Hot on the heels of GE's Ecomagination Challenge, a crowdsourced promotional effort to develop power grid technologies, Sony Europe has launched a promotional crowdsourcing venture of its own. Open Planet Ideas, a website launched in conjunction with the WWF and the design firm IDEO, is being billed as an "online community incubator for collaborative technology solutions to critical environmental issues."

Sony is asking participants to get inspiration from nine existing Sony technologies: wireless microphone, GPS, presence sensing, sweep panorama, peer-to-peer software, PSP Go, remote video monitoring, dye sensitized solar cells, and FeliCa (contactless wireless communication between two devices).

And the ideas have to be feasible using current technology. Sony explains:

We’re not trying to create new products here: that’s the job of our engineers and designers. The spirit of this challenge is what we call "the art of the possible." We think that the answers to some of our biggest environmental challenges could be solvable with the tools that we already have. All that’s needed is applying them in radically new ways.

To that end, Sony plans to release all information and documentation from the winning idea into the public domain. Because Sony is purely altruistic here--never mind that all the ideas involve Sony products and all of the advisers who will judge the entries are Sony employees.

And unlike GE's $200 million prize bounty, Sony won't be offering any cash.

Can a crowdsourced competition without a major reward really take off? We'll find out soon--submissions will be accepted from October 11th until November 29th.

[Open Planet Ideas]

Ariel Schwartz can be reached on Twitter or by email.

There is no mandate, and the government says it's simply making suggestions to companies listed on the SGX. So how can Singapore convince companies to adopt sustainability reporting? The answer appears to be public pressure.

The Singapore Stock Exchange, SGX, has put out a set of guidelines encouraging listed companies to adopt sustainability reporting. With a market cap of $480 billion, the securities exchange is a leading player in the Asia-Pacific region. The move by the tiny country appears to be a warming of its feet--the precursor to making sustainability reporting a requirement for all companies listed on the exchange. But for now, there is no mandate and the government says it's simply making suggestions. So how can the Singapore convince companies to adopt sustainability reporting? The answer appears to be public pressure.

The country has opened up the proposal writing process to the views of Singaporeans to get their feedback. "SGX is seeking feedback from the public on the adoption of sustainability reporting and its policy guidelines as a holistic approach towards corporate disclosure," according to the official release. "The Policy Statement and Guide will be available on the SGX website."

So, you or your Singaporean friends and family have until October 29th to make your views known, by emailing your suggestions, demands, comments, jokes, etc. to sustainability@sgx.com. Nothing like a little ol' peer pressure to get the country's leading companies to ramp up their sustainability efforts.

For those managers worried they are staffing their teams with a bunch of jerks, we have this handy quiz! Answer truthfully and learn if you are a leader of obnoxious superstars.

EGOS Survey (Evaluation Gauge for Obnoxious Superstars)

Answer true or false to each statement below. The people who get ahead at my workplace:

say "we" but think "me." see their peers as competitors, even "the enemy." remove subordinates' names from good work before passing it up the chain. belittle others' triumphs and successes. hoard their ideas because, after all, there is no reward for sharing them with colleagues. are chronic credit hogs. stomp on others on the way to the top. often ask for help from colleagues but rarely return the favor. are world-class backstabbers, remarkably adept at destroying the reputations of peers, subordinates, and bosses whom they see as competitors. stockpile resources and won't share, no matter how badly others need them. routinely rip apart colleagues--not just their ideas, but their reputations and self-confidence, too. are such all-star ass-kissers that their superiors adore them, but they are despised by peers and subordinates. negotiate for more and more goodies for themselves but never go to bat for others. conveniently "forget" to invite colleagues to high-profile meetings. do what is best for themselves first and rarely what is best for their team or the organization. say nice things to their bosses' faces but rip them to shreds behind their backs. don't waste time teaching or mentoring others. are black holes of information: it only goes in, never out to colleagues. insist on being "in the loop" but don't return the favor. live the 30 Rock mantra--"I'm going to get mine!" Scoring the EGOS

Add up the number of statements that you marked as true. This isn't a scientifically validated test, but here is how I would describe your workplace:

0 to 4: Help others succeed or get the hell out. If you are telling the truth, your workplace selects and breeds unselfish stars, and reforms (or drives out) selfish creeps.

5 to 10: Help others succeed, but watch your back. Your workplace is at the borderline between anointing collaborative versus selfish stars. People collaborate and there are rewards for doing so, but enough selfish behavior happens that anointed stars grab goodies and credit for themselves and protect themselves against getting screwed--especially by their most selfish and devious coworkers.

11 to 15: Watch out for number one, otherwise you are screwed. Your people are playing a competitive, "I win, you lose" game every day. Selfishness and backstabbing abound, and collaborators are crushed by the system. Even the most naturally cooperative people learn to become selfish and do a bit of backstabbing in such places, otherwise survival is impossible.

16 to 20: Kill or be killed. You are in a dog-eat-dog world where the only way for people to get ahead is to treat their coworkers as enemies and to crush their spirits and reputations every chance they get. No one lasts long in such a place without becoming an overbearing and selfish jerk who screws colleagues at every turn.

Are You Working With Energizers or Rotten Apples? Read the article

This is an excerpt from GOOD BOSS, BAD BOSS: How to Be the Best ... and Learn from the Worst by Robert I. Sutton, PhD. Copyright © 2010 by Robert Sutton. Reprinted by permission of Business Plus, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

[Image courtesy of NBC]

 

An investment firm backed by a trio of wealthy Brazilians is buying the fast food franchise.

