Instant Alert: Beijing's air pollution is so bad a man made a 'smog brick' out of it

MANAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS   |   UNSUBSCRIBE   |   VIEW ONLINE   Beijing's air pollution is so bad a man made a 'smog brick' out of it by Jeremy Berke on Dec 1, 2015, 1:33 PM Advertisement There are few major cities on the planet where the grim realities of the Paris climate talks are more visceral than Beijing. And for 100 days, a Chinese performance artist dragged a wheezing, industrial-strength vacuum cleaner through its notoriously polluted streets. The artist, known as "Nut Brother," wasn't focused on keeping the concrete clean. Rather, his vacuum was pointed skyward. The target: Air pollution. His performance seems eerily timely. Beijing suffered its worst air pollution of the year on Monday, and issued a rare orange alert. Choked with hazardous smog, air pollution has climbed up to 35 times time the World Health Organization's recommended safety levels, closing schools and forcing Beijing's 22.5 million residents indoors.  But Nut Brother's project has been in the works for sometime. He first announced his plan to collect dust from Beijing's air (via vacuum) in July, reports Quartz.  Then, each day for 100 days, he updated his Sina Weibo account with his planned vacuuming area, along with details like the date, weather, and time. On Monday, Nov 30th — the 100th and final day of his project — Nut Brother took all the dust he'd collected to a brick factory, where he had it mixed with clay and water to create a solid "smog brick." But Nut Brother cautions that the intention of his smog brick is more philosophical than truly a solution to Beijing's air woes. "What I've done is like Sisphyus rolling his giant stone," Nut Brother told the New York Times. "There's no use, but it can make more people think about this issue. It's a spiritual thing." NEXT UP: The greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century is something few people saw coming RELATED: China could have over 800,000 lung cancer patients a year by 2020   Share the latest business news with your network: Email sent to:   |   Manage your email preferences   |   Unsubscribe Terms of Service   |   Privacy Policy Business Insider. 150 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011

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Instant Alert: Meg Whitman's big new Microsoft cloud partnership is a lot like the one Microsoft already signed with Dell

MANAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS   |   UNSUBSCRIBE   |   VIEW ONLINE   Meg Whitman's big new Microsoft cloud partnership is a lot like the one Microsoft already signed with Dell by Julie Bort on Dec 1, 2015, 1:13 PM Advertisement As promised, Hewlett Packard Enterprise on Tuesday revealed details of its new partnership with Microsoft to become a "preferred partner" selling Microsoft's cloud, Azure.  As we previously reported, this partnership is a cornerstone of HPE's plans to keep itself in the all-important cloud computing game now that it decided to shutter its public cloud computing business and not compete head-on with Amazon, Microsoft, Google and IBM. There's just one problem: HPE doesn't really appear to be getting any special treatment with this deal. It is extremely similar to the same deal Microsoft cut with HPE's arch competitor, Dell, back in October.  On Tuesday, HPE spelled out the details of the new, three-year cloud partnership: HPE will be selling a type of computer known as an "appliance" which allows companies to quickly roll out Windows or Linux software servers in their data centers, while also running apps or storing data on Microsoft's cloud Azure. HP calls the appliance the HPE Hyper-Converged 250 for Microsoft Cloud Platform System Standard. (Dell is also selling an Azure cloud appliance.) HPE is also selling Microsoft's other cloud services, like Office 365. (So is Dell.) HPE will also sell software that helps companies manager all their data center servers and all the servers in the Azure cloud from one management console. It will also manage any servers they use in other clouds such as Amazon Web Services. HPE will also sell Azure cloud consulting services, and will train 5,000 people from its consulting unit to become experts with Microsoft Azure technology. (Dell is also providing Azure consulting services.) HPE does sound like it will be investing more into co-development work, though. HPE is going to build what it calls "HPE Azure Centers of Excellence" in Palo Alto, Calif. and Houston, Texas, where teams will jointly work on the combined HPE/Microsoft cloud products. The new cloud partnership was announced at HPE's Discover tech conference taking place in London this week, with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella appearing on stage to do an interview via a video conference feed. (Nadella also appeared at Dell's tech conference in October.)   #HPEDiscover @HPE_IT live con @satyanadella @microsoftitalia partnership #cloud integrato @Digital4_biz #digital4hpe pic.twitter.com/9SrA3Yta5r — Marco Maria Lorusso (@MarcoLorux) December 1, 2015 SEE ALSO: 50 enterprise startups to bet your career on in 2016   Share the latest business news with your network: Email sent to:   |   Manage your email preferences   |   Unsubscribe Terms of Service   |   Privacy Policy Business Insider. 150 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011

