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Friday, April 26, 2013
It Takes a Small Artistic Army to Bring a Pixar Film To Life
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Cornell Just Got $133 Million To Open This Massive New Tech ...
Cornell's new graduate school of applied sciences is expected to fuel major growth in the New York City tech sector.?
To help fuel that growth, Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs and his wife just donated $133 million to the school, Ariel Kaminer of The New York Times reports.
The new school, Cornell NYC Tech, is the result of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's contest to a create a new science school. It beat out top-notch schools like Columbia, NYU, Carnegie Mellon, and Stanford to open up a new graduate school focused on computer science.?
But it's not a typical university computer science program. In every class session, entrepreneurs come in to discuss the risks and failures associated with building a startup. Students must also work with mentors to design and make new products.?
Two students, for example, are working with a Google engineer on developing open-source software that predicts how severe weather events will be.?
In addition to traditional technical courses, the program requires students to take business classes.
The school will eventually offer eight information technology degrees, with three of them being dual master's degrees from Cornell and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology based on hubs, rather than departments. The three hubs will be: "connective media" for designing mobile tech, "healthier life" for health care and personal technology, and "built environment" for computing for the physical world.?
Similar to that of a startup, the school doesn't have any offices. Instead, professors and students have desks with low dividers. If necessary, they can reserve a conference room.?
?We?re trying to separate personal space from private space, to create an environment with constant interaction,? Cornell Tech Dean Dan Huttenlocher tells The New York Times. ?Believe it or not, this is a very important piece of the culture we?re trying to create.?
The 12-acre campus on Roosevelt Island isn't expected to be completed until 2037, with the first building opening in 2017.
So for now, the school is temporarily housed inside Google's New York headquarters. In January, the school enrolled eight students into its beta class to earn a master's degree in computer science.?
SEE ALSO:?Cornell Wins Bloomberg's NYC Tech Campus: Here's What The 2 Million Square Foot School Will Look Like
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Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Thousands honor slain MIT officer
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) ? Slain Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier was remembered Wednesday for his dedication to law enforcement and his love of people as thousands gathered at a campus memorial.
Vice President Joe Biden joined students, faculty and staff, and law enforcement officials from across the nation at Briggs Field for the service to honor an officer who was already well-respected by his colleagues and superiors, and popular with students after little more than a year on campus
Collier was fatally shot on April 18, three days after the Boston Marathon bombings that killed three people. Authorities say he was shot by brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged Monday in his hospital room, where he is in fair condition with a gunshot wound to the throat suffered during his attempted getaway. His brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan, died Friday after a gunbattle with police.
"My heart goes out to you," Biden told Collier's family. "I hope you find some solace in this time of extreme grief."
Biden called the bothers suspected in the bombings and Collier's killing "two twisted, perverted, cowardly, knock-off jihadis"
He said he is constantly asked the question of why terrorists do what they do against the U.S.
"I've come to conclusion they do it to instill fear," Biden said. "To have us, in the name of our safety and security, jettison what we value most in the world, our open society, our system of justice that guarantees freedom. ... Our transparency; that's their target.
"It infuriates them that we refuse to bend, refuse to change, refuse to bend to fear."
Collier's casket was positioned in front of the thousands who gathered on a bright, sunny spring day. Music of bagpipes echoed through the field and a large American flag, suspended high about the crowd between two fire department ladder trucks, flapped slowly in the breeze.
Boston native James Taylor sang "The Water is Wide" and led a sing-along during "Shower the People."
Biden told the Colliers that no child should predecease their parents, and that better times are ahead.
"The moment will come ... when the memory of Sean is triggered and you know it's going to be OK," Biden said. "When the first instinct is to get a smile on your lips before a tear to your eye."
Andrew Collier said his 26-year-old brother would have loved everything about the day, including the bagpipes and the American flag.
"He was born to be a police officer and lived out his dream," Andrew Collier said.
MIT President L. Rafael Reif told those gathered that Collier made countless friends on campus.