Burger King is being turned over to Brazilians and becoming a private company. The New York Times first reported on the sale of the global fast food giant to the investment firm 3G Capital, which is based in New York but funded by Brazilians. Several news outlets are now reporting that the deal will be finalized today, pending any last minute problems. Brazil is a rapidly developing "BRIC" country, and not the first to purchase an American company--although few acquisitions have cut as close to Main St. as this one.

It turns out there is a precedent: 3G previously had a 6.7 percent stake in Wendy's, and 3G's principals (a trio of wealthy Brazilians) are also largely responsible for the merger of InBev and Anheuser-Busch. The buyout is viewed by Burger King as a "turnaround opportunity, one that draws upon the operational expertise gained in its beer and retail investments."

Burger King has more than 12,000 restaurants around the globe, but the economic downturn has hurt sales in the U.S. and Canada this year. The chain last changed hands in 2002, when TPG, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Bain Capital bought the King from the U.K. spirits behemoth Diageo. Since then, the chain has pursued an aggressive strategy of expansion into international markets including China, Russia, and Latin America. And the Brazilians are not Whopper virgins: there are already 93 restaurants in the country.

And 3G, should it succeed in acquiring Burger King, would continue the chain's international build out. America's fast food takes over the world yet again, through burgers and beer.

Yesterday, Steve Jobs boasted of iTunes' 160 million users when introducing Ping, Apple's new social music network. But anyone wading into the service this morning will find an empty community save a few artists (Lady Gaga, Yo-Yo Ma) and a few potential followers (Rick Rubin). Sure, early adopters are always a small crowd--but this is Apple, not some start-up. Shouldn't we expect Ping to be a vibrant social network? Shouldn't there at least be some auto-integration with my other networks, namely Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter? Apple thinks so--the company even claims that iTunes 10 users can connect to Facebook. Yet that connection is nowhere to be found. Here's why.

First off, how does one find "People" on Ping? When downloading iTunes 10, Apple suggests on its Web site: "Find even more music fans with a quick search, by sending email invites, or by connecting to your Facebook account." But since a Facebook account can't be connected as promised, one must depend on quick search (impossible to search for friends when they are not registered on Ping) or email invites (a pretty desperate method to finding buddies). So where did that Facebook incorporation go?

Answer: Out the door because of Facebook's demands for "onerous terms," says Steve Jobs. All Things D caught up with Jobs yesterday at the press conference, and asked why Ping didn't have Facebook sharing or linking--the process of syncing friends from another social network. Jobs explained that they had held meetings with Facebook for "a variety of unspecified partnerships" but that discussions had hit a dead-end.

Though it's unclear what Jobs meant by "onerous terms," it's possible that the talks had ended over the different usership of each service. Facebook's network is all about sharing; Ping's service is aimed at buying. That is, in order to register for Facebook, one needs an email address; in order to become a member of iTunes, one needs a credit card. Ping's central purpose is to foster more song purchases through friend and artist recommendations. The question then becomes: If Facebook allowed its users to port over to Ping, would they have to add credit card information? Would Facebook have access to this data? Does Apple even want Facebook co-opting its users (and vice-versa)?

The same can be said of other networks such as Google and Twitter--but what about MySpace? It's interesting that throughout this Facebook-Ping debacle, no one has even brought up MySpace integration. The once-popular social network made a name for itself through music and music streams, but if Ping works--providing users a streamlined social network with artists and one-stop shop for music and other media--MySpace will become irrelevant (if it isn't already). Still, it's no surprise that MySpace and Facebook is popular among record labels and artists--wouldn't an incorporation with the service instantly bolster Ping's artist social network? Currently, its artist community is limited and eclectic: U2 and Katy Perry, Linkin Park and Jack Johnson, Diddy and Taylor Swift. Wouldn't iTunes want to expand that part of its social network?   

Ultimately, Ping isn't focusing on Facebook or MySpace integration as much as it is focused on selling music. Ping is an inherently store-based social network--it cannot even be accessed without first going through the iTunes store. Most importantly is iTunes huge user-base of registered-credit card members--the service boasts more than even PayPal! How many could Facebook possibly have?

Thus Ping is the more exclusive of the two social networks. And until Apple opens up its borders to other social networks such as Facebook, Gmail, Myspace, and Twitter, "exclusive" will just have to remain a euphemism for "empty."

Photograph by Sue Tallon

The race is on to transform your smartphone into your wallet.

The Japanese call it osaifu keitai (cell-phone wallet). Flash your phone virtually anywhere you go for almost any purchase and it's automatically logged into a digital expense report. Eat frequently at McDonald's? Tap your phone to pay and your all-in-one debit card/receipt tracker/loyalty program may instantly offer you 10% off.

Today, if you want to enjoy these benefits, you have to go to Japan. But after years of talk, wireless carriers, banks, startups, and handset makers are now actively working to transform Americans' cell phones into mobile wallets. The goal: to snag a share of the processing fees associated with the $3.2 trillion in annual retail credit-card charges, and to turn the $1.2 trillion in cash and check spending into digital transactions.

For the past five-plus years, Visa and MasterCard have used near-field communications (NFC) chips in tap-to-pay credit cards and key fobs. Now they're embracing mobile phones as well. Later this month, Visa will release an iPhone case (developed with Dallas-based Device Fidelity) that makes the handset compatible with tap-to-pay consoles. This follows MasterCard's similar entry this summer, when it started marketing tags (developed with Atlanta-based First Data) that stick to phones. "Consumers already use phones for online payments," says Josh Peirez, MasterCard Worldwide's chief innovation officer, referring to downloaded songs and software. "The goal is to get them comfortable doing the same thing in the physical world."

The interim offerings will have a decidedly short shelf life. Nokia has announced that it will include NFC chips in all its 2011 smartphones, effectively forcing Apple, Research in Motion, and other rivals to follow suit. "Stickers and stuff are welcome bridges," says Gerhard Romen, Nokia's director of mobile financial services, "but demand is growing, and full implementation is what makes a technology go forward."

