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The Internet of Things: What It Is, Why It Matters — GigaOM Pro

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:23:19 -0400

The Internet of Things: What It Is, Why It Matters — GigaOM Pro:

The “Internet of Things” (IoT) will likely be one of the most important technological advances of this century. The emergence of Cloud computing, meanwhile, has created the application and device management backbone needed to scale to and support billions of connected objects. Consumer, governmental and business trends are also pushing us toward the IoT. And despite inhibitors to growth, such as privacy issues and creating sustainable business models, we will see increasing benefits in our personal and community lives as the IoT takes hold.

Dark alien planet discovered by NASAScientists are unsure why...

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:22:54 -0400

Dark alien planet discovered by NASA
Scientists are unsure why the planet is blacker than coal, but believe it could be a chemical they ‘haven’t even thought of yet.’

kari-shma: The road less travelled (by Outbj)

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:22:12 -0400

kari-shma:

The road less travelled (by Outbj)

We’re going to L.A.! In recognition of our work on the Lady...

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:21:41 -0400

We’re going to L.A.!

In recognition of our work on the Lady Gaga campaign, we were invited to attend the 2011 VH1 Do Something Awards this weekend. We’re very excited to be nominated, but more importantly, we’re so thankful for your support. You embraced the Lady Gaga campaign, casting over 1 million votes to give $1 million to causes that support homeless New York City youth, and we just can’t thank you enough. Join us as we travel to the west coast this weekend. We’ll be posting from the road, and we hope that you will share your experiences about Do[ing] Something to help others.

p.s. You can still vote for us here!

In June 2010, a fuzzy baby otter was found alone and dehydrated...

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:20:18 -0400

In June 2010, a fuzzy baby otter was found alone and dehydrated on a beach in Alaska, so two passersby contacted the Alaska SeaLife Center, who rescued him and began bottle-feeding him every two hours. After a few days, Tazo perked up and began playing and splashing around, and in August he was transported to the New York Aquarium. The adorable little guy couldn’t be released back into the wild because he’d become too dependent on humans. (Watch an aww-inducing video of Tazo.)
Adorable rescued zoo babies

Robin Hood’s mission is to fight poverty in New York City. But,...

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:19:46 -0400

Robin Hood’s mission is to fight poverty in New York City. But, since we’re visiting the City of Angels, it seems appropriate to take a moment to discuss some of the issues facing Los Angeles.

Los Angeles is the second most populated city in the United States after New York.

New York’s poverty rate is 22% of the population (1.8 million); Los Angeles’ poverty rate is 20% (over 750,000 people).

The homeless population of Los Angeles in 2011 is 23,539 (0.62% of the population). The homeless population of New York in 2011 is 113,000 (1.3% of the population).

Poverty exists coast to coast and affects members of your community. We hope that you’re stepping up to Do Something about it.

[Map credit]

A class devoted entirely to watching YouTube videos? College...

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:18:59 -0400

A class devoted entirely to watching YouTube videos? College credit for studying Internet pornography? And how would your parents feel if you took a course on Lady Gaga’s rise to fame? It may sound outlandish, but students are taking such classes at colleges and universities across the nation.

15 bizarre college courses

cubagallery: ► Lightroom Before & After Shots. Via...

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:18:22 -0400

cubagallery:

► Lightroom Before & After Shots. Via Flickr: Black & White

What If Apple Used Their Cash To Buy T-Mobile Or Sprint?

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:17:26 -0400

What If Apple Used Their Cash To Buy T-Mobile Or Sprint?:

A nice thought by former Apple executive Jean-Louis Gassée, but not gonna happen.

Even if Apple was able to pass regulatory scrutiny for this (they’d argue that they’d still work with Verizon and AT&T and that Android is closer to a monopoly), such an undertaking would undoubtedly be a massive headache for Apple just from a logistics perspective.

Could they offer a better service than any other carrier right now? Of course. But that isn’t saying much. In fact, it’s saying next to nothing — that’s why this is such a nice thought.

But as a carrier, Apple would have to worry about things like upgrading networks, getting local governments to approve towers, even more customer service, etc. It would be a huge distraction from the core business: selling devices.

Gassée also hits on a key point at the end: sure Apple could buy someone like T-Mobile or Sprint in the U.S. market, but the greater opportunity is worldwide. Such a buy here would mean nothing for the larger pie.

Having said all of that, I would not be surprised at all if Google eventually tries to buy a carrier. They also shouldn’t, and would face an even rougher time from a regulatory perspective. But Google wants to do everything. So they’ll try someday, I imagine.

