Author: timbatchelder

  • Data about God and belief

    This Week in God Steve Benen, msnbc.com First up from the God Machine this week is a look at the 2012 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, and the dif­fer­ences along reli­gious lines. The Pew Forum on Reli­gion & Pub­lic Life pub­lished a report this week based on exit polling data, and I put… http://flpbd.it/uLnnb

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  • Do natural disasters redistribute wealth?

    NYC Crime Rate Drops After Storm thedailybeast.com HURRICANE SANDY Hur­ri­cane Sandy may have dev­as­tat­ed areas of New York City, but there was one sil­ver lin­ing in the oth­er­wise mas­sive­ly destruc­tive storm cloud: the city’s over­all crime rate dropped 27 per­cent com­pared with the sam… http://flpbd.it/NBBoL Related articles A History of Disaster Capitalism (motherjones.com) How capitalism…

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  • The new green barons

    The New Pot Barons: Businessmen Bank on Marijuana By Tony Dokoupil, thedailybeast.com Pot use in the United States is rising sharply, and voters may make it fully legal in two states this fall. Smart businessmen are banking on that happening. Full dark in down­town Den­ver, and inside one of the twin­kling high-rises that make th……

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  • Power grid flaws exposed by Sandy hurricane

    Superstorm Shines A Light On Power Grid Vulnerabilities Scott Neuman, npr.org The storm that has spawned so many worst-ever superla­tives man­aged a few more when it comes to elec­tric­i­ty, with record-breaking power out­ages across 18 states stretch­ing from Michi­gan and Indi­ana to Maine and North Car­oli­na, accord­ing… http://flpbd.it/hDP1l Related articles Preparing The Grid For The…

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  • Avoiding mega hospital charges with retail clinics

    For Simple Care, Retail Clinics Are A Popular Choice Scott Hensley, npr.org If you’ve got the snif­fles or need a shot, do you go to the doc­tor or stop in at a clin­ic in a near­by drug­store? Lots of peo­ple are opt­ing for the clin­ics, which are spring­ing up inside gro­cery stores, big-box retail­ers and…

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  • Hard cider is rediscovered

    Americans Rediscover The Kick Of Hard Cider Nina Keck, npr.org Americans Rediscover The Kick Of Hard Cider NPR Morning Edition A cou­ple hun­dred years ago. hard apple cider used to be the drink of choice for thirsty Amer­i­cans. It was easy to make and easy to find. But as peo­ple moved into cities, and be……

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  • Accelerators Are the New B-school

    Flash Steinbeiser, inc.com Inc.com staff As more young entrepreneurs find success from their business accelerator contacts, the usefulness of traditional business school is put into question. Turns out, more and more young entre­pre­neurs favor the busi­ness con­tacts… http://flpbd.it/tBMY1 Accelerators Are the New B-school Related articles Brad Feld to write foreword for the book Accelerate (howtowriteabusinessplan.com)…

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  • How to wrangle control over your contacts

    Tech Trends: Tools for Managing Contacts John Brandon, inc.com TECH REPORT We tried out two basic CRM tools that help organize contacts—and stay in touch with them. I always thought cus­tomer rela­tion­ship man­age­ment soft­ware was strict­ly for sales­peo­ple. Recent­ly, I’ve been read­ing a lot abou… http://flpbd.it/fzw6u Related articles CRMs that have launched or been updated…

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  • Digital agencies learn to design culture

    How Agencies Can Hack Culture for Brand Insights Rae Ann Fera, fastcocreate.com Pic­ture this: you’re in a meet­ing in which your team is chal­lenged to come up with ideas that tap into trends and pop cul­ture. Every­one at the table nods in agree­ment. Cul­ture! Yes. Impor­tant. Check. Two weeks later, only vague (if any)… http://flpbd.it/TWevT…

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  • Engineering language is the key to branding across culture