Analysts estimate NFC will become ubiquitous within the next three to five years, which will give wireless carriers newfound leverage in determining the future of the mobile wallet. Indeed, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon are reportedly working on a joint-payments initiative. (All either declined to comment or couldn't be reached.) "Not only do they distribute the physical devices and 'own' millions of customers," says Philip J. Philliou, of payments-consulting firm Philliou Selwanes Partners, "but they also understand how to do payments -- billings, collections, maintaining accounts -- on a massive scale."

That said, carriers are unlikely to go it alone. In Japan, a primarily cash-based society, NTT DoCoMo took control of the mobile-wallet market by buying a bank. A likelier scenario in the United States -- where consumers already love to buy now, pay later -- would be for one or more carriers to partner with or even acquire a credit-card network, so as to take advantage of its brand equity, processing savvy, and retail relationships. "Together, they can offer unparalleled fraud protection," Philliou adds. "And when risk decreases, so does cost."

The excitement surrounding the mobile wallet's potential is so fevered that in addition to carriers and credit-card networks, now banks, tech giants, and startups are all eager to lay claim to some part of this potentially huge new ecosystem. PayPal already lets users send money via text message, and Osama Bedier, its VP of mobile platforms and new ventures, envisions a service that stores gift cards and alerts customers when they're near a merchant. This past summer, mobile startup Loopt launched its Loopt Star program, an über digital-rewards card for such brands as Starbucks and Gap. U.S. Bank is working with Infosys to move beyond a basic banking app: It's developing a location-based "concierge" so smart (and potentially creepy) that it can offer a shampoo discount to shoppers browsing the hair-care aisle. As NFC tech proliferates, says Dominic Venturo, U.S. Bank's chief innovation officer, "we'll be able to make a business case for services that are even better."

This year, eBay expects U.S. consumers to buy roughly $1.5 billion worth of goods using its smartphone apps. It's a short leap, then, to using that same handset to pay at the Target in your neighborhood shopping center. "From the customer's point of view," says Robert Hedges, a partner at the financial-services consultancy Mercatus, "the question is, When is the banking industry going to catch up with us?"

How do artists connect with their fans? Twitter? MySpace? Facebook? Try iTunes.

At the Apple press conference today, Steve Jobs unveiled Ping, a music social network seamlessly integrated into the latest version of iTunes 10. Consumers can use the service to follow friends and artists, post thoughts and opinions, view custom top song and album charts, as well as concert listings. Ping launches today, and with Apple's massive leverage as the largest music provider in the U.S., iTunes will instantly become a huge competitor to other social networks, and a big asset for both consumers and record labels.

"Ping is social music discovery," Steve Jobs told audiences. "It's a social network all about music--it's that simple."

Ping is now a new button on the sidebar iTunes. When users click into it, they'll be brought to a personal feed where they can find friends and artists. You're a fan of Lady Gaga? Search for her name and begin following her artist page. You'll be able to check out personal messages she writes to her fans, pictures and videos she posts, the music she's listening to, and a list of concerts.

Friends (famous or otherwise) can follow you as well, and vise-versa depending on what privacy settings you choose and who you approve. Everyone will appear in something called the "Circle of Friends." What's more, Ping is available on the iPhone and iPod Touch, enabling users to take advantage of the social network on-the-go.

To be clear, Ping won't replace Twitter or Facebook (although it does allow you to log on using Facebook Connect, which may help steal away a few users despite what the Apple promo page says, there is no way to find your Facebook friends via Ping). But MySpace should be scared as hell. For social networking, Apple's new service may be just "one more," but for music, Ping could be The One. No other service has Apple's seamless connection to a music store, mobile devices, major label-backing, and 160 million members--all with credit cards registered. If, say, Jack Johnson releases a song, followers will easily be able to purchase it in one-click. Can any competitors--Facebook, Twitter, MySpace--say the same thing? This service removes the middleman, making purchasing music and following your favorite artist as easy as using iTunes itself. (And you can bet this music industry behemoth will continue to populate its social network with artists eager to participate as part of marketing packages.)

Major labels will certainly love this too. They've tried to take advantage of social media to market their artists, but combining social networking with Apple makes iTunes a one-stop shop. Plus, the service includes an Amazon-like friend recommendation system (above) that's sure to bring in more sales. The big question: Will iTunes expand into other areas such as ticket sales? About 17,000 concert listings will instantly be featured on iTunes--but will we soon be purchasing them directly through the iTunes store instead of Ticketmaster? Regardless, even revealing those potential new sources of revenue, Jobs was ecstatic.

"We think this will be really popular, really fast," boasted Jobs. "160 million people will turn it on."

Despite a seemingly stout business plan, and all the financial, social and educational benefits it would bring, the FCC's just turned down M2Z's application for a coast-to-coast free wireless broadband system. 

The FCC did not elaborate on why it turned down a plan from a new company called M2Z which would've created a U.S.-wide, free wireless broadband network. M2Z's trick was going to be to use a spare bit of the radio spectrum, the 2GHz "AWS-3" band, and earn itself cash by embedding ads in its free Net service as well as licensing out part of the spectrum it would then be controlling for other commercial uses. The entire nationwide system could've been up and running inside 10 years, and 5% of M2Z's revenues would've gone straight to the Treasury.

Ignoring all the potential commercial benefits, educational uses, opportunities for new businesses to spring up that utilized the free network, and all sorts of enterprising stuff that isn't even dreamed up yet, the FCC has finally ceased its deliberations, and has completely denied M2Z's application. Early on, the plan ran afoul of puritanical concerns about how it could be used for viewing pornography--but the FCC's intention to filter porn ran into opposition with civil liberties groups.

