Category: Culture

Application Business Cloud Culture

Sqwiggle Makes Working Remotely Less Lonely, More Awesome

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As reported in TechCrunch. by GREG KUMPARAK Hey Marissa! Check this one out. Sqwiggle is browser-based group video chat built with work-from-homers in mind. It’s got the office-like immediacy that Skype lacks, but without the noise of a Google Hangout. I’m kind of in love with it. As someone who puts words on the Internet for a living, I’ve been lucky enough to spend most of the last 5 years working from my home. Awesome, right? Yeah, to…

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Culture Economy Government

As Colombian Drug Gangs Collapse, Mexican Cartels Get Tons of Cheap Coke

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As reported on Wired. BY ROBERT BECKHUSEN A Colombian soldier on security duty in La Macarena, Colombia on April 28, 2012. Photo: U.S. Special Operations Command South   Want to understand why Mexican cartels are awash in cheap Colombian cocaine? The decline and fall of Colombia’s drug gangs, once the undisputed masters of the illicit drug trade, help explain it. According to a recent report from the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, the Mexican cartels are…

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Culture Entertainment Legal

Animal Farm: a look at the ‘Ag Gag’ laws that are making it tough to film cruelty

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As reported on The Verge. By Lessley Anderson Legislators send mixed messages on why the laws exist A still from Burger King Cruelty, produced by Mercy for Animals. Americans love their hamburger, but they hate to see where it comes from. That dichotomy is leading to a rash of so-called “Ag Gag” laws being enacted across the US, as reported on by The New York Times this week. The laws aim to block or severely limit activists’ ability to film…

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Business Culture Entertainment

How a Hollywood effects studio builds the movie monsters from your nightmares

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As reported on The Verge. By Matt Brian In an age where movie studios can create almost anything using CGI, Hollywood’s special effects studios and their real-world creations are still in very high demand. In a behind-the-scenes interview, Venue takes a look at Spectral Motion — a special effects creature studio which has provided the prosthetics, animatronics, and costumes for hit movies including Hellboy & Hellboy II, Looper, Blade 2, X-Men: First Class and this summer’s upcoming blockbuster Pacific Rim. Spectral…

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Business Culture

Iterations: The Tension Between Transparency And Privacy In The Startup Ecosystem

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As reported on TechCrunch. by SEMIL SHAH Everyone wants more transparency. It is part of a deep, fundamental trend. In government. In the workplace. Inside large systems like health care. And, more recently, around early-stage startup metrics and investment data. The crowd wants more transparency. They want to know more about metrics, revenues, and stats, and they want to know more about how investment dollars are allocated. Yet, the result of this shift raises concerns about…

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Culture Economy Story Trends

The Other Silicon Valley That The Tech Industry Is Leaving Behind [Video]

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As reported on TechCrunch. by COLLEEN TAYLOR On Friday, veteran journalist Bill Moyers did a segment on Silicon Valley that gives a very different perspective than we get from most mainstream media coverage of the world-renowned tech industry hub, and it’s been fueling some good conversations this weekend. Called “Homeless in High Tech’s Shadow,” it’s a very interesting look at the growing homeless problem in the South Bay of San Francisco that’s happening in stark contrast to the growing wealth in…

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Culture Engineering Entertainment Hardware Dev

3D printed speakers give you a custom light show to go with your tunes (video) Hands-on

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As reported on Engadget. By Michael Gorman 3D printing is still in its relative infancy, but more and more folks are using machines like the MakerBot Replicator and Formlab’s Form 1 to turn digital plans into physical reality. An Autodesk engineer named Evan Atherton has access to a much more capable (and expensive) 3D printer, an Objet Connex 500, and as a design exercise decided to use that printer to create a finished product. You see, a lot of…

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Culture Random Social Networking

The Idiocy Of The Social Animal

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As reported on TechCrunch. by JOHN BIGGS As we move closer to the launch of the (probably awful) Facebook phone, let’s examine just what the social network and its ilk have created. Millions of us use these new tools to joke, flirt and share memories, but just as many of us use these tools much to our disadvantage. In some ways, however, that is making things better for all of us. This morning Gawker posted surveillance video…

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Article Culture

Come and get it: how sperm became one of America’s hottest exports

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As reported on The Verge. By Brooke Jarvis I’d been friends with Chris for years when he mentioned, casually, that he’s a father. Or probably is — as a sperm donor, he has no way of knowing when a woman decides to buy what he has to offer, much less where she is, whether she actually got pregnant, or whether her pregnancy was successful. His only information about the status of his paternity comes when he…

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Culture Mobile Tech Trends

It’s been 40 years since the world’s first mobile phone call Mobile

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As reported on Engadget. By Mat Smith On April 3rd 1973, Martin Cooper made the first mobile call on the nine-inch (and 28-ounce) Motorola DynaTAC. Dialing up a rival at AT&T, he apparently said that he was ringing “to see if my call sounds good at your end.” While briefcase-size models had come before it, it’s Motorola’s truly mobile phone that became the go-to power accessory for the likes of Gordon Gekko, Zack Morris and, er, American Psycho‘s Patrick Bateman.…

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