David Lidsky's Blog, page 4552

Genocide Survivor Embraces Her Ordeal to Educate Others

DoSomething, headed by Fast Company columnist Nancy Lublin, has recognized five young social entrepreneurs with $10,000 grants--and one with a prize of $100,000. Fast Company will profile one of these enterprising youth each day this week.

In 1994, the year Jacqueline Murekatete turned 9, her parents, her six
siblings, nearly all her aunts, uncles, cousins, and extended family were
murdered. All of them Tutsi, they died in the massive, mostly Hutu-perpetrated genocide that took
some...

The Climate Bill Is Dead, But Large Businesses Will Pursue Sustainability Anyway

The climate bill's death in the U.S. Senate last week was a major blow to environmentalists everywhere. As a result of extensive infighting, the watered-down bill omits cap-and-trade, energy efficiency standards, and the Renewable Electricity Standard. There is no upside to what happened here, but all hope is not lost, at least for corporate sustainability. According to Paul Hepperla, VP, Product Strategy of Verisae, businesses still have a number of reasons to continue on the path toward...

Japan Focuses on the Tech for Its 2022 World Cup Bid

Some people (Sepp Blatter, raise your hand) are not particularly enamored of the idea of soccer embracing technology, but one country is focusing on this for its bid for the 2022 World Cup. Japan, which hosted the tournament alongside South Korea in 2002, can think of nothing else, and is promising some viewer-friendly special effects that are straight outta the USS Enterprise. But will it go down well with the blazers at FIFA?

With five joint bids for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, Japan is...

Dead Zone Deconfusinator: Oil Not the Only Problem in Gulf of Mexico, NASA Study Shows

NASA's revealed a study detailing the location and extent of the world's oceanic dead zones--regions where oxygen depletion stifles life. It looks like they're growing.

First up: What is a dead zone (apart from a creepy movie starring the inimitable Christopher Walken)? It's a region of the ocean where significantly less oxygen than normal is dissolved in the water, which stifles the normal oxygen-eating marine life that's usually found in the area, often with a food-chain-like effect (lack...

How Warner Music and Its Musicians Are Combating Declining Album Sales

[image error]

Rise and Shine Shinedown -- from left, Zach Myers, Eric Bass, Brent Smith, and Barry Kerch -- has thrived under a WMG 360 deal. | Photograph by Jim Wright

[image error]

Smile for Me: Lyor Cohen, in his Manhattan town house, is turning WMG's frown upside down. | Photograph by Nino Munoz

Up-and-coming bands like Shinedown are helping Warner Music Group pull off the hardest trick in the music biz: redefining the record label for the digital age.

[image error]

On a chilly night in Manhattan, Julie Greenwald is steamed. "I...

The Climate Bill is Dead, But Large Businesses Will Pursue Sustainability Anyway

The climate bill's death in the U.S. Senate last week was a major blow to environmentalists everywhere. As a result of extensive infighting, the watered-down bill omits cap-and-trade, energy efficiency standards, and the Renewable Electricity Standard. There is no upside to what happened here, but all hope is not lost, at least for corporate sustainability. According to Paul Hepperla, VP, Product Strategy of Verisae, businesses still have a number of reasons to continue on the path toward...

Apple Rumors: New iMac, Mac Pro on Way, With Magic Slate Peripheral Tagging Along?

iPhone fuss be damned: Apple's pushing ahead with refreshing its other hardware, ready to bump up that revenues chart we showed you. Rumors say the Mac Pro and iMac line are getting a revamp, but will we see the Magic Slate too?

iMac refresh

Apple's iConic iMac has pretty much generated a new market in stand-alone all-in-one PCs, many of which copy numerous design elements. The iMac hasn't had a significant design change in a while--the newer versions merely tweaked how the screen bezel...

Julian Assange of Wikileaks Promotes Print, Disses Digital in Latest Leak

Wikileaks champions free press, but partners with major news sources and no blogs to break story.

With Julian Assange's clear support of a free and open press, it may boggle the reader that no blogs were on the list of news sources he decided to give the secret war documents to. The New York Times, the Guardian (UK), and Der Spiegel were clear winners, but no community-driven sites such as Global Voices or Ground Report. "Those...are the three best research publications in print," Assange...

iFive: Hayward's Exit Strategy, Social Network Overload, Private Pirates Served, Large Wind Turbines, Small Cows

While you were sleeping, innovation was supersizing--no, downsizing--no, supersizing--decisions, decisions--itself and wondering whether it's better to be big or small.

1. For the past 24 hours Tony Hayward has, apparently, been negotiating his exit with the company, although BP's official line is that "no final decision has been made." First into the pension-pot speculation fray is, surprise surprise, the Daily Mail, who estimates Hayward's pay-off at £1 million, plus a £10.8 million...

WikiLeaks Publishes 92,000 Military Documents, Points to Pakistan as Ally of Afghan Insurgents

WikiLeaks today released some 92,000 mostly-classified military documents relating to the nine-year-old Afghan War. The documents were given to three major publications, the New York Times, The Guardian UK, and Germany's Der Spiegel, several weeks ago, with an agreement that the information would not be published until today. The Times included a note to readers explaining the choice to publish classified information, the type of research undertaken to assure veracity of the material, and...