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It’s no secret that Google desperately wants Google+ to be the cornerstone of how you use the internet. The problem? No one’s taking the bait. It might be time for something drastic. Something like backing up several truckloads of cash to buy Pinterest, a social network crammed full of 10 million people who actually want to be there. More »
from Gizmodo
Artist Lorenzo Bravi ran a drawbot class for kids as part of the Minimondi Festival in Parma, Italy. His design uses a battery powered milk frother with pens velcroed to it, making some lovely Spirograph-esque art.
from MAKE
A nine-year-old who built a games arcade from cardboard has earned enough cash to fund his way through college.
It’s a story that’s almost too perfect to be true, but if it’s some sort of stunt or hoax, I don’t really want to know.
Caine Monroy first built the arcade last summer as a way to keep busy while hanging around at his father’s auto part store in East LA. The games aren’t electronic, but rather mechanical, with the main materials being cardboard boxes and packing tape.
Playing on the arcade costs $1 for four games, though frankly you’d be a fool to take that option. Instead there’s a $2 fun pass that offers 500 games within a one month period. To prevent counterfeiting, each pass has a short PIN code and a lengthy validation number: the passes can be checked on a security device attached to each game on which you type in the PIN code, press a check key and make sure the displayed number matches that on the pass.
(Spoiler: the device is a calculator and the check key is the square root function.)
The story goes that with the arcade located in an industrial estate and most of Monroy’s father’s business now being done online, there was little passing trade and a man named Nirwan Mullick became the first customer of the arcade when visiting to collect some spare parts in person.
Mullick happens to be a filmmaker and began making a short documentary about the arcade. He attracted some interest from his own online followers, some of whom even organized a “flash mob†where several hundred people visited the arcade last October.
The lengthy editing process is now complete and the documentary debuted online on Monday, since which time it’s attracted nearly 400,000 views at the time of writing.
Seeing the huge interest, Mullick then suggested viewers could donate a dollar towards a college fund for Caine, pondering “Imagine what this kid could build with an Engineering degree.†That appeal smashed an initial target and has so far raised well over $70,000 and looks likely to hit a near target of $100,000, designed to fund a full four-year degree.
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How important is the auto industry to state and federal governments? According to the Center for Automotive Research, the industry accounts for $135 billion in annual taxes. In fact, a reported 13 percent of all state taxes comes from the automobile, or $91.5 billion in total.
Just as impressive is the overall money that Americans pour into their four-wheeled transportation. CAR estimates that auto sales come in at $564 billion, and parts, repairs and other services add in another $173 billion. And those are the staggering numbers generated in an auto market of only 12 million units per year. So far, 2012 auto sales appear to be moving closer to 14 million units, which should help push the $735 billion total closer to the $1 trillion mark.
The income generated by cars and trucks is certainly significant, but a good portion of that income goes toward new roads. Of the $43 billion that ends up in federal coffers, $29 billion comes from fuel taxes. On the state level, two-thirds of the $91.5 billion comes from taxes on fuel. Still, that amounts to 10 percent of California’s overall revenue and a knee-wobbling 23 percent of revenue in Oklahoma.
Auto jobs also contribute serious coin to Uncle Sam, with Michigan leading the way. Uncle Sam took in $2.2 billion from The Mitten State, followed by Ohio and California. Hit the jumpto read the CAR press release.
Continue reading Auto industry pays $135 billion in taxes annually
from Autoblog
Former Goldman Sachs programmer Sergei Aleynikov, who downloaded source code for the investment firm’s high-speed trading system from the company’s computers, was wrongly charged with theft of property because the code did not qualify as a physical object under a federal theft statute, according to a court opinion published Wednesday.
from Wired Top Stories
Tax Day is coming. If you’re looking for more expenses you can claim in hopes of a higher return, MSN Money notes that a hobby might just do the trick. More »
from Lifehacker
