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Daily Bafflements

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Daily Bafflements
January 05, 2015
• A new San Francisco startup aims to “print” the DNA designed by its customers on a computer program. “Anyone in the world that has a few dollars can make a creature, and that changes the game,” the company’s founder told the San Francisco Chronicle. ...

Daily Bafflements
December 31, 2014
• This AP report on the controversial “opossum drop” in North Carolina just absolutely must be read in full. Happy New Year! • “As art was institutionalized, so, inevitably, was the artist,” writes William Deresiewicz in a brief history of the ...

Daily Bafflements
December 30, 2014
• Today in Billionaires: two self-made billionaires (sorry, “producers”) have a new book out that shares the secrets of their success. Billionaires, you see, “cannot predict the exact time to make an investment…they are willing to operate ...

Daily Bafflements
December 29, 2014
• Which one are you going to? We haven’t decided yet: “Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich are planning ­rival New Year’s Eve parties on the ritzy island of St. Barts,” reports Page Six. Diddy’s will have Kim ...

Daily Bafflements
December 24, 2014
• Today in Billionaires: a 2011 Escalade drove through the New Jersey home of billionaire Peter Kellogg on Monday, through the center hall, into the living room, and out into the back yard, according to NJ.com. An unnamed 26-year-old driver and 56-year-old passenger only ...

Daily Bafflements
December 23, 2014
• “Forget Spotify, Etsy, or Contenty,” says Fortune, “the latest trend in startup names is regular old human names,” like Oscar, Alfred, and Lulu. “Jacob Brody, founder of Benny, says he chose the name because he wants his company to be seen as a ...

Daily Bafflements
December 22, 2014
• In a so-called “Instagram Rapture,” millions of fake accounts that have previously been marked as “spammy” were suddenly deleted. Fans can mean money, of course, in lucrative endorsement deals. “The singer Justin Bieber lost 3.5 million fans, ...

Daily Bafflements
December 19, 2014
• In the San Francisco Business Times, a man who starts a company in Silicon Valley to make a vegan sandwich spread and receives funding from Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin is referred to as a “Mayo disruptor.” • A woman in Illinois is trying to trademark ...

Daily Bafflements
December 18, 2014
• Current events, summarized. (Via Jody Avirgan.) • We hear about plagiarism in journalism a lot, but what about plagiarism in grant applications for education funds? One Nevada organization copied and pasted its “research” from a Brookings Institution report, ...

Daily Bafflements
December 17, 2014
• Happy Hannukah, everyone. For your pleasure: “Texas Gov. Rick Perry may not be dancing with rabbis this Hanukkah season, but the Lone Star State’s outgoing chief is still looking to find common ground with the Chosen,” reports CNN. “Perry released a ...

Daily Bafflements
December 16, 2014
• Our fair city is in the running to host the Olympics in 2024, and not everyone is excited about it. “The average pricetag for hosting a Summer Olympics is $15 billion,” according to the No Boston Olympics group. “That’s more than what the Commonwealth of ...

Daily Bafflements
December 15, 2014
• A new study has found that increased working hours are to blame for Americans’ chronic, collective sleep deprivation. • The UK’s Labour party is pushing for a new law to limit unpaid internships to a month, after which employers would be required to pay ...