In The News

Glimpsing forgotten Philadelphia by train

The New York Times Tuesday, November 13, 2012

The New York Times Magazine takes a ride on Amtrak along the northeast corridor and surveys the ghosts of our industrial past.

As anyone who rides Amtrak between New York and Washington knows, the trip can be a dissonant experience. Inside the train, it’s all tidy and digital, everybody absorbed in laptops and iPhones, while outside the windows an entirely different world glides by. Traveling south is like moving through a curated exhibit of urban and industrial decay. There’s Newark and Trenton and the heroic wreckage in parts of Philadelphia, block after block of hulking edifices covered in graffiti, the boarded-up ghost neighborhoods of Baltimore made familiar by “The Wire” — all on the line that connects America’s financial center and its booming capital city.

Original source: The New York Times
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Bloomberg Philanthropies announces Mayors Challenge finalists

National Geographic Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Philadelphia is among the 20 cities from across the country to be named a finalist in the Mayors Challenge. In Spring, Bloomberg Philanthropies will announce the winning team, which will receive $5 million to jumpstart its idea; four other teams will each receive $1 million.

In Houston, the Challenge has brought to the fore a plan to streamline waste diversion by developing the first total material resource recovery facility in the nation. San Francisco’s project seeks to link unemployed individuals with city government projects that lack personnel to close the employment gap throughout the city. Chicago’s plan calls for the deployment of an open-source analytics platform that will help streamline decision-making processes in city services, while Philadelphia focuses on developing public-private partnerships to tackle urban issues.

Original source: National Geographic's City Solutions blog
Read the full story here. For more on the Mayors Challenge click here.

Built to Last: Architect Frank Furness gets his due

The Wall Street Journal Tuesday, November 13, 2012

A century after his death, Philadelphia's Frank Furness is remembered in a series of events, including this exhibition at The Athenaeum. The architect continues to earn praise for his ambitious, idiosyncratic style.

By the time he died in 1912, at age 72, structural exhibitionism was passé, even vulgar, and Furness was something of a laughingstock. Only in the 1960s was he rediscovered by young architects disgruntled with modernism, for whom he was a guilty pleasure, a kind of joyous architectural Falstaff to fling against the solemnity of the Bauhaus. Robert Venturi did much to make Furness respectable again, praising the "array of violent forces within a rigid frame" that characterized his work.

Face & Form: The Art and Caricature of Frank Furness runs Nov. 30 through Jan. 11 at The Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Click here for details and a complete calendar of Furness 2012 events.

Original source: The Wall Street Journal
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Dancing Around the Bride at the Art Museum

The New York Times Monday, November 05, 2012

The New York Times dives into this one-of-a-kind, collaborative exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art that pays homage to late dance great Merce Cunningham.

The context brings out Cunningham’s radical use of time and space. (Steps on one side provide seats for audience members, but the performances may be viewed from any angle.) When Brandon Collwes performed a solo from “Second Hand” (1970) in one corner of the stage, Emma Desjardins and Melissa Toogood took over the rest of the platform area with a near-unison duet from “Aeon.” As the horizontal S shapes of their arms compressed, accordion fashion, into vertical ones, it was as if the man and the two women were moving in different time frames, different dimensions.

Original source: The New York Times

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Eastern U. nursing leader takes on statewide challenge

Nurse.com Monday, November 05, 2012

Mary Anne Peters, who chairs the school of nursing at Eastern University in St. Davids, has spent the last few months settling into her new role as president of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Nursing Schools Association.

She will serve a two-year term in the top spot of the statewide organization, which helps baccalaureate and higher degree nursing education programs in Pennsylvania plan and implement programs for growth, development and advancement. PHENSA provides a forum and meeting place for those who lead schools of nursing to assemble, learn about the current healthcare issues, discuss ideas and strategies and plan for nursing’s future.

"There are issues that affect us all as nurses," Peters said. "But there are also issues facing nurses here that are completely different than what’s facing nurses in other parts of the country and in different parts of the commonwealth."

Original source: Nurse.com

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A Philadelphia eighth-grader's electoral hopes

The New York Times Monday, November 05, 2012

Thirteen year-old Hope Boone of Philadelphia writes about how presidential candidates should think as big as teenagers do.

Young people’s minds are malleable and open to innovation. It is nearly impossible to change the mind-set of an adult. If we want to encourage young people in innovation, education must be improved. It’s the only path to becoming free of fossil fuels, ignorance and debt.

Original source: The New York Times

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Young Visionaries: United By Blue's organic apparel and accessories

Entrepreneur Monday, November 05, 2012

Entrepeneur's Young Visionaries series pays a visit to Philadelphia's United By Blue, an organic apparel and accessories company with a heavy social mission.

His vision provides for the removal of one pound of garbage from the nation's waterways through the sale of each item on the site. Each cleanup involves thousands of volunteers and has resulted in the removal of many thousands of pounds of garbage.

Original source: Entrepreneur

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Philadelphia's ScrubDaddy walks away with Shark Tank deal

Nerdles Monday, October 29, 2012

Aaron Krause, who owns ScrubDaddy, maker of what is described as "high-end cleaning sponges," walked away from ABC TV show Shark Tank with a deal, reports Nerdles.

