'Artificial egg' made from PLANTS backed by Bill Gates goes on sale at Whole Foods

A radical ‘artificial egg’ backed by Paypal billionaire Peter Thiel and Bill Gates goes on sale in US supermarkets for the first time today. Made from plants, it can replace eggs in everything from cakes to mayonnaise - without a chicken ever coming close to the production process.

The team today started selling their ‘plant egg’, called Beyond Eggs, in Whole Foods in California - and say it could soon be available in supermarkets worldwide. We want to take animals out of the equation,’ said Josh Tetrick, the firm’s founder. ‘The food industry is begging for innovation, especially where animals are involved - it is a broken industry.’

Tetrick’s idea was to find a mix of easy-to-grow plants that, when mixed together in the right way, replicate the taste, nutritional values and cooking properties of an egg. This, he believes will allow the firm to produce its substitute for mass market foods - and to allow developing worlds to grow their own versions with added nutrients.

‘Eggs are functionally incredible, they do everything from hold oil and water in mayo to making the muffin rise and holding scrambled eggs together,’ he said ‘I started to think what if we can find plants that can do this. We have about 12 plants pre-selected, including a pea already widely grown in Canada. There’s also a bean in South Asia that is incredible in scrambled eggs.’ Read more >>

PayPal tests mobile payments using your face for verification

PayPal is rolling out a new trial for British consumers to see if they really can leave their wallets at home. Recently kicking off in London borough Richmond upon Thames, the test includes 12 different merchants set up to accept PayPal payments, according to the company.

Using the PayPal app for iOS, Android, or Windows Phone, shoppers can see nearby participating merchants highlighted on their mobile phones. They can then "check into" a certain store by clicking on its name and pay for an item by sliding an animated pin down the screen.

The person's name and photo then pops up on the store's payment system. After the customer agrees to pay for the item, the cashier clicks on the person's photo to send the payment through. The customer receives an alert via phone with the amount paid along with PayPal's usual receipt.

Though only a dozen retailers are part of the test, PayPal expects that more than 2,000 merchants will be able to accept the PayPal payments by the end of 2013, according to Sky News. And PayPal has grander ambitions beyond this year. Read more >>

PAYPAL wants to launch intergalactic currency

PayPal wants to explore space — or at least begin to figure out how payments and commerce will work beyond Earth's realm once space travel and tourism take off.

PayPal, which is eBay Inc.'s payments business, says it is launching an initiative called PayPal Galactic with the help of the nonprofit SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., and the Space Tourism Society, an industry group focused on space travel. Its goal, PayPal says, is to work out how commerce will work in space.

Questions to be answered include how commerce will be regulated and what currency will be used. PayPal's president, David Marcus, said the company is very serious about the idea. He says that while space tourism was once the stuff of science fiction, it's now becoming a reality.

"There are lots of important questions that the industry needs to answer," he said. There are regulatory and technical issues, along with safety and even what cross-border trade will look like when there are not a lot of borders.

"We feel that it's important for us to start the conversation and find answers," Marcus added. "We don't have that much time." Read more >>

DuPont and United Technologies plan massive job cuts

Foxbusiness.com
Faced with weakening revenue, two big companies warned on Tuesday that they would cut jobs as a way of protecting their profits. DuPont Co said it planned to lay off about 1,500 workers - roughly 2% of its global headcount - as the chemical company grapples with weakening demand from the construction and renewable energy sectors.

United Technologies Corp did not specify the magnitude of the cuts it was considering but said it would raise its full-year restructuring budget by 20% to $600 million as demand for its military equipment declines. Both companies reported weaker-than-expected sales for the third quarter, following an overall trend.

Of the companies in the broad Standard & Poor's 500 index that had reported results for the quarter as of Monday, 62% came in below analysts' revenue forecasts - well above the 38% sales-miss rate in a typical earnings season, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"Obviously we're looking carefully at the macro environment," United Tech Chief Executive Louis Chenevert told Reuters. "In Europe, the economy continues to be very sluggish, and in North America, it's a slow recovery.

DuPont and United Tech are by no means the only big U.S. companies to begin cutting jobs. Most dramatically, chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices said last week that it would reduce its 12,000-person workforce by 15% as it copes with weak demand and a consumer shift towards tablet computers.

Engine maker Cummins Inc , the PayPal arm of eBay Inc and for-profit college operator Apollo Group Inc announced smaller rounds of cuts earlier this month. Read more >>

20 Reasons Why America’s Next Bank Holiday Will Be a Nightmare

James Wesley Rawles
Survival Blog via shtfplan

The world is on now on the brink of a global credit crisis that could be far worse than the tumultuous events of 2008. The ongoing sovereign debt crisis in the southern reaches of the Eurozone indicate that bank runs in the region will continue, and that more bank closure “holidays” will be declared. Under a bank holiday, virtually all deposits could be frozen and irredeemable for days, weeks, or even months.

The key question is: Will this crisis spread to the rest of Europe and then even to the United States? I urge SurvivalBlog readers–particularly those in Europe–to be proactive, to stay “ahead of the power curve.” While the Generally Dumb Public (GDP) wakes up some morning to hear news of a bank holiday, you will have long hence prepared yourself.