In The News

At Bat app lets Phils fans order from their seats

Athletic Business Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Citizens Bank Park has gone high-tech thanks to a partnership that gives fans the chance to use their iPhone or IPod Touch to have concessions delivered to their seats, reports Athletic Business.

The short pilot program--right now slated to only run through the end of the regular season--will be integrated into the "At the Ballpark" section of MLB Advanced Media's all-inclusive iPhone application, At Bat. "At the Ballpark" currently offers a variety of interactive tools to allow fans to check in from the ballgame and integrate their experience with technology. This latest innovation carries that a step further, with food-ordering technology never previously employed at a Major League venue. "It's convenient, it's cool and it's quick," Mike Harris, Phillies director of marketing and special projects, told MLB.com.

Original source: Athletic Business
Read the full story here

Live music venue, rock museum proposed for Fishtown

Philadelphia Business Journal Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Grasso Holdings has proposed converting a Richmond Street industrial building in Fishtown into a live music venue and museum for Philadelphia's rock and roll stars, reports the Philadelphia Business Journal.

The project would be housed in roughly 34,000 square feet of a 75,000-square-foot building at 2055 Richmond St. Grasso Holdings has the property under agreement and is in the early stages of the project in terms of financing, design and seeking neighborhood support and zoning approvals.

The facility would be able to accommodate about 2,600 people and would incorporate high-tech features that would create an interactive experience for concert-goers. The facility is being designed with the fans' experience as the focal point, said one person with intimate knowledge of the project and that starts from the moment a ticket is purchased.

Original source: Philadelphia Business Journal
Read the full story here.

UPenn researcher tracking Gelada monkeys in Ethiopia featured in NYT

New York Times Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Noah Snyder-Mackler, a doctoral candidate in the psychology department at the University of Pennsylvania, is blogging for the New York Times' Scientist at Work feature while he studies the socio-genetic structure of gelada monkeys.

My research focuses on the evolution of social behavior in a gregarious primate, the gelada. Geladas, endemic to Ethiopia, are not only the only grazing primate, but they are also found in some of the largest social groups of any nonhuman primate (on occasion we have seen more than 1,000 individuals at the same site). Our field site is situated in the extremely remote, stunningly beautiful Simien Mountains National Park (a series of cliffs, plateaus and mountains situated in the highlands of northern Ethiopia). The park is a 15-hour drive north of Addis Ababa and nowhere near electricity, cellphone or the Internet.

Original source: New York Times
Read the full story here.

Philadelphia's urban-farming roots go deep and are spreading wide

Grist Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Environmental publication Grist takes a look at Philly's urban farming scene, including the historic Manatawna Farm and Glenwood Green Acres.

The city is also host to two multi-acre farms, one at the Schuylkill Center, a nature preserve that operates a farm stand and a CSA in a surprisingly verdant area in the northwest part of the city. The other is managed by the member-owned Weavers Way Co-op grocery stores (more on that below, and full disclosure -- I'm a Weavers Way member, and the co-op hosts my Beyond Green blog).

Mayor Michael Nutter has issued a series of food-focused proposals and initiatives, including creating a food policy council and releasing the Philadelphia Food Charter, which puts ag front and center. Even the city's "Greenworks" initiative, designed to turn Philly into "the greenest city in America," sets the goal of increasing commercial agriculture within city limits.

Original source: Grist
Read the full story here.

Drexel's Smart House a living laboratory of sustainability

Forbes Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Led by Drexel University students and faculty advisors, the Drexel Smart House is pushing the envelope when it comes to sustainably improving the quality of life in urban residences, reports Forbes.

The group has received several EPA grants in support of its work (an impressive feat for a student organization) as well as other funding from the university and community groups. Seven of the students have already received LEED AP certification through their work in the student group.

Other similar projects exist in a handful of schools across the country; however, this project is unique in that it is a rebuild of a house in an urban environment.

Source: Forbes
Read the full story here.

Switch: Finding Philly's next big start-up

Philadelphia Magazine Tuesday, September 21, 2010

A new event from the gang at Technically Philly, Switch on Oct. 6, promises to sift through a handful of innovative companies that will give seven-minute demos and demonstrate Philadelphia's next buzz-worthy start-up, reports Philadelphia Magazine.

1. Packlate: If you can afford a bit of flexibility, Packlate can help save you hundreds on your next vacation. This West Conshohocken-based website help vacation home owners fill left over inventory while giving the rest of us a sweet deal. At Switch, Packlate plans to tell us how it all works as well as giving us inside tips about how we can snag the best deal possible. $140 a night in Costa Rica? Count us in.

Source: Philadelphia Magazine
Read the full story here.

Navy Yard data center Philadelphia Technology Park opens to public

Web Host Industry Review Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Philadelphia Technology Park is open in the Navy Yard, where it will serve Philly, South Jersey, Wilmington and Mid-Atlantic region companies and institutions, reports Web Host Industry Review.

The data center infrastructure offers a range of services, including back-up, disaster recovery, and protection of their IT systems from natural disasters, terrorist threats and unpredictable service from utility and bandwidth providers.

PTP was designed to meet the most strict power, cooling and bandwidth requirements. The campus has improved its 25,700 square foot single-use, fully redundant enterprise data center with a $25 million investment.

Original source: Web Host Industry Review
Read the full story here.

Urban Creators bring New Orleans back home to North Philly

Temple News Tuesday, September 21, 2010

A group of Temple University students dubbed the Philadelphia Urban Creators are taking lessons from rebuilding New Orleans and applying them to their work, which includes establishing community gardens, reports Temple News.

Our School at Blair Grocery and Epstein's Philadelphia Urban Creators were both recently featured in a Time magazine article about urban farming in the Lower 9th Ward. Together, the groups represent some good to be found in the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, five years after the storm ripped through New Orleans.

The Philadelphia Urban Creators are focusing on creating a youth-led movement that will teach people how to help themselves.

Source: Temple News
Read the full story here.

Jewish History museum new home for historic Irving Berlin piano from NYC

New York Times Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The New York Times tracks the move of an Irving Berlin upright piano moved from New York's Lincoln Center to near Independence Mall, where the $150 million National Museum of American Jewish History will open in November.

"This is one of those artifacts that was in our dreams when we started our planning: 'Wouldn't it be amazing if we were able to bring Irving Berlin's piano to the public,' " (museum deputy director Josh Perelman) said. "You can talk about him, you can show a movie about him, but to see the piano, to see the mechanism, to feel, as I did, that you're really in Irving Berlin's shoes--that's something."

Berlin bought the piano for $100, big money for a former singing waiter in a Chinatown restaurant, in 1909. He had other pianos later on, but that one was the one he had when he wrote "Alexander's Ragtime Band" in 1911.

Original source: New York Times
Read the full story here.

Philly's CityRyde leads bike-sharing potential in carbon trade

Greater Greater Washington Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Philadelphia-based CityRyde are introducing a platform to facilitate the exchange of carbon credits between bike-sharing agencies and carbon producers, reports Greater Greater Washington.

What the guys at CityRyde (a competitor of MetroBike, the consultants implementing Capital Bikeshare) are proposing to do is to enable bike-sharing agencies to sell--on existing carbon markets--offset credits based on the CO2 saved by their clients who cycle rather than drive.

According to CityRyde founders Timothy Ericson and Jason Meinzer, a bike-sharing operator could net a million dollars a year (or more) from selling on the voluntary market the carbon credits earned by its customers using their Inspire system.

Original source: Greater Greater Washington
Read the full story here.