Your Daily Posterous Spaces Update

	December 13th, 2012 There & back again: A Hobbit's home value [infographic] Posted 1 day ago by Kate Rinsema to Holy Kaw! 2 Always dreamed of living in a Hobbit hole of your very own? Well, it appears there could be a very good reason Hobbits don’t wear shoes and that’s because one of these fictional dwellings wouldn’t come cheap in today’s market, at least according to the calculations run by Movoto.com. Via Movoto Blog. Fun with fictional real estate. Pesticides: Now More Than Ever Posted 1 day ago by markbittman to bittman 3 How quickly we forget. After the publication of “Silent Spring,” 50 years ago, we (scientists, environmental and health advocates, birdwatchers, citizens) managed to curb the use of pesticides[1] and our exposure to them — only to see their application grow and grow to the point where American agriculture uses more of them than ever before. And the threat is more acute than ever. While Rachel Carson[2] focused on their effect on “nature,” it’s become obvious that farmworkers need protection from direct exposure while applying chemicals to crops[3] . Less well known are the recent studies showing that routine, casual, continuing — what you might call chronic — exposure to pesticides is damaging not only to flora but to all creatures, including the one that habitually considers itself above it all: us. As usual, there are catalysts for this column; in this case they number three. Read the rest of this column here. A Winter's Cornucopia in Wales Posted 1 day ago by markbittman to bittman 4 THE predicament I found myself in was also an opportunity, and not unlike the puzzle that faces C.S.A. participants each week: I had a pile of vegetables and I had to figure out what to do with it. (A C.S.A. — for community supported agriculture — is a scheme in which participants share in a farmer’s risk and bounty, putting money down upfront and getting a periodic share of the crop in I was in western Wales at Blaencamel, a 50-acre farm owned by Peter Segger and Anne Evans, friends of my friend Patrick. The couple began growing food organically nearly 40 years ago, and work 15 acres in vegetables plus an astonishing acre of greenhouses. I’d offered to cook dinner, not knowing exactly what that meant. And in the shed that housed the little honor-system shop on the farm (on Dec. 1, mind you), I was overwhelmed by all those greenhouses produced. All I needed to do was choose and cook. As usual, I began with no idea of what would eventually wind up on the table. But I did have my standard plan: I’d choose what seemed most appealing and figure out what to do with it when we got to the kitchen. Read the rest of this column here. 長い Posted 1 day ago by Koichi Mitsui to s a s u r a u 2 一日の終わり。 The critical difference between leadership and motivation Posted 1 day ago by SmartBrief to Holy Kaw! 1 Here’s something that might surprise you: The best leaders do not attempt to motivate their employees, athletes, students or children. In fact, those people in leadership positions who try to light fires for others tend to not keep their jobs for long. However, those who know the difference between leadership and motivation create a different legacy; their impact on others endures. Full story at SmartBrief Social Media. More SmartBrief stories. Photo credit: Fotolia How often do you need to update your LinkedIn profile? Posted 1 day ago by SmartBrief to Holy Kaw! 2 SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Social Media — tracks feedback from leading marketers about social media practices and issues. This week, we asked: How often do you revise your LinkedIn profile? I do it more than once a year 47.12% I do it once a year or less 36.09% I don’t have a LinkedIn profile 8.02% I don’t revise my profile 7.52% Not sure 1.25% Full story at SmartBrief Social Media. More SmartBrief stories. Photo credit: Fotolia Plant extract works as cathode for batteries Posted 1 day ago by Futurity to Holy Kaw! 1 Researchers say a plant extract can be turned into a highly effective, natural cathode for lithium-ion batteries. The madder plant, Rubia tinctorum, is a good source of purpurin, an organic dye that has been used on fabrics since ancient times. Purpurin (above left) is extracted from madder root (center) and is chemically lithiated (right) for use as an organic cathode. The material was developed as a less expensive, easier-to-recycle alternative to cobalt oxide cathodes now used in lithium-ion batteries. Full story at Futurity. More research news from top universities. Photo credit: Ajayan Group/Rice University Only lightweight lizards survived killer asteroid Posted 1 day ago by Futurity to Holy Kaw! 3 The asteroid collision widely thought to have killed the dinosaurs also caused extreme devastation among snakes and lizards, including the newly identified Obamadon gracilis. As many as 83 percent of all snake and lizard species died off, report researchers at Yale University—and the bigger the creature, the more likely it was to become extinct, with no species larger than one pound surviving. Full story at Futurity. More research news from top universities. Photo credit: Carl Buell/Yale Crowdtilt (YC W12) releases the Crowdtilt API to let any website crowdfund and tilt purchases Posted 1 day ago by Garry Tan to Y Combinator Posterous Taking the ax to the silo is Crowdtilt, a year-old crowdfunding company built by cofounders James Beshara, 26, and Khaled Hussein, 28. This morning, the San Francisco startup released the first full-service crowdfunding API, allowing developers to plug a customizable crowdfunding tool into any application. “Crowdfunding seems like a played-out term,” says Beshara, Crowdtilt’s CEO, “but we think it’s at the very beginning of being the next web phenomenon.” Early partners include Vayable, a fellow Y Combinator startup that helps travelers book tours on vacation. The company will announce a quartet of better-known partners when the API is released in production in early January. (Today’s is a beta release.) Crowdtilt will take a 1% cut of payments collected through the software. ... The unleashing of a fully-baked crowdfunding API into the wider web will likely have widespread and unexpected consequences. Beshara rattled off some examples of how the software can be used: Nike could release 10,000 limited edition jerseys to be sold at 20% off if sales pass a certain threshold, say 7500 jerseys. Airbnb could let six people chip in for the same booking at checkout. Williams-Sonoma could help gift-givers split the cost of expensive items. Entrepreneurs can test real demand, and collect startup capital, for hypothetical products through their own custom sites without giving up customer data and high fees to Kickstarter or Indiegogo. Under upcoming JOBS Act provisions, companies could raise equity-based funds from the public in large chunks of up to $10,000. Read more at Forbes and Techcrunch TED: How Anita Sarkeesian fought online gaming misogyny and came out victorious [video] Posted about 21 hours ago by Kate Rinsema to Holy Kaw! 3 Anita Sarkeesian started out with a very simple goal, to make a five-episode online series dissecting how women are portrayed in video games and to have it funded on Kickstarter. What she didn’t bargain for was being targeted as the villain in a massive online attack from misogynistic male gamers who considered graphic threats of violence and grinding her online image into the dirt as trophies. What they might not have bargained for was the army willing to back her up for the sake of female gamers everywhere. Embedded media -- click here to see it. Full story at TEDxTalks @ YouTube. The real women warriors of video games. Sent by Posterous. Change your email settings or unfollow. Other questions? We'd love to help.