Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

From the archive, we pose a question that's still as relevant as ever: Why has Memorial Day, like so many of our national holidays, been reduced to appliance sales, fast food specials, and vacation deals? With the recent near-collapse of our economy, the ways in which we understand and celebrate national holidays seem particularly challenged. This erosion of meaning is just one of many examples of the growing gap between the promise of America--freedom and opportunity through sacrifice and unity--and how people experience Brand America

The Fast Company reader's essential source for breaking news and innovation from around the web--updated all day.

This year, he launched the first social-networking automobile so drivers can get Facebook, Twitter, texts and Internet connectivity and still keep their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road. The trick, Dinesh Paliwal, chairman, president and CEO of Harman International Industries, tells Fast Company, was to develop technology that serves to combat drivers’ distraction, meet auto regulations, and bring 4G smartphone-like functionality to the car. If he makes it sound simple, it’s because solving complex technological problems comes easily to this engineer with an MBA

One of the last followers of tech news to hear the reports Thursday that Apple had sued Fei Lam, the 17-year-old Queens high school student who infamously sold White iPhone conversion kits to eager buyers tired of waiting on Apple's release, was Fei Lam. How did Lam hear about it? "I came back from school today and saw your email," he tells Fast Company via chat message, adding, "Lol." For someone who allegedly made contacts in China to import iPhone parts before Apple, started his own business (WhiteiPhone4Now.com), and pulled in tens of thousands of dollars in revenue--sometimes as much as $8,000 a day --it's easy to forget that Lam is just a teenage boy still living with his parents

A social network with more privacy controls, Mark Zuckerberg's latest passion, a new ranking of top VC firms, and the rest of the day's entrepreneur news. Each day, Inc.'s reporters scour the Web for the most important and interesting news to entrepreneurs. Here's what we found today.

No one is buying them because of charging confusion. Is there a future for electric two-wheelers sold as personal electronics? We proclaimed that electric motorcycles were going mainstream after Best Buy introduced the Brammo Enertia electric commuter bike to select stores in 2009.

There are whispers from a pretty reliable source that the House of Jobs is testing a MacBook computer powered by one of its own ARM A5 chips, straight from an iPad. It may be the Mac of the future.

The medical cannabis industry is exploding.

1. No sooner Google reveals Wallet , than a lawsuit about mobile selling pops up. It's from PayPal , complaining that Google's mis-appropriated secrets form inside PayPal's own mobile payments business, secrets it gained by hiring two former PayPal executives: Stephanie Tilenius (head of Mobile payments at Google, and the person who presented Wallet) and Osama Bedier

Though some experts would argue that a company name doesn't affect the success of a business, there is a thing or two that small businesses can learn from the corporate giants that have turned their names into high-profile brands. When it came to finding a simple company name, the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company had its hands full.

I think it's possible. However even more possible, I think, is that a Steve Ballmer departure is inevitable. Last year, I wrote a posting on this blog (tongue in cheek at the time) entitled "Why I want Bill Gates Back"

Add boring desk jobs to list of seemingly unavoidable reasons why Americans are gaining weight. Add desk jobs to the myriad reasons--including driving and your mother's pregnancy habits --why Americans are so fat.

If we run out of phosphate fertilizer, it will mean bad things for our future eating. But giving our crops a fungus can help us stretch our supply. The human race has a food problem

Lynn St. Amour joins us for our second entry in the Crystal Ballin' series, in which CEOs and thinkers venture to speculate on what lies ahead. In today's edition, we answer the questions: What is the future of the Internet

Post-revolution Egypt is in a state of flux overlooked by outsiders. New political parties are forming while various factions hustle for power.