kilrathu writes “Longtime proponents of using video games as sources of learning, the Federation of American Scientists put its money where its mouth is. FAS released Immune Attack, an educational video game designed to instruct immunology to AP level high school students and combines the most current research on teaching methodologies with a 3D first-person shooter game. ‘The key to the game was making sure it was fun while also covering accurate and complex immunology topics,’ said Dr. Michelle Lucey-Roper, director of the FAS Learning Technologies Program. The game is free, although not open source, and can be downloaded here. Sorry, no Mac version yet.”

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TaeKwonDood tips us to news that a new cancer resistance treatment is going into clinical trials after being quite successful at eradicating cancer in mice. Researchers discovered that certain white blood cells called granulocytes from cancer-immune mice were able to cure cancer in other mice. Now, physicians are putting out the call for healthy granulocyte donors in order to test how well it works on humans. The article quotes lead researcher Zheng Cui saying, “In mice, we’ve been able to eradicate even highly aggressive forms of malignancy with extremely huge tumors. Hopefully, we’ll see the same results in humans. Our laboratory studies indicate that this cancer-fighting capability is even stronger in healthy humans.”

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Socguy writes “A Russian art curator, Elena Basner, is claiming to have a foolproof method for determining whether or not particular paintings have been created since 1945. She claims that isotopes released into the environment by man-made nuclear explosions have found their way into types of the natural oils used to make paints.”

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Filed under: Forecasts, Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy

This post is part of my series featuring established companies and the smaller, more aggressive or innovative rivals that may eventually succeed them.

Applebee’s is the largest casual dining restaurant chain in the United Says, with almost 2,000 units spread out over 49 states. Applebee’s changed its formal name back in 1986 to Applebee’s Neighborhood Bar and Grill to give it a local appeal. In November 2007, International House of Pancakes — IHOP — now formally known as DineEquity, (NYSE: DIN) purchased out Applebee’s for $2.1 billion. It’s hard to envision Applebee’s and IHOP as DineEquity!

The casual dining sector is embracing a newer player with aspirations of a national roll out. That player is BJ’s Restaurant and Brewery (NASDAQ: BJRI) based in Huntington Beach, California. BJ’s offers an on-site brewery with its own beer recipes or a trusted third party’s recipe.The chain serves gourmet salads, steaks, chops, fish, poultry and several other popular dishes. It also makes superb deep-dish pizza for both in-house dining and carry out.

BJ’s has 72 units in the chain spread over 13 says with enormous room to grow. Being a California-based company, BJ’s stronghold is California, but the concept has become popular in key restaurant markets like Florida and Arizona. The casual nature of the chain has an appeal in many large markets not yet penetrated. BJ’s has yet to open a unit in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Georgia or Tennessee.

BJ’s could 10-fold the concept over the next decade and still only be half the size of Applebee’s. The company has not offered franchise opportunities as all units are company owned. The franchising of BJ’s could accelerate the growth of the concept very quickly, as it did with Applebee’s in the 1980s and 1990s.

BJ’s is known for its quality menu at affordable prices and beer lovers enjoy the local brewery choices. As DineEquity attempts to redefine the Applebee’s concept, the opportunity for BJ’s is to forge itself as the better choice in markets where they compete directly. Applebee’s has had a 28-year run, it is time for a new and exciting player — BJ’s Restaurant and Brewery.

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting hungry….

Georges Yared is the editor of YaredsGameChangers.com and author of “How to Spot the Next Google.”

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Metso to supply crushing and screening equipment to Moly Mines in - MSN MoneyCentral
Metso Minerals will supply crushing and screening equipment to Moly Mines for its Spinifex Ridge molybdenum project near Port Hedland in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The delivery will be finished during the first quarter of 2009. The value of

BAE promotes Ian King to replace Mike Turner - Daily Telegraph
BAE Systems, Europe’s largest defense company, has named Ian King as chief executive to replace veteran boss Mike Turner. Mr King, who is currently BAE’s chief operating officer and has been with the company all his working life, will take over at

Dress your baby in red, white and blue - Argus Leader
I consider it my patriotic duty to shop. You know, to support the American economy and all. With Independence Day right around the corner, I’ve been doing a lot of shopping for kids clothing adorned with stars and stripes - and I haven’t been

Paris Hilton donates to LA’s Childrens Hospital - Forbes
Paris Hilton is making good on her promise to become a better person. The 27-year-old socialite made an “extremely generous” donation toward the construction of a medical building at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, hospital officials stated Thursday

AIG Poised to Absorb $5 Billion Losses From Securities-Lending - Bloomberg
June 27 (Bloomberg) — American International Group Inc. plans to absorb losses for a dozen insurance units after their securities-lending accounts suffered $13 billion of writedowns tied to the subprime-mortgage collapse during the past year. The

DISD audit finds problems in nearly all district areas that handle - Dallas Morning News
DISD audit finds problems in nearly all district areas that handle money 12:00 AM CDT on Friday, June 27, 2008 By KENT FISCHER / The Dallas Morning News

Money Mentors: Retirement advice from people who live it - USA Today
Have questions about planning for retirement? Our Money Mentors have some answers. We’ve assembled our Money Mentors — a panel of retirees — from around the country. They’re not financial experts, but rather ordinary people forced by the