"Sean Collier didn't have a job at MIT, he had a life at MIT," Reif said. "In just 15 months, he built a life with us. He touched people across our community."
Campus Police Chief John DiFava acknowledged the risk that accompanied the position of police officer, but questioned whether the risk of a job in law enforcement needed to come with such devastation.
"Sean left a lot behind," DiFava said. "He left us a lesson: Do it right!
"If you want to cherish his memory, remember to do it right," he said.
State police said between 4,000 and 5,000 attended the service. The line of mourners stretched for about a half mile at MIT ahead of the service. They had to make their way through tight security, including metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs ahead of the service.
"He is the one of the nicest people that I've ever met," said Kelly Daumit, 25, of Seattle, an engineering student at MIT who had gone on hikes with Collier as part of the MIT Outing Club. "Everything people are saying about him is completely genuine; it's not because of what happened."
MIT employee Larry Clark said he had only talked to Collier a couple of times but wanted to pay his respects.
"It's very tough. It's still a shock," he said.
Bagpipers played "Amazing Grace" as Collier's casket was carried from the service, and there was a fly-by with three helicopters over the campus.
A funeral was held for the officer on Tuesday.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/slain-mit-officer-memorialized-campus-163649349.html
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Social Media ? The Ultimate Experience in Customer Service
What do your ?Likes? mean to you? When we ?like? our favorite product on Facebook, we?re not simply telling everyone in digital land what our interests include. No: what we expect from those ?Likes? is the interpersonal relationships we experience every day with comments, shares, pokes, and whatsits. ?Liking? a brand on Facebook means a lot more to us when companies are willing to reciprocate.
This is what we expect ? but are the companies behind our favorite products willing to give us what we want? Some go to great lengths to interact on a personal level with the customers, but others seem content to wile away their posts with trivial product details or self-serving advertisements and promotions.
For many businesses, direct communication with the social media audience is infrequent or rare. A Facebook user is operating on Facebook time ? we expect a response within 24 hours. The average tweeter expects a response within two hours of sending a tweet. If your brand isn?t grokking this reality, you could potentially lose your followers? interest ? and, more importantly, their trust. Lost trust = lost business.
Social media isn?t just an easy way to get recognized ? it?s a means to connect with your customers on a level that traditional advertising and engagement methods simply can?t provide. Can a magazine ad talk or interact with your customer? No. Through social media, businesses are able to develop trust and customer faith in a way that was never possible without it.
Just recently, Jet Blue released a YouTube video that explained that a major snowstorm was causing flight delays. The surprising thing about the video? The company?s CEO made it himself. This level of dedication is what causes your customer to trust in you and continue their patronage. Like the song goes, ?in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.?
Providing genuine customer service takes real commitment ? and these days, no business can really afford to have a customer service strategy that ignores social media. Whether you have an in-house team or you rely on the services of a capable Internet marketing company to manage your brand?s social media engagement, your company is responsible for guaranteeing some level of personal engagement with consumers that choose to reach out to you.
Lately, Nintendo has been connecting with their clients through a series of web videos that discusses recent developments in the company and announcements of future releases. These videos are pleasant, informative, and genuinely interesting. This kind of strategy makes your customers feel like they?re being let in on your brand?s secrets ? and helps them to understand the time and effort that goes into producing the best possible products for their hard-earned money.
Make sure you read what people say when they reach out to you through social media. They want quick responses to their problems, complaints and compliments alike. But most important of all, they want to have fun with you. If someone tweets a joke your way, you want to joke right back.
Another thing: a little friendly competition never hurt anyone. Why not send a silly tweet to one of your competitors? It shows the personality behind the brand ? and that?s what today?s consumers like to see.
The spirit guiding today?s customer service is promptness and amicability. Through social media, customers receive help or attention so intimate that it feels no different than walking next door to trouble a neighbor for a cup of sugar. They want that familiar feeling. They want to trust you. If you aren?t using social media to develop this level of trust, then you aren?t doing it right.
