Storify is reinventing storytelling for the social media age, and today we're bringing our platform to the device that is reinventing computing: the iPad.
How Rovio Aims to Keep its Angry Birds Flying High (02:46)
Mikael Hed almost pulled the plug on Rovio while the Angry Birds were still in development. After several years in business, his mobile game company had yet to produce a hit. Rovio’s chief backer, Hed’s father, Kaj, was struggling to figure out how to keep the company going.
“He told me that he wanted to mortgage my grandparents’ flat so he could put some more money in the company to keep it afloat,” Mikael Hed said in an interview. “That was pretty tough. I certainly did not want to be the person responsible for putting my grandparents on the street.” Angry Birds was in development and Hed thought he might have a winner on his hands. But at the same time, the company had made dozens of games already without striking it rich, and even the best iPhone games weren’t making that much money. “Just looking at the odds, we shouldn’t take that kind of a risk,” Hed recalls thinking. But his father went ahead anyway. “I’m glad he did,” Hed said, noting his grandparents still have their home. “Now I am glad he did, but it was a big gamble.” The move has clearly paid off. According to figures made public and noted this week by a Finnish newspaper, Kaj Hed owns nearly 70 percent of the company, worth by some estimates between $6 billion and $9 billion.
The film, “Thinking Cities,” focuses on how cities are using Information Communications Technology (ICT) to start to come up with these solutions. It highlights interesting projects in cities like Boston, Seattle, and Stockholm where ICT is being used right now to address issues like waste, energy use, and civic engagement.
Newton’s Third Law | University of Southern California
The college lecture: Send us your favorite videos
The lecture, an efficient yet often impersonal form of teaching, is under attack, reports The Post’s Daniel de Vise.
Science, math and engineering departments in particular are finding the lecture method’s a turn-off for students.
Really, why spend hundreds of dollars to sit in a room with hundreds of others when you can learn for free from the comfort of your laptop?
With that in mind, what’s the best online lecture you’ve seen? We’ve rounded up a handful of interesting and quirky videos, but we need your help to expand the list:
Pittsburghese | Carnegie Mellon University
Barbara Johnstone, a professor in CMU’s English department, breaks down the nitty-gritty of the Pittsburgh dialect. (For instance, “feel” sounds like “fill” and “fool” like “full.”) Plus, she digs into the cultural reasons that locals keep these quirks alive.
Dutch dance music has conquered the world. DJs like Armin van Buuren, Tiësto and Afrojack are exporting their music to the remotest corners of the world.
by Daan Roelofs
The value of those exports is considerable, according to the latest figures of Dutch copyright organisation Buma/Stemra, which says that in the last two years it has doubled to nearly 50 million euros.
The Netherlands' music exports totalled some 81.5 million euros in 2010. Classical and alternative music had a fair share in this result, but the mainstay was brought by the electronic dance music setting huge crowds in motion. Let's dance!
Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year, is the most important event in the Chinese calendar. It’s a special occasion marked by family gatherings, special food, temple offerings and the color red.
In 2012, Chinese New Year fell on 23 January.
Celebrations in Amsterdam were held on Sunday, 29 January with the Asian Food Festival.
Among the delicacies on offer were yu sheng, a raw fish salad which is said to bring good luck, and fai-hai, a type of seaweed that is believed to bring prosperity.
Vegetarians choose to eat lettuce, which the Chinese believe sounds like the word for 'luck'.
This lets you Do More Science by enabling you to retrieve and record your protocols and results straight from your bench. The app also tracks multiple experiments at once, and alarms remind you about time-sensitive tasks.
Labguru - Dr. Anat Ben Zvi - Testimonial from BioData Ltd on Vimeo.
Labguru - Dr. Eli Lewis - Testimonial from BioData Ltd on Vimeo.
SUMMARY
Jeremy Lin, a point guard for the New York Knicks and the first Chinese-American player in NBA history, is on a storybook run in his first four games as a starter. Ray Suarez and Jeff Yang of The Wall Street Journal explore how an unknown basketball player suddenly captured the attention of the NBA, the sports world and beyond.
Transcript
JEFFREY BROWN: Next, how an unknown basketball player suddenly captured the attention of the sports world and beyond.
Ray Suarez looks at the Jeremy Lin phenomenon.
RAY SUAREZ: Just a week ago, few fans knew his name or his face, but tonight when basketball point guard Jeremy Lin takes to the floor for the New York Knicks, all eyes will be on him.
A Harvard graduate and the first Chinese-American player in NBA history, the 23-year-old was cut by two other NBA teams before the Knicks picked him up and sat him on the bench. After moving to the starting lineup earlier this month, he scored more than points in his first four starts, 109, than any other NBA player since 1976. And fans around the world have been dazzled by plays like this one.
For more about the Lin phenomenon, we turn to Jeff Yang of The Wall Street Journal.
