On Monday, I was invited to the exclusive advance Chicago screening of Scatter?my Ashes at Bergdorf?s.?If you know anything about fashion then you already know that Bergdorf?s is considered the ?Ultimate Shopping Destination?, when it comes to luxury department stores.?Scatter?my Ashes at Bergdorf?s,?explored the history of Bergdorf Goodman and why it is considered the place to shop by any and all celebrities, socialites and.
Viewers also got a chance see Bergdorf?s process when it comes to creating those infamous holiday window displays. I had no clue all the work that goes into making those beautiful, yet immaculate displays millions of people flock to each and every season. And if that wasn?t enough fabulousness, the documentary also followed Linda Fargo, Bergdorf?s Fashion Director. Linda considered by many as one of the most ?powerful? women in fashion,?ultimately?holds the lock and key to which designers get to sell their collections at Bergdorf?s. This movie is truly a must see for those of us who love a good fashion movie.?
?Check out the movie trailer below?
If fashion is your thing, you should?definitely?check this movie out; with all these icons in one movie, how can one not love it!?Scatter?my Ashes at Bergdorf?s?hit theaters this Friday and is a must see for all my fashion lovers.
P.S. This hands down was one of the best advanced screenings I had ever been invited too, I?m talking open bar, Garrett popcorn and a candy bar from Candyality! It doesn?t get any better than that!
If you go see the movie, make sure to stop back and let me know what you think!
Scary news might "sell," but we can also feel so bombarded with the negative that our "why bother?" reflex kicks in. Fear stimuli go straight to the brain's amygdala, Harvard Medical School's Srinivasan Pillay explains. But, he adds, "because hope seems to travel in the same dungeons [parts of the brain] as fear, it might be a good soldier to employ if we want to meet fear."
So let's get better at using hope. It's a free energy source.
Hope isn't blind optimism. It's a sense of possibility?delight in the new and joy in creativity that characterizes our species. So let's break the good-news ban and become storytellers about real breakthroughs. [?] After all, it's only in changing the small stories that we change the big, dangerous story?the myth of our own powerlessness. Remember, what we do and say doesn't just influence our friends, but also our friends' friends and our friends' friends' friends.
[Here are seven environmentally oriented stories that Lapp? sees as helpful in breaking us out of the powerlessness mindset:]
? Renewables ramping up [?] ? Wind wows [?] ? Cities, states, countries pledge to go clean [?] ? Citizens clobber coal [?] ? Forests forever [?]
Close to home: Four years ago in Magnolia Springs, Ala., the conservative town government passed the toughest land regulation in the south. It's spending a quarter million dollars on a comprehensive plan to restore and protect its charming river from agricultural chemical runoff. "I'm a tree-hugging, liberal?I mean a tree-hugging conservative Republican! Which I know some people may say is an oxymoron," said Mayor Charlie Houser of this small town near Mobile. Brown pelicans are showing up again, says Houser, and he adds: "Cormorants up in the treetops ... Beautiful sight!"
Around the world: Three-fourths of Niger is desert, and news headlines focus on hunger there. But over two decades, poor farmers in the country's south have "regreened" 12.5 milliondesolate acres. In all, Niger farmers have nurtured the growth of some 200 million trees?discovering that trees and crops are not competitors but are complementary. The trees protect the soil, bringing big crop-yield increases, and they provide fruit, nutritious leaves, fodder, and firewood. Now young people are returning to villages in Niger, and school kids are learning to care for the trees, too.
Apple's proprietary note-taking app is mediocre at best. You can make new notes, write things on them, and that's about it. So if you're one of those people who uses his or her phone to jot down pretty much anything that strikes your fancy, you're going to need something a little different. Thinglist carries the same minimalist looks as the stock note-taking app but packs way more of a punch.