He needs $100,000 in exchange for 10% equity in his enterprise. He’s currently selling the product online and in 5 Philadelphia stores. His sales have already reached $100,000 in the past 4 months alone. Since Aaron owns a patent for Scrub Daddy, he is now venturing into manufacturing the product on a large scale. As such, he needs the funds to set up his own manufacturing facility as he anticipates an in increase in demand from other supermarkets

Original source: Nerdles

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Seattle ponders City of Philadelphia seed fund Startup PHIL

GeekWire Monday, October 29, 2012

Seattle's GeekWire considers how the recently announced City of Philadelphia seed fund Startup PHL would play in Washington State.

The jury is out whether these types of programs should fall under government agencies. Interestingly, the topic has become a key talking point in the race for governor in Washington state. Candidate Rob McKenna has continued to hammer Jay Inslee over an idea, which he has since dropped, to pump state pension money into startups.

Original source: GeekWire

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Art Museum among those dabbling in digital

The New York Times Monday, October 29, 2012

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is highlighted by The New York Times as one of several art institutions across the country that are utilizing digital platforms to engage audiences.

or example, next summer the Philadelphia Museum of Art is planning five simultaneous exhibits oriented to families, including an interactive watercolor project inspired by the award-winning artist and author Jerry Pinkney as well as an environment using fancy dress costumes from the early 20th century for children in a setting designed by the artist Candy Depew. “There is a small amount of technology, but that is not the focus of what we do with kids,” said Emily Schreiner, associate curator of education for family and community learning at the museum.

Original source: The New York Times

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Study: Counseling yielded more fruit consumption among African-American adults

L.A. Times Monday, October 22, 2012

Philadelphia-based American Association for Cancer Research released a study of more than 200 Philadelphia African-Americans who were being counseled on increasing produce consumption and exercise to reduce their risk of cancer or heart disease, reports the L.A. Times.

The fact that the participants were mostly poor, with incomes under $20,000, might mean they could not afford to join a gym or pay for exercise classes and might not feel safe walking or biking in their neighborhoods. She also said the researchers might ask about the fact that many fruits can be eaten as is while many vegetables are normally cooked – making it easier to eat fruit. And, Jefferson said, it’s hard to make more than one change at a time.

Original source: L.A. Times

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Monell sensory biologist provides scientific explanation for why food pairings work

The New York Times Monday, October 22, 2012

The New York Times writes about Paul Breslin, a sensory biologist at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia and an author on a study that finds science at the root of our most savory food pairings.

Dr. Breslin and his colleagues asked testers to sample salami and then rinse their mouths with either tea or water. They were asked whether the rinses reduced the sensation of fattiness from the salami. Water did not work well, but the tea seemed to to neutralize the feeling.

They also found that even weak astringents like tea can have a strong countering effect to greasy food when sipped over time.

Original source: The New York Times

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Tracing Prohibition's maddening journey at the National Constitution Center

The New York Times Monday, October 22, 2012

With 120 artifacts and plenty more multimedia displays and activities, the National Constitution Center's "American Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition" exhibit gets a solid review from The New York Times.

The show’s curator is Daniel Okrent, who (aside from having been the first public editor of The New York Times) wrote an excellent, nuanced history of Prohibition, “Last Call,” a book whose details also informed Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s 2011 documentary, “Prohibition.”

The exhibition, like the book, touches on important themes in its narrative, but there is almost nothing dry about it, except that in the mock speakeasy at its center, the bottles are empty and nothing is served. In that gallery, you are served up Prohibition as a form of unlicensed and licentious play. A giant video screen shows film footage of the Charleston, while on a dance floor, foot markers teach visitors the moves.

Original source: The New York Times

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Philadelphia area hospitals among nation's most wired

Nurse.com Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Nurse.com reports that Main Line Health (Bryn Mawr), Abington Health, Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children (Wilmington, Del.) were among the top healthcare organizations for IT achievements, while Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (Philadelphia) and Chester County Hospital (West Chester) were among 25 most improved facilities.

The annual Most Wired survey, released in the July issue of Hospitals & Health Networks magazine, the journal of the American Hospital Association, recognizes healthcare organizations for information technology achievements in infrastructure, business and administrative management, clinical quality and safety and the care continuum. The survey also included questions based on concepts of meaningful use.

Original source: Nurse.com

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Science Leadership Academy's Lehman: Best ed app is a web browser

KQED Monday, October 15, 2012

KQED's Mindshift blog talks education and technology with the always insightful Science Leadership Academy Principal Chris Lehman.

Lehmann is famous in progressive education circles for his quote: “Technology must be like oxygen: ubiquitous, necessary, and invisible.” His point: The best technology allows students to explore and create “artifacts of their own learning.”

“The question is, how will technology allow students and teachers to network their learning, to collaborate with each other, to extend the reach of what kids can learn beyond the walls of the school,” he said. “How can technology be used to unlock what hasn’t even been thought of yet?”

Original source: KQED

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