The FCC is known to have heard complaints about M2Z's plan from existing wireless carriers. Though M2Z's network would've operated at under 1 mbs peak speeds--meaning it was very slow by todays standards, and probably snail-like by tomorrow's--its free pricing may well have tempted many folks away from spending cash with an established ISP. Those carriers are now reported to be pleased with the FCC's decision, though they argue it's in line with the greater National Broadband Plan. Whenever that actually gets off the ground.

To keep up with this news follow me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter.

Natural gas is undoubtedly a practical source of electricity generation; it's plentiful, burns relatively clean, and produces minimal carbon dioxide. All good things--unless you happen to live near a drilling site with irresponsible owners. ProPublica reports that residents of Pavillion, Wyoming are being told not to drink their water and to even use ventilation when showering so as to avoid an explosion. Because apparently, they're all lathering up with benzene, phenols, metals, naphthalene, and methane.

Test results from the EPA are pretty ugly: oil compounds were found in 89% of all drinking wells that were tested in the area, methane was found in 7 wells (out of 23) and 2-butoxyethanol phosphate (a fire retardant and plasticizer) was found in 11 of the wells.

The EPA claims that it doesn't know the cause of the contamination, but EnCana, the oil and gas company responsible for most of the wells in the area, says it will pay for the cost of residents' drinking water--even though it won't admit to having anything to do with the contamination.

This is, of course, something that could happen at any drilling site. But it's a sobering reminder that natural gas is not a sustainable source of energy, and it can be dangerous, to boot.

Ariel Schwartz can be reached on Twitter or by email.

Soon the TV you flick on to watch the news before your morning commute may be cinema-screen-sized and 3-D. Innovation, even when your eyes can't take the early-hour strain.

1. Stephen Hawking's new book is due out, and the physics guru has apparently changed his mind about God, according to an extract published in the Times U.K. today. Previously the prof had been ambivalent--physics didn't rule out a creator, he thought, even while it reduced his powers to significantly less than godlike. Now he's saying "It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going." No comment from God was immediately available.

2. Want to earn more? If you're a CEO, Fire people. Lots of 'em. That's one conclusion from a new survey revealing that CEOs of the 50 U.S. companies that ditched the most staff between late 2008 and early 2010 were paid 42% more than the average for their peer group. Oh, and as a bonus? It'll increase your profits too. 

3. Europe is seeing the strongest rise in consumer spending in years. Those Eurozoners have been forking over more cash in shops than since the start of the global economic slowdown in 2007. Europe, so thinkers now think, is more resilient in resisting financial glitches elsewhere in the world than some had worried. Our theory: thanks to Europop they listen to less Justin Bieber.

4. Even while Apple is injecting more and more deliciousness into its iPod lineup, Sony Walkman sales are reportedly surpassing the mighty iPod in Japan. How is this possible? The consumer research firm did admit that some Japanese MP3 fans were holding out for the new iPods, however. 

5. Hurricane Earl girded his loins overnight, and this morning he's set his sights on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Warnings are clanging from there all the way up to parts of Massachusetts, after weather experts wiggled their digital fingers in the air to sample the climate, and their computer models suggested Earl will spin Northwards today. Earl doesn't care much for models, of course, has been building up energy to blow winds at over 145 miles an hour. Batten down the hatches, Eastern Seaboard! Tropical Storm Gaston is close behind, and expected to become a hurricane on Saturday.

Boxee Beta from boxee on Vimeo.

Apple's newly redesigned, strikingly simple and unnervingly cheap Apple TV is going to be trouble for a lot of other companies in the media center space. Some, like Roku, may have trouble competing at all anymore, and some analysts have put the upcoming Boxee Box in the same category. Boxee, unsurprisingly, disagrees.

Boxee is an open-source media center, currently available as a free software download on a score of other products (including Mac, Windows, Linux, Xbox, and, coincidentally, the last-gen Apple TV). It's a connected media streamer, albeit with more of an emphasis on local content than the Apple TV, but it's also emblematic of an older conception of this kind of product. It's highly sophisticated and fairly simple to use, but the "more plus more equals more" attitude is something gleaned from predecessors like Windows Media Center and XBMC.

Apple's entertainment roadmap is designed to be sleek, small, and simple. It accesses iTunes, and it streams Netflix. On the other hand, here's what Boxee can do.

Boxee streams just about any kind of video you can imagine, from Netflix and Hulu to the individual sites of content providers like Comedy Central and ABC--basically, anywhere there's legal video on the web, Boxee will find it, and present it in one nice interface. That's all in addition to four hundred other "apps," including Vimeo, MLB, and Pandora. Even better, Boxee can stream video in a startling array of formats (including pirate favorites like Xvid and MKV) from computers on the network. (In comparison, Apple TV is highly limited in the formats it can play back.)

Long in development, Boxee's first hardware, the Boxee Box, is due out in November for $199--twice as expensive as the Apple TV. But it's certainly more capable, with wide software and format support in addition to more powerful hardware (it can run 1080p video, compared to Apple TV's 720p max) and expandability (the Boxee Box has two USB ports and one SD card slot for viewing photos--the Apple TV has, well, nothing). So it makes sense that Boxee feels comfortable saying the two products can coexist.

In a blog post today, Boxee employee Avner Ronen writes:

We all watched the Apple announcement. We walked away feeling strongly confident about the space it left for Boxee to compete. We have a different view of what users want in their living rooms. We are taking different paths to get there. The Boxee Box is going to be $100 more expensive than the Apple TV, but will give you the freedom to watch what you want. We think it’s worth it.