University of Chicago launches Bionimbus Protected Data Cloud to analyze cancer dataPublic release date: 15-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lisa-Joy Zgorski lisajoy@nsf.gov 703-292-8311 National Science Foundation
Medical advances facilitated by NSF-funded foundational research provides alternative to large, costly and cumbersome storage infrastructure
The University of Chicago launched the first secure cloud-based computing system that enables researchers to access and analyze human genomic cancer information without the costly and cumbersome infrastructure normally needed to download and store massive amounts of data.
The Bionimbus Protected Data Cloud, as it is called, enables researchers who are authorized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to access and analyze data in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) without having to set up secure, compliant computing environments capable of managing and analyzing terabytes of data, download the data--which can take weeks--and then install the appropriate tools needed to perform the desired analyses.
Using technology that was developed in part by the Open Science Data Cloud, a National Science Foundation-supported project that is developing cloud infrastructure for large scientific datasets, the Bionimbus Protected Data Cloud provides researchers with a more cost- and time-effective mechanism to extract knowledge from massive amounts of data. Drawing insights from big data is imperative for addressing some of today's most vexing environmental, health and safety challenges.
"The open source technology underlying the Open Science Data Cloud enables researchers to manage and analyze the large data sets that are essential to tackling some of today's greatest challenges: from environmental monitoring to cancer genomics," said Robert L. Grossman, the director of the Open Science Data Cloud Project and a professor at the University of Chicago.
Today, as the only NIH-approved cloud-based system for TCGA data, the Bionimbus Protected Data Cloud allows researchers to focus on the analysis of large-scale cancer genome sequencing, which experts believe can unlock paths to early detection, appropriate treatment and prevention of cancer.
"We are excited that the Bionimbus Protected Data Cloud is now used for cancer genomics data so that researchers can more easily work with large datasets to understand genomic variations that seem to be one of the keys to the precise diagnosis and treatment of cancer," continued Grossman.
"With funding provided by NSF's Partnerships for International Research and Education [PIRE] program, NSF has sought to narrow the gap between the capability of modern scientific instruments to produce data and the ability of researchers to access, manage, analyze and share those data in a reliable and timely manner," said NSF Program Director Harold Stolberg.
"By embracing cloud computing as a global issue, this PIRE project brings together the expertise of many researchers, not only in the United States, but worldwide. Its success in helping researchers to access and analyze important human genomic cancer information is an exciting indicator of future developments with these technologies," he said.
Megan McNerney, an instructor of pathology at the University of Chicago, used Bionimbus to analyze data that led to her discovery that gene CUX1, which acts as a tumor suppressor, is frequently inactivated in acute myeloid leukemia.
"Bionimbus was critical for my work, as it was used for all aspects of the project, including secure storage of protected data, quality control of next-generation sequencing results, alignments, expression analysis, and algorithm development," she said. "The strength of Bionimbus, however, is the support that is provided for end users, which enabled both expert and non-expert team members to use the cloud."
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
University of Chicago launches Bionimbus Protected Data Cloud to analyze cancer dataPublic release date: 15-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lisa-Joy Zgorski lisajoy@nsf.gov 703-292-8311 National Science Foundation
Medical advances facilitated by NSF-funded foundational research provides alternative to large, costly and cumbersome storage infrastructure
The University of Chicago launched the first secure cloud-based computing system that enables researchers to access and analyze human genomic cancer information without the costly and cumbersome infrastructure normally needed to download and store massive amounts of data.
The Bionimbus Protected Data Cloud, as it is called, enables researchers who are authorized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to access and analyze data in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) without having to set up secure, compliant computing environments capable of managing and analyzing terabytes of data, download the data--which can take weeks--and then install the appropriate tools needed to perform the desired analyses.
Using technology that was developed in part by the Open Science Data Cloud, a National Science Foundation-supported project that is developing cloud infrastructure for large scientific datasets, the Bionimbus Protected Data Cloud provides researchers with a more cost- and time-effective mechanism to extract knowledge from massive amounts of data. Drawing insights from big data is imperative for addressing some of today's most vexing environmental, health and safety challenges.
