As reported by Bloomberg, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has now ruled that bitcoin, the peer-to-peer digital currency, is a commodity. This means the CFTC can regulate it and punish evildoers. Several in the bitcoin industry intend to challenge the CFTC's jurisdiction. They say it's...
According to The PIPEs Report (yes they are still around!), private equity funds active in the private investment in public equity (PIPE) market have raised quite a bit of money recently. The funds tend to have a big healthcare focus and invest in both public and...
Enter Ross, a so-called "artificially intelligent attorney," which students at the University of Toronto developed, according to the ABA Journal. This is for real. The students worked with IBM and the Watson computer, you know, the one that won on TV's Jeopardy. Ross can learn...
Samsung recently had to warn its "smart TV" customers that they should be careful what they say in front of the TV. Apparently anything you say is recorded and retained and could be forwarded to third parties. It is still recorded even if you turn...
Two good friends and clients of mine run a rapidly growing social media agency. They work mostly with companies with consumer-driven products but also a number who sell business to business. There are still some in my worlds of law and finance who believe it...
The inventor tinkers. The dreamer cogitates. The "light bulb" moments are exciting. I thought up something new! Both small and large innovations can be exciting whether it's the 3D printer or a cereal bowl with two levels, one for milk and the other for cereal...
You may not have heard about this yet, but over the last few years close to 30 states (including Delaware, NY and California) and DC have approved and another dozen or so have introduced legislation to permit so-called "benefit corporations." The concept is that the...
A fascinating tale of excitement, buried treasure and a true legal thriller. John Grisham's latest pirate adventure? Nope, just a couple who found $10 million of gold coins buried in their yard in San Francisco recently. The gold, according to The San Francisco Chronicle, is...
The New York Times today, reporting from the Consumer Electronics Show, talks about the newest exciting addition to technology: "smart" televisions. Having just shopped for a few new TVs, this is clearly all the rage. Connecting your TV to your computer or to the Internet...
(Paraphrasing the great David Bowie's "Is There Life on Mars?") Scientists using data from NASA announced yesterday that there are nearly 9 billion planets in our Milky Way galaxy alone that are similar to Earth's size and in the range of their suns to support Earth-type...