competition news stories on Newser

The Great American Trap: Competition

Kevin Spak — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:01:44 CDT

Peter Thiel spent most of his life competing. He competed to get into Stanford, and then Stanford Law, and then to become a clerk for a federal judge. But it was when he lost a competition—to become a Supreme Court clerk—that Thiel became a real success, founding PayPal...

Google Sues the Government

Nick McMaster — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 17:38:12 CDT

Google is suing the Department of the Interior, accusing it of unfairly favoring Microsoft's products in consideration for a government contract, Mashable reports. The DOI is looking for a client to supply an email and collaboration service for its 88,000 employees and contractors, but it has a clause that...

10 Nerdiest Contests Ever

Evann Gastaldo — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 12:37:49 CDT

You may not have realized it, but last weekend people got together in Europe to compete at "speedcubing." To the uninformed, that's the act of solving a Rubik's Cube—really fast. (The current record? 7.08 seconds.) Time lists nine more extremely geeky competitions: Muggle Quidditch : Yes, this exists....

Okay, Okay, I Praise China Too Much

Kevin Spak — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 12:38:39 CDT

China is mocking us. At this year’s World Economic Forum, they aired a cartoon in which a runner representing America fell over panting, while others teased, “He ate too many hamburgers.” And given China’s incredible growth, they have room to tease, says Thomas Friedman in today’s New York Times . But...

Fertile Women Buy Sexier Clothes

Kevin Spak — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:14:00 CDT

Women are more likely to pick out sexy clothes when they’re ovulating, particularly if they think they have competition for potential partners, scientists say. A new study says women subconsciously lean toward the skimpy and seductive if they’re ovulating and see other attractive women nearby. “In order to entice a...

Bing Pushes Google Into Innovation War

Kevin Spak — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 08:01:12 CDT

Google has been adding features lately—like its new side navigation, revamped image search, and customizable background image—that look an awful lot like ideas nabbed from Bing, the New York Times observes. Though Bing still has a mere 12.7% of the search market, compared to Google’s 62.6%,...

Obama Puts Kid to Sleep at Commencement

Kevin Spak — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 06:50:04 CDT

Barack Obama yesterday presented Kalamazoo Central High School's class of 2010 with their reward for winning his "Race to the Top" video competition: a commencement address from him. Thousands of students submitted inspiring videos about their schools; you can see Kalamazoo's over at the Huffington Post . Or cut to the...

Canada Guns for Olympic Gold

Harry Kimball — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:06:00 CST

No more Mr. Nice Canada: Our neighbor to the north has contracted Olympic fever and is shouting from the rooftops that it will “own the podium” in Vancouver. After Canada made disastrous showings in the two previous Games it hosted, an organization called Own the Podium has emerged and raked...

Microsoft Office 2010: Worthy, But Not Worth It

Emily Rauhala — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:45:26 CST

The latest edition of the Fantastic Four of productivity—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook—is worthy but not actually worth buying, writes Farhad Manjoo for Slate . Out next year but now available in a beta edition, Microsoft Office 2010 offers some definite improvements: It lets you preview how text or...