In The News

New show at Art Museum explores Van Gogh's mental state

The Daily Beast Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Van Gogh Up Close has opened at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and art lovers can get a better sense for the mind behind the artist's great works.

Cornelia Homburg, one of the curators of Van Gogh Up Close, a new show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, says she finds it "very difficult when an artist’s acts as an artist are exclusively viewed through the fact that he was a disturbed person." So the show ignores that person and instead takes a close look at how van Gogh, the systematic artist, liked to look closely at things, and how that made a crucial contribution to the history of modern art. One wall shows him paring his still lifes down to essentials.

Others have him zooming ever further -- onto a lone moth, a flowering branch -- or trying his hand at the classic undergrowth scenes called sous bois. His innovations are set into the context of the era’s photography and Japanese prints. Revisionist art history has revised the madman from sight. The works of art "are sufficient in themselves," says Joseph Rishel, Homburg’s co-curator.

Original source: The Daily Beast
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How zoning code reform paves the way for sustainability citywide

American Planning Association Sustaining Places blog Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The American Planning Association's Sustaining Places blog takes a look at how zoning code reform in Philadelphia is promoting sustainability.

Early in the zoning reform process, the new Zoning Code Commission agreed on a set of seven broad goals for the new code. Four of these goals addressed code structure and administration: simplify base districts, simplify overlay districts, simplify approvals, and improve readability and reorganization. The other three goals aimed more at the substance of the code: protect neighborhoods, promote sustainability, and promote quality and design.

Original source: American Planning Association Sustaining Places blog
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Five from Philly on Draft mag's 100 best beer bars

Draft Magazine Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Eulogy, Memphis Taproom, Monk's, Grey Lodge and Standard Tap made Draft Magazine's list of America's 100 best beer bars. They really love Monk's:

Monk's Café’s place in the upper echelon of watering holes is well-deserved. Its Beer Bible, which covers style guidelines, brewing 101 and an intoxicating list of more than 300 beers, acts as a visitor’s guide for patrons packed into the venue’s two intimate bars. The selection makes ordering tough; have a pint of the house brew Monk’s Café Flemish Sour Red and a pot of award-winning mussels while you sift through the list.

Original source: Draft Magazine
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Zibelman's Viridity Energy grows to 56 employees, $24M in VC

BusinessWeek Tuesday, January 24, 2012

BusinessWeek gets to know Audrey Zibelman, founder of Viridity Energy, the Philadelphia startup that is making software to help large facilities manage their energy.

Viridity installs software that works with a building’s energy systems to monitor and control heating and cooling, appliances, generators, and more. The software constantly checks the variables that affect how much a facility pays for energy. This includes the price of electricity, which for wholesale buyers like factories can change every few minutes. The software also takes into account weather forecasts, which could cause price spikes, and how much it costs a building to produce its own energy. Viridity then tweaks electricity use to minimize costs. At Drexel University in Philadelphia, a Viridity client, the software knows that certain rooms are better insulated than others. When electricity prices rise, it automatically reduces heat in the law library, where the books trap a lot of warmth. Drexel could make money during those hours by selling electricity from its diesel generators to the grid.

Original source: BusinessWeek
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Cement job: Drexel materials scientists aim to reduce carbon under foot

Daily Climate Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Drexel University materials scientists Alexander Moseson and Michel Barsoum have created a low-tech, low-energy cement they hope will reduce carbon output as developing countries build more sidewalks, roads and housing.

Potential demand for lower-carbon building materials has sparked a race to replace Portland cement featuring a handful of manufacturers and scientists. Some claim to sequester carbon within the cement itself. Others use alternative fuels. Still others tap unconventional feedstocks, such as magnesium silicate, that require lower kiln temperatures.

Moseson and Barsoum are trying the latter, mixing recycled iron slag or fly ash with readily available limestone. "We literally used a bag of garden lime from Home Depot," Moseson said. Instead of a coal-fired kiln, they use a bucket with a spoon at room temperature.

Original source: Daily Climate
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It's going down in Yorktown: Neighborhood plan wins national award

American Planning Association - PA Southeast Blog Tuesday, January 24, 2012

A couple months ago we wrote about honoring Sister Rosetta Tharpe in Yorktown, a community on the verge of rebound, and now the American Planning Association has awarded a 2012 National Planning Award for Yorktown's recently completed community-driven master plan Yorktown 2015: A Blueprint for Sustainability and Survival.

"Yorktown 2015 capitalized on the energy and creativity of Yorktown’s residents by engaging them and using their input to create an action plan," said Marie L. York, FAICP, APA Board Director and 2012 Awards Jury Co-Chair. "Despite the small size of the community, participation was overwhelming, with more than 260 Yorktown residents participating in surveys, meetings, and groups to help shape this plan."

In addition to robust traditional community outreach and engagement components, Yorktown 2015 participation was enabled through a more innovative method. Interface Studio, conceptualized, designed, and fabricated a storytelling booth--the Yorktown Chatter Box--that invited community members to step inside and speak into a soup can telephone [actually a functional audio recording device] to tell stories about their memories of Yorktown, share their hopes for the future of the neighborhood, and describe the characteristics of the neighborhood they feel would be most important to preserve.

Original source: American Planning Association, PA-Southeast Blog
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Getting to know Dell Boomi's Rick Nucci and Philly's 'Internet Mojo'

Wired Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Philadelphia-based internet company Boomi, founded by Rick Nucci, was scooped up by Dell in 2010, and Wired examines the union's strengths.

When Rick Nucci says he runs an internet company based in Philadelphia, people in Silicon Valley look at him funny. “We would come out here to meet with VCs,” he remembers, with a bit of a smile. "They would say: ‘Philly? Do you guys have internet there? Are you working in some sort of Amish commune?'" He ended up partnering with a venture capital firm in New York.

