How does water get to my house?

Through a series of pumps and electricity, from the USGS Water Science School: Let’s assume that you get your water from the local water department through pipes buried below the streets. In other words, you don’t have your own well in your back yard. Chances are that you get your water through gravity and pumps. …

Inspired to find your niche – chocolatier, hotelier – Rick Steves in Bruges, Belgium

  Chocolate Lady It’s so clear: A fundamental part of the joy of travel is to simply be in the presence of people who’ve found their niche. We only live once on this beautiful planet, and we have the personal challenge of doing with our lives what God intended — of finding our niche. I …

A brochure from the Olympics – the map from the London Tube

  I’ve got two maps for you. The first is the slippy map above from London Town: I like the…hand-drawn feel of the map. Venues are shown in indicative locations rather than being geographically correct, as the details of London between the venues are missed out. This makes it a very poor map for navigating …

Twitter now has more than half a billion accounts worldwide

A milestone for Twitter today, according to the Paris-based analyst group Semiocast. The social network has now passed the half-billion account mark — specifically 517 million accounts as of July 1, 2012, with 141.8 million of those users in the U.S., still about half as many users as Facebook has but positioning it as the second-biggest …

20% of America’s Olympic athletes come from San Diego

This has become the world’s five-ring capital, a place where the Olympic flame is more like a raging beach bonfire, a place that increasingly produces more Olympic athletes in more sports on a more regular basis per capita than anywhere else maybe on the planet. The 2012 Summer Games begin Friday in London, and San Diego …

Apple Campus II – 3,600 jobs and the big push into Austin, Texas

Pushing ahead with plans to invest $304 million in Austin, Texas, Apple has secured a deal for three large patches of land adjacent to its existing campus, which — when developed — will expand its presence in the area and result in the creation of more than 3,600 jobs. The State of Texas offered Apple …

Orchestra flashmob in Spain – 100 musicians in the city center

  On the 130th anniversary of the founding of Banco Sabadell we wanted to pay homage to our city by means of the campaign “Som Sabadell” (We are Sabadell) . This is the flashmob that we arranged as a final culmination with the participation of 100 people from the Vallès Symphony Orchestra, the Lieder, Amics …

11 documentaries about cities – streaming on Netflix

Here are 11 new and new-ish documentaries now streaming that offer interesting, frustrating and downright sad stories about cities.   Bill Cunningham New York 2010, 84 minutes Directed by Richard Press A film about octogenarian and New York Times fashion photographer Bill Cunningham, who rides his bike around New York City taking pictures of clothes …

America’s Best High Schools 2012

  This year, our ranking highlights the best 1,000 public high schools in the nation—the ones that have proven to be the most effective in turning out college-ready grads. The list is based on six components provided by school administrators: Graduation rate (25 percent) College matriculation rate (25 percent) AP/IB/AICE tests taken per student (25 percent) Average SAT/ACT scores (10 percent) Average …

Housing recovery hits some areas – top growth in U.S. cities

Metros with the Most Construction Permits in 2011 Houston, TX – 31,271 Dallas, TX – 18,686 Washington, DC – 16,501 New York, NY – 13,973 Austin, TX – 10,239 Los Angeles, CA – 9,895 Phoenix, AZ – 9,081 Seattle, WA – 8,664 Atlanta, GA – 8,634 San Antonio, TX – 7,127 More permits were issued …