Aviation or air transport refers to the activities surrounding human flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft include fixed-wing aircraft, rotary wing (helicopter/autogyro) types, and ornithopters, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as balloons and airships (also known as dirigibles).

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TechCrunch

DreamIt Incubator Holds Funding Day To Commemorate First Graduating Class
Jason Kincaid Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:03:04 -0000
Today marks DreamIt Ventures' first Funding Day, during which the new startup incubator will introduce a dozen new companies to a collection of founders and venture capitalists. DreamIt is a program in the same vein as Y Combinator and TechStars, offering startups seed funding, guidance, and connections in exchange for equity. We've written brief introductions to each of the startups, which you can view below:
socialmedian Launches First Major Upgrade
Don Reisinger Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:00:26 -0000
socialmedian, which has come under fire as of late for trying to use Twitter as means of raising $500,000 in venture funding, announced Thursday that it has launched its first major upgrade since the company started and its improvements will finally address some of the concerns its users have had since its inception. First off, the new socialmedian will make it easier for users to get content onto the site and enable bloggers to better promote their content. Dubbed “News-Streaming," socialmedian's latest foray into bringing only certain content to its users is quite complex.
Zoho Releases Zoho Docs For Central Location File Browsing
Don Reisinger Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:51:31 -0000
Zoho on Thursday announced the availability of Zoho Docs, which will help Zoho users manage their documents centrally so they won't need to skip from Writer, Sheet, and Show to get work done. Zoho Docs is a bit overdue, but it's good to see the company finally moving towards improving an offering that's still a bit all over the place.
Overlay.TV Helps You Customize, Monetize Streaming Video
Jason Kincaid Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:00:47 -0000
Overlay.TV, a startup that lets users augment streaming videos with customized text, audio, images, and links, has launched to the public. The service overlays videos from a number of video sharing sites with a new layer containing this customized content, which can be used for entertainment purposes or as an easy (and potentially effective) means of monetizing video. To use Overlay.TV, you first give the site the source URL of the video you'd like to modify. Overlay then streams this video from the original host (the site doesn't host any video content, so it shouldn't have to worry about the copyright violations that plague sites like YouTube). After loading the video, users are free to add their own content as part of a new layer with options that include text, links, custom images, and clip art. The site includes some basic timeline functionality, so you can set specific times for each item to fade in or out, but it can be hard to finetune the position and timing of each element.
So Is Chrome The Fastest Or What?
Michael Arrington Thu, 04 Sep 2008 09:34:07 -0000
There have been a number of timed and anecdotal speed tests performed on Google Chrome over the last couple of days. My personal testing: Chrome is the fastest browser I have ever used. More structured TechCrunch testing showed similar results: It's fast. Here are what others came up with: CNET agrees, but their approach was biased towards Google. Chrome came out way ahead in a suite of Javascript benchmark tests. The only problem is that Google hosts the tests and flat out says they tuned their V8 Javascript engine around them. The test does show Chrome coming out way ahead of other browsers (for me, Chrome had a score of 403 v. IE7's 18). Try it out for yourself.
Raptr Launches 1337 Gaming Network To The Public
Jason Kincaid Thu, 04 Sep 2008 04:00:22 -0000
Raptr, the social network that revolves around gaming, has launched in public beta. The robust site allows users to keep tabs on what their friends are doing throughout the gaming world, and also offers gaming recommendations, accomplishment updates, and a host of other features. The site is designed to appeal to casual and hardcore gamers alike. In fact, Raptr avoids using the term "gamer" entirely, instead choosing to describe itself as a "social platform for people who like to play and discover games" - founder (and former competitive gamer) Dennis Fong says that many people associate the word "gamer" with a hardcore audience, but Raptr is for everyone.

ENN Investing and Corporate Social Responsibility

Study Suggests Carbon Market Encourages Chopping Forests
The current carbon market actually encourages cutting down some of the world's biggest forests, which would unleash tons of climate-warming carbon into the atmosphere, a new study reported Monday.
Technology Companies Tout Greener Credentials, but Significant Improvements Are Distant
With energy costs high and environmental friendliness making for good public relations, more tech companies are touting ways they are "greening" data centers, which serve up Web pages, swap Internet traffic, and process and store business information.
Westinghouse Seals Mega China Nuclear Deal
U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric signed on Tuesday a multi-billion-dollar deal with Chinese partners to build four nuclear reactors in eastern China, finalising a pact agreed between Beijing and Washington seven months ago.

