Google and Virgin Join Forces, Plan Mars Colony

The new endeavor, named Virgle, has been written up on the Google blog by Sir Richard Branson.
Radcliffs, get your rockets ready!

Who’s blog-famous? We’re blog-famous!

At least Chris and I are. He’s interviewed on Podbop, and I’m profiled on Offbeat Bride. I’m also in the Offbeat Bride book, too….

More on my dear Great-Grandfather

Ghent, Belgium, is apparently considering naming a street after one of the Filipino Igarot tribe members abandoned by my great-grandfather there, circa 1913. Here’s a recent news story from the Philippines about my mother’s father’s father, Richard Schneidewind, and Timicheg, one of the tribespeople he displayed. Oh, great-grandfather Richard. Sigh.

the next wave of AI: fast food managers?

Sure, we always hear about our robot overlords, but who would have thought that the next wave would be… dun dun DUNnnnnnn… a chicken restaurant manager?
Hyperactive Bob, the kitchen production management computer system from Hyperactive Technologies, is now being licensed to Zaxby’s, a fast-food restaurant chain with locations in the Southern states. … This artificially [...]

Textiles can do good, doing well

Just when you were beginning to think that it would never do anyone any good, voting with your dollar makes a difference. An effort by textile companies and the government of Lesotho has brought the textile industry back from near disaster to near fighting strength again, in large part thanks to the “government… working [...]

big is back (out)

It looks like the pendulum of automotive excess is starting to swing back toward smaller, more efficient cars. The Washington Post notes that “SUV sales have dropped by up to half”:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/03/AR2005100301657.html this year over last, while small car sales have gone up, probably due to higher gas prices. Predictably, Detroit got caught with [...]

How to sell lots of bags

The secret is in the tag.
Bonus link. Look for some familiar ideas and entities strewn throughout.

Will the suits destroy it?

It seems that Google is facing an unavoidable decision this week regarding an IPO. Either they will stay private and be faced with a much larger headache than they have been used to, having to file public records as if a traded company, or will go public and actually be beholden to shareholders looking for [...]