Sometimes declaring bankruptcy is a good thing. In the case of Abound Solar Inc., a U.S. solar manufacturer that had American taxpayers on the hook for $400 million, the good thing is they closed the doors after only losing us $70 million in Department of Energy funds.
Chump change, I know, since we have committed $72 billion on alternative energy in the last few years, but $330 million here and $330 million there, and pretty soon we are talking about real money.
Who hasn't thought about Chasing UFOs?
When I saw "Independence Day" in 1996 I first thought, "A Mac can bring down an entire alien civilization? Their users really are creative!" but then I wondered if some day, someone might actually get paid to find aliens.
Well, that day is here. But I have to warn you, the language is bad in this UFO stuff.
Self-plagiariasm is big news these days. A short while ago, former ACS president Ron Breslow had an article in the
Journal of the American Chemical Society pulled - not because he claimed dinosaurs might be ruling other planets, but because he re-used work from other articles he wrote without crediting himself.
Is it possible to lose at Rochambeau, the millenia-old game of Rock, Paper, Sissors, every single time?
It shouldn't be but a new Janken robot (Janken is the Japanese name for Rock, Paper, Scissors - why is the West stuck with a French name for an ancient Egyptian game? It's a mystery of linguistics) can win against humans without fail.
Is it psychic? Are humans that predictable? No, it basically cheats - if by cheating I mean being much faster than I can ever be.
Is the world ready for a robot DJ?
Sometimes you have to be bold. People laughed at Microsoft when they introduced Microsoft Bob too; people didn't know they needed a graphical image of their office showing a fax machine to send a fax - until it was available.