The Old Man and Owen

A baby hippo rescued after floods in Kenya last week has befriended a 100-year-old tortoise in Kenya.


Owen, the one-year-old hippo, and Mzee (Swahili for "old man"), the 100-year-old tortoise. Too cool.

Don't Sing the Blues for Shuji Nakamura

Japanese Company to Pay Ex-Employee $8.1 Million for Invention
(It's the New York Times, and they're notorious for demanding a login and password. Try this: login: eriksfriends, pwd: eriksfriends)

A little background: although commonplace now, bright blue LEDs were difficult to produce in the early 90s. Enter Shuji Nakamura, who invented the blue LED. The company Nakamura was working for, Nichia, awarded him with a bonus-- about $500; in the meantime, they made untold millions by patenting his work. He took it in stride, but quit the company later to take a research position in La Jolla (near San Diego). Nichia, afraid he might violate his NDAs and such, sued him. Sick of taking it, Nakamura countersued, demanding his share of the profits for the blue LEDs. This was unheard of in Japan, where the company is supposed to have greater rights than the worker. Fast-forward to today: after a lower court ordered Nichia to pay $200m (!), Nakamura and Nichia finally settled out of court for $8.1m, a much more easily accessible sum. Given that this is the first case of its kind in Japan, that's a hell of a win.

Congratulations, Professor Nakamura!