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Business Opportunities Weblog

Business Opportunities Weblog

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How A 9 Year Old’s Business Went Viral

Posted: 22 Apr 2012 10:15 PM PDT

Caine’s Arcade from Nirvan Mullick on Vimeo.

Entrepreneur:

He started off catering to the shop’s visitors. Now, though, his business has become the main attraction, with excited children and television crews filing through daily, all clamoring for a turn. A $1 ticket gets you four spins at one of five arcade games and a $2 ticket gets you 500 spins. The industrious lad also sells $15 T-shirts — like the one he wears — that display “Caine’s Arcade” on the back.

That attention has turned into big bucks for young Monroy. It’s not clear how much money he’s made from ticket and T-shirt sales, but in donations alone, Monroy has already raised more than $178,000 through his website, CainesArcade.com. Those funds are devoted to paying for his college education, he says.


Ice Cutting Invention Heads To Space

Posted: 22 Apr 2012 10:10 PM PDT

Phys.org:

Robots are being developed all the time to do what we wish and to go where we can't. This week, inventor Bill Stone told attendees at NASA's Astrobiology Science Conference in Atlanta that he intends to get an autonomous robot ready to visit the icebound sea of Jupiter's moon Europa, cut through the icy crust, and explore the waters below. He told the participants that his goal is to send his robot Valkyrie to Europa, where it will use lasers to cut through the ice to explore the waters below, collecting samples, in search of life. His company, Stone Aerospace, has been working on the six-foot by ten inch robotic cylinder called Valkyrie.

The plan is for it to leave its power plant on the surface of the moon, with a high-powered laser travelling down miles of fibre-optic cable. "Our modest goal over the next three years is to use a 5,000-watt laser to send a cryobot through up to 250 meters of ice," Stone said at the Atlanta assembly. If successful, Stone's concept would resolve obstacles in the way of studying what may lie beneath Europa's ice. A report in Wired says those obstacles include (1) solar power being unable to work below the surface (2) batteries not lasting long enough (3) too large a footprint of a device and (4) international treaty restrictions that would forbid testing of a nuclear robot.

Photo by Sweetie187


Everyday Edisons Seeking Pet Inventions

Posted: 22 Apr 2012 10:00 PM PDT

Pet Product News:

The pet product idea casting call, which ends April 23, will be for the show's fifth season. Inventors can still submit pet product ideas until April 30, when the season's open casting call ends. Ideas are submitted online.

The show's premise is to help inventors develop their product ideas into finished products that can be then licensed to manufacturers and major retailers. For product development and licensing arrangements, Edison splits royalties with the inventors, who do not pay for Edison's development support other than a $25 idea submission fee.

Screenshot from Everyday Edisons