The senior DuPont researcher last week received the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Patent No. 7,000,000, for his polysaccharide fibers and their production process. It was O'Brien's eighth patent, and DuPont's 33,801st.

O'Brien likes that the fibers are biodegradable and can be made from renewable resources, such as corn. And, the resident of Oxford, Chester County, said, they "might even offer better wash-wear performance than cotton, and less shrinkage."

It took 75 years to get from the first numbered patent, in 1836, to the one millionth. Patents increased from No. 6,000,000 to No. 7,000,000 in a little more than six years.

"Technology," said Herbert Wamsley, executive director of the Intellectual Property Owners Association. "More research is being done, and more patentable inventions are being created."

The producers of the Philadelphia International Auto Show would like to say one thing to the hardened gearheads who thought this year's show lacked pizzazz: Lighten up, people.

More than a few who attended were blowing gaskets because the latest concept cars weren't on display at the Convention Center but were in other cities. Some attendees threatened to boycott future shows.

Show chairman Glenn Davis said that while the Philadelphia show has been among the nation's largest, it is intended as a family outing, not an insider's playground.

And the show, produced by the Automobile Dealers Association of Greater Philadelphia, provides millions to charities such as Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Gilda's Club for cancer patients - nearly $4.5 million donated or pledged over the years.

Still, perhaps organizers next year will want to emulate Philadelphia-area Hyundai dealers to encourage attendance. That group gave away a 2006 Sonata (a sedan worth about $20,000) at this month's show.

E. Talbot Briddell, who made a name for himself advising Central Sprinklers, Philadelphia Gas Works, and scores of other companies and agencies on how to dig themselves out of financial holes, announced his retirement last week after 20 years as president of Phoenix Management Services, Chadds Ford.

"I don't view Tal's departure as an event," said Michael Jacoby, a Phoenix partner for the last 11 years. "I've always thought we had an equal say."

"I don't think we've ever had an issue presented to the group that went to a vote," said Mitchell Arden, a partner for 12 years. "We've always driven the decision to consensus. I don't expect that process to change one iota."

Many businesses provide health benefits, but if businesses want to put a brake on escalating costs, they should advocate for health-care coverage for the uninsured. That's what Tommy G. Thompson, former U.S. secretary of health and human services, told area business leaders at a seminar last week organized by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.

Thompson's proposal: Just as states require automobile insurance, states should require all people to have health insurance, organizing those not covered at work into a group. The state would request bids for a low-cost, no-frills package and then use some earned-income tax credits to bring the cost to an affordable level, subsidizing where necessary.

Finally, the federal government should pass a reinsurance program that would cover bigger losses than usual in a small business' health plan. Minimizing risk would encourage small companies to provide health insurance to their employees, Thompson said.

Cassandra Toroian, a veteran bank analyst with Cohen Bros. & Co. and Ryan Beck & Co., has gone into business on her own, as a money manager. She says she has raised $75 million from "high-net-worth individuals" (bankerese for rich people) and business clients, including First National Bank of Palmerton, Pa.

The name of her business is Blue Rockefeller L.L.C. Where'd she get that? The Rockefeller name stands for wealth and has reached the same iconic status as Rothschild or Hamilton, meaning that people with no family connection feel free to appropriate it.

That is the conclusion Comcast reached after 1.5 million people ordered videos on demand during the snowstorm last weekend. The company said Philadelphia-area customers ordered 1.5 million videos on demand Feb. 11 and 12, a 32 percent increase over the previous weekend.

This is cache, read story here