    Need Branding That Transcends Cultures? Invent Your Own Language By Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan, fastcodesign.com A thoughtful identity gives a multinational disease research network a new way to communicate. Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty’s Clin­i­cal Research Unit is an 11-year-old net­work of groups that coop­er­ate to track and pre­vent infec­tious dis­eases, fro… http://flpbd.it/XD4bv Related articles geordie shore cast are surprise…

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  • Better Transportation Options=Healthier Lives – Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

      rwjf.org The NewPub­licHealth Nation­al Pre­ven­tion Strat­e­gy series is under­way, includ­ing inter­views with Cab­i­net Sec­re­taries and their Nation­al Pre­ven­tion Coun­cil designees, explor­ing the impact of trans­porta­tion, edu­ca­tion and… http://flpbd.it/6afL5 Better Transportation Options=Healthier Lives – Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Related articles Why do Republican governors hate our veterans? (dailykos.com) Wong: Transportation and good health (wickedlocal.com) Patient-centered…

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  • Ubi monitors home and chores

    A Computer You Can Talk To Monitors Your Home And Helps With Chores BY ZAK STONE, fastcoexist.com The Ubi, a ubiquitous computer you plug into a socket, can do things like read you your email or tell you the temperature in the room. All you have to do is ask. You prob­a­bly have at least…

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  • Why pirates make the best change agents according to Steve Jobs

    An HR Lesson From Steve Jobs: If You Want Change Agents, Hire Pirates By Peter Sander, fastcodesign.com Why? Because pirates can operate when rules and safety nets break down. [The fol­low­ing is an excerpt from What Would Steve Jobs Do?: How the Steve Jobs Way Can Inspire Any­one to Think Dif­fer­ent­ly and Win by Peter…

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  • Health 2.0: this year will be all about big data

    Health 2.0 Conference: Big Data Making A Big Impact Richard MacManus, readwrite.com At the end of the Health 2.0 Con­fer­ence ear­li­er this month, I sat down with the event’s co-founders Matthew Holt and Indu Sub­aiya to dis­cuss the big trends. I’d been impressed and excit­ed by the inno­va­tion demon­strat­ed at Health 2.0. It… http://flpbd.it/sqjx2 Related…

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  • Klout and other ways to measure your influence

    Beyond Klout: Better Ways To Measure Social Media Influence Adam Popescu, readwrite.com Mea­sur­ing social influ­ence online is becom­ing a more sophis­ti­cat­ed, refined and gran­u­lar process. While the much-maligned early leader in the mar­ket, Klout, has scooped up a lot of head­lines over the past few years, there’s a bet­ter… http://flpbd.it/7Qp5t Related articles Is Klout Gaining…

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  • Europe decides to get rid of acrylamide while we argue about soft drinks

    Cooking, fast and slow Blogus scientificus by Alex Reshanov, earthsky.org Euro­peans are so fash­ion for­ward. While peo­ple in the U.S. are still bick­er­ing over soft drink sizes and calo­rie label­ing for Big Macs, the Euro­pean Union is already tack­ling a chem­i­cal many of us have never heard of: acry­lamide. The… http://flpbd.it/k6HkE Related articles The Onion:…

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  • Visualizing who spends what on political campaigns

    A Visualization Of The Most Invisible, And Influential, Part Of Political Campaigns By Emily Elert, popsci.com An animation by Northeastern University’s LazerLab shows what’s being donated, and where. When I hear the phrase “polit­i­cal action,” I think of pub­lic demon­stra­tions. But the most influ­en­tial form of polit­i­cal action has noth­ing to do… http://flpbd.it/hwnao Related articles…

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  • UK puts entire government on the web, others to follow

    Government’s digital services portal Gov.uk comes out of beta By Ian Steadman, wired.co.uk Technology The gov­ern­ment’s cen­tralised por­tal for all its online ser­vices, Gov.uk, final­ly launched today after two years of devel­op­ment. It rep­re­sents the flag­ship of the gov­ern­ment’s “dig­i­tal by default” pol­i­cy, an idea fir… http://flpbd.it/VuGse Related articles Designs of the Year (digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk) GOV.UK…

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