The foundation of the ocean food chain, phytoplankton, is declining at a much faster rater than expected. Phytoplankton are down 40 percent since 1950 and disappearing at a rate of one percent yearly. Scientists don't know what the effects will be, but clearly it's not looking good.

Sorry, this is another global warming story.

Spiegel:

"We had suspected this for a long time," Boris Worm, the author of the study for Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "But these figures still surprised us." At this point, he said, one can only speculate as to what the repercussions might be. "In principal, though, we should assume that such a massive decline is already having tangible consequences," said Worm. He said that the lack of research on the food chain between phytoplankton and larger fish in the open ocean is a hindrance to knowing the extent of the damage.

Microsoft's new search engine Bing has been making waves in the search market, adding new features and slowly chipping away at Google's established search dominance. But smaller search engines have an uphill battle when it comes to toppling Google in search.

As Ask.com's Barry Diller pointed out today, innovation in search often works toward Google's advantage. Regardless of whether Google does the innovating.

Ask.com made headlines this week with some userface changes that reverted the site back to its earlier question and answer format. Furthermore, the site beat analyst expectations, growing 18% to $197.2 million. But IAC head Barry Diller had some candid words about Ask's prospects during the company's second quarter earnings call. According to PaidContent, he said:

“One thing I want to make clear to investors is that Ask itself is not a large segment of the company. I had hoped it would become one, but I was wrong about that. I was wrong about the competitive landscape with Google."

Porsche said it would come out with electric sports cars in the future, but left the specifics to be revealed at a later date.

The company, in conjunction with Siemens and others, has shown off an all-electric Boxster at trade shows. We took this picture of one of the three all-electric Boxsters earlier this year at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. Now, Porsche says it has been testing the prototypes on the track and will come out with a car in the future.

"We will definitely be offering electric sports cars in the future," said Michael Macht, the President and CEO of Porsche AG in a prepared statement. "But such a concept only makes sense if it offers performance and a cruising range comparable to that of a sports car today."

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) announced in May that it’s launching three Energy Innovation Hubs, designed to “help advance highly promising areas of energy science and engineering from the early stage of research to the point where the technology can be handed off to the private sector.”

These hubs not only demonstrate the nation’s commitment to tackling our energy and climate challenges, but they also represent an innovation endeavor not often associated with the U.S. government.

Each of the three hubs will tackle a different energy challenge in a highly collaborative way that welcomes diversity of thought. They will “bring together top researchers from academia, industry and the government laboratories with expertise that spans multiple scientific and engineering disciplines under the leadership of a dynamic scientist-manager.”

How’s this for absolutely dominating an increasingly lucrative and fast-growing segment?

Google currently boasts a mobile search market share of 98.29%, with it closest competitor Yahoo taking up just over 0.8% of market share and Microsoft’s Bing barely touching even half that, according to recent data from StatCounter as relayed by Pingdom.

This graph, made by Pingdom, puts it all in perspective:

State ranks No. 5 on Top 10 list, based on strength of biotechnology industry.

Kansas has received recognition from a national site selection magazine for the state’s leadership position in building a vibrant regional bioscience industry.

Business Facilities magazine this week pegged Kansas as No. 5 on its 2010 list of Top 10 states based on biotechnology strength. The states, ranked in order, were: 1. California, 2. Texas, 3. Pennsylvania, 4. Massachusetts, 5. Kansas, 6. New Jersey, 7. North Carolina, 8. Illinois, 9. Maryland and 10. Ohio.

The annual rankings are compiled using more than two dozen criteria, including an assessment of state-funded research and development programs, interaction with institutions of higher education and major projects announced within the past year.

Tangible signs of U.S. economic turnaround are evident, and the recovery is already under way, according to this economic analysis from Ross DeVol, Executive Director of Economic Research.

From Recession to Recovery: Analyzing America's Return to Growth calls for modest but sustainable growth in GDP, consumer spending and jobs. According to DeVol, strong recovery in business investment in equipment, more robust exports, a more upbeat consumer and continued low interest rates will fuel the growing recovery.

Key points in the forecast:

• Real GDP will grow at 3.5 percent in 2010, 3.7 percent in 2011 and 3.8 percent in 2012. Growth returns to slightly less than 3 percent from 2013 to 2015.
  
• The U.S. will add 1.8 million jobs in 2010, 3.1 million in 2011 and 2.6 million in 2012.
  
• Real consumer spending is projected to increase 2.8 percent in 2010, 3.5 percent in 2011 and 3.0 percent in 2012.
  
• New home construction won’t aid economic growth in 2010, but residential fixed investment should jump 26.0 percent in 2011 and 25.7 percent in 2012.

After more than 13 years in Los Angeles, Clint Brauer decided to come home. The Haven native and Kansas State graduate was able to get in on the dot-com boom of the 1990s and turn degrees in business marketing and advertising into a career in high-tech that's taken him from entry level to senior positions at companies such as USWeb, Universal Music Group, Sony and Fox Interactive.

But at 36, Brauer wanted a change in the pace of his lifestyle.

So the West Coast techie opted to come back to his home state and run his current venture, Cyberread.com, an e-book company, from his hometown.

"L.A. was great. (But) L.A. is a hard place to truly relax because the bar is so high to do well there," Brauer said.

Video: A Panorama of Venture Capital and Beyond (Entire Talk)
Marc Andreessen, Serial Entrepreneur
61 min. 7 sec.

Dark clouds still hang over the venture capital industry despite a slight improvement in initial public offerings and mergers & acquisitions. Cambridge Associates and the National Venture Capital Association today issued a report showing that 10-year returns -- perhaps the most important measurement of the industry --were a negative 3.7 percent for the period ending March 31.