26.3.13

Bill Gate Offers $100K To Whoever Can Make A 'Next Generation' Condom


The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is offering $100,000 to anyone who can make a condom people actually like to use - a "next-generation" condom.


The feel of latex prophylactics has been central to why men choose not to use them, putting their partner at risk for sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies.

A lack of use has caused the spread of HIV/AIDS and has hindered family planning around the globe.

The contest is part of the Foundation's Round 11 Grand Challenges Explorations initiative and will offer financial support above the initial funding if a new condom is chosen.

The description of the challenge reads:

Raising Kids Who Can Responsibly Handle Money


If you thought the easiest way to teach your kids about money was to have them write down their goals and stay on a budget, you’re a genius.


According to a study from Inceptia, a nonprofit that promotes financial education, the two measures that correlated most highly with financial confidence and know-how in college freshmen were writing down financial goals and sticking to a budget.

The study found that students who said they had a

25.3.13

What Extremely Successful People did During Their 20's

Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart was a stockbroker for the firm of Monness, Williams, and Sidel, the original Oppenheimer & Co.

Before her name was known by every American household, Martha Stewart actually worked on Wall Street for five years as a stockbroker. Before that, she was a model, booking clients from Unilever to Chanel.

"There were very few women at the time on Wall Street … and people talked about this glass ceiling, which I never even thought about," Stewart said in an interview with PBS' MAKERS series. "I never considered myself an unequal and I think I got a very good education being a stockbroker."

In 1972, Stewart left Wall Street to be a stay-at-home mom. A year later, she started a catering business.


Mark Cuban

Mark Cuban was a bartender in Dallas.

At age 25, Cuban had graduated from Indiana University and had moved to Dallas. He started out as a bartender, then a salesperson for a PC software retailer. He actually got fired because he wanted to go close a deal rather than open a store in the morning. That helped inspire him to open his first business, MicroSolutions.
“When I got to Dallas, I was struggling — sleeping on the floor with six guys in a three-bedroom apartment,” Cuban writes in his book “How to Win at the Sport of Business.” “I used to drive around, look at the big houses, and imagine what it would be like to live there and use that as motivation.”



Ralph Lauren was a sales assistant at Brooks Brothers.

He was born Ralph Lifshitz in the Bronx, New York, but changed his name at the age of 15. He went on to study business at Baruch College and served in the Army until the age of 24 when he left to work for Brooks Brothers.

At 26, Lauren decided to design a wide European-styled tie, which eventually led to an opportunity with Neiman Marcus. The next year, he launched the label "Polo."



JK Rowling came up with the idea for the Harry Potter series on a train.

In 1990, Rowling was 25 years old when she came up with the idea for Harry Potter during a delayed four-hour train ride.

She started writing the first book that evening, but it took her years to actually finish it. While working as a secretary for the London office of Amnesty International, Rowling was fired for daydreaming too much about Harry Potter and her severance check would help her focus on writing for the next

24.3.13

Biography of Professor Chinua Achebe (1930-2013)


Famed writer and educator Chinua Achebe was born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe on November 16, 1930, in the Igbo town of Ogidi in eastern Nigeria. After becoming educated in English at the University of Ibadan and a subsequent teaching stint, in 1961, Achebe joined the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation as director of external broadcasting. He would serve in that position until 1966.

 Prior to joining NBC, in 1958, Achebe published his first novel: Things Fall Apart. The groundbreaking novel centers on the cultural clash between native African culture and the traditional white culture of missionaries and the colonial government in place in Nigeria. An unflinching look at the discord, the book was a startling success and has become required reading in many schools across the world.

The 1960s proved to be a creatively fertile period for Achebe. It was during this decade that