth engagement, the salty-snack giant is partnering with its longtime Champions League partner, UEFA, and grassroots soccer organization Streetfootballworld to provide the world’s first five soccer fields made out of potato chip bags.

Say Goodbye To Bitcoin And Say Hello To The Digital Dollar | Forbes

June 25, 2021June 24, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday we talked about the prospects of a digital dollar coming down the pike.

It seems clear that global governments will not allow non-sovereign forms of money to continue to proliferate.

The Senate Banking committee’s hearing on the digital dollar two weeks ago was not only a public exploration and introduction to the concept a central bank-backed digital currency, the hearing was also used as a platform to publicly assassinate the viability of the private (“bogus” in the words of Senator Warren) cryptocurrency market (bitcoin, stablecoins, etc.).

Student Loan Cancellation Denied By Supreme Court—Here’s Why | Forbes

June 23, 2021June 22, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The U.S. Supreme Court denied a student loan borrower’s petition to get student loan cancellation.

Here’s what you need to know—and what it means for your student loans.

Student Loans

A student loan borrower, Thelma McCoy, petitioned the Court to have nearly $350,000 of student loans discharged after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that her student loans could not be discharged in bankruptcy. The Court denied McCoy’s petition for certiorari. McCoy borrowed $175,000 of student loans to earn a college degree, master’s degree and Ph.D. While earning her Ph.D., McCoy sustained injuries and said she could not find employment due to her disabilities. McCoy argued that paying student loans created an undue financial hardship. Unable to pay her student loans, McCoy filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in federal court in Texas to discharge her student loans, which had grown with interest to $350,000. However, McCoy did not get student loan cancellation. Why?

How Windows 11 Will Improve Intel Alder Lake Performance | Digital Trends

June 22, 2021June 21, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Rumors are running wild after the recent Windows 11 leak. A near-final version of the upcoming operating system has been made public, revealing some exciting new futures. As the leaked ISO continues being tested, more information emerges, including hints that Microsoft might be preparing Windows 11 for Intel’s Alder Lake and Lakefield hybrid processors.

Intel Alder Lake, as the successor to Intel’s Lakefield hybrid CPUs, is said to also utilize the same big.LITTLE architecture. What this means is that it will feature a mix of cores, some optimized for high performance, and some for high efficiency. This is a technology already utilized in some mobile devices, but it will likely hit a wider PC-related market with the release of Alder Lake.

Dental Clinics Are Returning to Normal | The Startup Magazine

June 22, 2021June 21, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The success of the vaccination rollout in the United States and the rest of the world, has allowed states and the federal government to begin a process of easing restrictions. At the height of the pandemic, many people had deferred their visits to the dentist, either because of unfounded fears that dentists had higher infection rates than other healthcare professionals (though evidence now suggests the contrary), or simply because restrictions prevented them from accessing dental care. We are now at a point in which the evidence shows that dental clinics are very safe, and the easing of restrictions makes dental care more accessible than at any other time since the pandemic struck.

Dentists have historically taken the highest mitigation measures to offset the risk of infection of any disease during dental procedures. Dental procedures generate high volumes of aerosols, and this carries with it the risk of catching a range of diseases. So even before Covid-19 emerged, dentists took a lot of precautions to assure their safety and that of their patients.

Dentists wore personal protective equipment (PPE) and clothing to ensure that they were protected from aerosols and to ensure that sanitary conditions were pristine. Anyone who visited dentists prior to the pandemic will know that dentists wore surgical masks, gloves and coats before that was recommended by the Centres for Disease Control as a necessary mitigation measure.