But Nucci’s real surprise is that he runs an internet company that was bought by Dell.

Original source: Wired
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DreamIt Ventures on Forbes list of 10 hottest startup incubators

Forbes Tuesday, January 17, 2012

As part of a feature that names eight reasons why incubators are better than business school, DreamIt Ventures is among the hottest startup destinations.

The incubator puts up $5,000 for each company, and another $5,000 for each co-founder. It takes a 6% equity stake in return. DreamIt also works with Comcast Ventures to run the Minority Entrepreneur Accelerator Program (MEAP), which funds and mentors minority-owned startups.

Original source: Forbes
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Philly R&B singer Jade Alston's 'she-mixes'

The New York Times Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The New York Times' Ben Ratliff puts Philadelphia R&B singer Jade Alston's first mixtape on his playlist.

Her musical identity isn’t fully formed yet, but she’s got a voice that sounds timely right now, especially on the title track and “Searching”: smoothed out and breathy, in Toni Braxton’s general area, never strobing in your ear, sometimes even self-effacing.

Original source: The New York Times
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Zoe Strauss: Ten Years opens as 'parameter-expanding exhibition' at Art Museum

The New York Times Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Philadelphia-inspired photographer Zoe Strauss and her series "I-95" is part of her new exhibition at the Museum of Art, reports The New York Times.

The exhibition, opening on Saturday, is billed as a mid-career retrospective, though Ms. Strauss’s career path is anything but conventional. For one thing, she conceived of "I-95" before she had gained any kind of experience as a photographer, before she had even bought a camera. Just five years into the project she received a Pew fellowship and was selected for the Whitney Biennial. Two years later came a monograph, "America," that nodded to none other than Robert Frank.

Original source: The New York Times
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Philly based search engine for health in NYC startup accelerator

TechCrunch Tuesday, January 10, 2012

TechCrunch reports on the inaugural class of Blueprint Health's startup accelerator in New York City, which includes Philadelphia-based Meddik.

Led by Tim Soo and Ben Shyong, Meddik is a search engine for health that ranks results based on a user’s symptom set, clinical attributes, and demographics. Tim is a Penn medical student and programmer who built Invisible Instrument, a Wiimote & iPhone gestural-based instrument that won an MTV Award. Ben is a Web-developer and programmer, having built a real-time transit tool for the Philadelphia transit system and started a bubble-tea restaurant.

Original source: TechCrunch
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StreamTV gives glasses-free Ultra-D 3DTV launch another shot at CES

engadget Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Last January we introduced you to StreamTV's glasses-free 3D technology and the Philly company is aiming to introduce it to the world at this week's 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show, reports engagdet.

We don't recall seeing Stream TV's Elocity 3T autostereoscopic 3D TV on shelves after our CES demo last year, but to be fair, we don't get out much. Not to worry however, as the company will be back at CES 2012, this time touting Ultra-D "next generation 3D without glasses display technology" that it claims will surpass all 3D experiences to date. Lofty claims, but it's also banking on its tech for realtime 2D-to-3D conversion of any video content, with plans for the brand to reach TVs, converter boxes, tablets, PCs and more. Check out the press release after the break to drink in more hype, we'll be in line to see what's real at its press conference January 9th.

Original source: Engadget
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Collegeville synfuels company aims to spawn fleets of robotic farms

MSNBC Tuesday, January 10, 2012

BEAR Oceanics, a Collegeville-based technology and research company, hopes to make inexpensive, algae-based biodiesel fuel for transportation by harnessing ocean winds and sunshine, reports MSNBC.

The robotic farms would turn algae sludge into 5 gallons of biofuel per day with a sped-up version of the geological process that created Earth's fossil fuels -- all without the risks of drilling for oil or fracking for natural gas.

"At this point, you've turned biomass into a biofuel, and you haven't used any chemicals, so that you don't have a toxic waste stream," said Rudy Behrens, an engineer at BEAR Oceanics. "We can do this on a large scale without disrupting the food chain or creating a hazard."

Original source: MSNBC
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Wharton Innovation Tournament turns ideas into business prototypes

VentureBeat Tuesday, January 10, 2012

VentureBeat covers the Wharton School's Innovation Tournament, in which MBA students aim to create an internet business in four days.

At the end of the workshop, the organizers announced the winners of the Innovation Tournament. Each team won on a specific metric, such as most pageviews for the business website or best real world application.

The team that won based on pageviews and marketing created Chow4You, a service that helps you find meals based on nutritional value and dietary needs. Rohan Mirchandani, the acting CEO of Chow4You, said, "The workshop was focused on learning the steps to take to make a business viable, especially focusing on user experience, which I found to be the most important topic." The program is just a prototype now, but based on his experience in the course, Mirchandani said he felt confident that he could launch Chow4You as a real business.

Original source: VentureBeat
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OLIN's work on Lenfest Plaza creates more than a campus for PAFA

Dexigner, Metropolis Magazine Tuesday, December 20, 2011

The Lenfest Plaza designed by David A. Rubin of local firm OLIN created a true campus for the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, reports Metropolis Magazine and Dexigner:

(from Dexigner)
In creating an institutional plaza for public enjoyment, performance and exhibition within the dense historic and cultural district of Center City Philadelphia, Rubin has designed an environment that many people can now experience: the administration, faculty and students of the Academy; guests of the new restaurant to be situated within the plaza; museum goers and art lovers; Philadelphians, and visitors to the City. In order to accommodate all of these potential visitors within a former narrow streetscape a design that allowed for social gathering but is also reflective of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts' prominence within our nation's art history and the cultural corridor of Museum Mile was required.

Original source; Dexigner
Read the full story in Metropolis Magazine and in Dexigner.