North Philadelphia : In The News

The Chicago Tribune marvels at Philly's outdoor art scene through a pair of tours showcasing the groundbreaking work of the Mural Arts program..

On my latest trip there, Philadelphia again stole my heart. But this time, instead of falling for Philly's red-bricked history, I fell for its outside art. Nicknamed the City of Murals, Philadelphia has more than 3,000 outdoor murals. The nonprofit City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program (MAP) collection includes 1,700 painted walls.

Although founded to help eradicate graffiti in 1984, under Executive Director Jane Golden, MAP now connects artists with communities by creating art in public spaces. When travelers pay for a guided tour from MAP, it helps support Mural Arts' education and youth development, including the Restorative Justice Program, which teaches inmates, ex-offenders and juvenile delinquents how to paint murals.

Source: The Chicago Tribune
Read the full story here.

Researchers in Temple University's physics department are developing magnets as blood thinners, helping reduce the risk of heart disease, according to CNET.

Temple University physics department chair Rongjia Tao made headlines in 2008 when he developed a simple device that creates an electric field to thin fuel, thereby reducing the size of the droplets injected into the engine and improving fuel efficiency.

Now, Tao and former graduate student Ke Huang are unveiling their latest research that this same principle, when applied to the human body, can help thin blood and reduce one's risk of heart attack--without the side effects of blood thinners such as aspirin.

Source: CNET
Read the full story here.

Viridity Energy partners with Saft and Envitech on the first trackside energy storage system in North America, recycling energy from braking SEPTA trains and trolleys, according to the New York Times.

Subway trains need a lot of electricity to get going, turning electricity into kinetic energy, the energy of movement. When they pull into a station, many of them can do the opposite: generate electricity from their momentum. They turn their motors into generators to slow the train, producing current.

But in many systems, some of that energy goes to waste because of a bottleneck: the third rail, which carries current to the train, cannot handle as much energy as the train is generating during deceleration. Too much current pushes up the voltage, and when the voltage gets too high, the electricity is dissipated by running it through a piece of metal that converts it into heat.

But in Philadelphia, on the Market-Frankford line of the Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority, a new company called Viridity Energy will install batteries to capture a lot of that electricity and hold it while the train is in the station. Then it can deliver the power when the train starts up again or store it for a time of day when it is needed more.

Source: The New York Times
Read the full story here.

Temple University Associate University Librarian Steven Bell writes about academic libraries' strategic use of social media in Library Journal.

In more recent years our social media behavior is changing. Rather than simply establishing a presence and hoping students will notice, we're developing strategies for making the best use of our time in social networks. I've taken note of some academic libraries that have social media teams that plan out approaches for different media, recognizing they have unique qualities and that one strategy for all of them may not work.

At my library, a group has worked this spring to establish a more concrete social media plan, and they just recently issued guidelines for coordinating our strategies and establishing a core of social media journalists within the library.

Original source: Library Journal
Read the full story here.

 

Philly native Sean Kirkpatrick wins a movie contest for his low budget debut Cost of a Soul and gets a 50-theater distribution deal, according to the Huffington Post.

Sean Kirkpatrick's debut film Cost of a Soul is a heavy, dark drama about how crime and drugs make life difficult for two veterans (Chris Kerson, Will Blagrove) returning to north Philadelphia from Iraq. For the 28-year-old rookie director, however, fortune appears to smiling.

The micro-budgeted film opens May 20 on 50 AMC Theatre screens around the United States because Cost of a Soul won Rogue/Relativity Media's Big Break Movie Contest.

Source: The Huffington Post
Read the full story here.

Temple researchers find that prolonged bottle feeding may increase risk of obesity, reports Fox News.

Babies who are still drinking from a bottle after the age of one are more likely to become obese, U.S. researchers said today.

A study of almost 7,000 children by scientists at Temple University in Philadelphia found that those who were still being put to bed with a bottle of milk at age two were 30 percent more likely to be obese at age five.

Source: Fox News
Read the full story here.

The Village Voice is smitten with the editors at LaSalle University's student newspaper, who published a controversial story, and the entire front page, below the fold and a large swath of white space.

Here's a creative way to get around a gag order from your school's administration, college journos: run the story you want to run, just publish it below the fold. In fact, send a big fuck-you to your censors by publishing the entire front page below the fold. This is what the school paper at LaSalle University in Philadelphia did, and it's pretty good.

Source: Village Voice
Read the full story here.

The School District of Philadelphia puts new programs in place to help kids eat more healthfully, according to The New York Times.

