Chicago writer and “eventologist” Adrienne Sioux Koopersmith may have created this fake holiday on a lark, but that hasn’t stopped people — and companies — from marking it.

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CEOs Share Their Spending Dreams for National Splurge Day

Didn’t he write well: Shore parties of passengers strolled under the palm trees, too unsteady after their days at sea to risk crossing the Croisette. They stared at the hundreds of Volvo salesmen emerging from a conference at the Noga Hilton, like travellers glimpsing an unknown tribe about to perform its rites of passage with its sacred regalia, the marketing brochure and the promotional video. Prostitutes came out at dusk, usherettes in the theatre of the night, shining their miniature torches at any kerb that threatened their high-heels

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Super-Cannes by JG Ballard

Wider Opportunities for Women’s (WOW) blogging event America’s Budget Matters (So Does Yours) is less than two weeks away! Right now, President Obama and Congress are deciding how to balance America’s budget. When making these decisions, our nation’s leaders need to hear about what matters when it comes to the budgets of all Americans – young and old. Blogging is an easy way to make your voice heard

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Learn How to Blog with WOW!

Our New Mexico partner, the New Mexico Aging and Long-Term Services Department (ALTSD), is hosting a series of community forums throughout their state next week. Elders and caregivers will share their personal challenges to making ends meet in the state, and give ideas on how to help New Mexico elders meet their basic needs. Forums will take place in Albuquerque , Farmington , and Gallup

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State Partner Spotlight: New Mexico

Apple ‘s just released the latest developer firmware before the official iPhone 4.0 roll-out. This is geeky. What is not geeky is some of the secrets it reveals about the future iPhone workings.

The rest is here:
iPhone 4 Firmware Reveals File-Sharing, Orientation Lock, and How to Close Multitasking Apps [Updated]

What’s wrong with this picture? When I first saw this photo, taken Monday, of United and Continental’s CEOs cementing their just-announced merger, I didn’t notice it. When I clicked over to the press release announcing the new mega-airline, I still didn’t notice it

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The New United-Contintental Logo: Flying a Little Too Close Together

Over 8,200 people have made online reservations in the past month for the upcoming Nissan Leaf EV, and for good reason.

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Nissan Leaf EV to Have Ultra-Cheap Battery Pack

Just as the scale of the BP oil spill starts really sinking in–leaking first 1,000 barrels a day, then 5,000, now maybe 20,000 barrels (that’s 850,000 gallons)–comes word that India has established, after much debate in the past year or so, a National Green Tribunal , with the main bench to be located in Bhopal, site of one of the worst industrial / social / environmental disasters in the world.

Originally posted here:
India Establishes National Environmental Tribunal – Should The U.S. Start One Too?

We have been trained so well to associate the light bulb with insight and creative thinking that simply sitting under one can inspire, well, insight and creative thinking.

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Here’s an Idea: Light Bulbs Make Us Better Thinkers

BP’s massive oil spill off the Gulf Coast is a looming disaster for fishermen and conservationists alike. And while BP is paying for the cleanup, the company isn’t exactly being transparent about what’s going on at the Deepwater Horizon spill site. Earlier this week, BP and the United Commercial Fisherman’s Association reached an agreement to cut out accident waivers from contracts given to charter boat captains hired to perform work related to the spill

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Environmental Organizations Drawing Up Subpoenas for BP, Halliburton Over Gulf Oil Spill Evidence

Ruddy of face, disarming of smile, sharp of mind, and now knee-deep in the dark brown stuff, Tony Hayward is, like his predecessor Lord Browne of Madingley, an internal promotion to the top job at BP . However, where John Browne is what can only be described as an old-fashioned aesthete (interests: 17th- and 18th-Century Italian books, opera, pre-Columbian and Contemporary art), Hayward is a ma-hoosive sports fan, an occasional triathlete who prefers beer to Browne’s Montrachet wine.

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Crib Sheet: Tony Hayward, CEO of BP, Not Frodo

Last week, we saw how the Stanford d.school’s new building was designed for innovation. This week, how the school converted into a trade show to give students an opportunity to showcase–and sell–their ideas.

Excerpt from:
The d.school’s Beta Trade Show Features Ideas From 11 Entrepreneurial Teams

Is this the worst interface ever designed? Every year, Ferrari fields a team in the Formula One championship, and dumps around $400 million into developing and racing the car. So you’d think that the steering wheel–perhaps the car’s most crucial point of contact, where a human turns all that R&D into championship trophies–would be a masterpiece of interface design.

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Ferrari F10 Steering Wheel Looks Like a Robot Barfed on It

What doesn’t kill cities during this crisis will make them stronger. This is Richard Florida’s diagnosis in The Great Reset , which picks up where his last foray into pop economic geography, Who’s Your City

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Richard Florida’s Creative Destruction, Spatial Fix and The Great Reset

“The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind–creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers. These people–artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers–will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.” –Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind I remember when my twins entered kindergarten at our community public school

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Redesigning Education: Why Can’t We Be in Kindergarten for Life?

Amongst the fuss and pointless politicking about the National Broadband plan, did you know that there already is a nationwide super-fast fiber broadband infrastructure? It’s called National LambdaRail (NLR), and it’s been privately funded.

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National Broadband? There’s One Already–With No Taxpayer Funding!

A solar panel can do so much more than collect the sun’s rays.

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New Sons of Design Reinvent the Solar Panel for "Sunny Memories"

Have “design thinking” and “social innovation” become permanently intertwined? You’d have to think so based on Tim Brown’s book and the prevailing discourse at any major design/innovation conference (SXSW, PICNIC, GEL, GAIN, LIFT)

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8 Lessons for Creating Social Impact

The Brainiacs Jill Tarter Director SETI When astronomer Jill Tarter was awarded the TED Prize in 2009, she was given the opportunity to make a wish big enough to change the world, and she did: “I wish that you would empower Earthlings everywhere to become active participants in the ultimate search for cosmic company.” Now Tarter is laying the groundwork to make her own wish come true, by reorganizing the way the scientific community works and how we Earthlings search for intelligent extraterrestrial life. Tarter — whose life and work inspired the movie Contact — chatted with FastCompany.com as she rode shotgun up northern California’s Interstate 5 on her way to — where else? — the observatory.

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Jill Tarter, Director of SETI

Yesterday, Dorothy Height, a civil rights activist for over seven decades, was laid to rest at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Throughout her life, Dorothy advocated for women’s equality and was a champion for social justice. She embodied the spirit of hope and her inspiring work will live well beyond her 98 years

Link:
WOW Remembers Dorothy Height