Brit + Co. Gets Into E-Commerce With ?Brit Kits?, Monthly Deliveries Of All Things Crafty

For the past year, Silicon Valley's geek-chic answer to Martha Stewart, Brit Morin, has been full speed ahead on Brit + Co., her tech-meets-fashion-media-and-lifestyle startup -- raising $1.25 million, hiring 10 full-time staff (half of whom are engineers), cranking out two mobile apps, snagging big-name partnerships. And the launches just keep coming.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/zuM0RjBKtS0/

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Vanishing Electronics: Safer Medical Implants, Less Trash

Biodegradable electronics could one day be used in temporary implants that fight surgical infections or stimulate bone growth and then get absorbed by the body, researchers say.

Such vanishing devices could also be deployed en masse during emergencies such as oil spills and then fade away when no longer needed, scientists added. They also suggest these short-lived circuits might one day find use in disposable consumer products to help reduce the environmental impact posed by discarded electronics.

The idea suggests a very different philosophy from today's business as usual. The microchips or integrated circuits that make up the heart of modern electronics are typically designed to last as long as possible.

"If you look at the history of integrated circuits, one of their key appealing attributes is how they have no moving parts, so you can make devices without the wear and tear you'd get from having moving parts that'd have virtually infinite lifetimes," said researcher John Rogers, a materials scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

"Our thought was that maybe it'd be interesting to have integrated circuits that offer the performance of today's integrated circuits but have the opposite lifetime characteristic," Rogers told TechNewsDaily. "They'd offer stable performance, then vanish in water or bio-fluids at programmed times, engineered rates of dissolution."

The inspiration for transient electronics came from Rogers and his colleagues' work on biomedical implants such as electronics that help treat problems in the body or monitor life signs that include? temperature, heart rate, blood sugar levels and muscle, heart or brain activity. One of the most daunting challenges they face is biocompatibility ? making sure any implants they put in do not irritate the body, or invite rejection. [9 Cyborg Enhancements Available Right Now]

"One way to avoid the problem entirely is to just develop materials that disappear completely," Rogers said.

Over the course of three years, Rogers and his colleagues have created transient versions of all the components found in normal microchips. These include thin sheets of porous silicon; electrodes made of magnesium, an element normally found in the body; and encapsulation layers of magnesium oxide covered by a silk overcoat made from silkworm cocoons. These encapsulation layers are the first to dissolve, and the number of them can help dictate how long these electronics last ? days, weeks, months, perhaps even years.

To test these materials, the researchers devised a biomedical implant that used heat to fight bacterial infections in surgical wounds in mice. After three weeks, the researchers saw reduced levels of infection at the wound site and only faint residues of the implant. They also developed a fully transient 64-pixel digital camera.

Researchers envision vast opportunities for transient electronics. "You can imagine biomedical devices that get implanted in the body, monitor or affect a healing process, and after that healing is completed, they simply disappear, eliminating the need to fish them out again," Rogers said.

"You can imagine distributing them in the environment to monitor large-scale chemical spills," he said. "In those cases, you might want wireless sensors that transmit what's going on, but not forever ? only until the spill is cleaned up, after which the devices ideally just dissolve in a benign way, eliminating the need for recovery and disposal."

"A third area that's a bit more challenging but equally interesting is consumer electronics," Rogers added. "In some ways, it's great that normal integrated circuits last forever, but that might not necessarily be a good thing in a world where people today upgrade their smartphones every couple of years. We're inundated with discarded electronics, and it might be appealing to make new devices that just disappear in landfills, eliminating a huge waste stream we're increasingly having to deal with."

In the future, in addition to coming up with new applications for transient electronics, "we'd like to figure out how to manufacture these things at low cost, high volume and with sophisticated functions," Rogers said. "We want to leverage the manufacturing structures that already exist out there in the electronics industry."

The scientists detail their findings in tomorrow's (Sept. 28) issue of the journal Science.

This story was provided by TechNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow TechNewsDaily on Twitter @TechNewsDaily, or on Facebook.

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vanishing-electronics-safer-medical-implants-less-trash-182342707.html

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Prices of new homes?hit 5-year high

By Reuters

New U.S. single-family home sales eased in August but held near two-year highs and prices vaulted to their highest level in more than five years, adding to signs of a broadening housing market recovery.

The Commerce Department said on Wednesday sales slipped 0.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted 373,000-unit annual rate. July's sales pace was revised up to a 374,000-unit pace, the highest level since April 2010, from the previously reported 372,000 units.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast sales at a 380,000-unit rate last month. Compared to August last year, new home sales were up 27.7 percent.

Despite the month-on-month dip in sales, the report was consistent with other data that have suggested a turn-around in the housing market after collapsing in 2006 and igniting the 2007-09 recession.