"The open source technology underlying the Open Science Data Cloud enables researchers to manage and analyze the large data sets that are essential to tackling some of today's greatest challenges: from environmental monitoring to cancer genomics," said Robert L. Grossman, the director of the Open Science Data Cloud Project and a professor at the University of Chicago.
Today, as the only NIH-approved cloud-based system for TCGA data, the Bionimbus Protected Data Cloud allows researchers to focus on the analysis of large-scale cancer genome sequencing, which experts believe can unlock paths to early detection, appropriate treatment and prevention of cancer.
"We are excited that the Bionimbus Protected Data Cloud is now used for cancer genomics data so that researchers can more easily work with large datasets to understand genomic variations that seem to be one of the keys to the precise diagnosis and treatment of cancer," continued Grossman.
"With funding provided by NSF's Partnerships for International Research and Education [PIRE] program, NSF has sought to narrow the gap between the capability of modern scientific instruments to produce data and the ability of researchers to access, manage, analyze and share those data in a reliable and timely manner," said NSF Program Director Harold Stolberg.
"By embracing cloud computing as a global issue, this PIRE project brings together the expertise of many researchers, not only in the United States, but worldwide. Its success in helping researchers to access and analyze important human genomic cancer information is an exciting indicator of future developments with these technologies," he said.
Megan McNerney, an instructor of pathology at the University of Chicago, used Bionimbus to analyze data that led to her discovery that gene CUX1, which acts as a tumor suppressor, is frequently inactivated in acute myeloid leukemia.
"Bionimbus was critical for my work, as it was used for all aspects of the project, including secure storage of protected data, quality control of next-generation sequencing results, alignments, expression analysis, and algorithm development," she said. "The strength of Bionimbus, however, is the support that is provided for end users, which enabled both expert and non-expert team members to use the cloud."
###
-NSF-
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
The only phrase that's guaranteed to put a smile on a laptop lover's face is "fourth-generation Intel core," which is why we're beaming at NEC's LaVie L. The company has announced details of its first Haswell-powered laptop well ahead of Intel's June press event -- a tease for those with early-adopter bloodlust. The unit will come with a 15.6-inch touchscreen, 8GB of RAM, 802.11.ac WiFi, a BDXL drive and a hybrid SSD. While there aren't any firm details on pricing or availability, we'd expect to see firmer details at this year's Computex.
I am a third-generation retailer. My father and grandfather owned a ?dime store? (Google it), and working there gave me a foundation that would allow me to become a successful entrepreneur.
Because my father was unable to teach me anything about management (only one nonfamily employee), marketing (didn?t do any) or finance, I learned most of what I know about business through trial and error. But I did learn something more valuable, something more basic from my father. What I learned has since been termed customer service, but it is something I have been giving since I was 7 years old.
My father was good at it. But in the end, it couldn?t make up for the competition from bigger stores that slowly put him, and thousands like him, out of business. All of these years later, I wonder whether specialty stores like mine ? picture framing, art, a furniture store ? will be put out of business by the latest version of bigger stores, the Internet retailers.
Small retailers have been under attack for 40 years. The number of local hardware stores, shoe stores and clothing stores has fallen drastically. Other small businesses ? privately owned drugstores, office supply shops and small electronics stores ? have all but disappeared. But some small businesses are at least holding their own, and some are even doing well. The local bakery, locksmith, jewelry store, shoe repair store, bike shop, frame shop, cleaners, hair salon, pizza parlor, tailor and florist still occupy space in strip centers across America.
Many of these businesses have a strong service component, which means they don?t really have Internet competitors. But some do. In particular, I think of the local shoe store. Customers can come into the store, try on numerous pairs of shoes and walk out empty-handed ? only to go home and order online, perhaps saving sales tax and maybe a few dollars more. Great customer service may help the local retailers, but nothing is going to stop some people from stealing their time.
