Tesla gets approval for global Autopilot rollout | Mashable

October 26, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Tesla’s Autopilot set of features — the one that basically let your Tesla drive itself (though you should still keep your hands on the steering wheel) — was initially only approved in the U.S., but now it’s ready to roll out globally.

Company CEO Elon Musk said as much in a tweet Saturday, claiming Tesla has received regulatory approvals to launch Autopilot in “all countries” except Japan, which is “under review.”

A $2,500 upgrade for owners whose Tesla was built after September 2014, Autopilot has several features that improve the car’s autonomy on the road. These include letting the car steer itself on the freeway, automatic lane changing and overtaking slower vehicles and automatic parking.

The features received a warm welcome from the media (read our review here), but Tesla hasn’t been resting on its laurels. In another tweet Saturday, Musk promised several new features in an upcoming version of Autopilot: “curve speed adapftion, controller smoothness, better lane holding on poor roads, improved fleet learning”.

The Popular Over-The-Counter Cold Medicine That Science Says Doesn’t Work | Forbes

October 26, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The market for over-the-counter cold medicines is worth $8 billion annually, with a hefty portion of that amount spent on drugs marketed as decongestants. But according to new research, the cash many of us will spend on non-prescription decongestants this cold and flu season won’t help us breathe any easier.

According to University of Florida researchers, the oral decongestant phenylephrine simply doesn’t work at the FDA-approved amount found in popular non-prescription brands, and it may not even work at much higher doses. Their conclusions were presented in an editorial in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, referencing a study in the same edition of the journal conducted by researchers from the Allergy & Asthma Medical Group & Research Center in San Diego.

The study of 539 adults lasted one week and failed to find a dose of phenylephrine within the 10 mg to 40 mg range that was more effective than a placebo in relieving nasal congestion. The approved Food and Drug Administration (FDA) dose is 10 mg every four hours for “temporary relief of nasal congestion.”

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.