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Source: http://soshable.com/social-media-the-ultimate-experience-in-customer-service/
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Video: Scientists advance understanding of human brown adipose tissue and grow new cells
Video: Scientists advance understanding of human brown adipose tissue and grow new cells
Tuesday, April 23, 2013Joslin scientists report significant findings about the location, genetic expression and function of human brown adipose tissue (BAT) and the generation of new BAT cells. These findings, which appear in the April 2013 issue of Nature Medicine, may contribute to further study of BAT's role in human metabolism and developing treatments that use BAT to promote weight loss.
Two types of adipose (fat) tissue ? brown and white -- are found in mammals. Unlike the more predominant white adipose tissue (WAT) which stores fat, BAT burns fat to produce heat when the body is exposed to cold and also plays a role in energy metabolism. Human studies have shown that greater quantities of BAT are associated with lower body weight. BAT has been a major focus of study among scientists and pharmaceutical companies based on its potential as a treatment to combat obesity, a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes.
Studies in mice have identified two types of BAT: constitutive or "classical" BAT which is present at birth and persists throughout life and recruitable or "beige" BAT which can be produced from within white fat in response to metabolic conditions. These two types of BAT may also be present in humans.
Previous studies have identified the human neck as a primary location for BAT deposits. To determine the precise locations of these deposits, Joslin scientists obtained fat samples from five neck regions of patients undergoing neck surgery. Analysis of the samples showed that BAT was most abundant in deep regions of the neck, near the carotid sheath and longus colli muscles. These samples expressed the BAT marker gene, uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), which is involved in heat generation. "BAT is most abundant in the deep locations of the neck, close to the sympathetic chain and the carotid arteries, where it likely helps to warm blood and raise body temperature. Now that we know where brown fat is, we can easily collect more cells for further study," says Aaron M. Cypess, M.D., Ph.D., senior author and Assistant Investigator in the Section of Integrative Physiology and Metabolism and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School.
In analyzing genetic expression in superficial and deep human neck fat tissue, the fat from deep locations was found to most closely resemble cells from constitutive mouse BAT, the kind already known to consume large quantities of glucose and fat.
The Joslin scientists compared the oxygen consumption rate (OCR), which demonstrates the capacity to burn calories, of human BAT cells to mouse constitutive BAT cells and human WAT. This is the first study to directly measure brown fat cells' OCR at baseline. The OCR of the human BAT cells from the deep location next to the longus colli was nearly 50 percent of the mouse BAT cells; in contrast, the OCR of human WAT was only one-hundredth of the OCR found in the most active human BAT from the longus colli depot. "We show that at baseline, brown fat cells have a great capacity to burn fat," says Dr. Cypess.
Joslin scientists report significant findings about the location, genetic expression and function of human brown adipose tissue (BAT) and the generation of new BAT cells. These findings, which appear in the April 2013 issue of Nature Medicine, may contribute to further study of BAT's role in human metabolism and developing treatments that use BAT to promote weight loss. Credit: Joslin Communications
The Joslin scientists are following up on this study to learn more about the functions of BAT, including how it affects energy balance and uses glucose. Having the ability to produce brown fat cells outside the body will make it possible to develop drugs and other potential treatments that increase BAT activity to combat obesity. "Our research has significant practical applications. If we stimulate the growth of brown fat in people, it may burn their white fat and help them lose weight, which lessens insulin resistance and improves diabetes," says Dr. Cypess.
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Joslin Diabetes Center: http://www.joslin.org
Thanks to Joslin Diabetes Center for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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70 dead in Bangladesh building collapse
SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) ? An eight-story building housing several garment factories collapsed near Bangladesh's capital Wednesday morning, killing at least 70 people and trapping many more in the rubble, officials said.
The collapse stirred memories of a fatal fire at a garment factory in November that killed 112 people and raised an outcry about safety in the nation's garment industry.
Workers in the Rana Plaza building said it had developed such severe cracks the day before that it had been reported on local news channels. They hesitated to enter the building Wednesday morning, said Abdur Rahim, who worked in a garment factory on the fifth floor.
