Continue reading “Korduroy TV holds contest – “show us your quiver” – with some interesting entries”
Pinterest valued at $1.5 billion – as megalithic Japanese website invests
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
New App, Leafsnap, lets you identify a tree species by photographing a leaf
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
U.S. global warming affects Texas, Midwest, and Northeast – the most
The United States recently went through the hottest 12 months ever, since record-keeping began in 1895.
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
Hollywood homes for sale – Ashton Kutcher, Harrison Ford, Meg Ryan, Ben Stiller (+7 more)
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.
Continue reading “Hollywood homes for sale – Ashton Kutcher, Harrison Ford, Meg Ryan, Ben Stiller (+7 more)”
YouTube is dropping in monthly views – but gaining in “engagement”
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
Music Video: The Specials – Message to you Rudy
“danceable ska and rocksteady beat with punk’s energy and attitude”
Surfline gives a science lesson – The Anatomy of a Swell
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
Scientists estimate billions of habitable planets in the Milky Way
Using results from the High Accuracy Radical Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) at the European Southern Observatory, the scientists say there are likely tens of billions of planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone that may be able to sustain life.
They estimate that one hundred of those planets are in the sun’s immediate neighborhood — which in space-speak is 30 light years away.
**The fastest known technology allows us to travel 1 light year in ~100 years
The generally accepted (though perhaps shortsighted) definition of a planet that can sustain life is one that has a mass between one and 10 times that of Earth, as well as a rocky surface, and the ability to sustain liquid water — meaning the planet’s surface temperature is neither too hot that water would evaporate nor too cold that it would freeze.
Although there are no planets that meet those criteria in our own solar system, the report suggests that they are common around other stars.
via LA Times
Continue reading “Scientists estimate billions of habitable planets in the Milky Way”
