Joe Carmichael writes:  Landlines have had a surprising half-life, but it’s starting to feel like their continued existence is an affront to progress, an admission that we’re not all in this thing together. Sure, they’re simple and reliable in case of emergency, but should that be enough? Is it enough? The answer is clearly no. It’s only a matter of time before we cut ourselves free of cords. Here’s why the process is taking so damn long.

Usefulness Isn’t Binary

Landlines are familiar and simple. They’re dumb and there’s some sentimental beauty to that. Landlines are a product of the more innocent time before your phone kept watch on you, shoved “notifications” into your pocket, and profiteered app by app. Still, most people don’t use landlines in a nostalgic way. The sentiment is real, but minor. People fundamentally use old-fashioned phones because they’re useful. The fact that they aren’t very useful is overshadowed by the fact that they have utility. We’re reluctant to be rid of things that work.

But the real reason, the main reason people still have landlines collecting dust in their homes, is that they think it makes them more secure in the face of an emergency. Calls made from landlines to emergency services include addresses in their identification tags, whereas cell phones only initially provide the nearest cell tower. In natural disasters and emergencies, there’s a good chance that your old-fashioned, corded, copper-wired landline will continue to function. (Cordless phones still require power, and therefore will fail.) There’s a chance that your cell phone will not continue to function.

The fact that landlines are dumb is a double-edged sword: Sure, their simplicity is attractive, but their function is narrowly defined. Landlines don’t provide access to anything other than what’s on the other end of the line. This is why they seem comical to younger consumers unused to gadgets with such limited utility. And in that issue we find the economic problem: Landlines aren’t worth it and are getting less worth it daily. Supply and demand affect cost. The chart below illustrates the relative increase in cost of landlines as opposed to the cost of cell phones. More for less is not a great business model.  Almost half of all adults and over half of all children sport cell phones exclusively.

Image by Claudio Munoz

Entrepreneur Alert: Cow Dung cakes a holiday hit.  Used for religious rituals and even heating, these cakes are popular in urban areas for nostalgic migrants to cities.

With the holiday season in full swing, Indians are flocking to the online marketplace in droves. But one unusual item is flying off the virtual shelves: Online retailers say cow dung patties are selling like hot cakes.

The patties — cow poop mixed with hay and dried in the sun, made mainly by women in rural areas and used to fuel fires — have long been available in India’s villages. But online retailers including Amazon and eBay are now reaching out to the country’s ever-increasing urban population.

Some retailers say they are offering discounts for large orders. Some customers are asking for gift wrapping.

“Cow dung cakes have been listed by multiple sellers on our platform since October and we have received several customer orders” since then, said Madhavi Kochar, an Amazon India spokeswoman.

The orders come mostly from cities where it would be difficult to buy dung cakes, she said.

In India, where Hindus have long worshipped cows as sacred, cow dung cakes have been used for centuries for fires, whether for heating, cooking or Hindu rituals. Across rural India, piles of drying cow dung are ubiquitous.

Radhika Agarwal of ShopClues, a major online retailer in India, said demand for the cow dung cakes spiked during the recent Diwali season, a time when Hindus conduct prayer ceremonies at their homes, factories and offices. On a recent day, ShopClues’ website showed that the patties had sold out.

“Around Diwali, when people do a lot of pujas in their homes and workplaces, there is a lot of demand for cow dung cakes,” said Agarwal, referring to rituals performed during the popular festival.

“Increasingly, in the cold weather, people are keeping themselves warm by lighting fires” using them, she said, adding that people who grew up in rural areas find the peaty smell of dung fires pleasant.

“It reminds them of the old days,” she said.

The cakes are sold in packages that contain two to eight pieces weighing 200 grams each. Prices range from 100 to 400 rupees ($1.50 to $6) per package.

Dung cakes are also used as organic manure, and some sellers are marketing them for use in kitchen gardens.

It is not surprising that foreigners invest in the US.  The US is about as good as it gets in terms of reliability and performance.

Total expenditures in manufacturing were $139.1 billion in 2014, the largest among major industries. Within the manufacturing sector, expenditures were largest in pharmaceuticals and medicines at $75.9 billion. Outside of manufacturing, expenditures were notable in publishing industries and in real estate.

By country of ultimate beneficial owner (UBO), the largest source country was Ireland, with first-year expenditures of $42.5 billion. Expenditures from Canada, Germany, and Japan were also notable. The largest source countries for new investment were most often countries that already have a large foreign direct investment presence in the United States. Of the eight largest countries by foreign direct investment position in the United States—Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom—seven were also among the top eight source countries for new investment.

By U.S. state, the largest expenditures, $48.9 billion, were for U.S. businesses in California. The four largest U.S. states in terms of expenditures by foreign direct investors—California, New Jersey, New York, and Texas—together received over half of all new investment. These four states accounted for 35 percent of private industry GDP in the United States in 2014.

In this release, BEA is presenting statistics on Greenfield investments for the first time. Greenfield investment expenditures—expenditures to either establish a new U.S. business or to expand an existing foreign-owned U.S. business—totaled $16.6 billion in 2014. Total planned greenfield expenditures, which include both first-year expenditures and spending in other years, was $39.2 billion.

