Looking good and doing good.
When a pipeline spilled thousands of gallons of oil off the coast of Santa Barbara in May, beachgoers reported seeing unusual globs of oil on beaches that weren’t officially closed. And even on a regular day, beaches across the country are often polluted from oils and grease that runs off highways when it rains. Even if beaches aren’t polluted enough to shut down for the day, they may not exactly be clean.
While wages stagnate, stock prices rise and the rich get richer.
If you’re lucky enough to be a member of the global 1%, last year was another good year to be alive (every year is pretty great, though). Your wealth bracket increased its share of global riches so that it holds just over half of global wealth, according to a new report from Credit Suisse.
Communicate with ease, tame your schedule, and get things done with these great tools.
You’re running a million miles an hour, trying to hold down a tight schedule full of tight deadlines on a tight ship. From messages to meetings to managing meddlesome minutiae, these 50 apps can help you work wonders with your otherwise limited time.
IBM reportedly gave Chinese authorities access to source code to some of its products.
In a rare move, IBM allowed the Chinese government to review source code to some of its products, the Wall Street Journal reports. Officials from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reportedly reviewed IBM’s source code in a secure space where they couldn’t remove the data; the decision was reportedly made to calm Chinese fears that IBM software would present a security risk.
The trade group Interactive Advertising Bureau introduces a a new set of standards for online advertisers.
Since Apple made its mobile operating system compatible with ad blockers, Internet publishers and other online content creators have fretted that their primary source of revenue could dry up. And last week, Google introduced Accelerated Mobile Pages, which will give publishers the ability to create web pages that load faster—but also means that bulky advertising may not run on the pages if they significantly slow down loading times.
Last year, I spent significant time inside Jack Dorsey’s payments company. What I learned tells us how to read its IPO filing.
This week Square filed for its long-rumored and long-anticipated IPO, and the public finally got a look at how Square’s business is actually performing. All the pundits, anonymous sources, and leaked documents could now be considered in light of the actual facts. Did Square’s S-1 prove the press had served up some scolding cups of claim chowder? Not exactly. Square’s story has always been a nuanced one that defied simplistic narratives, and its business can be looked at from a number of perspectives. The company reported revenue of $560 million for the first half of 2015, up 50% during the same period last year, but it also recorded a $78 million net loss, following losses of $154 million in 2014 and $104 million the year prior. It has built out a growing payments processing business but has made product stumbles along the way in trying to expand its portfolio of services and boost margins. Its high-profile deal with Starbucks proved to be expensive, but was it seriously costly? Like most IPO prospectuses, Square’s S-1 presents a portrait of a promising future that could be derailed by significant risks.
Pop Chart’s latest infographic shows off just how weird the Man of Steel’s rogue’s gallery really is. Kuku the Klown, anyone?
Superman predates Batman by almost a year, but chances are, you know Batman better. Don’t believe me? I bet you can name half-a-dozen Batman villains off the top of your head: the Joker, the Penguin, Catwoman, Two-Face, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Bane, and so on. But what about Superman’s villains? Unless you’re a big comics fan, Lex Luthor might be the only one you can name.
When the robots come, what horrifying form will they take?
In order to better understand cats, researchers at the University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan built robot cat legs. The result of their labors is documented in this video, which shows the terrifying prospect of disembodied feline legs rendered in metal, leaping to 1.3 times their own height.
A new sharing economy app actually involves sharing.
Instead of paying for a service—whether you need an accountant or carpenter or Spanish lessons—imagine you pay with something else: your own time. Each hour you give your skills to someone else, you earn an hour you can spend with someone else.
How deep is it? You can only tell from the side.
Many shelves aren’t deep enough. These shelves are both deeper and shallower than they look, thanks to a clever optical illusion that gives each nook its own separate, misleading depth.
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