f you’ve ever given blood, you’ve likely experienced the discomfort of having a nurse struggle to find your vein. And if you’re anything like me, you’re probably used to someone jabbing at your arm for five minutes before giving up and moving to the other one because your veins are "difficult to find".
The price of rooftop solar power is falling fast. Just recently, the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory said solar energy prices dropped by up to 19% countrywide in 2013, and by 12% this year. Prices now are 59% lower than what people said they would be back in 2010, showing how rapid the advances have been.
Since its conception in 2008, BitCoin — the digital currency pervading news outlets — has seen a rise both in prominence and value that few could have anticipated. Invented by Satoshi Nakamoto (amidst much speculation if the name represents a person or group), the payment system was originally called bitcoins, and was invented as a way to streamline online purchases. When you consider that it is only six years old, the rise of BitCoin has been nothing short of meteoric. Today over 60,000 merchants now accept BitCoin as a valid form of payment, including huge companies such as Zynga, Overstock and even the online auction giant eBay.
It is a glimpse into the future that will inspire wonder in some people but perhaps strike terror into the heart of the nervous flyer: a windowless plane that nonetheless allows passengers to see what’s going on outside, as well as checking their email and surfing the net.
Andrei Alexandrescu didn’t stand much of a chance. And neither did Walter Bright. When the two men met for beers at a Seattle bar in 2005, each was in the midst of building a new programming language, trying to remake the way the world creates and runs its computer software. That’s something pretty close to a hopeless task, as Bright knew all too well. “Most languages never go anywhere,” he told Alexandrescu that night. “Your language may have interesting ideas. But it’s never going to succeed.”