And I agree, for the most part. For real media junkies, the ones who know and care about things like MKV playback and automatic BitTorrent support and hundreds upon hundreds of available plugins, the Boxee Box is the better choice. I think the Boxee Box, provided it works as promised, will sell pretty well to that sector of the market. Of course, the $99 Apple TV will almost certainly sell far more, to everyone and their grandparents, but I agree that the two products do address different segments of the market.

That's the key takeaway point from all this. Just like the smartphone market was a year ago, the connected TV market is barely getting started, and there's plenty of room for all kinds of competitors. Just because Apple TV will likely be successful doesn't mean the Boxee Box won't also do well, in its own way.

Dan Nosowitz, the author of this post, can be followed on Twitter, corresponded with via email, and stalked in Brooklyn (no link for that one--you'll have to do the legwork yourself).

In 2001 red-stained rain fell over India. It was mysterious. Scientists found oddly non-Earth-like cells in it. Controversy ensued. Now it's been revealed the cells can reproduce. Is E.T. already here?

For two months in 2001, on and off, red-colored rain fell over Kerala, southern India. One of the many people who observed the phenomenon was physicist Godfrey Louis--he collected a sample to work out where the color came from, suspecting desert dust, which is often responsible for vaguely biblical-seeming events like this.

Except Godfrey discovered something weird was responsible for the color: Biological cells, red in color, that bore no relation to blood cells and contained no DNA. Writing up the discovery in the journal Astrophysics and Space in 2006, Godfrey included the controversial, but scientifically plausible, suggestion that a comet had brought the cells to our solar system from the depths of space, and fragments had descended into Earth's atmosphere as meteorites. The cells could have survived and seeded the clouds that formed the weird red rain.

To say this is a contentious theory is an understatement: Godfrey was asserting that extraterrestrial living entities had arrived on Earth from space. In a serious science publication. With proper, laboratory-based experiments.

This may or may not freak you out, depending on your level of skepticism, scientific education, or religiousness, and your confidence in the veracity (or lack thereof) of the initial claims. If so, then don't read the next bit: In the intervening years Louis, in collaboration with scientists from around the world, has kept investigating the cells, and he's just published a new paper about them. He's discovered that while the cells are "inert" at room temperature, if you heat them to 121 Celsius, "daughter cells appear within the original mother cells and the number of cells in the samples increases with the length of exposure to 121 degrees C."

Boil this scientific discovery down to its component parts and you get the following:

Red cells fell in rain for a short period.The cells appear unlike almost anything found on Earth.The cells can reproduce, under conditions that are slightly unusual for biological material.Clearly they're meant as alien pods that, thanks to global warming, will soon activate and enslave the sweaty, heatstroked human race who can't evolve fast enough to keep up.

Okay, we made up No. 4.

With recent evidence that simple microbes found in beer can live in the radiation-soaked vacuum of space for nearly two years, it now seems plausible that the red cells represent a form of life known as an extremophile. Earth-based extremophile entities, like the beer microbes, can live in seemingly impossible environments for extended periods. So Louis may have found evidence that E.T. exists, that he can reproduce, and that he's already here on Earth. In the form of tiny red cells.

Peter Gabriel saw this coming '86.

[youtube n7m7Q9VwYqw]

To keep up with this news, follow me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter.

In this excerpt from GOOD BOSS, BAD BOSS: How to Be the Best ... and Learn from the Worst, Robert Sutton tells us about those employees that elevate an office, and those deadbeats and downers that can destroy a company.

Bring on the Energizers

Rob Cross studies social networks: how information, ideas, and influence travel through the Web of relationships that compose every team and organization. A few years back, Rob and his colleagues were designing a survey to map the connections among employees within several big companies. They wanted to identify what kinds of employees were top performers and brought out the best in others. They hypothesized that people who were renowned for having expertise, spreading technical knowledge, and best positioned to gather and weave together information from others would be seen as top performers. At a professional services firm they were studying, an executive argued they were missing something:

We have some of the brightest consultants in the world here. But some are more successful than others, and it has much more to do with what I call buzz than a slight difference in IQ. Our high performers create enthusiasm for things. ... They create energy, and even though this is intangible it generates client sales and follow-on work as well as gets other people here engaged in and supportive of what they are doing.

Inspired by this insight, they added a simple question to their survey: "People can affect the energy and enthusiasm we have at work in various ways. Interactions with some people can leave you feeling drained while others can leave you feeling enthused about possibilities. When you interact with each person below, how does it typically affect your energy level?" The possible answers were: 1 = de-energizing; 2 = no effect/neutral; or 3 = energizing. The colleagues in their team or business were then listed, and each was rated by every coworker.

Rob and his fellow researchers were stunned by how strongly this "energy" question predicted performance evaluations and promotions, and whether people stayed with or left an organization. They also found that the most successful teams and organizations had networks filled with interconnected energizers. Cross and his colleagues have since dug into the kinds of people who are energizers and why they succeed. "Energizers" aren't necessarily charismatic and bubbly; on the surface, many are understated and rather shy. But all create energy via optimism about the possibilities ahead, fully engaging the person right in front of them right now, valuing others' ideas, and helping people feel as if they are making progress.

The late Gordon MacKenzie held a position at Hallmark Cards as "the Creative Paradox." MacKenzie was a successful designer, led innovative design teams, and taught inspiring creativity workshops to everyone from kindergarteners to CEOs. In Orbiting the Giant Hairball, MacKenzie described how he sparked positive energy when he was Hallmark's Creative Paradox:

I became a liaison between the chaos of creativity and the discipline of business. I had no job description and a title that made no sense, but people started coming to me with their ideas, and I would listen to those ideas and validate them. When you validate a person, what you're really doing is giving them power--like a battery charger.

