In terms of World Cup swag, we’ve seen everything from artist-edition track jackets to soccer ball–shaped ice-cube makers. For those with more highbrow tastes, there’s the Official Art Poster Edition, a series of 17 prints, commissioned by FIFA to promote next month’s South African games.

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The World Cup’s Official Art: 14 Artists Interpret the Games

On the world’s fastest supercomputer, named Jaguar, scientists are simulating the past 21,000 years of earth’s climate history — a feat that would take average desktop PCs centuries to complete. Or, in science-speak: “After theory and praxis, supercomputer simulation is the third way of doing science,” says conference organizer Horst Gietl.

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International Supercomputing Conference

The following blog was authored by Alyssa Best, Senior DC Program Associate at Wider Opportunities for Women. In the past 6 months, I’ve experienced the excitement and anxiety of becoming a first-time homeowner – packing up my items to move into a much bigger space – and witnessing my 89-year-old grandmother, “Granny,” sell the house she’s owned and occupied since the 1960s – packing up her antique and treasured items to move into a small, one-bedroom senior living facility

Link:
What Granny’s House Means to Me and Her Economic Security

The following blog was co-authored by Ramsey Alwin and Brandy Baeur of the National Council on Aging Last year Della Davis, a senior in Saginaw, Michigan, frequently sought free meals at soup kitchens, and struggled to pay for her medications and utilities.

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Benefits Matter to Older Americans’ Budgets and Health

The following blog was written by Kate White, Executive Director, Elder Law of Michigan As the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform turns its attention to Social Security, it is vital that Washington doesn’t attempt to impose “responsibility and reform” on the backs of low income families. Social Security is the cornerstone of the safety net in the United States, providing a small income for people with disabilities, children, and older adults.

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Could You Live on Social Security?

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?