The Prettiest Boy in the World

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:16:33 -0400

The Prettiest Boy in the World:

In Europe’s fashion world, where the masculine ideal is a good deal less masculine, Pejic found some work, but he didn’t become one of the industry’s coveted items—the modeling world’s version of the Birkin or the Spy Bag or the Muse—until Carine Roitfeld, then editor-in-chief of French Vogue, decided to dress him as a woman for an editorial shoot. “Carine Roitfeld was just like, ‘Put him in Fendi!’ ” Pejic explains before adding, “My agency did ask me if I was comfortable with it, but I’ve been dressing in skirts since I was very little, so for me it was, ‘Of course.’ ”

Since then, “I guess professionally I’ve left my gender open to artistic interpretation,” he says. This past year, he walked in both men’s and women’s shows for Jean Paul Gaultier (who describes Pejic as an “otherworldly beauty”), and was cast as Gaultier’s bride—traditionally a line’s pièce de résistance—in his Spring 2011 couture show. For New York’s Fashion Week in February, he modeled in five shows for men and four for women. Even at men’s shows, Galliano put him in “a skimpy little singlet” and Gaultier dressed him as Betty Catroux, Yves Saint Laurent’s androgynous female muse. He’s been photographed by Steven Meisel and Juergen Teller. His mother has been on Australian television to talk about her son. He is now famous enough in that country that he wears sunglasses to go outside.

Riots, wild markets: Did space storms drive us mad?Some...

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:22:38 -0400

Riots, wild markets: Did space storms drive us mad?
Some academics claim that solar storms can affect humans, altering moods and leading people into negative behavior through effects on their biochemistry.

fastcompany: Bubble? What bubble? Today’s infographic on...

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:22:13 -0400

fastcompany:

Bubble? What bubble? Today’s infographic on Co.Design says there’s no tech bubble here!

Also, don’t miss our Editor’s thoughts on The B Word!

RedZone Robotics - Saving time, money & the environment in an industry that needs it more than ever

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:21:35 -0400

RedZone Robotics - Saving time, money & the environment in an industry that needs it more than ever:

One of our biggest and least recognized problems in the U.S. is with our aging sewer infrastructure. The EPA estimates that between $300-500 billion is needed to rehabilitate our infrastructure. The average age of a U.S. pipeline is 76 years and today this is leading to big problems for municipalities. RedZone Robotics is a leading innovator in Robotic Inspection platforms for wastewater infrastructure. They give the tools necessary to make informed and important decisions about a city’s assets so that the limited funds available are used in the right way. RedZone’s robots are able to inspect more feet in less time collecting more detailed and accurate data using Sonar, Laser, H2S gas, digital CCTV, 3D Lidar, V-360, and air temp sensors. The small diameter inspection robot, SOLO, is the world’s first truly unmanned sewer inspection robot and can also be used in environmentally protected areas where big CCTV trucks (most used method for inspection) could not ever go and can be deployed from a vehicle as small as a motorcycle.

President Obama met with RedZone and spoke highly of what the company can do to save municipalities millions and get the job done more efficiently and safely. If critical pipes are not addressed the consequences mean huge structural damages to cities and roadways as well as unimaginable costs in repairs. This company is a small step toward a more efficient and manageable sewer infrastructure, something that we may not realize the importance of but could affect cities on a huge scale.

via smartercities:

Rick Perry’s environmental recordThe Texas governor has a clear...

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:20:53 -0400

Rick Perry’s environmental record
The Texas governor has a clear environmental platform — whether you like it or not is a different story.

Climate change
Don’t get confused by the knowledge that Perry is a former Democrat who led Al Gore’s presidential campaign back in 1988. As governor, he has consistently resisted federal policies aimed at combating climate change.
Cap-and-trade
Under his watch, Texas has instituted the TERP program, which provides incentives for people to reduce their carbon footprints. While this may seem like a step in the green direction, it would be hard for Texas to get any dirtier. In fact, under Perry, Texas has consistently been the nation’s largest emitter of carbon emissions. Perry, who is on record saying he may be in favor of Texas leaving the United States, would have an interesting situation on his hands if his wish were granted. If Perry were to be the president of the Texas Republic, it would be the world’s eighth-largest emitter of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
Sharing oil revenues
Perry wants to drill offshore and be able to grab some of the cash for doing so in an effort to offset the effects of drilling off his own shores. He was also opposed to President Barack Obama’s de facto moratorium on offshore drilling after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Fracking disclosure
Rick Perry was one of the first governors to refuse to let the natural gas industry do hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking) in his state without disclosing the toxic chemicals it uses to do so.
Some green/clean stuff, too
Perry does have a bit of a green in his record. In fact, as governor, Perry was instrumental in 2009 in passing a $5,000 incentive for the purchase of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

