As we mentioned last Friday, Austin entrepreneur Jim Plamondon, through his company Thumtronics, has unleashed both a new musical instrument and a new concept of music theory on the international stage that many believe could bring substantial attention to our fair city's music industry. It's called the "Thummer." Praised in last Friday's Wall Street Journal, the device addresses the difficulty that many people experience when attempting to learn how to play the regular old keyboard.......

Image from RCIS.org Solar Austin Happy HourTuesday, November 6Artz Rib House [map]6:30-8:30pm[info]Solar Austin gathers for their monthly happy hour Tuesday at Artz Rib House. Renowned science fiction author and founder of Viridian Design Movement, Bruce Sterling, will be the featured and the topic will be Future Trends in Solar. Best known for his eight science fiction novels, Mr. Sterling is also a contributing editor of WIRED magazine and a columnist for MAKE magazine. He has......

Wall Street has faith in the Texas economy Dell scores low in the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index A boy swimming in Lake LBJ contracts a fatal strain of meningitis and is now fighting for his life at the Dell Children's Medical Center. Austinist wishes you well, kiddo. A 9-year-old was responsible for one of the Dollar General fires Is Whole Foods buying Wild Oats just to take 'em out? Customs officials in Hidalgo confiscate......

Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey now faces an informal inquiry by the Securities and Exchange Commission, after a widely-distributed article in last week's Wall Street Journal revealed that he'd been making anonymous postings on internet message boards about his company. Writing as "rahodeb"—an anagram for "Deborah," his wife's name—Mackey left a string of messages and comments dating from 1999 to 2006. Many of the remarks focused on Mackey, Whole Foods, and, more recently, on......

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday [subs. required] that Austin's economy has again picked up, bringing with it a flood of real estate developers and investors: The rebound comes after the Texas capital lost about 31,000 jobs from the end of 2000 through the close of 2003, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as high-powered tech employers such as Dell Inc. slashed payrolls and some smaller Internet start-ups fizzled. The tech bust also......

We know we're not a job board, but the Austinist holds a special place in its heart for the Austin Craft Mafia, Austin's world-famous DIY fashion collective. That's why we've decided to pass on this ultra-exciting, super-hip, extra-special information on to you. Sparkle Craft, one of the founding business members behind Austin Craft Mafia is currently interviewing for summer and fall interns. The internships are unpaid, but word of the street is that if things......

Texas' most favorite son (while not exactly Austin's favorite son), G.W., was recently called out by the Wall Street Journal as having lost his charming Texas accent that got him through two elections. (note: You'll need a WSJ account to read the actual article.) This is a step to make him appear more serious, and intelligent, so that he can push through his new social security plan, among other things. While he was raised primarily......