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Instant Alert: NFL POWER RANKINGS: Where all 32 teams stand going into Week 13

MANAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS   |   UNSUBSCRIBE   |   VIEW ONLINE   NFL POWER RANKINGS: Where all 32 teams stand going into Week 13 by Scott Davis and Emmett Knowlton on Dec 1, 2015, 1:08 PM Advertisement As the only remaining undefeated team in football, the Carolina Panthers have taken over the top spot in our weekly power rankings.  The 11-0 Panthers are rolling, easily dismantling the Cowboys on Thanksgiving and showing no signs of letting up. Let's take a look at their remaining five games: at New Orleans, vs. Atlanta, at NYG, at Atlanta, and vs. Tampa Bay. The only team above .500 they have left is the Falcons, who have lost four in a row and five out of their last six. We don't want to jinx it, but, the Panthers have a good shot at winning out! Elsewhere around the league, wild card races are heating up. There's a logjam of teams at 6-5 and 5-6 in both the AFC and NFC, and several teams we'd written off months ago (the Texans, Lions, Chiefs, and Bears) all still have serious shots at making the playoffs!  What a funny year of football it's been. Here are your Week 13 Power Rankings. 1. Carolina Panthers Record: 11-0 Week 13 opponent: at New Orleans Saints Week 12 MVP: Luke Keuchly, a serious contender for defensive player of the year, made back-to-back interceptions against the Cowboys, one of which he returned for a touchdown. One thing to know: The Panthers are the lone undefeated team in the NFL, and perhaps the biggest challenge they face the rest of the season is a Falcons team that has lost five of their last six. 2. New England Patriots Record: 10-1 Week 13 opponent: vs. Eagles Week 12 MVP: Tom Brady threw for three touchdowns and 280 yards. He also led the Patriots down the field with little time on the clock to set up an overtime-forcing field goal. Is Touchdown Tom en route to another MVP? One thing to know: Rob Gronkowski appeared to have suffered a season-ending knee injury on Sunday night against the Broncos, but MRI results showed he only sustained a minor strain. He’ll miss a few weeks at most. Dont’a Hightower, however, suffered a sprained MCL and his timetable is less certain. 3. Arizona Cardinals Record: 9-2 Week 13 opponent: at St. Louis Rams Week 12 MVP: Tyrann Mathieu was a menace with 13 tackles, a tackle for a loss, and an interception, while earning a +1.7 grade from Pro Football Focus. One thing to know: Carson Palmer falling after an end zone spike was perhaps the best highlight from the Cardinals Week 12 win. See the rest of the story at Business Insider   Share the latest business news with your network: Email sent to:   |   Manage your email preferences   |   Unsubscribe Terms of Service   |   Privacy Policy Business Insider. 150 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011

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Instant Alert: The best holiday celebrations in America

MANAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS   |   UNSUBSCRIBE   |   VIEW ONLINE   The best holiday celebrations in America by Zachary Laks on Dec 1, 2015, 1:02 PM Like Christmas cards sprung to life, some of America's towns go all out for the holidays. From coast to coast, these communities go to great lengths to make the season bright by decking out their streets with twinkling lights by the thousands — or even millions. In these towns, window decorations, holiday markets, and towering Christmas trees all make for a very festive December. Here are the ten U.S. towns with incredible Christmas celebrations. SEE ALSO: Where to eat the best holiday brunches around the world Christmas Town USA Where: McAdenville, North Carolina McAdenville, a small town about 20 minutes outside of Charlotte, gets so into the Christmas spirit each December that they change the name of their village to Christmas Town USA. More than 600,000 people visit Christmas Town USA to gawk at the 450,000 lights that decorate this hamlet. Over 375 trees light a route perfect for a winter stroll through the McAdenville’s downtown. One of the favorite vantage spots is at the nearby lake, where 33 trees line its perimeter, reflecting peacefully in the water. It’s hard to miss the town’s fountain, featuring a jet of water that is propelled up 75 feet, lit with vibrant colors every 10 seconds. Insider Tip: Christmas Town USA hands out free hot chocolate and kettle corn for the first 1,000 in attendance each night. Plan Your Trip: Visit Fodor’s Charlotte Guide Koziar's Christmas Village Where: Bernville, Pennsylvania Imagined as a true one-stop Christmas destination, Koziar’s Christmas Village has been a tradition since 1948. A regional hotspot for families, this popular Christmas town packs crowds in to gaze at the million-plus light displays, visit the small cottage dioramas and shops, as well as meet face to face with Mr. Claus. Look out for the several scenes depicting Christmas Beneath the Sea, Christmas in the Jungle, and Christmas in Other Lands, housed in former chicken coops. Insider Tip: Just 20 minutes southeast of Bernville is Judy’s on Cherry, a cozy restaurant serving New American favorites. Be sure to try the hearth-fired pizzas, notably the Exotic Mushroom Pizza with porcinis, shiitakes, and oyster fungi, fontina cheese, and truffle oil.  Plan Your Trip: Visit Fodor’s Pennsylvania Travel Guide Ogden's Christmas Village Where: Ogden, Utah  Northern Utah’s Ogden, one of the country’s great railway hubs, welcomes in the holiday season each year with their downtown Christmas Village. A winter wonderland is staged in the middle of town as miniature cottages pop-up, modeled after Santa’s North Pole Village. Each of the 59 elf-sized cottages has its own theme including The Elf Workshop, The Grinch, and Santa’s Castle—a cottage where children can visit with Santa himself. Rides on the free Polar Express Train are a favorite, as the locomotive passes through a glow-in-the-dark tunnel painted with holiday flourishes. Insider Tip: Be sure to take time to explore Union Station, the former train depot that served as a major hub for transcontinental rail service. The station has been retrofitted into three museums featuring trains, firearms, and automobiles. Plan Your Trip: Visit Fodor’s Utah Travel Guide See the rest of the story at Business Insider   Share the latest business news with your network: Email sent to:   |   Manage your email preferences   |   Unsubscribe Terms of Service   |   Privacy Policy Business Insider. 150 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011

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Instant Alert: One of Apple's most important initiatives is showing signs of failure

MANAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS   |   UNSUBSCRIBE   |   VIEW ONLINE   One of Apple's most important initiatives is showing signs of failure by Matt Weinberger on Dec 1, 2015, 1:02 PM Advertisement Sketch, a popular Mac app that lots of designers actually liked better than Adobe Photoshop, has left the Mac App Store, per a blog entry — just the latest in a string of high-profile departures that should have Apple worried. The Mac App Store, introduced in January 2011, was designed to bring all the advantages of Apple iOS apps back to the desktop, including easy updates and a simple, unified buying process. If successful, the Mac App Store would give Apple tighter control over what software can and can't run on the Mac. Plus, Apple takes a 30% cut of iPhone and iPad apps, and wants a piece of the action on Apple OS X, too.  But it hasn't really worked out very well. And now, even Sketch, which Apple once gave a design award, and which routinely topped the Mac App Store charts, is going back to selling the software directly from its own website. And it's not because of the recent Mac App Store glitch that left users without access to their purchased apps. In a blog entry, Sketch developer Bohemian Coding explains that there are several reasons why it took the app off the Mac App Store: Technical limitations: Apple imposes strict guidelines on what a Mac app can and can't do, including hard limits on how much apps can "talk" to each other.  App review: Apple is infamous for taking as long as a week to approve updates to apps, on both iOS and the Mac App Store. Upgrade pricing: There's no way for developers like Bohemian Coding to let its customers pay within the app for a new, major update. Instead, they have to release it as a separate app entirely, which confuses customers and limits how many bother to upgrade at all. On its own, the fact that Mac App Store poster child Sketch would take off would be worrisome. But back in January, a company called Panic announced that its popular web development tool Coda would be leaving the Mac App Store because it was being held back by Apple's technical restrictions. Before that, in October 2014, another popular app for developers called BBEdit left the store for similar reasons.  In fact, it seems that Apple actually forces developers to remove parts of their app, just to comply with app store rules. Worse yet, it seems like developers just aren't making a lot of money from the Mac App Store. Back in May, developer Sam Soffes revealed that his $4.99 app Redacted, a top-1o app in the Mac App Store, made him only $302 with 94 downloads in the first few days of availability.  The real issue isn't so much Apple's 30% cut, because plenty of developers gladly pay that: It's worth it to have Apple handle hard problems like payments and updates, while also getting the app out in front of more customers.  It's more that Apple is asking developers to make a lot of compromises, both on the app itself and on control of their relationship with customers, that they don't have to accept at all if they only choose to publish the app itself.  Meanwhile, on iOS, Apple has control over everything. Developers have long since accepted that Apple controls every facet of the iPhone, from dictating what apps can and can't do, to that slice of the profits. So if you're wondering why Apple might slowly be repositioning iOS as ready to replace a laptop with the release of the iPad Pro, this is probably at least part of the puzzle. Business Insider has reached out to Apple for comment and will update this post if we hear back. SEE ALSO: Reviews of the iPad Pro may be lukewarm, but it's still the future of computing   Share the latest business news with your network: Email sent to:   |   Manage your email preferences   |   Unsubscribe Terms of Service   |   Privacy Policy Business Insider. 150 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011

