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FASTCOMPANY Mon, 14 May 2012 20:24:09 EST
In the Phoenix metro area, sprawling data centers and fraud-prevention companies bloom like the cacti and agaves of a growing tech ecosphere.
UNITED STATES OF INNOVATION New Ideas, New Markets, New Insights
All around the country, Americans are dreaming big. Their boldest ideas are changing their communities--and having a ripple effect throughout the world.
CLICK HERE to read about pockets of innovation in other U.S. cities.
In the desert, only the hardiest plants and animals survive. They develop spines and foul smells to ward off water thieves, and poisons to cut down competition. They hunker down, specialize, and waste nothing.
You could say the same about startups in Arizona. Here, thanks to some auspicious geography, sprawling data centers and fraud-prevention companies bloom like the cacti and agaves of a growing tech ecosphere.
Phoenix’s tech scene in particular is beginning to coalesce. Household names like LifeLock, Go Daddy, and iCrossing (all........
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GUARDIAN Thu, 03 May 2012 05:00:00 GMT
One-third of beaches fail water tests due to contamination from overflowing sewers and run-off from farms or city streets
Heavy recent rains are flushing raw sewage into coastal waters, ruining the water quality at popular beaches around the UK just as the bathing season begins, according to the Marine Conservation Society (MCS).
As it publishes its 2012 Good Beach Guide on Thursday, the MCS reveals that one-third of the 750 beaches it tested failed on water quality, due to contamination from overflowing sewers and run-off from farms or from streets, where dog waste presents a significant problem.
Overall, the proportion of dirty beaches fell by 8%, which the MCS hailed as a "milestone". The south-west, north-east and Wales had the cleanest coasts, with 80% of beaches passing faecal bacteria tests, while Scotland (40%) and the north-west (20%) had the fewest clean bathing spots.
The MCS warning that downpours are harming beaches comes as 13 flood warnings remain in place,.......
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GUARDIAN Fri, 20 Apr 2012 22:04:20 GMT
For now this must be a battle between philosophies. It must be a web not for the consumer, but for the citizen
The chance to construct a new society is the stuff of dreamers and proselytisers. It is centuries since every readily habitable corner of the earth was populated, and constructing ideal communities has been limited to model towns and Utopian settlements. Until, that is, 30 years ago when Tim Berners-Lee's world wide web conjured up a truly virgin territory. A place of almost unimaginable opportunity, it used to seem beyond doubt the web would be ruled by a spirit of shared community, a source of individual empowerment against corporate and political might. But it has become increasingly apparent that this web is under threat, and the question of how it should be governed, in whose interests, and for what purposes has become a debate of overwhelming significance. That is why this week the Guardian has been debating how best to preserve its original spirit against both......
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GUARDIAN Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:09:36 GMT
These lovely Chinese mystery birds have recently been removed from a wastebasket taxon
Pied avocet, Recurvirostra avosetta (center), Linnaeus, 1758, also known as the black-capped avocet, Eurasian avocet or just as the avocet; and common greenshank, Tringa nebularia (left and right; synonyms, Glottis nebularia, Totanus nebularia, Totanus nebularius and Tringa nebularia; protonym, Scolopax nebularia), Gunnerus, 1767, also known as the Eurasian greenshank, greater greenshank, or as the greenshank, photographed in the Mai Po Wetlands in the northwestern corner of Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.
Image: Marie-Louise Ng, 24 March 2012 (with permission, for GrrlScientist/Guardian use only) [velociraptorise].
Nikon D7000 500 mm 1/1600 f/6.3 iso:200
Question: These lovely Chinese mystery birds have recently been removed from a wastebasket taxon. Why is this taxon referred to as a "wastebasket taxon"? How did these birds get there? Can...
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GUARDIAN Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:56:04 GMT
Discarded bikes are getting a second chance at life, thanks to recycling projects that refit bikes for sale or donation to Africa
Like the myth of elephant graveyards, abandoned bicycles tend to congregate, and unless they are removed they are slowly cannibalised until there is nothing left but a bent, rusting skeleton.
It is interesting to imagine what leads someone to park a bike and never come back for it. Were the keys for the lock lost, or was cycling an experiment the owner chose to conclude abruptly? I've also been wondering where abandoned bikes go once they are taken away, and whether more can be done to recycle them.
When a bike is discarded, its legal status lies somewhere between abandoned waste and lost property. According to Simon Castle of the Metropolitan police, in many ways an abandoned bike is no different from a dropped wallet.
If a bike is left for a period of weeks, is not roadworthy (because of missing wheels, etc) or is blocking a public highway, it can..
