BuzzFeed has pulled together 40 of the most powerful photos ever taken. Here are four of them:
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40 of the most powerful photographs ever taken
The most popular media outlets by state – where is Fox News/NPR popular?
Forbes and Bitly pulled together a data set highlighting the most read newspapers by state. In some places certain media is read more than others. Can you guess where NPR is the most popular, or where Fox News is read the most?
The Media Map: Who’s reading what and where
News sources read and shared at above-average levels by state:
- NPR – Oregon
- Fox News – Montana, Texas, Mississippi
- The Onion – New Mexico, Minnesota, Wisconsin
- MSNBC – Idaho, Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota, Iowa
- Huffington Post – KS, OK, LA, TN, WV, PA, DE
- USA Today – NV, UT, AZ, CO, WY, MI, OH, MO, NC, SC, AL, GA, FL
I’ve always wondered why USA Today was so popular, well, 13 states have it as their favorite, above all other sources like N.Y. Times, NPR, & Fox.
After that, The Huffington Post is the second most loved.
Screenshot below, or view the interactive map on Forbes.
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Open position – Data Artist – see a story from chaos and communicate it visually
Bitly is seeking a Data Artist:
We have a lot of data. Unique, hilarious, important data.
We’re looking for a talented designer to work with our data science team to tell the stories in our data in a beautiful and witty way.
Our ideal collaborator can see a story from chaos and communicate it visually, and has experience creating simple designs that communicate complex data in a variety of different media.
You’ll be working on everything from product design to interactive widgets to print design with media partners, so be flexible and excited to take on new challenges.
Our team is a bunch of quirky computer scientists, physicists, and mathematicians. You shouldn’t be afraid of math and code!
If this sounds great to you, send us a few samples of your work along with a few reasons why you would like to join our team. We’re looking forward to meeting you.
via – Bitly
Last weekend, half of Germany was running on solar power
Here’s how they did it, and how we can too
This is what can happen when citizens and government agree that it’s worth spending a bit more for clean, carbon-free power:German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity – equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity – through the midday hours of Friday and Saturday, the head of a renewable energy think tank has said … Norbert Allnoch, director of the Institute of the Renewable Energy Industry in Muenster, said the 22 gigawatts of solar power fed into the national grid on Saturday met nearly 50% of the nation’s midday electricity needs.
That’s right—half of all of Germany was powered by electricity generated by solar plants. That’s incredible. It was also world record-breaking. Germany is pretty much singlehandedly proving that solar can be a major, reliable source of power—even in countries that aren’t all that sunny.
And it’s the result, primarily, of two forces:
keep reading – Last Weekend, Half of…
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Calvin and Hobbes – quotes and life lessons
On life’s constant little limitations
Calvin: You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocket ship underpants don’t help.
On the cruel reality of commercial art
Hobbes: Van Gogh would’ve sold more than one painting if he’d put tigers in them.
On the falling of sparrows (or providence’s lack of a timetable)
Calvin: Life is full of surprises, but never when you need one.
On why winter is the cruellest of seasons
Calvin: Getting an inch of snow is like winning 10 cents in the lottery.
On the truth
Calvin: It’s a magical world, Hobbes, ol’ buddy…Let’s go exploring!
Find more at – Sixteen Things Calvin and Hobbes Said Better Than Anyone Else
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Stereotypes in Europe – hardest working, most corrupt
Among the usual questions about attitudes to the euro and the European Union, people in eight nations (Britain, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Poland and Spain) were asked which country in the European Union is the hardest-working.
The Greeks ignored the obvious answer (Germany) and instead nominated themselves. (The other seven nations all plumped for Germany, as the table shows.) Yet Greek perception is not quite as misaligned with reality as it seems. Greece does actually work the longest hours in Europe…However, as any economist will tell you, working longer does not equate with higher productivity, and Greece’s productivity is relatively low.
Also, very interesting to look at the “most corrupt” column where Italy dominates, but four countries consider themselves the most corrupt (even the Italians).
The top 10 islands of Europe
The perfect list of European Islands ranked according to 8 factors. Each island is worthy of investigation for many of them are unknown to Americans and yet so full of history.
Photos of my favorite three:
Israeli government bans ultra-thin models and photoshop in advertisements
On Monday, March 19, the Israeli parliament passed legislation ubiquitously known in the country as the Photoshop laws. The new regulations on the fashion and advertising industry ban underweight models as determined by Body Mass Index and regulate Photoshop usage in media and advertising. Abroad, the laws have opened new discussion on a government’s right to intervene in these two industries.
The legislation focuses on two elements of the fashion industry that have long drawn criticism for their effects on women and, especially, girls: ultra thin models and the use of Photoshop to make women appear impossibly thin in advertisements. The measure has been controversial within Israel for raising the question of where free speech bumps up against the fashion industry’s responsibility — and its possible harm — to its customers’ psychological wellbeing. It has also raised the question of whether other countries might consider similar measures to address what many activists consider a root cause of an epidemic of anorexia and other eating disorders.
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An icon in the fashion world, Adi Barkan tried to deal with the issue from the inside: appealing for change within his beloved industry, to an overwhelmingly negative response of doubts, jabs, and apathy.
“I became immersed in this world very quickly. I gave up the agency and photography and…realized that only legislation can change the situation.”
keep reading – What the U.S. Can—and Can’t—Learn From Israel’s Ban on Ultra-Thin Models
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82% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Queen Elizabeth II
As Britain prepares to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s 60th year on the throne, the sovereign’s popularity in the United States is at a 15-year high — 82% of Americans say they have a favorable opinion of the queen in a CNN/ORC poll released Friday.
That’s a 35-point jump from 1997, when her favorable rating stood at 47%. That was the year Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris. Many Americans and Brits were disappointed in the royal family’s handling of the death of the “people’s princess,” saying the queen didn’t sufficiently reflect her subjects’ sense of loss following the accident.
Since then, however, Queen Elizabeth’s favorable ratings have been on the rise, reaching 75% in 2002 and 80% in 2007.
“Americans love Queen Elizabeth and they think the royal family is a good thing for the people of England, but only one in eight would like to see royalty here in the United States,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.
Prince Philip, the queen’s husband, is not as popular as his wife, though is still viewed favorably by 59% of Americans.
via WCVB
And, just for fun this satire – Prince Philip Says: “I’m Not Going To The Bloody Sodding Royal Pageant On The Buggering Thames In No Barge And That’s That!”
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Apple turns over its inventory once every 5 days!
Apple turns over its inventory once every five days.
That’s part of why a new report from the technology research firm, Gartner, ranked Apple’s supply chain the best in the world. And it’s pretty amazing when you think about it. This is a company that sells hundreds of millions of hardware gadgets all over the world and yet it doesn’t actually need to stockpile its goods.
The only company on Gartner’s list of 25 companies that turns over its product faster is McDonald’s, which is not exactly in the electronics business. Dell and Samsung rank two and three in Apple’s category, turning over their inventory roughly once every 10 and 21 days respectively.
via – Wow! Apple turns over its inventory once every *5* days
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