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How nonpartisan are national parks? 95% of voters want them protected

New Poll of Likely Voters Finds Unity in Public Support for National Parks

According to a new public opinion poll commissioned by (two nonpartisan groups), national parks are cherished by Americans and an overwhelming 95 percent of voters want the federal government to ensure they are protected for the future and available for their enjoyment.

The new poll finds that more than 80 percent of voters have visited a national park at some point in their lives, and nearly nine in 10 say they are interested in visiting a park in the future.

via @NPCA

You can count me in on that – our next trip is to Yosemite Valley in September.

Continue reading How nonpartisan are national parks? 95% of voters want them protected

As Digg rebuilds – thinks differently & innovates by scoring all shares – tweets, likes, and diggs

The early Digg was brilliant and honest and democratic. Each digg was a vote and each vote counted towards the ultimate objective: moving a story closer and closer to the top position on the Digg homepage.

Today, we vote on Facebook with every share and on Twitter with every tweet, and conversations take place across loads of different sites, apps, and networks. So how do we surface “what the Internet is talking about,” when the Internet is talking beyond the walls of Digg.com? We tear down the walls. When we launch v1, users will continue to be able to digg stories, but Digg scores will also take into account Facebook shares and tweets. Roll over any Digg score to see the breakdown. We’re excited to see how this new data can help us identify the best stories on the web.

Here’s an early wireframe of the new Digg score:

Continue reading As Digg rebuilds – thinks differently & innovates by scoring all shares – tweets, likes, and diggs

Modern world: Bookstores with cafés increase sales – those without decrease

As Independent Booksellers Week gets into full swing, the Booksellers Association has released figures to suggest outlets with cafés are likely to have higher sales than those without.

Figures based on a survey of 40 BA members reveal that bookshops with cafés saw a 3% growth in overall turnover in 2011, whereas those without experienced a decline in sales of 5.2%. Those bookshops with cafés also experienced a 2% hike in their book sales last year, in comparison to those without cafés which had a decrease in book sales of 4%.

“We want customers to celebrate their local bookshop and also we want consumers to vote with their feet and use their local bookshop or risk losing it. Bookshops are social and cultural hubs and provide far more to communities than books and as such deserve and require strong action to preserve their unique role in British life.”

Source: The Bookseller – Sales higher in bookshops with cafés

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The ousted authoritarian government of Mexico – PRI – may be back

When Mexico’s long-ruling party was ousted by voters 12 years ago, giddy celebrants hailed the event as something like the fall of the Berlin Wall.

For seven decades, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, had governed virtually unchallenged, aided by election trickery, a well-honed ability to buy off potential troublemakers and, when that didn’t work, an iron fist. Its historic loss in 2000, and its tumble to third place six years later, led some to even imagine a Mexico without the PRI.

Now the PRI is on the verge of an epic comeback. Polls show the party’s presidential candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto, holding a double-digit lead over three rivals ahead of the July 1 vote. The party could also end up with majorities in both houses of Congress for the first time in 15 years.

The PRI’s march back from humiliation owes as much to widespread anger over skyrocketing drug violence and an anemic job market as to any lessons learned.

But the possibility of a PRI triumph raises a question now at the heart of the race: What kind of PRI would govern — a cleaned-up, “new PRI” retooled for a modernizing Mexico, or the opaque monolith of yore, with its dark intrigues, rampant graft and authoritarian streak?

Keep reading – The fall and rise of Mexico’s PRI

Continue reading The ousted authoritarian government of Mexico – PRI – may be back

Nate Silver predicts our next President – by keeping a running forecast

If you haven’t heard of Nate Silver then you are in for a ride. Nate is very, very famous in two distinct areas, baseball and politics, for his ability to predict things.

For baseball he developed, PECOTA, a system for predicting future performance of baseball players, and sold it to Baseball Prospectus in 2003.

From there he moved into politics and went on a run, correctly predicting the winner in 49 out of 50 states for the 2008 presidential election, and all 35 of the Senate races.

That made him some enemies, specifically all those existing pollsters who were proved wrong time and time again.

They still don’t like him, but he is the reigning king of political predictions and now a blogger for the New York Times. Where he maintains a running forecast for the 2012 presidential election.

This screenshot shows the forecasted winner in November:

Continue reading Nate Silver predicts our next President – by keeping a running forecast

All Star Ballot – MLB 2012 – Vote now, ends June 29

Cast your 2012 All-Star Game Vote!

* Vote a maximum of 25 times. Voting ends at 11:59 PM ET on Thursday, June 28, 2012.

And, watch the All-Star Game on Tuesday, July 10, 2012, on FOX.

Continue reading All Star Ballot – MLB 2012 – Vote now, ends June 29

LA Light – the electric radiance of Los Angeles at night

I sought out to capture the electric radiance of Los Angeles at night and paint a portrait of my city. It took me 6 months of on and off shooting to finish this project.

Shooting time lapses is a labor of love and a study in patience.

This video is dedicated to the memory of my Grandmother. She spent most of her life bettering the lives of others and was exemplary of what humanity can be in its purest form.

Nominated for the 2012 Vimeo Festival Awards. Open to public voting – vote here.