Again, energizers don't need to be bubbly or exciting. When I think of a soft-spoken energizer, Lenny Mendonca comes to mind, a partner at McKinsey who has held senior positions including head of the strategy practice and chair of the McKinsey Global Institute. Before I met Lenny, my stereotype of McKinsey partners was they were smoothtalking egomaniacs. Lenny is exactly the opposite. I remember a great dinner that my colleague Hayagreeva "Huggy" Rao and I had with Lenny at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company (which Lenny owns). Huggy and I were touched by how encouraging and constructive Lenny had been about research we were pursuing. Huggy, an astute observer, pointed out how closely Lenny listened, how he saw possible value in every person and every idea and-- unlike the two of us--rarely interrupted. Huggy and I are just two of Lenny's fans; he has the same energizing effect on everyone who knows him.

Rotten Apples: Bad Is Stronger Than Good

Unfortunately, accentuating the positive isn't enough. The best bosses do more than charge up people, and recruit and breed energizers. They eliminate the negative, because even a few bad apples and destructive acts can undermine many good people and constructive acts. The case for reforming or, failing that, expelling the worst offenders is bolstered by Will Felps's research on "bad apples." Felps and his colleagues studied what I call deadbeats ("withholders of effort"), downers (who "express pessimism, anxiety, insecurity, and irritation," a toxic breed of de-energizer), and assholes (who violate "interpersonal norms of respect"). Felps estimates that teams with just one deadbeat, downer, or asshole suffer a performance disadvantage of 30 to 40 percent compared to teams that have no bad apples.

These rotten apples are so destructive because "bad is stronger than good." For most people, negative thoughts, feelings, and events produce larger and longer-lasting effects than positive ones. Research on romantic relationships shows that unless positive interactions outnumber negative interactions by five to one, chances the relationship will succeed are slim. When the proportion of negative interactions exceeds this "five-to-one rule," marital satisfaction goes way down and the divorce rate goes way up. Similarly, a study that tracked employees' moods found that the impact of negative interactions with bosses and coworkers on employees' feelings were five times stronger than positive interactions. Negative interactions (and the bad apples who provoke them) pack such a wallop in close relationships because they are so distracting, emotionally draining, and deflating. When a group does interdependent work, rotten apples drag down and infect everyone else. Unfortunately, grumpiness, nastiness, laziness, and stupidity are remarkably contagious.

The upshot is that as a boss, you can't wait very long to see if these destructive characters will mend their ways. You need to intervene quickly. If pointed and persistent feedback fails, do everything you can to expel the bad apple. A few years back, I was teaching student teams working with Wal-Mart to help frontline employees become more aware of the environmental impact of the products they sold. The project had tight deadlines and a high-pressure presentation for executives. One team complained that a member had missed most meetings and wasn't doing any work. When I talked to him, he admitted to "blowing off" his team because he was busy interviewing for Rhodes Scholarship and a job at Google--but insisted he was so talented that he deserved to stay on the team. This student thought he was so smart that he didn't need to do any work. But he was just a rotten apple. He dropped the class once I convinced him he was headed for a lousy grade. The team went on to do wonderful work, and the deadbeat did not get the Rhodes Scholarship or the Google job.

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This is an excerpt from GOOD BOSS, BAD BOSS: How to Be the Best ... and Learn from the Worst by Robert I. Sutton, PhD. Copyright © 2010 by Robert Sutton. Reprinted by permission of Business Plus, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

There were few surprises during today's Apple event, many of the new products--including the touchscreen Nano, a social network, a cheaper Netflix-toting Apple TV, and front-facing-camera-toting iPod Touch--were rumored with surprising accuracy. But put together, these announcements reveal a lot about where Apple is pushing its entertainment division.

The Fourth Leg: Apple TV

At the 2008 World Wide Developer Conference, CEO Steve Jobs showed a three-legged stool during his presentation. Each leg represented one part of Apple's business: Music, iPhone and Mac. After the event, many people wondered where Apple TV fit in--where was the fourth leg? Today, we found out.

The new Apple TV is streamlined to a fault, and forgoes two major elements that just about every other competing media streamer offers: internal and external storage. Apple TV has no internal storage, like a hard drive or flash storage for you to store the movies you own.

"People don’t want to think about managing storage, they just want to watch their shows," Jobs said during the event. "They don’t want to sync to a computer, most don’t even know what that is. And they want whatever the hardware is to be silent, cool, and small."

Removing that hard drive is one way Apple is able to reduce the cost of the device, but the in-sourced A4 chip--which is now used in the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Apple TV--likely provides the biggest cost benefit for the company.

Until now, Apple TV was a hobby for Jobs. With the second generation of the device, Apple aims to become truly competitive in the TV and movie market. While only ABC and FOX signed on as pilot partners, Jobs said: "We think the rest of the studios will see the light." He could have said the same thing when Apple first began selling music.

Up Into The Cloud

All the TV shows and movies come from the cloud. You to rent TV shows and movies from iTunes, or watch streaming video from Netflix. None of it is downloaded, none of it is permanent--unlike the music on your iPod, or even the apps on your iPhone. The Apple TV is the latest in a line of new Apple products that sees the tech world this way, with the first being perhaps the MacBook Air, which eliminated the optical (DVD) drive.

iOS 4.1, the next iteration of the iPhone operating system, and iOS 4.2, which is aimed at iPad, also add to the theme of simple, cloud-based computing. Apple's latest iPhone app, Game Center, is a wireless multiplayer gaming powerhouse.