By U.S. industry, 2014 Greenfield expenditures were largest in real estate, at $4.7 billion. In manufacturing, expenditures for 2014 Greenfield investments were $2.8 billion and expenditures were particularly large in primary and fabricated metals and chemicals. By country of UBO, the largest source of first-year greenfield expenditures was Canada at $4.0 billion. Including expenditures from other years, the largest source countries for greenfield expenditures were China and Japan. By U.S. state, California and Texas attracted the largest expenditures for Greenfield investments, with first-year expenditures of $3.2 and $2.7 billion respectively, and planned total expenditures of $7.7 billion for each state.

 

Women are at the forefront of new creations across the globe.

Christina Lomasney, a physicist, is using nanopartices to make nanolaminates, a completely new material.

Lomasney is the founder of Modumetal, a firm using a new type of eletrolytic deposit.

By carefully manipulating the electric field, this process builds up veneers of different metals over a surface and controls how the layers interact with each other.

“In effect, we grow material,” says Ms. Lomasney.  Lomasney expects to do this cheaply on an industrial scale for metals like steel, inc and aluminum.  Itts first products are pumps, valves and fasteners.  One of the most important applications of this technology is batteries.  Batteries for electric cars are still expensive and the search for a cheaper solution may lead to s. Lomasney.

Giving credit where credit is due.

1.  The Car Heater

We all owe our thanks to Margaret A Wilcox who invented the car heater in 1893!

2.  Monopoly

This popular board game was designed by Elizabeth Magie in 1904, originally called the Landlord’s Game. The purpose of this game was to expose the injustices of unchecked capitalism.  Her game was ripped off by Charles Darrow who sold it to Parker Brother’s 30 years later.  However Parker Brothers later paid Elizabeth $500 for her game. Gee Thanks!

3. The Fire Escape

The fire escape was invented by Anna Connelly in 1887

4. The Life Raft

The life saving Life Raft was invented by Maria Beasely  in 1882. (Maria also invented a machine that makes barrels)

5. Residential Solar Heating

Solar heating for residential housing was invented by Dr Maria Telkes in 1947.  Dr. Telkes was a Psychiatrist in addition to being a  Solar-Power Pioneer

6.  The Medical Syringe

The medical syringe which could be operated with only one hand was invented by a woman by the name of Letitia Geer in 1899

7. The Modern Electric Refrigerator

The electric refrigerator was invented by Florence Parpart in 1914 (Florence also invented an improved street cleaning machine in addition to the refrigerator)

8. The Ice Cream Maker

The ice cream maker was invented by a woman named Nancy Johnson in 1843. Her patented design is still used today!

9. The Computer Algorithm

Ada Lovelace is essentially the first computer programmer due to her work with Charles Babbage at the University of London in 1842. In fact her notes was an essential key to helping Alan Turing’s work on the first modern computers in the 1940s.

10. Telecommunications Technology

Some of the Telecommunication Technology developed by Dr Shirley Jackson include portable fax, touch tone telephone, solar cells, fibre optic cables, and the technology behind caller ID and call waiting.

X-ray vision, a comic book fantasy for decades, is becoming a reality in a lab at MIT.

A group of researchers led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Dina Katabi has developed software that uses variations in radio signals to recognize human silhouettes through walls and track their movements.

Researchers say the technology will be able to help health care providers and families keep closer tabs on toddlers and the elderly, and it could be a new strategic tool for law enforcement and the military.

“Think of it just like cameras, except that it’s not a camera,” said Fadel Adib, a researcher on the MIT team developing the device.

“It’s a sensor that can monitor people and allow you to control devices just by pointing at them,” he said.

Work began in 2012 to determine how wireless signals could be used to “see” what’s happening in another room, said Katabi, who directs the MIT Wireless Center.

“At first we were just interested . . . can you at all use wireless signals to detect what’s happening in occluded spaces, behind a wall, couch, something like that,” Katabi said.

An RF-Capture device displays the signal on a screen, where the person’s movements can be tracked in real time. It depicts the target as a red dot moving around the room, occupying a chair and speeding up or slowing down.

The wireless signals used to track a person’s motions also can measure the individual’s breathing and heart rate — and potentially identify the person based on the shape of his or her skeleton, said researcher Zach Kabelac.

“The person won’t be wearing anything on them, and the person it’s tracking doesn’t even need to know the device is there,” Kabelac said.

“If something unfortunate happens to them, like a fall, the device will contact the caregiver that they chose to alert” by generating a text message or an email, he added.

That makes health care applications especially interesting.

A company set up to market the technology, now dubbed Emerald, will spin out of the MIT lab next year, with a goal of marketing the device early in 2017, and it’s expected to sell for $250 to $300, Adib said. The team is working to make the device smaller and to develop an interface that will let users configure it through a smartphone app.

The technology raises questions about privacy rights and intrusion, and Adib said the team gave serious thought to those implications..