And, Jeff, the story was already implausible in 100 other ways, it seems, cut by his early teams, not scouted as a prospect in high school. But it's really the fact that he's Taiwanese-American that has gained a lot of the attention.
What is fascinating about his Asian-American background?
JEFF YANG, The Wall Street Journal: I think the thing that's fascinating obviously for Asian-Americans is that there really has never been anyone like him before, I mean, not just in basketball, but arguably in sports.
Organized sports is such a huge thing in America, such a big part of the fabric of our culture, and yet we've never had a player who wasn't just successful, but dominating in one of these sports before. And Jeremy comes along. He's somebody completely unheralded.
He's got a huge amount of talent, but has been effectively ignored. And, overnight, like a Cinderella story, he becomes the biggest news in all of New York and maybe all the world.
RAY SUAREZ: You mentioned that there's never been anyone like him before. What about Yao Ming? What's different about Jeremy Lin?
JEFF YANG: Well, obviously, there are two really big differences right off the bat.
The first is, Yao Ming was exceptionally physically gifted, but in a specific way. I mean, he was 7'6'' tall. And you can't, as they say, teach size. So he was somebody who came into the league already a superstar and with gifts that you honestly can't just create with hard work.
And, furthermore, he's Chinese. He's somebody, actually, a foreign player who's come to the United States, both with a certain reputation, but also with certain limitations. He -- English wasn't his first language. He wasn't culturally part of the fabric of the United States when he first came here.
And he was still hugely inspirational. But when you look at Jeremy, you're looking at somebody totally different. He's an all-American kid who is redefining the notion of what an all-American kid is. And that is a big part, I think, of what why Jeremy is such an exceptionally interesting story.
RAY SUAREZ: I've just plowed through several dozen articles on his sudden rise. And an interesting things pops up. He's constantly referred to as intelligent, or his court smarts make up for a lack of being physically imposing.
Now, is that kind of the flip side of the stereotypes that many minority players bridle under, that they are physically gifted? Now, being smart is a good stereotype, but it is -- is it a stereotype nonetheless?
JEFF YANG: Well, I mean, it doesn't hurt that the guy did go to a pretty good school. He went to Harvard University. So, it's not as if it's not accurate on some level.
I do think that, when you look at the way that his career has played out, where team after team and individual after individual has sort of underestimated his physical abilities, there probably is a little bit of that, a sense in which he's looked at as many maybe a smart player, but not somebody who can really run with the big boys.
And that is something that I think Asian-American athletes in general have gotten tagged with, this idea that they have to bring brains to the table, because they don't have the brawn or the raw talent. His brains and leadership have also played a big role. He's changed the nature of the team. He's gotten a lot of great shots and great looks for his teammates. They're playing better together than they ever have.
And we're hoping that it will only get better when the big stars actually come back off the disabled list.
RAY SUAREZ: He also seems to be having fun with it, though, isn't he, whether it's bowing to Carmelo Anthony or doing a little courtside ritual that involves opening books and pocketing glasses.
JEFF YANG: There's something about him that's almost infectious. He's playful. He's funny. He can be very serious and very solemn in some ways.
He's got a very strong Christian faith. But, at the same time, when people see him play, they see somebody who makes them remember the playground, makes them remember the pickup games they have played themselves. And that's -- that's amazing.
RAY SUAREZ: One black athlete tweeted that, if a black player did what Jeremy Lin has done over the past week-and-a-half, it just wouldn't make much of a splash.
But, interestingly, Ta-Nehisi Coates blogged on The Atlantic that it's true that, if he were black, this would probably be a smaller story, but, if he weren't talented, it would not be a story at all.
JEFF YANG: I absolutely agree with that.
I think that, in a way -- and the statement you're talking about was by Floyd Mayweather, who's a boxer. The notion that somehow he doesn't deserve the attention he's getting is ludicrous. The guy has done some amazing stuff. He's turned a team around. He's turned a season around. He's maybe saved his coach's job.
And he's certainly proven that he deserves to play on that field with anybody. The fact that he's Asian-American certainly makes him exceptional, unique and inspiring in a lot of ways, certainly for me, for people like me. But there's no question that his talent got him there and that his talent will keep him there.
RAY SUAREZ: Jeff Yang from The Wall Street Journal, thanks for joining us.
Most of the 15 to 20 percent of people in the United States who have a language-based disability suffer from dyslexia, a condition that makes reading and comprehension difficult. Those who suffer from dyslexia often transpose or rotate letters (a b becomes a q; an n becomes and u), and they have difficulty differentiating letters that look similar, such as i and j. Those who suffer from severe dyslexia might even see the letters moving, or in three dimensions, as they try to read them. All of these factors greatly impede the speed and clarity with which they can read.