The iPad has been a huge hit, but some find it an inadequate laptop replacement for a couple simple reasons: It can't print, and it can't multitask. The next version of iOS 4 fixes all that, and those little tweaks may make the difference for a lot of buyers.

iTunes 10, along with the new "Ping" social network, is another example of Apple's movement into the cloud. The new iTunes apes ideas from streaming and social music pioneers like MOG and Spotify, combining them with traditional social networking services like Facebook and Twitter. And it will work not only on your computer, but also on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Whether it takes off or sits ignored will largely depend on execution. Apple has a huge built-in audience--160 million users in 23 countries. But remember, Google Buzz had a similarly huge audience, and we all know how that's turned out.

Touchscreen Everything

What about the existing, and most profitable leg of Apple's stool? Jobs said the latest line of iPods represented the most important upgrade since they were introduced in 2001. But in truth, the iPods were perhaps the least thrilling piece of today's news. The new iPod Shuffle is, you know, a Shuffle. It does what it does. The new Nano is a really peculiar little toy--but will a touchscreen that small (1.54 inches!) be usable? It's certainly an advance, but it doesn't revolutionize the device in any unexpected way. 

Maybe the most noteworthy piece of today's announcement is that the clickwheel, one of Apple's most iconic design features, is officially dead. The iPod Classic was nowhere to be found today--it's still for sale on Apple's site, of course. But the iPod is likely to be all touch from here on out.

But as with the optical drive, internal storage, and expandable USB storage, Apple is sacrificing the clickwheel to move forward. Apple's new lineup is sleeker than ever and more connected than ever--sometimes to its detriment. But, once again, Apple is living just a little bit in the future. If it didn't deliver a signature element of risk in its new product launches, well, it'd be Sony.

Dan Nosowitz, the author of this post, can be followed on Twitter, corresponded with via email, and stalked in Brooklyn (no link for that one--you'll have to do the legwork yourself).

Water and energy use are two of the most pressing environmental issues; why not tackle them at the same time? GE and the Environmental Protection Agency have teamed up to do just that with a research and development agreement that will focus on developing software that streamlines clean water distribution while using 10% to 15% less energy than traditional water systems.

In a statement, Alan Hinchman, Global Industry Manager Water/Wastewater for GE Intelligent Platforms, explains:

With this agreement, GE and the U.S. EPA will work with third parties to create a sensor-based, data-driven, and software-assisted system for drinking water distributions. The goal would be to optimize water quality improvement and minimize energy usage. By doing so, the product could assist water utilities and other end users with "greener" distribution network operations and enhanced regulatory compliance.

It would seem to be a nebulous goal if GE didn't have plenty of requirements for its "cost effective commercially viable solution for predictive real-time energy and quality monitoring/control platform in municipal drinking water distribution." It has to feature an open communication architecture with high bandwidth, have the ability to scale, and keep track of both energy use and water quality. And the billions of dollars that GE recently injected into its Ecomagination initiative might help things along.

Still, no word on when such a system might be ready for commercialization.

Ariel Schwartz can be reached on Twitter or by email.

A recent survey by online dating service OkCupid found that iPhone users have more sex than Android users. In that same vein, a new study finds iPhone users are "chicken-eating, diaper-changing, house-cleaning, People-reading fish owners," whereas Android users are "pork-eating, pain-relieving, toilet-scrubbing, Newsweek-reading bird-lovers." At least according to a survey by Coupons.com released today.

As a kick-off for National Coupon Month, the digital coupon company culled data and shopping habits over a seven-month period from the 1 million users of Grocery iQ, a popular app available for the iPhone and Android that integrates Coupons.com's service. The results? Very odd.

iPhone users, for example, purchase fish food 26.2 times more than Android users. Take that Android! Now, you have less sex--and pet fish playtime!

Any more ego-stroking comparisons? According to the survey, coupons for baby products were "overwhelmingly more popular" with iPhone users--these offers were used 41.7 more times than on Androids. Why? Because obviously they're having more sex! Conversely, Android users were two-times as likely to purchase pain relief products.

Seriously though, Coupons.com's survey reveals possibly the most bizarre comparisons of iPhone and Android users. iPhone users purchase more women's body wash; Android users purchase more toilet bowl cleaner; and both love dinner meats. Who cares?

Until the following bars move, showing Android and BlackBerry sex-use is on the rise, we're not interested in how much fish food iPhone users consume.   

In the middle of revamping its entire iPod lineup, Apple released the newly redesigned iPod Nano. It's a totally different beast, packing a multitouch interface onto its diminutive 3-cm screen.

Apple revealed it's sold over 275 million iPods thus far, so lavishing some serious attention on the lineup (which has been seeing a slight dip in its sales growth of late) makes perfect business sense. The biggest reinvention was the iPod Nano, which we'd heard a lot of rumors about over the last couple of weeks. Turns out those rumors were pretty accurate indeed (check our rendering in that link, by the way!).

The new iPod Nano is a tiny square-format, metal-chassis device that reminds us more of the second-generation iPod Shuffle more than anything else. Steve Jobs noted that consumers liked the screen and the buttons of iPods, but the intention of the redesign was to shrink the gadget and make it lighter--the only way to do this was to ditch the venerable click wheel. In its place comes a touchscreen, to cover both user needs. It's also multitouch, which is surprising on a device that's almost as small as a Dick Tracy wristwatch.

The Nano can play movies, photos, music and all the usual basic iPod goodness. It'll cost $150 for an 8GB version, and $180 for a 16GB unit, and there's also a Project RED charitable version coming too. Did Apple just swoop-in and completely re-ennervate the mid-range MP3 player market?

To keep up with this news follow me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter.

Apple TV received a major overhaul today, and has been turned into a serious contender in the Web TV market. It's tiny, easy to use, and aimed directly at yours, and your Granny's TV set-top. This may even be the first set-top box that is a serious worry for the cable TV industry.

The new Apple TV is tiny--palm sized, literally--and will cost just $99 when it goes on sale in four weeks. Jobs placed huge emphasis on ease of use, running from its wireless connectivity to its trademark simple Apple user interface, and no need to "sync" the device to anything, or store files on it since everything is streamed from the cloud.