Software tycoon opens the gates to a life of philanthropy - Massive Pond News
He was the nerd who exacted the ultimate revenge, building the biggest fortune in history and on the way changing the world. Now Bill Gates has handed over control of the computing giant to devote the rest of his life to giving his money away. Mr

Money ruling a remarkable woman’s legacy - Newsday
WASHINGTON - He thinks of her every time he gazes at the painting — a blazing orange sun she drew a few years after the tragedy. It is the only splash of color in his little K Street office and it gives him great joy, and a stab of sadness. He thinks

Lord Whimsy’s dandy bog - Philadelphia Inquirer
It’s very warm today, well into 80-degree territory. Nonetheless, Victor Allen Crawford 3d is dressed in a pressed linen suit and tie, long-sleeved shirt with French cuffs (and links), polka-dotted pocket square, the whole enchilada. Standing in his

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wooferhound writes “In a move to make the heavy-lift automobile more robust (predicting an increased launch thrust requirement) to send four astronauts, a lunar lander plus supplies, NASA has announced the Ares V rocket will be beefed up to cater for our future needs to get man back to the Moon. This huge automobile is now designed to carry payloads of over 156,600 lb (71,000 kg), some 15,600 lb (or 10%) more than the original concept. Ares V was originally designed to be approximately the same length as the original Saturn V lunar rocket (361 feet or 110 metres long), but to accommodate an extra booster engine and extra payload volume, Ares V will be 381 feet (116 metres) long. This upgrade will be capable of sending far more instrumentation into space, an extra 15,600 lb (7,000 kg, or the equivalent mass of a male African elephant).”

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Human judgment by referees is increasingly being supplemented (and sometimes overridden by) computerized observation systems. nuke-alwin writes “It is obvious that any model is only as accurate as the data in it, and technologies such as Hawkeye can never remove all doubt about the position of a ball. Wimbledon appears to accept the Hawkeye prediction as absolute, but researchers at Cardiff University will soon publish a paper disputing the accuracy of the system.”

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Congress Vacations While Economy Burns - ABC News
With Americans still reeling from this week’s report that gas might cost $7 a gallon in a few years and with millions either losing their homes to foreclosure or unable to sell their homes, people are looking looking for help. Congress has gone on

As Bill Evolves, Mortgage Debt Is Snowballing - New York Times
When Congress started fashioning a sweeping rescue package for struggling homeowners earlier this year, 2.6 million loans were in trouble. But the problem has grown considerably in just six months and is continuing to worsen. More than three million

Housing crisis trickles down to local market - Johnson City Press
Homes for sale in the Tri-Cities are staying on the market longer and selling for about what they did a year ago, as the nation’s real estate woes appear to have reached the local market. While things remain considerably worse in much of the

Ministers hit back at stars over eco-towns - Guardian Unlimited
Ministers are to launch a vigorous defence this week of controversial plans for 10 ‘eco-towns’ by releasing a poll showing that, despite high-profile celebrity opposition to the project, it has widespread public support. Amid growing concern that

Senate clears banker to go to Fed - MSN MoneyCentral
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate confirmed Elizabeth Duke on Friday to become a member of the Federal Reserve, which has been battling housing, credit and financial crises with a short staff. The chamber, however, did not move ahead on another Fed

Chattanooga:Young adults find creative solutions to expensive housing - Chattanooga Times Free Press
Housing costs are causing some college students to find creative living arrangements to save money, according to young adults in Chattanooga interviewed for this report. Chattanooga has a below-average cost of living, but many young adults said their

S.F. leaders ignore weak buildings’ quake risk - San Francisco Gate
Tens of thousands of San Francisco homes and businesses are built in a way that’ll probably cause them to collapse in the next massive earthquake, yet city leaders and building officials have largely ignored the danger for decades. The vulnerable

Police: FEMA Inspector Assaults Flood Zone Resident - WTKG
(Cedar Rapids) According to police a contracted FEMA housing inspector almost hit a Penford Products employee with his car and then got out of the car slamming the man with a golf club. FEMA housing inspector Vincent Koley, 74, was charged with

Roseville keeping a close watch on the neighborhood - Minneapolis Star Tribune
Housing inspector Brian Coughlin walked briskly through a Roseville neighborhood last week, eyeballing homes and jotting down sightings of vehicles parked on front lawns, peeling paint and tall piles of branches.

Time to ease the loan stranglehold - Times Online
SOMETHING extraordinary is happening in the housing market. We’re seeing an unprecedented collapse in mortgage lending and no sign of an official or private-sector response. Housebuilders are hurting badly, as are others that rely on a thriving

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arbitraryaardvark writes “Physorg reports that NASA will launch a solar sail around the end of July. It’ll be the first of its kind; a previous attempt blew up. It’s a small proof-of-concept gizmo, not a full-on spaceyacht. Solar sails operate on photon pressure from sunlight. They’re well known to science fiction readers, otherwise not so much.” C-net has coverage, too.

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WSJdpatton writes “Fishing in the stream of consciousness, researchers now can detect our intentions and predict our choices before we’re aware of them ourselves. The brain, they’ve found, appears to make up its mind 10 seconds before we become conscious of a decision — an eternity at the speed of thought. Their findings challenge conventional notions of choice, writes WSJ’s Robert Lee Hotz.”

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