Dark chocolate soars

Adage
Reports that the antioxidant-rich cocoa flavanols in dark chocolate can be heart-healthful have sent dark chocolate through the roof. Sales are up 40 percent this year and 25 percent of all US households have dark chocolate in the cupboard. Chris Baldwin, senior vice president of Hershey’s US commercial group, whose sales of Special Dark chocolate have climbed 37 percent this year says, ‘‘There are underlying benefits with the consumption of cocoa that give consumers the permission to enjoy chocolate.’’ I’m in. Plus who needs antidepressants when you’ve got chocolate?

Wired

Terry McBride, chief executive of Nettwerk Music Group, represents Bare Naked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan. He has his artists set up their own independent label and then becomes ``the management company, the publishing company, and the record company rolled into one" for a 20 percent cut. Since the bands own the songs, they own the profits and can sell the music any way they want, sans legal hassles. McBride sees a future where a band's value is measured like a stock, receiving capitalization in expectation of future earnings. ``At that point, even a band selling 100,000 units a year becomes profitable." Bring on the music NASDAQ.

Business 2.0

I know this will come as a shock, but Boston's Logan Airport did not make Business 2.0's best airports for business travelers list. Boston notwithstanding, other airports are finding there's good will to be earned -- and money to be made -- by providing road warriors with Internet connections, well-stocked business centers, and even ``hypercharge" power stations that juice up cellphones in minutes. Stranded? Better hope you're at SFO, MSP, DEN, CLT, or DFW.

Geek VC blog

Boston-based venture capitalist David Aronoff says very few companies ``get it" with respect to building true consumer-ready digital goods. He says it's all about TTE -- time to enjoyment. How long does it take to link up to WiFi, to use your home entertainment system, to figure out your remote? I like it. More companies should use TTE as a metric. Clock regular people and see how long it takes them to hook up and successfully enjoy your product. How many would have a TTE rating of 4 hours or 1 week or never? And what's the TTE breakpoint . . . when do people just give up?

Wired

By 2013 a new generation of supersonic private jets could trigger a boom in luxury high-speed flight -- without the sonic boom normally associated with breaking the sound barrier. Lockheed Martin is designing a 12-seat passenger jet that would travel at 1,200 miles per hour yet emit only a whisper of the annoying crack of the late Concorde. The first aircraft is being designed at an estimated cost of $2.5 billion. Yeah, you can bet tickets won't be priced like JetBlue.

Technology Review

New research shows that making drivers pay higher tolls at peak times and tracking their location with RFID or GPS technology can eliminate traffic jams. Drivers would pay mileage-based and location-based tolls on a sliding scale, paying more if driving through bottleneck stretches at the busiest times. Computer models of Dallas-Fort Worth show that this could result in a 25 miles per hour increase in average vehicle speed on certain stretches of road at rush hour. Nothing shapes behavior like money.

Techmeme

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt joined Apple's board last week, touching off a blog storm. Don Dodge of Microsoft calls it a Barney Agreement. You know . . . ``I love you, you love me . . .," which rarely amounts to anything until money changes hands and things get serious. Tech writer Om Malik, on the other hand, says that this could signal trouble for anyone with digital media ambitions. Rob Hof of BusinessWeek bets that these two famously secretive and private companies will not so easily share their talents. Time will tell.