The Cryoscope shows the user exactly what to expect outside by haptically exhibiting exactly how cold or warm it is to be outside. The user simply touches an aluminum cube that has been heated or cooled to the appropriate temperature. The unit fetches weather data from the internet, and translates it to the cube physically, pumping heat in or out of the cube.
Squidoo founder, bestselling author and prolific blogger Seth Godin recently sat down with Success Magazine’s Darren Hardy to talk about his vision, the ideas in his latest book, We Are All Weird, the smart marketer of today, and how businesses become remarkable.
At the Children’s Creativity Museum, we go beyond the conventional environment of play by inspiring kids to imagine, create and share in our multimedia environment. With every visit, kids walk away with a unique media or art project that reflects and celebrates their creativity. All of our core studios and exhibits are facilitated by skilled artists and our C.I.T.Y. Guides who are guaranteed to spark your imagination as they guide you through the creative process. You will also notice our Creativity Critters throughout the museum. Explore our exhibits to find out more about their favorite activities.
Is your school seeing a mass influx of laptops, smartphones, tablets and other wireless devices?
Are you prepared for the invasion of the 4th "R"...wiReless?
While implementing a “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) strategy allows school systems to provide one-to-one computing for students, reduced equipment costs and eliminating technology refresh capital, wireless networks are feeling an enormous strain, not to mention access control and additional management issues.
Professor Jiun-Huei Proty Wu is a cosmologist teaching at National Taiwan University, jointly appointed by Academia Sinica and National Cheng-Chi University. Growing up in Taiwan, he developed a fighting spirit from the challenging experience of military service, an attitude he carried throughout his life. At 12 years of age, he built two telescopes using surplus wood and a PVC water pipe, hoping to prove the existence of the goddess of the moon. Two years later, while using these two telescopes to observe the universe, he successfully captured the astonishing moment when the Comet Halley passed, sparking his career in cosmology. At 28, he obtained his PhD in cosmology from the Relativity Group at Cambridge, led by Professor Stephen Hawking. After working at U.C. Berkeley and NASA, he returned to Taiwan and has been back for over a decade. He is currently the Project Scientist of the cosmological telescope, AMiBA, in Hawaii, and plans to build a time machine at the South Pole to search for the origins of the cosmos.
Scott Harrison, founder and CEO of Charity Water, presents "Water Changes Everything" as LinkedIn's inDay speaker.
There are one billion people without clean water to drink. Can you imagine that? No bottled water. No special filter on the faucet. No water in the faucet. No faucet. Over the past five years, with the help of more than 200,000 donors worldwide, charity: water has funded 6,041 water projects in 19 developing countries. Those projects will provide over 2.5 million people with clean, safe drinking water.
Despite being somewhat of a hollywood cliche, serendipitous scientific discoveries rarely ever happen. Just ask any scientist and that person will tell you about all the painstaking detail that goes into designing an experiment to hone in on specific probable outcomes. But when they do happen, heck, they make for pretty good stories. And when it’s a 10-year old girl accidentally discovering a potentially explosive molecule, it’s definitely worth me telling you about it.
The little prodigy in question is fifth grader Clara Lazen, whose class assignment was to build a molecule using one of those modeling kits with the colorful balls and plastic connectors. Many kids would probably throw together a little H2O and call it a day — but not Clara. She randomly pieced together a combination of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon atoms to create a molecule her chemistry teacher, Kenneth Boehr, had never seen before.
“I just saw that these go together more,” Clara told the Fox News local affiliate in Kansas City. “Like they fit more together. And they look better. And all the holes have to be filled in for it to be stable.”
Enjoy a delicious fondue snack whenever the hankering hits you with the 4-piece Personal Fondue Set.
Add your favorite dipping sauce to the 4-ounce stoneware bowl and light the included tealight candle to start the melting process. When ready, dip your favorite snacks (such as fruits, vegetables, bread, and cake) using the included stainless steel fondue fork.
Stoneware bowl, stoneware plate, and stainless steel fork are dishwasher safe.
Near Field Communications (NFC), Geo-location services, and augmented reality (AR) are disrupting the consumer shopping experience while increasing sales and margins for brick and mortar retailers.
Putting interested buyers in front of relevant shelves at local stores is a huge monetizable opportunity for mobile platforms. 400,000 new Android devices are enabled each day, 60-70M phones are shipping with NFC this year alone and 15% of Tier 1 retailers are integrating mobile e-commerce platforms. Come discover how start ups in mobile are making shopping a whole lot smarter...read more at: http://www.vlab.org/article.html?aid=415
Moderator and Panel:
Aaron Emigh, CTO and Co-Founder, Shopkick, Inc. (Presenter) Nitzan Shaer, Managing Director and Founder of High Start Group (Moderator) Bob Borchers, General Partner, Opus Capital Ben Hedrington, Director of Web Strategy, Best Buy Co. Inc Matt Weathers, VP Product, ShopSavvy
Bjarke Ingels' architecture is luxurious, sustainable and community-driven. At TEDxEast he shows us his playful designs, from a factory chimney that blows smoke rings to a ski slope built atop a waste processing plant.