But a manager from the factory assured them there was no problem, so they went inside, he said.
"We started working. After about an hour or so the building collapsed suddenly," he said. He next remembered regaining consciousness outside the building.
Tens of thousands of people gathered at the site, some of them weeping survivors, some searching for family members. Firefighters and soldiers using drilling machines and cranes worked together with local volunteers in the search for other survivors from the building.
An enormous section of the concrete structure appeared to have splintered like twigs. Colorful sheets of fabric were tied to upper floors of the wreckage, presumably so those inside could climb down and escape.
An arm jutted out of one section of rubble. The lifeless body of a woman covered in dust could be seen in another. A firefighter carried the body of what appeared to be a teenager from the area.
Rahim said his mother and father, who worked with him in the factory, were trapped inside.
"I have no idea what is going on," he said.
Among the businesses in the building were the Phantom Apparels Ltd., New Wave Style Ltd and New Wave Brothers Ltd. Garment factories. It also housed a bank and shops.
Health Minister A.F.M. Ruhal Haque said that by Wednesday afternoon 70 people had been confirmed dead in the collapse at the building in the Dhaka suburb of Savar. Brig. Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder said another 600 survivors had been rescued.
Reports indicated the death toll could rise.
"We had sent two people inside the building and we could rescue at least 20 people alive. They also told us that at least 100 to 150 people are injured and about 50 dead people are still trapped inside this floor," said Mohammad Humayun, a supervisor at one of the garment factories.
The collapse happened about 8:30 a.m. and since garment factories in the area routinely work 24 hours a day, it appeared likely that the four housed in the building were staffed at the time.
The November fire at the Tazreen garment factory drew international attention to the conditions workers toil under in the $20 billion-a-year textile industry in Bangladesh. The country has about 4,000 garment factories and exports clothes to leading Western retailers. The industry wields vast power in the South Asian nation.
Tazreen lacked emergency exits and its owner said only three floors of the eight-story building were legally built. Surviving employees said gates had been locked and managers had told them to go back to work after the fire alarm went off.
The factory made clothes for Wal-Mart, Disney and other Western brands.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/70-dead-bangladesh-garment-factory-collapse-085642577.html
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Analysis: Sleeping ad giant Amazon finally stirs
By Alistair Barr and Jennifer Saba
SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is known in the advertising industry as the "sleeping giant" because the world's largest Internet retailer harbors a trove of consumer-spending data that many marketers have called an unrealized opportunity.
Now it's awakening to the potential. After running ads on its own website for years, the company has taken the first steps toward becoming a true Internet advertising network, using the knowledge garnered from its data to place targeted ads for some of the world's biggest advertisers across thousands of other websites.
An Amazon mobile ad network, launched late last year, is now blasting ads via apps on smartphones and tablets, including Apple Inc iPhones and devices powered by Google Inc's Android operating system.
For Amazon, an ad business is a new revenue stream with fatter margins than its retail operations. To Google, Facebook Inc and other online ad leaders, Amazon is a threat because it has data they lack.
Google knows what people are searching for. Facebook knows what people like and who their friends are. Amazon knows you searched last week for running shoes, but also that you bought a pair a year ago. That kind of information has advertisers salivating.
"In today's marketing world, data is gold and Amazon is Fort Knox," said Jeff Lanctot, chief media officer at digital ad agency Razorfish, which counts Mercedes Benz USA, Delta Air Lines and McDonald's among its clients.
Lanctot has worked with Amazon for over a decade and says the company's attitude to advertising used to be "take it or leave it."
"Now it's clearly an area they decided to invest in," he said. "They have made a concerted effort to listen to what advertisers want - the type of data you need, the type of scale you are looking for."
ANOTHER $1 BLN BUSINESS?
Amazon is getting into hotly contested turf. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook and AOL command two-thirds of U.S. online advertising, according to eMarketer.
But its consumer data gives it a unique proposition, industry insiders argue. And though the competition will be stiff, it could be worth it.