For TV shows and movies, Apple's done a deal with ABC and Fox, BBC America and the Disney Channel (other studios will follow along, overcoming their reluctance at all this newness, Jobs joked) to bring streaming rented TV shows for $0.99. Movies will be available for a rental of $4.99, and Jobs promised day-and-date releases with DVD at that same price--the rental window lasts 30 days, but once you start watching the movie you can view it for a 48-hour period. As movies get "older" that price will drop even lower. There's also seamless integration with Netflix, giving access to all of its archive of content--all of which streams over the Web already.

Rumors of a dramatic transformation of Apple TV have been circulating for months, but very little detail leaked, and no one expected today's seismic changes. The updated device was CEO Steve Jobs' irresistible "one more thing" during today's live event. 

The original Apple TV launched in 2006, but Apple didn't put much effort into supporting it over the years, and Jobs even admitted that "it's never been a huge hit." But consumers "loved" it, and it seems like user input has been a major element in the updated product design, given the addition of HD quality video, low prices for content, and an easy connection between the device and a 720p-plus HDTV over a simple HDMI cable (good news, technophobes everywhere!). The ability to stream directly from your Mac or iPad offers some intriguing possibilities as well--since Apple TV has WiFi its external hard drive can be your desktop computer. Viewers also want "Hollywood movies and TV shows" Jobs remarked, rather than "amateur hour"--a large dig at Google's YouTube, which is something of a surprise since there's a direct YouTube link built in to the new system, just as in iOS devices.

Like the surprisingly low entry price of the iPad, the Apple TV's price point is so very carefully positioned that it'll appeal to millions of consumers to whom the concept of "set-top boxes" is currently an alien piece of thinking. With its ability to stream content from MobileMe, as well as Flickr, this price means thousands of folk will be buying one for Granny and Grandpa, to keep the oldies up on the latest family photos and videos. 

The only downside, which may limit the TV's international appeal at first, is that it's a fairly U.S.-centric gizmo. At launch, iTunes TV shows and Netflix content will only be available in the U.S., and iTunes movie rentals only in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland and New Zealand. Once the service kicks off, though, this may change--there's nothing like a hot-selling Apple device to make an entire industry rethink itself, as has been proven several times over.

To keep up with this news follow me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter.

Early in today's Fall special event, Apple surprised everyone with a sneak peak of the next, next iOS release--4.2. It's all about the iPad.

iOS 4.1 hasn't even been released yet (the most current software for iPhones and iPads is version 4.0.2), and iOS 4.2 is still weeks away--but Steve Jobs thought it important enough to introduce to the world now. The upgrade will bring the iPad up to speed with the latest user interface and app innovations that have been available on the iPhone for several months.

First up, wireless printing is coming to the iPad, which will be a seriously welcome boon for users who are getting used to the content-delivering powers of the iPad. It'll be a blow to app vendors who've been selling wireless printing apps... but them's the breaks.

AirPlay is another quasi-new thing: It's the replacement for the existing Apple wireless play system, Called AirTunes, and it'll let you stream audio files wirelessly to Apple devices and "other" ones too. "Now, what is AirPlay? You know what AirTunes is," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said during the event. "We’re changing the name of AirTunes to AirPlay, and it’s not just music anymore. You can stream all kinds of media anywhere in your house.”

Later in the presentation, Jobs demonstrated an iPad playing a movie streamed from Apple TV.

All the other features of iOS4, including folders, multitasking, and more will also arrive when it's released in November.

In addition, Apple announced the upcoming release of iOS 4.1, which will fix a slew of bugs and bring some new features to the iPhone. The biggest new feature is the support of High Dynamic Range photos (HDR). This is a new piece of imaging software that takes three photos in rapid succession--one normal, one under-exposed and one over-exposed. It then combines the three to give you an optimal image, in theory. The examples shown during the event looked somewhat unnaturally lit, but it's difficult to gauge without seeing one of these photos up close.

To keep up with this news follow me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter.

Portable gaming is about to completely change directions. For awhile, portable gaming was limited to devices from Nintendo and one Nintendo competitor per generation, whether it was the Sega Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket, or Sony PSP. But the iPhone and iPod Touch changed all that, with new ways to control games (touchscreen, accelerometer) and new ways to play (largely through connectivity).

Somehow, Apple has beat everyone to the punch. Windows Phone 7 isn't even out yet, and here Apple is, announcing a competitor to mobile Xbox Live, with Game Center. Surprisingly, this wasn't one of the rumored announcements today, but it's welcome all the same. Game Center is will be part of the iOS 4.1 package, released later this week.

Game Center is a new app for iPhone, all about multiplayer gaming. You compile a list of friends with whom to play, just like Xbox Live, and it even has its own gamerscore or achievements system (called "rep," apparently).

Steve Jobs even brought up Mike Capps, CEO of Epic Games, to show off a new, very cool-looking first-person shooter called Project Sword. That kind of mature gaming is just what Apple needs to compete with Microsoft, which has much more experience in gaming.

For now, this will overshadow the stand Microsoft made last month when they announced that Windows Phone 7 will take full advantage of Microsoft's gaming success--it won't just be a phone with some games, it'll be a full-fledged portable Xbox, with full Xbox Live capabilities (including gamerpoints and online play). You can check out my piece on the subject here. But rest assured, Windows Phone 7's games are a full step ahead of the iPhone's in terms of sophistication, maturity, and sheer power.

 

Dan Nosowitz, the author of this post, can be followed on Twitter, corresponded with via email, and stalked in Brooklyn (no link for that one--you'll have to do the legwork yourself).