The Saving of Ground Zero

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:20:04 -0400

The Saving of Ground Zero:

To the degree that it’s possible for a 102-story building to take a city by surprise, One World Trade Center snuck up on the New York skyline. For years the project, conceived in the throes of tragedy, has been debated, negotiated, renamed, redrawn, hailed as a beacon, and maligned as a boondoggle. It wasn’t until recently, though, that it presented itself as an immutable fact, beginning to replace the void above Ground Zero with steel and reflective glass. Designed to commemorate lost life and recapture lost revenue, the half-completed skyscraper is both a nationalistic statement—it was formerly known as the “Freedom Tower”—and the centerpiece of a speculative real estate project.

From his headquarters high above 42nd Street, about three miles to the north, real estate developer Douglas Durst has been keeping watch over One World Trade’s rise. “I think it’s going to be quite spectacular,” he says one sultry July afternoon, sitting in a room decorated with photographs of his forbears in the family real estate company. Looking south over the majestic spread of Manhattan, One World Trade was wrapped in midsummer haze, and the air was thick with irony. If anyone in power had listened to Durst years ago, the vastly expensive tower would not exist.

Little Girl Found

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:19:25 -0400

Little Girl Found:

China is still smarting from the national humiliation of having had to export as many as 100,000 babies in the past 20 years. Foreign charities are still allowed to help some of the sickest babies from the poorest provinces; but Shanghai prides itself on being able to pay its own way. Foreign volunteers used to be allowed into the Shanghai orphanage weekly just to cuddle the kids; now they are not. Shanghai wants to make one thing perfectly clear: if its abandoned children need a heart operation, they no longer have to go begging.

Generation F*cked

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:19:00 -0400

Generation F*cked:

As the generational divide deepens, it makes sense for the older generations to stake their claim now, while they have the power of the state on their side. Aside from handing out more than 10,000 Asbos (Antisocial Behaviour Orders, a cross between a human parking ticket and the sort of condemned notice you sometimes see on the walls of derelict buildings), the petty misanthropy that bans hoodie-wearing teenagers from shopping malls, forces parenting classes on failing single mums, and allows 79 percent of police forces to impose curfews on children, comes easily to a nation that thought up the idea that its young should be seen and not heard. But never before have we put them under this degree of surveillance while simultaneously turning a blind eye to our adult responsibilities. Satellites track their phones, marketeers groom them on cyberspace, police add the DNA from 600 innocent children a week to a 50,000-sample database, while libraries fingerprint them to borrow books – all linked by rafts of new childhood databases joining the dots. In an age of hyper-individualism we are recoiling from the very children we have created. Monitoring is not enough, we must be protected from them.

The Internet of Things: What It Is, Why It Matters — GigaOM Pro

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:18:15 -0400

The Internet of Things: What It Is, Why It Matters — GigaOM Pro:

The “Internet of Things” (IoT) will likely be one of the most important technological advances of this century. The emergence of Cloud computing, meanwhile, has created the application and device management backbone needed to scale to and support billions of connected objects. Consumer, governmental and business trends are also pushing us toward the IoT. And despite inhibitors to growth, such as privacy issues and creating sustainable business models, we will see increasing benefits in our personal and community lives as the IoT takes hold.

The Pyrenean ibex, a type of mountain goat, was officially...

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:17:35 -0400

The Pyrenean ibex, a type of mountain goat, was officially declared extinct in 2000 when the last remaining animal of its kind was found dead in northern Spain. Shortly before its death, scientists took skin samples from the goat’s ear and preserved it in liquid nitrogen, and in 2009 the ibex was cloned, making it the first species to become “unextinct.” Unfortunately, the cloned Pyrenean ibex died seven minutes later because of lung defects.
10 odd ways we protect endangered species

Peering out of the window on our way to Los Angeles, we’re...

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:16:25 -0400

Peering out of the window on our way to Los Angeles, we’re flying over Memphis, Tennessee. One famous Memphian very close to our heart is Paul Tudor Jones, Robin Hood’s founder. Robin Hood was founded in 1988. Read a little more about our history here.