The Financial Page

James Surowiecki: What drives market volatility?
James Surowiecki Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:00:00 -0000
American investors are frazzled. True, oil prices have fallen from their most vertiginous highs, the dollar is a bit stronger, and the stock market has actually risen over the past month. But none of those things have happened in a smooth and steady fashion. The stock market’s “ascent,” in particular . . .
James Surowiecki: Too many stakeholders can be a deal-breaker.
James Surowiecki Mon, 04 Aug 2008 04:00:00 -0000
In the second decade of the twentieth century, it was almost impossible to build an airplane in the United States. That was the result of a chaotic legal battle among the dozens of companies--including one owned by Orville Wright--that held patents on the various components that made a . . .
James Surowiecki: Sponsoring Recklessness
James Surowiecki Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:00:00 -0000
When do the words “not guaranteed” actually mean “guaranteed”? Whenever the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are involved. The two companies have long been required to tell investors that their securities are not guaranteed by the federal government. But in the financial markets everyone has always assumed that . . .

NYT > Your Money

Your Money: Automated Bill Payments Are a Cinch (Not So Fast)
Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:55:44 -0000
After extolling the virtues of automated bill payments, I heard from many wary readers. Here are their reasons.
Strategies: To Make a Stock Pop, Innovate
Sun, 31 Aug 2008 05:50:21 -0000
There is a big temptation for companies to cut their R.& D. spending, especially during bear markets. But such thinking is shortsighted, a study says.
Discounts Beckon in Closed-End Funds
Sun, 31 Aug 2008 05:48:13 -0000
Closed-end funds, particularly during skittish times, can be much more interesting investment vehicles than the more well-known exchange-traded funds.

The Economist: The World Bank and the IMF

Poverty: The bottom 1.4 billion
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:35:37 -0000
The world is poorer than we thought, the World Bank discoversCorrection to this articleIN APRIL 2007 the World Bank announced that 986m people worldwide suffered from extreme poverty—the first time its count had dropped below 1 billion. On August 26th it had grim news to report. According to two of its leading researchers, Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion, the “developing world is poorer than we thought”. The number of poor was almost 1.4 billion in 2005. ...
Who runs the world?: Wrestling for influence
Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:02:45 -0000
The post-war global institutions have largely worked well. But rising countries and growing threats are challenging their pre-eminence THE powerful, like the victorious, do not just write history. They grab the seats at the top tables, from the United Nations Security Council to the boards of the big international economic and financial institutions. They collude behind closed doors. They decide who can join their cosy clubs and expect the rest of the world to obey the instructions they hand down. That is how many outsiders, not just in the poor world, will see the summit that takes place from July 7th to 9th of the G8, the closest the world has to an informal (ie, self-appointed) steering group. Leaders of seven of the world’s richest democracies, plus oil-and gas-fired Russia, gather this year in Toyako, on Hokkaido in northern Japan, to ruminate on climate change, rising food and energy prices, and the best way to combat global scourges from disease to nuclear proliferation. ...
International government: What a way to run the world
Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:02:45 -0000
Global institutions are an outdated muddle; the rise of Asia makes their reform a priority for the WestCLUBS are all too often full of people prattling on about things they no longer know about. On July 7th the leaders of the group that allegedly runs the world—the G7 democracies plus Russia—gather in Japan to review the world economy. But what is the point of their discussing the oil price without Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest producer? Or waffling about the dollar without China, which holds so many American Treasury bills? Or slapping sanctions on Robert Mugabe, with no African present? Or talking about global warming, AIDS or inflation without anybody from the emerging world? Cigar smoke and ignorance are in the air.The G8 is not the only global club that looks old and impotent (see article). The UN Security Council has told Iran to stop enriching uranium, without much effect. The nuclear non-proliferation regime is in tatters. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the fireman in previous financial crises, has been a bystander during the credit crunch. The World Trade Organisation’s Doha round is stuck. Of course, some bodies, such as the venerable Bank for International Settlements (see article), still do a fine job. But as global problems proliferate and information whips round the world ever faster, the organisational response looks ever shabbier, slower and feebler. The world’s governing bodies need to change. ...

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