Climbers Jonathan Thesenga and Brittany Griffith are the first Americans to climb at Stolby, a central Siberian nature reserve, where the locals free solo en masse.

Comment:

Good afternoon! I live in Krasnoyarsk and itself each days off I go there. I confirm, many (a lot of, much) person there goes, but is far from being all climbing. Basically people rise on the simple courses, not representing to serious danger. They do not demand rocky footwear and cords. Complex (difficult) courses many go with equipment – cords, обвязки, delays, carbines. The basic danger on Columns not absence of a cord, but insects, the spiders called “клещами”, carrying fatal chronic diseases.

That’s a quote from the video below where Google explains a new panel they are adding to search. Called the ‘knowledge graph’ it is basically a mini-encyclopedia. See the panels in the images below.

This is a big competitive move for Google. Not only are they taking on Facebook with Google+, Microsoft with Google Docs, and Apple with Android, now they have Wikipedia in their sights.

Of course, Wikipedia will still serve a huge purpose for in-depth information, but you can expect Wikipedia to experience a precipitous drop in page views once people are getting their basic information from these panels.

It also puts Google in an interesting position. While this is a natural improvement in search it also creates a conflict of interest for them. One of the many they are currently facing, some of which are in the courts facing anti-trust issues.

Will Google devalue Wikipedia in favor of their ‘knowledge graph’?

Or, lower its ranking if people begin using it less?

Hard to predict, but notice that in the images above Google clearly (intentionally?) shows Wikipedia as the top result. That may not keep.

Learn more:

• Blog post – Introducing the Knowledge Graph
• Site – The Knowledge Graph

See all the entries – Facebook, Instagram

And, the winners

Rakuten (the Amazon of Japan) has led a $100m funding round into Pinterest, which values the online “curation” community at around $1.5 billion.

The Japanese ecommerce giant won out over major US venture capital firms who were vying for a piece of Silicon Valley’s new sweetheart, which lets users clip images to a virtual pinboard.

The FT spoke to Hiroshi Mikitani, chief executive of Rakuten, about how social discovery can boost ecommerce and the growing importance of images over text on the web.

“I met Pinterest’s management a few months ago and we got along very, very well….They said they were planning to raise capital. I offered to take all of it.”

“They had a prior arrangement with their angel investors so I told them I would like to get as much as possible. We talked about how we can help each other and we can help their presence in Japan which is one of the major markets in the internet industry. And they liked the fact they we would be able to help their business in Japan.”

via – Financial Times

// Photo – Alan Cleaver

If you’ve ever wondered what type of tree was nearby but didn’t have a guide book, a new smartphone app allows users with no formal training to satisfy their curiosity and contribute to science at the same time.

Scientists have developed the first mobile app to identify plants by simply photographing a leaf. The free iPhone and iPad app, called Leafsnap, instantly searches a growing library of leaf images amassed by the Smithsonian Institution. In seconds, it returns a likely species name, high-resolution photographs and information on the tree’s flowers, fruit, seeds and bark.

Users make the final identification and share their findings with the app’s growing database to help map the population of trees one mobile phone at a time.

via U-T San Diego

// Photo – flatworldsedge

National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration said that for the period from May 2011 to April 2012, the nationally averaged temperature was 55.7 degrees, 2.8 degrees higher than the 20th century average. The national average temperature for April was 55 degrees, 3.6 degrees above average.

To be sure, the higher temperatures haven’t hit every region equally. The Pacific Northwest actually saw cooler-than-average temperatures over the past year, according to NOAA data. Much of California was also cooler than normal; Southern California had an average year.

But record averages for the year scorched central Texas — which saw a horrific drought last year — the upper Midwest, and much of the Northeast.

The last time the globe had a month that averaged below its 20th century normal was February 1985. April makes it 326 months in a row. Nearly half the population of the world has never seen a month that was cooler than normal, according to United Nations data.

via L.A. Times

Ellen Degeneres sells her Beverly Hills compound to Ryan Seacrest and buys a 1958 Hal Levitt-designed Beverly Hills home on less than an acre.

Meg Ryan lists her classic Spanish-style house, built in 1931, described as having undergone a ‘museum-quality restoration.

Ben Stiller sold a house in the Hollywood Hills for $2.6 million.

The Spanish-style home was part of a two-house-plus-guesthouse compound they listed more than two years ago at $12.5 million. The larger home sold last year for $7.32 million.

 
 
 

Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne have sold their oceanfront house in Malibu for $7.925 million.

Harrison Ford has listed his compound in Brentwood for $8.295 million. Actress and historic home renovator Diane Keaton has listed a live-work town house in downtown Los Angeles for lease at $2,800 a month. She recently bought the condominium for $570,000. Talk show host Craig Kilborn has parted with his house in the Hollywood Hills West area for $2.9 million.

The Spanish-style home, built in 1927, was owned by actor Dennis Hopper when he was working on the film ”Easy Rider” in the late 1960s.

Ashton Kutcher has bought a home in the heart of the Hollywood Hills for an undisclosed amount. The house had most recently been listed at $10.8 million. The modern-style house, completed in 2007, has views of the Hollywood Reservoir and the Hollywood sign.

Christopher Lloyd has listed his house in Montecito for sale at $6.45 million.

Phil Mickelson listed his estate in Rancho Santa Fe for sale at $7.095 million. Encompassing 4.88 acres, the compound includes a 9,500-square-foot main house and two guesthouses.

Dick Clark’s whimsical house in Malibu for sale at $3.5 million

Britney Spears equestrian-zoned property in Hidden Hills is back on the market at $9.995 million. It has 10 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms in more than 19,000 square feet of living space. Spears had been leasing the estate for $25,000 a month.

And, perhaps my favorite - Rick Neuheisel has sold his house in Bel-Air for its list price of $4.995 million.

 
***
 

View many, many more – LA Times, Hot Property 2012

YouTube is getting smaller in a metric that used to mean everything: views.

Since December, views on YouTube have dropped 28%, and March views are only slightly above what they were a year ago, startling for a site accustomed to breakneck growth.

It’s an intended consequence of the Google-owned site’s shift from…snack-size content to a full-fledged, couch-potato-optimized entertainment destination. At YouTube, the “view” is out and “engagement” is in.

YouTube’s focus has shifted from directing viewers to videos of skateboarding dogs to enticing them into longer, more engaging videos—the kind that are, not incidentally, more appealing to advertisers.

On March 15, YouTube altered its recommendation system to make the time spent with a video or channel a stronger indicator than a click.

“Our goal is we want users to watch more and click less”

It appears to be working. While views have dropped of late, the amount of minutes users spend watching YouTube has grown over the past year by 57%. The average length of a video view has grown a full minute to four minutes in the past year.

via AdAge

 
// Photo – Mark Sebastian

“danceable ska and rocksteady beat with punk’s energy and attitude”

Welcome to the first episode of “Anatomy of a Swell“, Surfline’s new series that dissects the science of swell events and brings the very best footage and photos to your computer, smart phone, or tablet. Our team of forecasters and scientists will break down all you could possibly want to know about a swell, including the three main meteorological ingredients that lead to significant swell events:

The storm’s size, movement, and wind.

Told in a slide show of 29 photos. Here is #3:

Take the lesson – Anatomy of a Swell