Can This Awesome Solar-Powered Plane Make It Across the Pacific? (Mother Jones)
Later this week, a single-seat, solar-powered plane with a wingspan longer than that of a Boeing 747 will take off from Nanjing, China, headed for Honolulu. For a normal passenger jet, that's about a 12-hour flight. Solar Impulse 2, the 5,000-pound plane powered by nothing but sunshine, will take five days.
This is by far the hardest part of the plane's journey around the world, which started in Abu Dhabi last month, and should finish there in August. Swiss pilots Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg have been working up to this for 12 years, and they're fully aware of how trying it will be.
Inglorious 'Bastards' See Through Herbalife's Smoke And Mirrors (Seeking Alpha)
This evening, Herbalife (NYSE:HLF) printed its Q1 results. Investors bid the stock up aggressively in after-market trading due to an adjusted earnings beat and an increase in the company's 2015 earnings guidance. We'll see how long this enthusiasm lasts.
For me, the highlight of the Herbalife earnings call occurred when sell-side analyst Tim Ramey called Herbalife' bankers 'bastards' for restricting the company's ability to buyback stock in the future.
How a strong dollar ambushed U.S. economy (Market Watch)
The almighty dollar deserves quite a bit of blame for the lowly state of the U.S economy early in the year.
From July 2014 through March 2015, the value of the dollar jumped 14% in trade-weighted terms. That made U.S.-made goods and services more expensive around the world at a time when many other countries were also struggling to cope with slowing economies of their own.
Groupon is still the fastest company to reach a billion-dollar valuation (QZ)
Last year, more than 100 startups reportedly joined the billion-dollar-valuation club, making these so-called unicorns not quite as rare as they once were. Larger funding rounds are pushing valuations way up and accelerating the rate at which unicorns are getting created.
Opinion: Services data provide first real sign of spring bloom in economy (Market Watch)
It’s nice to have a business not negatively affected by the rising dollar, the collapse in oil prices or the West Coast port dispute.
It’s not a message that you would have heard during first-quarter earnings season, or seen in key manufacturing reports, or way back at 8:30 a.m. when the Commerce Department released trade deficit data.
A Mother’s Cookbook Shares More Than Recipes (NY Times)
The last full sentence I heard from my mom was around Easter. “You better call Michael,” she said.
The only Michael in our family is a distant cousin I can’t be sure I’ve even met. But I went with it. Sure, Mom. I’ll call him.
That’s what it’s like these days.
Facebook and IBM Team Up to Supercharge Personalized Ads (Wired)
FACEBOOK AND IBM are teaming up to help retailers better target advertising on the world’s largest social network.
Today, the two companies announced that they’re working together to integrate Facebook’s existing ad targeting technology into IBM’s own line of tools and services for retailers. By combining retail data, such as purchase history or items viewed, with Facebook’s user data, the two companies hope to create more finely personalized marketing campaigns on behalf of their customers.
From tea to tech: China's push into cybersecurity is sparking a 'gold rush' (Business Insider)
Zhang Long made his fortune selling Pu'er fermented tea and handcrafted furniture from the mountains of his native Yunnan Province in southwest China.
Last November, the 49-year old entrepreneur, who has no technology background, strode into a Beijing ballroom to pitch his latest made-in-China product: SPGnux, a Linux-based operating system he says could replace Microsoft Corp's Windows.
How a Knockout Punch Works (Economist)
ON SATURDAY May 2nd two of the world's most marketable boxers, Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines and America’s Floyd Mayweather, will face each other in a fight. Undoubtedly both will go in to the match hoping to win it with a definitive strike. Mr Mayweather, an undefeated professional boxer, takes particular delight in flattening his opponents (26 of his past 47 wins were knockouts). What is a knockout punch and how does it work?
Opinion: Hedge fund managers’ pay slashed to $211,538 an hour (Market Watch)
Talk about stagnant wages. In the hedge fund industry, it’s worse. How about wage cuts?
Institutional Investor’s Alpha annual rich list was published Tuesday. And for the hedge fund billionaires and multimillionaires who mostly comprise it, the report is sobering. Massive pay reductions were recorded across the board. David Tepper, founder of Appaloosa Management, for instance, made only $400 million last year — he’s averaged $1.36 billion in the 11 years he’s made the IIA list.
The Met Gala: A Red Carpet Review (NY Times)
As a fashion statement, the red carpet at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art gala — that seemingly endless stretch of crimson that leads from Fifth Avenue, up the dozens of steps of the museum’s great staircase and into the Great Hall — occupies an odd netherland between runway and reality.
Florida Man Faces 15 Years in Jail for Having Sex on the Beach (Still No Bankers in Jail) (Liberty Blietzkrieg Blog)
A jury Monday found a couple guilty of having sex on Bradenton Beach after only 15 minutes of deliberation.
The convictions carry a maximum prison sentence of 15 years.
Both Caballero and Alvarez will now have to register as sex offenders.
Ronald Kurpiers, defense attorney for the couple, said his clients were “devastated,” by the verdict. Though Dafonseca hinted that they’d be speaking with the judge about whether or not 15 years was appropriate for Caballero, Kurpiers said the judge would have no discretion.
Playboy Hopes China Can Help Rev Up Its Brand (Wall Street Journal)
Playboy wants its bunny to score in China.
Once a pioneer in pornography, Playboy Enterprises Inc. is aiming for a dominant position in China’s booming apparel market. So it’s expanding its iconic bunny logo on clothing, and accessories across the country, teaming up with Chinese company Handong United to expand its distribution to 3,500 outlets, up from 3,100, Playboy says.
The World’s First Self-Driving Semi-Truck Hits the Road (Wired)
LICENSE PLATES ARE rarely an object of attention, but this one’s special—the funky number is the giveaway. That’s why Daimler bigwig Wolfgang Bernhard and Nevada governor Brian Sandoval are sharing a stage, mugging for the phalanx of cameras, together holding the metal rectangle that will, in just a minute, be slapped onto the world’s first officially recognized self-driving truck.