Mick Mountz is the founder and CEO of Kiva Systems, a company dedicated to finding high tech solutions that make inventory fulfillment fast, cheap and efficient.
ABOUT THIS TALK
We make millions of online purchases daily, but who (or what) actually puts our items into packages? At TEDxBoston, Mick Mountz weaves a fascinating tale out of a seemingly boring subject: online ordering, its challenges -- and the surprisingly high-tech solutions.
What makes you, you? Is it how you think of yourself, how others think of you, or something else entirely? At TEDxYouth@Manchester, Julian Baggini draws from philosophy and neuroscience to give a surprising answer.
Added: January 23, 2012 The researchers at Cornell University have been cooking up a new appliance for your home - a 3D food printer. They've been experimenting with all kinds of goo, including cheese, cookie dough and liquid turkey.
What's frustrating about music lessons, what's miraculous about them, and what they actually teach us. This show was recorded in front of a live audience at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, with help from KQED-FM, during the '98 Public Radio Conference in San Francisco.
COMEDIANS OF CHRISTMAS COMEDY SPECIAL Originally aired 12.17.2010 The holidays are stressful so we booked a seasonal pick-me-up: an hour of comedy. Including comedians Wyatt Cenac, Mike Birbiglia, Julian McCullough, Jenny Slate, Gabe Liedman and Edith Zimmerman. Musical guests: Dave Hill and Doug Gillard.
WHAT I LEARNED FROM TELEVISION Originally aired 03.16.2007
Stories recorded during our 2007 live tour. Sarah Vowell, David Rakoff, Dan Savage, and other favorite contributors went on the road with us to New York, Boston, Minneapolis, Chicago, Seattle, and Los Angeles; and performed brand-new stories in front of sold-out audiences.
The true story of little-known rooms in the New York City Board of Education building. Teachers are told to report there instead of their classrooms. No reason is usually given.
422: COMEDIANS OF CHRISTMAS COMEDY SPECIAL Originally aired 12.17.2010 The holidays are stressful so we booked a seasonal pick-me-up: an hour of comedy. Including comedians Wyatt Cenac, Mike Birbiglia, Julian McCullough, Jenny Slate, Gabe Liedman and Edith Zimmerman. Musical guests: Dave Hill and Doug Gillard.
It seems like every politician has a plan for putting people back to work. But we and the Planet Money team couldn’t help but wonder…how do you create a job? Can politicians truly create many jobs? Is it possible the whole thing is just well-intentioned hot air?
420: NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH Originally aired 11.19.2010
It’s amazing just how much drama can take place in the mini-universe of a neighborhood. This week we bring you stories of neighbors watching out for each other, for better and worse, including a story from CBC's WireTap.
MR. DAISEY AND THE APPLE FACTORY Originally aired 01.06.2012
Mike Daisey was a self-described "worshipper in the cult of Mac." Then he saw some photos from a new iPhone, taken by workers at the factory where it was made. Mike wondered: Who makes all my crap? He traveled to China to find out.
KID POLITICS What if, say, the U.S.-led invasion of Grenada in 1983 had been decided, not by Ronald Reagan, but by a bunch of middle-schoolers? And what if every rule at your high school had been determined, not by teachers and administrators, but entirely by teenagers? This week, stories about whether, when it comes to governing, kids do any better than grown-ups.
And now, for something completely different. Well, not that different from Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but pretty outlandish in the grand scheme of things. Maybe it's the next Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS?
In any case, here's the preview for FDR: American Badass! This film promises lycanthrope versions of Hitler, Hirohito, and Mussolini. Also, Kevin Sorbo plays Abe Lincoln, and Ethan from Lost is hanging out. The release date has yet to be announced, but a sweep of the Independent Spirit Awards is a lock.
The latest Symphony of Science track is out, and it is a doozy. Listen to David Attenborough, Richard Dawkins and Bill Nye get their rave on for evolution. Who knew synths intermingled with amoebas on the Tree of Life? Hat tip to Krakenstein2!
The video above discusses the Senate version of the House's Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). In the Senate the bill is called the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). SOPA has gotten more attention than PIPA because it was moving faster in the legislative process. But PIPA is just as dangerous, and now it is moving faster. PIPA would give the government new powers to block Americans' access websites that corporations don't like. The bill lets corporations and the US government censor entire websites and cut sites off from advertising, payments and donations. This legislation will stifle free speech and innovation, and even threaten popular web services like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. The bill is scheduled for a test vote in the Senate on Jan. 24th: We need to act now to let our lawmakers know just how terrible it is. Will you fill out the form above to ask your lawmakers to oppose the legislation and support a filibuster?
