Brian Gongol
Google shuffles the executive suite
Larry Page, one of the co-founders, will take over the CEO role in April. There are those who say that Eric Schmidt, who's the current CEO, is being fired, and others who say it's just handing back the reins after a natural growth period. Schmidt himself joked about "adult supervision" no longer being required. Regardless, Google has a devil of a challenge ahead of itself. Unlike the self-driving car in which the leadership team photographed itself, the company can't just drive itself into the future. Lots and lots of reinvestment is going to be required to constantly keep the company profitable. After all, any other competitor is only a matter of clicks away on the Internet. It's hard to stay on top indefinitely when customers have grown accustomed to expecting change in your marketplace. The days are numbered for today's tech giants, to be sure. Google's second decade will require more innovation than its first.
EPA approves 15% ethanol blends in cars
That's a substantial increase in the amount of ethanol allowed to be blended into mainstream gasoline in the US -- at least for cars from model year 2001 and on. Good news for those selling ethanol, but perhaps trouble in the long term for food prices, since it does in fact more tightly link some food prices to oil prices (since demand for ethanol as a substitute for petroleum would then be positively correlated to the price of that petroleum for a larger portion of the total gasoline market than before).
US defense secretary says Chinese military is outpacing our estimates
What happens to boiling water at -22°F
(Video) It becomes instant snow. Also at those temperatures, soap bubbles become ice in mid-air
A salad for carnivores
(Video) Meat surrogates for every single vegetable item in a salad. Positively disgusting. But hilarious.