A recent You?re the Boss blog post on this topic got quite a response, with many people agreeing that ?showrooming? is wrong. But the responses also reminded me that many people do not understand what happens on the other side of the counter. There are many misconceptions about why there are cost savings from buying on the Internet, with some of them stemming from the phrase ?bricks and mortar.? There is a common assumption that local retailers charge more because they have to pay more in rent. But that generally is not the case. As a retailer who sells both on the Web and off, I can assure you that competing on the Web is not free. The cost of building and maintaining a Web site can easily eat up whatever savings you enjoy paying warehouse rent instead of retail rent.
So what are the differences? Well, the big Internet businesses are going to have lower costs because of their economies of scale. And labor can be a huge savings. Web retailers don?t have to pay commissions, and they don?t pay people to stand around and wait for the opportunity to serve customers. But much of this cost advantage can disappear if the site offers free shipping.
On the other hand, the advantage Internet retailers have enjoyed by not having to collect sales tax has been greater than many realize. If you have bought from Zappos, you may have noticed that its prices are often the same as the local shoe store?s ? until the local store charges for sales tax. Forcing Internet retailers to collect this tax will do much to level the playing field. But there is another reason that some of these big companies charge less, or more accurately choose to charge less, and it is one that is poorly understood. They charge less because they are O.K. with not making a profit. Most small businesses can?t afford to do that.
Why would a company choose to operate without a profit? Because it wants to provide great value? Check. Because it wants everyone to love the brand? Check. Because it wants to gain market share? Check. Because it wants to put everyone else out of business, so that it can one day flick a switch to raise prices and make a fortune? CHECK!
Don?t believe me? Well, here is Jeff Bezos of Amazon, explaining why making a profit isn?t important. Of course, he doesn?t say he?s planning to raise prices after he puts a lot of people out of business, but let me translate something for you: Gaining market share by not taking a profit makes the most sense if you are planning to raise prices later when you have less competition.
If this competition with giant Internet companies seems like some kind of Brave New World, it?s really not. It?s pretty much the same strategy the robber barons employed in the 19th century. Today?s combination of tax avoidance and profit delay enjoyed by the Web retailers has made it very difficult for some local retailers. But is the end near?
Well, the Internet?s free ride on sales tax may be. And I believe that if that ends, the game will change. It may be too late for some, but it will make it easier for local companies to compete. Of course, there will continue to be some casualties because of inventory levels, buying power, and maybe even service. And make no mistake: not all local retailers learned the customer-service lessons my father taught. Meanwhile, some Web retailers do give great service, including Zappos.
But here is some sobering math ? and perhaps the ultimate misconception. When a local store loses 10 percent of its business to Internet competition (or for any other reason), it doesn?t sound devastating. But that 10 percent decline in revenue can easily mean a 100 percent decline in profit. Here is the (simplified) math. Let?s say a store has $1 million a year in revenue and a 5 percent profit at the end of the year, or $50,000. If sales fall 10 percent, to $900,000, and the business?s cost of goods sold is 50 percent, the $100,000 drop in revenue will wipe out the entire $50,000 in profit. And if sales should fall 20 percent, the store will post a $50,000 loss. That can?t last long.
People are often surprised when a local store or restaurant that seemed busy closes down. But would an outsider even notice a 10 percent drop in business? Of course, the person paying the bills ? or not paying the bills, in this case ? will always notice.
So what is the moral of this story? If you are a retailer facing Internet competition, the new sales tax law ? if it passes ? should help, but it may not solve all of your problems. And if you are a customer, please think twice before you use the services of a local retailer without any intention of buying. We all may pay a hefty price for your ?savings.? Empty storefronts don?t help a neighborhood.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) ? Gov. Mark Dayton on Tuesday signed a bill making gay marriage legal in Minnesota, the 12th state to take the step, as thousands of onlookers cheered.
"What a day for Minnesota!" Dayton, a Democrat, declared moments before putting his signature on a bill. "And what a difference a year and an election can make in our state."
Rainbow and American flags flapped in a sweltering breeze during the ceremony, held on the Capitol's south steps. The crowd, estimated by the State Patrol at 6,000, spilled down the steps and across the lawn toward downtown St. Paul.
Dayton thanked legislators for "political courage" before signing the bill just a day after it passed the state Senate. It passed the House last week.