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Instant Alert: 5 immigrants who made it in America as entrprenuers

MANAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS   |   UNSUBSCRIBE   |   VIEW ONLINE   5 immigrants who made it in America as entrprenuers by Saleem S. Khatri on Dec 1, 2015, 1:03 PM “Immigration has always been a key to America’s future. We are more than a country founded by immigrants. We are a country whose competitive strengths are in entrepreneurship and immigration. When you consider how many companies are founded by immigrants, you realize that immigration is fundamental to any long-term economic growth and prosperity. The high-skill immigration question is simple: Would you rather have more great technology companies here in the U.S. or abroad?” - Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of LinkedIn, Partner at Greylock Partners Located in Silicon Valley and with its roots in YCombinator, Instavest has seen first hand the diversity that flourishes in America. For this week, we’ve put together profiles of five notable immigrants, some of whom were refugees, from the technology and investing worlds: Sergey Brin, Co-Founder of Google, President at Alphabet Sergey Brin was born in Moscow and immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 6, as his family fled persecution at the hands of the Soviet Union. Brin’s father was quoted saying that he was “forced to abandon his dream of becoming an astronomer even before he reached college.” With far more opportunity in the United States than his father had in the Soviet Union, Sergey enrolled at Stanford to pursue his PhD in Computer Science. It was there that he met Larry Page, eventually dropping out to co-found Google. The rest is history. Today, Brin is worth approximately $30 billion, according to Forbes, and is now acting as President of Google’s newly formed parent company,Alphabet, with projects such as Google’s self-driving car under his jurisdiction. He has made it a point to give back to the charity that helped his family come to the U.S. during his childhood. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, CEO and CTO of SpaceX Known for revolutionizing electric cars and trying to send humanity to space, Elon Musk has been an immigrant twice in his life. He was born in South Africa, moving to Canada for his undergraduate studies (his mother had Canadian citizenship) before immigrating to the United States to enroll at the University of Pennsylvania to complete his bachelor’s degree. Following graduation, he began his PhD in Applied Physics at Stanford, dropping out in exactly 2 days. After 10 years of living in the United States, Musk was granted citizenship. His career began by co-founding a company called X.com, which eventually led him to be CEO of PayPal, making him a part of the notoriously successful PayPal mafia. Beyond Tesla (which has shared its patents publicly) and SpaceX, Musk is also Chairman of SolarCity and wrote a paper on the HyperLoop, laying out a concept for hypersonic travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco. He recently made comments that climate change refugees will dwarf today’s refugee crisis in the future. While Musk is controversial at times, few disagree with the fact that he’s changing the world. Pierre Omidyar, Founder of eBay Pierre Omidyar is a French born Iranian entrepreneur, best known for being the founder of eBay. He was born in Paris to Iranian parents who immigrated to complete their educations - his mother as an academic and father as a surgeon. When Pierre was young, his parents elected to move to the U.S., where his interest in computers began, ultimately leading to Tufts University where he earned a degree in Computer Science. 7 years later, in 1995, he founded eBay (originally known as Auction Web). Omidiyar went on to found the Omidyar Network in 2004 with his wife, Pamela, as a philanthropic investment vehicle. In 2010, Omidyar Network announced a grant of $2.6 million to Refugees United to help refugees reunite with their families and has continued to provide support to refugees. He has since founded and funded First Look Media, home to renowned journalist Glenn Greenwald. See the rest of the story at Business Insider   Share the latest business news with your network: Email sent to:   |   Manage your email preferences   |   Unsubscribe Terms of Service   |   Privacy Policy Business Insider. 150 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011

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