Online advertising has 20 to 30 percent profit margins versus less than 5 percent for Amazon's retail business, according to Ben Schachter, an analyst at Macquarie.
On Thursday, when Amazon reports results, analysts will be looking for signs of growth in higher-margin businesses, such as advertising and cloud-computing, after years of sacrificing short-term profit to grow those divisions.
Amazon does not disclose ad business results and spokeswoman Kristin Schaefer Mariani declined to comment.
But analysts estimate the ad business already generates at least $500 million a year in revenue. David Selinger, a former Amazon executive who runs e-commerce personalization firm RichRelevance, recently predicted that Amazon's ad business will hit $1 billion in sales this year.
That's a fraction of Amazon's revenue, expected to be $75 billion this year. But longer term, the ad business could become substantial if it can grab a bigger slice of a digital ad market that will be worth over $50 billion by 2015 in the United States alone, according to eMarketer data.
"Could it rival something like Yahoo, Facebook or AOL's ad businesses?" said Macquarie's Schachter. "Sure."
ADS ON OTHER WEBSITES
Display ads on Amazon's own websites have grown fast since 2011 but what really excites Madison Avenue and Wall Street is Amazon's latest push to create and serve ads on other sites.
"The big opportunity is in having a third-party ad network," said Schachter. "There are only a few Amazon sites. Expanding beyond that, they can take advantage of millions of other websites out there."
Amazon quietly started serving ads on other websites in the fourth quarter of 2010. This part of its business remained un-named until about the middle of last year, when the company formally christened it the Amazon Advertising Platform.
It currently serves ads on thousands of websites in the United States, Britain and Germany, according to its website.
Amazon's Mariani declined to name websites. However, she said Amazon buys ad inventory - or online ad space - from content publishers or through exchanges, which are online markets for buying and selling inventory.
The company's in-house technology serves the ads to third-party websites in real time. A campaign Amazon ran for Kimberly-Clark's Huggies diapers, and another for video game designer Ubisoft, included ads served off Amazon websites.
This is where its advantage lies. It has tracked what millions of shoppers browse, search, and buy on Amazon.com for more than 15 years, using that information to recommend related products to customers. Now, it's using that data to buy ad inventory more efficiently and serve ads to the right consumers, on the right websites, at the right time.
A large entertainment company worked with Amazon to promote one of its movies last year, according to a person at the entertainment company. Data on purchases of related DVDs, books and music on Amazon.com helped identify potential customers who were likely to see the movie at the theater and ads were targeted at this audience. Results were above average, based on the number of impressions served and the number of clicks on the ads, the person said. They did not want to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly about the company's ad spending.
"Amazon spent a lot of time developing algorithms to make recommendations to consumers shopping on Amazon.com," said an executive who oversees an ad exchange that is a partner of Amazon's.
"Now they can do this outside of the Amazon world for other companies. It's really an extension of one of their core competencies," said the executive, who declined to be identified because Amazon is an important partner.
Armed with consumer information, Amazon can bid more aggressively on exchanges because it is confident that ads created from that inventory will be clicked on more often. The company can also charge advertisers more because its ads are better targeted, according to industry insiders and analysts.
"Amazon is not a retailer anymore, it is the largest behavioral marketing company in the world," said Yaakov Kimelfeld, chief research officer at Kantar Media Compete, which helps global brands improve their online marketing. "Amazon will be the best positioned to predict whether to buy inventory or not and be the most efficient in this market."
Amazon's purchase data helps advertisers spend more efficiently because they only have to buy access to those consumers most likely to respond to their messages, according to Mark Pavia, an executive at media buying firm Starcom USA, which represents clients including Kellogg, Samsung Electronics and Mars.
"I can spend 100 percent of my dollars, if you will, against only the people I want to get because of the purchase data," Pavia said. "That level of targeting is highly interesting."
(Reporting by Alistair Barr and Jennifer Saba; Editing by Martin Howell and Tim Dobbyn)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-sleeping-ad-giant-amazon-finally-stirs-050944925--sector.html
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