Home resales surged last month and homebuilder sentiment jumped to a six-year high in September. However, the housing market recovery lacks sufficient strength to take the baton from manufacturing as the main driver of the economic recovery.

The Federal Reserve moved this month to bolster the economy, announcing it would buy $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities per month until the outlook for employment improved significantly.

Last month, the median price of a new home increased a record 11.2 percent to $256,000 -- the highest level since March 2007. Compared to August last year, the median sales price jumped 17 percent, the largest rise since December 2004.

The inventory of new homes on the market held near record lows last month. At August's sales pace it would take 4.5 months to clear the houses on the market, unchanged from July.

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Source: http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/26/14111495-new-home-sales-ease-but-prices-hit-5-year-high?lite

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CEO of BlackBerry maker makes case for comeback

Thorsten Heins, President and CEO of Research in Motion, speaks about the new BlackBerry 10 at the BlackBerry Jam Americas conference in San Jose, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Thorsten Heins, President and CEO of Research in Motion, speaks about the new BlackBerry 10 at the BlackBerry Jam Americas conference in San Jose, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Thorsten Heins, President and CEO of Research in Motion, speaks about the new BlackBerry 10 at the BlackBerry Jam Americas conference in San Jose, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) ? Research In Motion CEO Thorsten Heins is convinced the company's BlackBerry phone is poised to regain its stature as a trailblazing device even as many investors fret about its potential demise.

Heins took the stage Tuesday at a conference for mobile applications developers to rally support for the upcoming release of BlackBerry 10, a new operating system that Research In Motion Ltd. is touting as its salvation after years of blundering.

The gathering in San Jose, Calif., served as the equivalent of a revival meeting for RIM. The Canadian company has been laying off thousands of workers to offset growing losses after being outmaneuvered by iPhone maker Apple Inc. and other phone makers relying on Google Inc.'s Android software.

"We recognize the need for change," said Heins, who was promoted to CEO in January as RIM's troubles deepened. "There is a new energy and a lot of fighting spirit at RIM."

Heins and other top RIM executives used the conference to provide a glimpse at some of BlackBerry 10's new features. The redesigned software won't hit the market until a still-unscheduled date early next year.

That means RIM's new software won't be available during the holiday shopping season, costing the company more sales during a period when millions of people are expected to be snapping up the latest iPhone, Android device and even a new handset from another struggling mobile phone company, Nokia, that is tying its fate to Microsoft's latest Windows software.

Despite RIM's missteps, the BlackBerry still commands a huge following with about 80 million subscribers, thanks mostly to its appeal to corporate customers who like the device's security and compatibility with their email systems.

Heins did his best to argue that the BlackBerry 10 will be worth the wait.

"We are committed to making BlackBerry 10 an inflection point in mobile computing," Heins said.

The system is being designed to make it easier to find and use multiple applications simultaneously by swiping a finger across the phone's display screen instead of having to press on a home button to navigate through a menu of programs, like the iPhone requires. All notifications from various applications are supposed to be sent a central point known as the BlackBerry Hub.

In an attempt to cater to its main customer base of business users, RIM also promises BlackBerry 10 will offer more security features, better calendar management features and more tools to connect with other workers.

RIM is retooling the software to adapt to the growing number of people who want a smartphone that can fulfill both their personal and professional needs. In an effort to make its phones better suited for employees who want to use their personal phones for work instead of relying on employer-issued devices, the new system includes a feature called "BlackBerry Balance." That enables users to touch an icon on the screen to toggle between two different menus of applications and services, one set up for personal stuff and the other programmed for work.

"We are convinced this platform will shape the next 10 years as profoundly and as positively as BlackBerry shaped the last decade," Heins said.

Investors appeared to be heartened by what they heard and saw from RIM Tuesday. The company's stock gained 32 cents, or 5 percent, to $6.62 in Tuesday's afternoon trading. That's still far below the stock's peak price of about $148, reached in June 2008. The iPhone was seen then more as a technology toy for affluent geeks and the first wave of Android-powered devices had not yet been released.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-09-25-BlackBerry-Revival%20Meeting/id-e74e52727b8748da8bfb9eba014d9503

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Caterpillar, Apple push Wall Street lower

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DUI tragedy forces Russian road safety rethink

In this photo made Saturday, Sept. 22, 2012, law enforcement authorities work at the site of the crash where a heavily drunk driver killed seven people at a bus stop in Moscow, Russia. Five orphaned teens were waiting for a bus with their guardians in Moscow on Saturday when a car careened into them, killing all seven. Grief turned to outrage when it emerged that the driver was heavily drunk and had a string of traffic violations on his record, and lawmakers have reacted with proposals to stiffen penalties on drunken drivers. (AP Photo)

In this photo made Saturday, Sept. 22, 2012, law enforcement authorities work at the site of the crash where a heavily drunk driver killed seven people at a bus stop in Moscow, Russia. Five orphaned teens were waiting for a bus with their guardians in Moscow on Saturday when a car careened into them, killing all seven. Grief turned to outrage when it emerged that the driver was heavily drunk and had a string of traffic violations on his record, and lawmakers have reacted with proposals to stiffen penalties on drunken drivers. (AP Photo)

MOSCOW (AP) ? It took a weekend road tragedy to jolt Russia into action over one of its most deadly threats: a chronic culture of drunken driving.