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GUARDIAN Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:58:00 GMT
First Blood meets The Walking Dead in this intriguingly grim zombie platformer
The world is over, pretty much. It's 1986 and some sort of cataclysmic infection has wiped out most of North America. Now an everyman survivor must reach a safe house in a bleak, crumbling Seattle as zombie-like victims emerge from the rubble and armageddon looms.
This is the grimly nihilistic pitch behind Deadlight, a scrolling 2D adventure that counts First Blood, The Road and The Walking Dead among its major influences. For Raul Rubio, the CEO and creative director at developer, Tequila Works, the premise is a simple one: "We wanted to ask ourselves, if I, a normal person, were to wake up tomorrow in the apocalypse, what would I do?"
At the centre of it all is Randall Wayne, a fire warden from British Columbia. "Randall is not a hero or a solder," says Rubio. "This story is not about what happened, it's not about saving the world, it's not about conspiracies. It's about a regular guy who's trying...
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GOOGLE Sat, 17 Mar 2012 02:06:40 GMT
Coming off the success of its New Year's Eve campaign against drunk driving, the Dept. of Transportation has partnered with the biggest names in booze to offer free lifts home for all 21+ party animals.
The "Safe Rides Home" campaign–supported by Guinness, Baileys and Bushmills–kicks off most appropriately on St. Patrick's Day and will last through the end of March.
DOT reps will be handing out free, prepaid debit cards and pairs of single-ride MetroCards at select points throughout the city over the next three weekends. They've raised the limit from $15 to $18 this time around and the cards are good at just about any major public transportation hub, including MTA, PATH, and NJ Transit.
Here's where you can pick up yours:
Saturday, March 17th – Irish pubs and alumni bars throughout Manhattan
Thursday, March 22nd – Alumni bars in the Bay Ridge and Astoria areas
Saturday, March 31st – Alumni bars throughout Manhattan
To get home safe year-round, download the DOT's..
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GUARDIAN Tue, 06 Mar 2012 17:37:02 GMT
The prime minister's new, specially customised tablet computer reportedly cost £20,000 – what kind of apps do you get for that much money?
David Cameron is about to take delivery of a specially programmed prime ministerial iPad, reportedly at a cost of £20,000 (3G contract not included). An iPad devotee already – he uses it to catch up on episodes of The Killing while travelling – Cameron will now be able to keep tabs on polling data, market fluctuations, unemployment figures, crime statistics and news feeds, all with the sweep of a finger across a special dashboard.
Of course, much of this information is already available to any iPad owner with time on his or her hands, which is perhaps why the Taxpayers' Alliance described the new toy as "both a distraction and a waste of money". And while some of the software may eventually benefit other cabinet ministers, it's difficult to see how even the PM's particular requirements could stretch to £20,000 worth of apps.
What could be on..
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GUARDIAN Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:13:16 GMT
The EU is proposing a ban on fish discards, but a group of MPs says this is a 'knee-jerk reaction'. Leo Hickman, with your help, investigates. Get in touch below the line, email your views to leo.hickman@guardian.co.uk or tweet @leohickman
9.00am: A report published today by the House of Commons's Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee concludes that the European Commission's proposal for an out-right ban beginning in 2014 of "commercial" fish discards - the controversial practice of fishermen being forced to throw overboard any fish not permitted within their quota allowance - is a "knee-jerk reaction" to the problem. It argues:
We strongly support the Commission's desire to minimise discarding rates. However, we are concerned that by deciding to implement a ban so swiftly and with so little scope for stakeholder engagement, the Commission risks creating a scheme that will be unworkable and will be flouted, or worse, will merely shift unwanted fish in the sea to unwanted..
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GOOGLE Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:28:18 GMT
Prepare to waste hours and hours of your lives, NBA fans: you can now look out any box score from any game in NBA history on Basketball-Reference.com.
The site scanned newspaper box scores from really old games, and entered other digitally.
Justin Kubatko wrote a blog post about it for the site today today, and included some box scores from big games like Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game in 1962.
We've been playing around with it all day, and found that it's really addicting to look up iconic games from your childhood to see what they're like in retrospect.
For example, we looked up the box scores from the legendary (to us) 2001 playoff series between the Philadelphia 76ers and Toronto Raptors.
We found Allen Iverson had one of the most insane stat lines you'll ever see in Game Seven of that series: 21 points on a dreadful 8/27 shooting, 16 ASSISTS, four turnovers, four rebounds, two steals, a block, and he played all 48 minutes!
Try it for yourself here >>
Please...
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E-Waste: Dumping on the Poor
YOUTUBE
Asia Society's multimedia look at electronic waste shipped overseas and the toxic effect it has on places such as Guiyu, China--known as "trash town." With an interview with Michael Zhao of...
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