Michael Posner reports on a new initiative to create a territorial entity just off the coast of the United States that would exist outside the jurisdiction of the maritime laws of all countries. Some of the highlights of the report include:

• Silicon Valley has become the home of entrepreneurship, but the US immigration authoriteis have made it difficult for those with innovative business ideas to obtain a visa to the United States.
• To deal with this two immigrants to the United States have launched Blueseed – a planned cruise ship that is retrofitted to be a floating hub of innovation. Residents of Blueship can utilize the B-1 Business visa that allows them to make short visits to the United States over the course of ten years. Entrepreneurs could arrive at Silicon Valley in the morning and take a helicopter back ‘home’ in the evening.
• The project is expected to cost at least $25 million.
• Blueseed would make money by charging the 1,000 tenants a rent of $1,200 a month.
• Billionaire Peter Thiel – somebody who has invested in other hits such as Facebook, Yelp, Zynga and LinkedIn – has given financial backing to the project.

To read more about the initiative, the history of such “seasteading” projects, and other alternatives that are being developed that would allow innovators to build networks with those in the United States, click here.

Source: The Globe and Mail

Via: Marginal Revolution

This month marked the 100^th anniversary of The Oreo. Brian Palmer discussed the longevity of the delightful treat:

• The Oreo was not the first sandwich cookie on the market. Sunshine Baking had been selling Hydroxes for a couple of years before Oreos hit the market.
• However the parent company behind Oreo had significantly more marketing power, and was able to advertise its sandwich cookie more effectively.
• But why has the Oreo survived so long while other cookies from the same company haven’t? Some argue it’s because of the unique name. Others say that it’s because, just like eggs, there are numerous ways to consume the treat. Still others argue that it’s because it’s challenging to perfectly disassemble the cookie, enticing consumers to repeatedly try and thus eat more cookies.
• In 1982 ten cents of every dollar spent on cookies were spent on Oreos.
• The name of the parent company of Oreo, “Nabisco” is actually a shortening of National Biscuit Company

To read what “Oreo” means, why the visual design of the Oreo might have mattered, and why Nabisco had a troubling time penetrating the Jewish market click here.

Source: Slate

Timothy Lee took a look at the difficulties that small software developers encounter in staying clear of litigation. Highlights include:

• Patents normally protect concrete, material things such as a specific machine design or a manufacturing process. Copyrights normally protect intellectual property, things like movies and music. Software is strange because it can be both patented and copyrighted, since it straddles both worlds.
• You infringe on somebody’s copyright if you intentionally duplicate somebody else’s work. This means it’s hard to infringe on a copyright unless you have the meaningful intent to do so. In contrast, it’s possible to infringe on somebody’s patent entirely by accident, without any malicious intent.
• As a software developer it’s impossible to know if your software is infringing on any patents. There are countless lines of code in any piece of software, and just a few of the lines could violate of any of the hundreds of thousands of software patents.
• This has led to the rise of “patent trolls” – firms that produce absolutely nothing of value. All they do is hold onto patents and then sue other companies as soon as they see any signs of infringement.
• Larger companies can withstand this. But smaller companies are crushed by giant patent behemoths which include not only patent trolls, but companies that produce legitimate products as well, such as Microsoft.

To read specific instances of patents making the life of independent software developers difficult, individual patents that have been granted to companies, what the politicians have to say about it, and what this means for Silicon Valley, click here.

Source: Slate

China is projected to surpass the United States as the world’s largest economy in the near future, a prospect that alarms many Americas. Charles Kenny at Foreign Policy writes: “if you really want to preserve America’s top spot in the GDP rankings, there’s only one way to do it. You’ve got to make more Americans…if the United States can’t keep up its output lead by more rapid growth of GDP per capita, then perhaps it should just find some more capita.” Highlights of his tongue-in-cheek argument include:

• The US population is currently projected to grow to 409 million by 2050. If the United States were to allow more immigrants in and let it grow to 450 million by 2050 then it would remain the largest economy in the world.
• The US could just try to grow more people on its own. It could, for example, pay people to get pregnant. But in this case outsourcing would be cheaper. Raising a child to 18 in the United States costs over $200,000. This could raise 34 kids in the developing world.
• Moreover, if the US imports people then it decreases the number of people in other countries – therefore ensuring its own dominance.
• Immigrants are generally entrepreneurial – 25% of science and technology companies founded in the United States between 1995-2005 were led by a foreign chief-executive.

To read about the sneaky policies undertaken by the Pentagon to ensure the United States’ dominance, why the US can use remittances to undermine the economy of other countries, and what role an ageing population has to play in all this click here.

Source: Foreign Policy

Via: Marginal Revolution

Bloomberg reports on a fascinating report that examines the composition of the Chinese legislature:

• The increase in the wealth of the richest 70 members of China’s legislature ($11.5 billion) in 2011 was more than the entire net worth of the entire US Congress, the President, the Cabinet, and the Supreme Court ($7.5 billion).
• The richest member of the United States congress, with a net worth of $700.9 million, would rank just 40^th in the list of the richest in China’s legislature.
• China’s top political leaders – including the President – don’t disclose their personal finances.

To read other startling comparisons as well as more about the former Chinese President who allowed the rich onto the legislature, why in a country of weak legal rights, it is in the interest of the rich to be on the legislature, and where their wealth comes from click here.

Source: Bloomberg

Via: Shanghai List, Marginal Revolution

Laser guns have long been a staple of science-fiction. Why then don’t we have any yet? Jeff Hecht answered the question:

• Lasers aren’t energy efficient. They work by converting other forms of energy into light, but a lot of energy is lost as heat in the process.
• The only way for a laser to kill is through heat. But the human body is mostly made up of water, and it requires a lot of energy to heat water up. Thus a laser gun would require a prohibitive amount of power.
• The one thing lasers can do well is burn out a person’s retinas. However staring at the sun has the same effect, and anyway the Geneva conventions don’t allow for such tactics.

To read more about how lasers can be used to take out non-human targets, as well as equally heinous alternatives for aspiring evil overlords, click here.

Source: Light Speed

Illusionist Teller from Penn and Teller recently revealed seven principles that magicians use to manipulate you. Here are three of them:

• “It’s hard to think critically if you’re laughing” – follow up an amazing trick with a joke so that the viewer doesn’t have time to analyze the deception.
• “Nothing fools you better than the lie you tell yourself” – let your audience feel as if they had the opportunity to use their own intellect to figure out what you’re doing.
• “Make the secret a lot more trouble than the trick seems worth” – if there’s a conceivable explanation for how you performed your trick, but that explanation suggests you did a prohibitive amount of work, then do the work, people will assume it’s a trick.

To read the rest of the seven, as well as an example of a trick that integrates all of the principles outlined, click here.

Source: Smithsonian

Via: The Boston Globe