Five orphaned teens were waiting for a bus with their guardians in Moscow on Saturday when a car careened into them, killing all seven. Grief turned to outrage when it emerged that the driver was heavily drunk and had a string of traffic violations on his record ? including a DUI arrest two years ago.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and lawmakers have reacted with proposals to stiffen penalties on drunken drivers, and parliament debated the measures on Tuesday. But with bribery so commonplace and road laws rarely enforced, many wonder whether even the toughest response can change a deep-set culture of reckless driving.

After the crash, police video shows, Alexander Maximov stumbled out of his Toyota sedan, which he had been driving at 200 kilometers (125 miles per hour), bloodied and barely able to stand. He appeared in court Monday with his head wounds dressed, but still wearing the blood-speckled sweatshirt from the day of the accident.

The punishment for killing while drunken driving in Russia is stiff: The 30-year-old Maximov faces up to nine years in prison. But lawmakers are currently debating whether to make jail sentences even harsher, matching laws in the West.

Even President Vladimir Putin weighed in Tuesday, demanding tougher punishments and condemning Maximov's apparent blithe indifference after the crash.

"This criminal, he's a killer in fact, when speaking to investigators just said: 'I always do what I want,'" Putin said. "There are some things for which people just must be punished."

Many Russians are furious that Maximov, who already had a DUI penalty on his license from 2010, was allowed back onto the roads in the first place. Drunken driving is punishable here by suspension of the driver's license for up to two years. In much of the West, by comparison, drunken driving is punished with jail time, heavy fines and re-education courses.

It isn't only irresponsible drinking that makes Russia's roads dangerous.

Russia's cities are struggling with fast-growing traffic density, which spurs drivers into pulling crazy stunts to get home as early as possible, such as jumping lights, squeezing through every gap in traffic and opportunistic trailing of racing ambulances. According to a 2007 survey, the number of cars on Moscow's roads had increased threefold since the early 1990s, while road capacity has increased by only 30 percent.

Each year, approximately 30,000 Russians die in road accidents ? about the same as in the European Union, which has three times as many people and about six times as many cars as Russia. According to official statistics, only about 1,000 of those deaths are attributable to death by drunken drivers, but given the laxity of police enforcement and investigation, many in Russia doubt those figures.

Medvedev, who championed a no-tolerance policy in 2010 against drivers with even the slightest amount of alcohol in their blood, spoke out in favor of tougher penalties.

"Most of (our accidents) are committed by drivers who are completely drunk, and in this regard our country is in a worse state than any other," Medvedev said Monday, adding that it was necessary to think about "toughening the legal responsibility for such a crime."

In the wake of Saturday's tragedy, Moscow police have scrambled to show they are doing their bit, announcing that they had arrested over 130 drunken drivers on Sunday alone, according to Interfax news agency.

Over the past few days, lawmakers from the pro-Kremlin United Russia party have come forward with various proposals to tackle drunken driving. One plan suggested a fine of up to 100,000 rubles ($3,200), while another more drastic bill calls for life imprisonment for anyone convicted of killing someone while under the influence.

Pervasive bribery, and its acceptance among much of the population, will make implementing any such measures an uphill struggle, however.

According to a Levada Center poll in 2010, only 10 percent of those questioned said they thought negatively of people who gave bribes, whereas the majority considered it "necessary" in dealing with public officials.

The same survey showed that Russians pay the greatest amount of bribes for medical treatment. Paying off traffic police came in at a close second.

"Of course it's important to propose new laws, they need to be stricter," said Natalya Agre, president of Road Safety Russia. "You can increase the fine to $2,000, but once again, who is going to keep track of whether that fine is given, and who is going to pay it?"

Agre's company has run a sleek social advertising campaign against drunken driving, and has begun attracting attention from big talent. A feature-length film by the company titled "There's No Hurry" was made with the help of some of the country's best directors and actors.

More important than police enforcement may be fundamental change to the car culture in Russia, where drivers are notoriously aggressive and fast.

"The driving culture in our country plays a key role," said Agre.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-09-25-EU-Russia-Driving-Drunk/id-9ef3c5c1c0c3472188294316d55045d3

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#SciAmBlogs Tuesday - quantum computing, rural hospitals, dead salmon fMRI, brain training fails, food labels, and more.

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