A press release presents modest evidence about the worth of narcissistic Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) [here is an auto-translated version of the original German text]: The more narcissistic one CEO, the higher his willingness in his or her company to introduce new technologies – especially if these innovations are perceived by the public as “beneficial”, but […]
Tag: technology
Updated index of new patents for golfballs (Sept. 2012)
The GolfBall Index maintained headway into positive territory again this month – virtually equalling August’s promising figures. September 2012 ended with almost one dozen new US patents for golfballs. • Golf ball core with soft outer transition volume and negative hardness gradient • Multi-layer core golf ball having opposing hardness gradient with steep gradient outer […]
To fail by looking at all ‘failed’ technology as failure
Maggie Koerth-Baker writes in BoingBoing: “How the Refrigerator Got its Hum” is an article written by science historian Ruth Schwartz Cowan [pictured here]. It was published in 1985, in a book called The Social Shaping of Technology. The article traces the development of the refrigerator and the story of why we use electricity, rather than natural […]
The epic endurance of nickel-a-bottle Coca-Cola
An economics paper explains, perhaps, the epic endurance of nickel-a-bottle Coca-Cola: “‘The real thing’: nominal price rigidity of the nickel Coke, 1886-1959“, Daniel Levy and Andrew Young, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, (2004). (Thanks to Sandeep Baliga for bringing this to our attention.) Levy and Young write: We report that the price of a 6.5oz […]