The push for gay marriage was a rapid turnabout from just six months ago, when gay marriage supporters had to mobilize to turn back a proposed constitutional amendment that would have banned gay marriage. Minnesota already had such a law, but an amendment would have been harder to undo.
But voters rejected the amendment, and the forces that organized to defeat it soon turned their attention to legalizing gay marriage. Democrats' takeover of the Legislature in the November election aided their cause.
The two main sponsors of the bill, Rep. Karen Clark and Sen. Scott Dibble, were among the onlookers as Dayton signed, capping their long and often discouraging struggle to advance gay rights.
Clark, 67, was first elected to the Legislature in 1980, a decade after she came out of the closet to her parents. In 1993, her by-then elderly parents marched with her in the Minneapolis gay pride parade a few weeks after she led the effort to extend Minnesota's civil rights protections to gay people.
But by 1997, the same Legislature passed the "Defense of Marriage Act," which restricted marriage to only opposite-sex couples. A year later, Clark introduced a bill to repeal it and allow gay marriage.
It took 16 years to get to this week, which comes two years after the 2011 Legislature ? then controlled by Republicans ? put an amendment on the statewide ballot asking voters to cement the existing gay marriage ban in the state constitution.
"I thought it would happen someday, but I didn't know I would be able to be here to be part of it," Clark said hours before the ceremony.
While on the House floor last week defending her quest to legalize gay marriage, she won plaudits even from Republicans opposed to the bill.
"I don't know of a kinder, more gentle woman on this floor that has a bigger heart for the environment, the underprivileged, the downtrodden, the American Indian, especially the women. I admire you," said Tony Cornish, a longtime Republican representative from rural southern Minnesota.
"It was hard because it was very personal," Dibble said of the 2011 vote. "People whom I had counted as very, very good friends voted for it."
Dibble, 47, graduated from high school in the Minneapolis suburb of Apple Valley and came out in college. He cut his teeth politically in the late 1980s as a member of the Minnesota chapter of ACT UP, a gay civil rights group that engaged in civil disobedience out of anger toward government neglect of AIDS and HIV sufferers. He got an early chance to join the establishment from Clark, who tapped him to run one of her re-election campaigns.
"I pulled him from street politics," she said. Dibble was elected to the House in 2000, and in 2002 to the state Senate. He holds the southwest Minneapolis seat once occupied by the late Allan Spear, who in 1974 became one of the very first U.S. elected officials to come out of the closet.
While Dibble's district includes many of the city's trendiest neighborhoods, Clark's just to the east is marked by public housing towers and large populations of new immigrants.
"She is a huge, huge voice for the poor and the disenfranchised and the dispossessed," Dibble said. But she continued through her career to make a mark for gay rights: During former Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty's 2006 State of the State speech, Clark stood up on the House floor and turned her back to the governor as he endorsed a constitutional ban on gay marriage.
Not long after that, the first stirrings of legal same sex marriage started to surface around the country. In 2008, Dibble and his husband, Richard Levya, were married in California, where Levya is still a part-time resident. While a judge later struck down gay marriage in that state, marriages that already occurred were not nullified.
Dibble said they won't remarry in Minnesota, but will have an affirming ceremony.
But Clark and Jacquelyn Zita, her partner of 24 years, plan to make it official in Minnesota. They haven't picked a date, but Clark envisioned a wedding on the farm they own north of Minneapolis.
"It will be small, probably just friends and family," Clark said. "We're actually very private people."
___
Follow Patrick Condon on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pcondonap .
On Monday, I was invited to the exclusive advance Chicago screening of Scatter?my Ashes at Bergdorf?s.?If you know anything about fashion then you already know that Bergdorf?s is considered the ?Ultimate Shopping Destination?, when it comes to luxury department stores.?Scatter?my Ashes at Bergdorf?s,?explored the history of Bergdorf Goodman and why it is considered the place to shop by any and all celebrities, socialites and.
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Public release date: 15-May-2013
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