Tatyana Gray bolted from her house and headed toward her elementary school. But when she reached the corner store where she usually gets her morning snack of chips or a sweet drink, she encountered a protective phalanx of parents with bright-colored safety vests and walkie-talkies.

The scourge the parents were combating was neither the drugs nor the violence that plagues this North Philadelphia neighborhood. It was bad eating habits.

The parents standing guard outside the Oxford Food Shop are foot soldiers in a national battle over the diets of children that has taken on new fervor. With 20 percent of the nation's children obese, the United States Department of Agriculture has proposed new standards for federally subsidized school meals that call for more balanced meals and, for the first time, a limit on calories. The current standard specifies only a minimum calorie count, which some schools meet by adding sweet foods.

Source: The New York Times
Read the full story here.

Philadelphia's Office of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy boss says underserved neighborhoods will improve with cultural infusion, in an essay Steuer writes in The Huffington Post.

The new Census numbers for Philadelphia are in, and the city managed to actually record a population increase, the first in 50 years. And while the increase was tiny -- 8,456 residents, which represents a .6% increase to 1,536,006 - the reversal of the decades-long decline is huge.

Virtually all the neighborhoods that have seen huge population increases during this ten-year period have also seen large increases in the number of arts organizations and artists living and operating in them.

Source: The Huffington Post
Read the full story here.

Rick Ross Signs Philly rapper Meek Mill to Maybach Music Group, reports HipHopWired.

"The Bawse" Rick Ross has announced Philadelphia's own Meek Mill as his latest signee.

The young spitter states, "coming from the bottom, 2 years ago I was in my [expletive] cell hoping I wouldn't get 20 years... now I get out and take it to the next level"

Meek became one of Philadelphia's hottest underground rap artists on an independent label in 2007.

Repping North and South Philly, he released his Flamerz mixtape series and the single, "In My Bag," broke through to radio in his hometown.

Original source: HipHopWired
Read the full story here.

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $216,000 grant to Philadelphia-based Azavea to develop its advanced crime risk forecasting software, reports UPI.

HunchLab is a Web-based geographic crime data analysis and early warning software system that provides advanced crime mapping and automated notification to authorities about changes in the geographic patterns of crime incidents.

The system is targeted at the law enforcement agencies and enables police officers to develop and evaluate hunches about geographic patterns in criminal activity in the communities they patrol.

Azavea said it is collaborating with Dr. Jerry Ratcliffe from Temple University, a leading expert in statistical crime analysis who has worked with academic colleagues to develop statistical techniques for detecting "near repeat" patterns in crime.

Original source: UPI
Read the full story here.
 

Temple University junior engineering student Hasan Malik, founder of Northeast Tree Tenders, is helping restore tree cover in his native Northeast Philadelphia, reports Temple University News.

Once every spring and fall, Malik and his loyal crew of trained volunteers--including a core group of fellow Temple students--dig holes (removing concrete, if necessary) and plant trees along streets and in yards at the request of homeowners throughout Northeast Philadelphia. The group's first planting was 23 trees. Now, groups of about 60 volunteers plant 50 to 70 trees at a time. Since 2007, the group has planted a total of 270 trees, offering hope for a greener, shadier and healthier future in the Northeast.

"There's too much concrete and not enough greenery in the city," Malik said. "Rather than complain about it, let's do something about it."

Why plant trees? Malik cites increased property values, reduced incidence of asthma and childhood obesity among residents, shelter from the sun and wind, a reduction of greenhouse gases, more homes for wildlife and the absorption of storm water runoff.

Original source: Temple University News
Read the full story here.

A Temple University study has found that a small electrical shock to certain parts of the brain could improve memory, reports Britain's Daily Telegraph.

If developed it could provide treatment for stroke victims as well as people whose memory fades through other ailments or even old age.

"We know a lot about how to make people's memory worse, but we don't know very much about how to make people's memory better," said Ingrid Olson, a psychologist who led the study.

Original source: Daily Telegraph
Read the full story here.

The travel section at Ireland's Herald.ie is high on Philadelphia for a variety of reasons, imploring the Irish to visit for our safe downtown, good eats and arts and culture.

It's puzzling why Philly isn't on most Irish people's radar. It's more historic than Boston, as Irish as Chicago, 30pc cheaper to live in than New York and has a food culture to match San Francisco.

The city centre proper, (known as Center City) is thriving, unlike many US urban areas. Sections of 15th Street are hubs of restaurants and nightlife, while the area's aptly titled Avenue of the Arts is the local equivalent of London's West End or New York's Broadway theatre districts. The best bit? It feels perfectly safe to walk around, by day or night (don't try this at home, kids).

Original source: Herald.ie
Read the full story here.