Articles

  • Here Comes the Long-Lasting Apple


    Posted Thursday, November 12, 2009 - 12:48pm

    Scientists in Australia say they've developed an apple that can stay fresh at room temperature and, if refrigerated, can last for months.

    The apple for now is called RS103-130, but I think it's safe to assume they'll come up with a catchier name for it. The fruit's developers (that sounds weird, doesn't it?) say taste tests indicate that it is "the world's best apple."

    • Dan Mitchell has written for The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The MInneapolis Star-Tribune and Wired.

  • Apocalypse Then


    Posted Thursday, November 12, 2009 - 8:42am

    from SlateThere was a lot of talk leading up to Y2K, but it seems that everyone has forgotten about it by now. Slate's Farhad Manjoo has set out to find out whether the hysteria was a good thing or just a big waste of time and money:

    • Farhad Manjoo is Slate's technology columnist and the author of True Enough: Learning To Live in a Post-Fact Society.

  • Posted Thursday, November 12, 2009 - 8:40am

    from SlateAs we dig out from the rubble of the financial sector's collapse, it's common to hear analysts fret that the United States may now be facing a Japan-style "lost decade." Throughout the 1990s, after its real estate and stock bubble burst, Japan struggled with low growth for more than 10 years. It emerged from the decade shrunken and sapped of confidence, with very little to show for a large amount of government spending and near-zero interest rates.

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  • How Goldman Sachs Gives Back


    Posted Thursday, November 12, 2009 - 6:04am

    The most recent Goldman Sachs Foundation tax filing was released yesterday, and the New York Times says that it’s “as thick as a phone book” thanks to the firm’s heavy trading and diversified investments. “The list of trades is more than 200 pages, single spaced. Goldman, it seems, invests like no other, even for its own charity,” the paper says. The charitable foundation’s assets have nearly doubled this year to more than $400 million, thanks to the firm’s recent big investments.

    • Caitlin McDevitt is an editorial assistant at The Big Money.

  • Posted Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - 6:09pm
    Photograph of businessman by Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.

    How the prosecutors must have wished to have a go at Ralph Cioffi in the flesh! If only Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, the two Bear Stearns fund managers acquitted yesterday of insider trading and other charges, had had the gall to take the stand in their own defenses and to submit to what the Feds must have hoped would be a withering cross-examination. Well, no such luck.

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    Photograph of businessman by Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.

  • GM to Repay Taxpayers. Definitely. Maybe.


    Posted Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - 4:21pm

    General Motors’ Chairman, Ed Whitacre, said yesterday that GM plans to pay back the government loans it accepted during its bailout/bankruptcy, contradicting a GAO report that maintained GM will never be able to return those taxpayers' funds. On the one hand, GM seems to be doing better than anyone expected.

    • Matthew DeBord has written about the auto industry for the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post, and Car Design News.

  • The Low-Cow Burger Boom


    Posted Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - 3:42pm

    When there's a recall of ground beef, people change their habits. But many of them don't stop eating burgers—they just take their business to smaller, more local producers. That is, if you believe that the anecdotal evidence collected by Laura Vozella of the Baltimore Sun represents an overall trend.

    Vozella flatly says that whether "driven by illusion or good sense, demand is growing for nonindustrial burgers."

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    • Dan Mitchell has written for The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The MInneapolis Star-Tribune and Wired.

  • Diners Still Demanding Cheap Eats


    Posted Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - 2:20pm

    A new study by the financial consultancy AlixPartner doesn't bode well for the beleagured restaurant industry. Diners are still seeking bargains. And even if traffic goes up, spending won't. Not anytime soon.

    • Dan Mitchell has written for The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The MInneapolis Star-Tribune and Wired.

  • Can We Trust Google's Wi-Fi Gift?


    Posted Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - 12:38pm

    When Google (GOOG) announced yesterday that it was offering free Wi-Fi at 47 airports this holiday season, it didn't take long for Googlewatchers to suspect an ulterior motive. After all, this is a company that has found a way to make billions off of services it offers for free. And no one gives you somethin' for nothin'. So what, our Internet sourpusses ask, is Google's hustle here?

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    • Chris Thompson is a writer living in Brooklyn.

  • Read Between the Lies


    Posted Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - 9:19am

    from SlateRupert Murdoch talks a lot about how he's angry at Google (GOOG) for stealing his newspaper content. But why doesn't he do something about it?

    • Jack Shafer is Slate's editor at large.