Category: Tools and Information

E-cigarettes’s Effect on Cells Similar to That of Tobacco Smoke | Scientific American

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Electronic cigarettes can change gene expression in a similar way to tobacco, according to one of the first studies to investigate the biological effects of the devices.

Presented at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting on 6 April in San Diego, California, the research looked at human bronchial cells that contained some mutations found in smokers at risk of lung cancer. The cells were immortalized, grown in culture medium that had been exposed to e-cigarette vapor and their gene expression profiled

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Uber vs. Lyft: The $500 Million Battle | WIRED

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The pink mustache on the front of the car is the giveaway. Lyft isn’t like a regular taxi company. In fact, Lyft will tell you it’s not a taxi company at all. Instead, the company markets itself as a way to share rides: regular people with their own cars making their empty seats available to strangers via an app in exchange for money.

All that sharing has apparently started to add up. Yesterday, Lyft announced it had made a deal for $250 million in new financing. The company plans to use the money to expand its ride-sharing service across the U.S. and around the world after growing from two cities to thirty over the past year, says CEO Logan Green. Ride-sharing rival Uber secured about the same amount last summer. Lyft tries to distinguish itself from Uber by emphasizing the “sharing” part of ride-sharing, while Uber focuses on the “ride.” Now that the two are on more equal financial footing, the contest can truly get underway to determine which vision will decide the future of transportation — and whether sharing will really have anything to do with it at all.

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How Google Picks New Employees (Hint: It’s Not About Your Degree) | forbes.com

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I’ve been having disagreements for years about the usefulness of college degrees as a measure of someone’s ability to be an outstanding employee.  Now, don’t get me wrong – I don’t think it’s ever a bad thing to have a degree.  I just think people make an assumption about formal education that’s often untrue.  They assume that if two people are exactly the same in terms of age, life and job experience and demographics, and one has a college degree and the other doesn’t – that the one who has the degree will be a better employee and have a more successful career.

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10 Questions to Ask When Working With an Accountant | Entrepreneur.com

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Solely relying on free or inexpensive online small-business accounting tools instead of investing the services of a trained professional accountant can be a costly mistake that entrepreneurs make all too often. Don’t be one of them.

Springing for a licensed accountant can be worth every extra penny you spend, says ff Venture Capital chief financial officer Alex Katz. A qualified, certified public accountant (CPA) can tip you off to potentially irreversible financial missteps and brand new tax savings opportunities that you might not know exist. And we doubt most barebones digital accounting solutions could bring red flags like these to your attention as effectively as an accountant.

When you do invest in the services of a reputable accountant, it’s important to know what to ask and when — not only to be sure you’re getting your money’s worth, but also to ensure he or she helps you do what’s best for your business and your bottom line.

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Poisoning Our Pets | Wired.com

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The antidepressant Venlafaxine sold under the brand name Effexor is a pharmaceutical success story; in a single year, U.S. doctors prescribed it more than 17 million times. It’s not without controversy. As Medline Plus points out, it’s among a group of antidepressants that were linked to suicidal behavior in children, teenagers and young adults.

But while that risk has been well reported, most people don’t know that Venlafaxine is also uniquely dangerous to household pets. Especially cats. “Cats love to eat it,” says Dr. Tina Wismer, medical director of the Animal Poison Control Center operated by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ASPCA. She speculates that it may be something about the way this particular antidepressant smells. “It’s crazy when you think about how hard it is normally to give a cat a pill. But in this case they’ll swallow multiple pills.”

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15 Entrepreneurs on What They Wish They’d Known When They First Started Up | Slideshow | Entrepreneur.com

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Building a successful business is typically done by trial and error, with many hurdles along the way. And when it’s your first company, every day involves making mistakes and learning something new.

We asked small-business owners around America to tell us the one thing they wished they’d known when they first started their businesses.

We’ve broken out some of the best to serve as a primer on getting as much as possible right the first time around.

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