In The News

Wharton study: Entrepreneurship yields happiness, even sans success

The Street Monday, October 01, 2012

A study by the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School indicates entrepreneurship and happiness go together like peanut butter and jelly, even if one's startup isn't crushing it, reports The Street.

In general, the study contradicted the old saying that money cannot buy happiness; the more money someone earned, the happier they tended to be. The older respondents also tended to be happier than the younger ones.

Original source: The Street

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GQ: Philly is top-5 beer city and home to the perfect pub crawl

GQ Monday, October 01, 2012

GQ makes a pretty decent run at a perfect pub crawl in Philadelphia, which it identified as one of the top five beer cities in the U.S.

1. The Beer-Bar Brunch

Memphis Taproom

Wake up with microbrews and delicious bar grub at this Kensington standby. The mellow front dining room is fine if you're a slow starter, but things are much livelier outside by the picnic tables and the former ice cream truck that's now a bar.

Original source: GQ

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NY Times undresses Live Arts Festival

The New York Times Monday, September 24, 2012

A New York Times theater critic peeps skin, among other things, at the Live Arts Festival, which wrapped on Sunday.

Self-indulgence of a rather livelier, albeit self-destructive kind was a definite problem for the characters in “27,” from the Philadelphia company New Paradise Laboratories. This stylish-looking production imagines the afterlives of the famous rock figures who died at the age given in the title, the victims of booze, drugs and the pressures of celebrity. With the exception of Jimi Hendrix they are pretty much all here: Janis Joplin (Allison Caw), Amy Winehouse (Julia Frey), Jim Morrison (Kevin Meehan) and Kurt Cobain (Matteo Scammell).

Original source: The New York Times

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UPenn helps engineer skeletal muscles to build robots that move like people

Design News Monday, September 24, 2012

University of Pennsylvania bioengineering professor Christopher Chen is working with a team from MIT on technology that will help build robots that move like people, reports Design News.

The team has genetically engineered muscle cells that flex in response to light. They plan to use these to create small, lightweight robots that are highly articulated, and that can move with the strength, flexibility, and fine motor movements of living creatures. The researchers are among the still small number of engineers in the emerging field of biorobotics.

Original source: Design News

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Katherine Gajewski on greening our gritty city

Grist Monday, September 24, 2012

Grist interviews Philadelphia's sustainability director, Katherine Gajewski, who has injected youthful energy into the city's green directives.

We have experienced tremendous support, considering our [Greenworks Philadelphia] plan came out right before the recession hit. I expected more departments to say “We’re focused on our core functions and can’t take anything new on. This does not fit with our priorities.” I haven’t had anyone say, “No. I’m unwilling to do that.” Our mayor has been a leader on this and he’s made it clear that it’s important. But I think it’s also just been an exciting and logical extension of the work a lot of folks are already doing.

Original source: Grist

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First Round Capital's Dorm Room fund could expand beyond Philadelphia

Pando Daily Monday, September 24, 2012

Pando Daily likes the idea of the University of Pennsylvania as Stanford of the East, reporting on new UPenn neighbor First Round Capital's Dorm Room fund.

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook were started on college campuses. The thinking goes that if students were smart enough to create these companies, then they are smart enough to identify peers with potential. First Round is taking applications for its batch of eight mini-VCs on the Penn and Drexel campuses. Once its initial investment team is picked, those members will choose their own replacements as they graduate.

They’ll be given $500,000 to invest in companies (around $15,000 each) over the course of the school year.

Original source: Pando Daily

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Toronto's love song for Philadelphia's art scene

Toronto Globe & Mail Tuesday, September 18, 2012

The Toronto Globe & Mail absolutely gushes about Philadelphia and it's proximity, affordability, easy-to-navigate grid and art attractions.

A friend had told us not to miss the massive mural in the Curtis Center building. Luckily, the doors were still open so we stepped into the deserted foyer to soak in Dream Garden – 100,000 pieces of hand-blown glass that were installed in 1916 by by Louis Comfort Tiffany, who based the design on a painting by Philadelphia-born Maxfield Parrish.

We were almost back to our hotel on Rittenhouse Square when we found Parc, a French bistro with sidewalk tables, and couldn’t resist stopping for a kir royale and some people-watching before turning in.

Original source: Toronto Globe & Mail

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Tampa-based Citizenvestor launches crowdfunding for municipal projects, in Philadelphia

Tampa Bay Business Journal Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Citizenvestor, which taps private funding for municipal public works projects stalled by the public funding pipeline, has launched in Philadelphia, reports the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

The company plans to begin crowdfunding in other cities across the United States before the end of the year. Tampa is on the list of cities to roll out this fall, Raynor said Sept. 12.

Original source: Tampa Bay Business Journal

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Vibe says Ar-Ab, aka "Top Goon of Philly" could be rap's most important new artist

Vibe Monday, September 17, 2012

Vibe reports that Philadelphia rapper Ar-Ab is releasing his latest mixtape, Who's Harder Than Me, Part 2 on Oct. 5.

Part of the Larsiny Family, Ar-Ab counts Cassidy as one of his closest affiliates. Both were taken to trial for murder, but while Ar-Ab -- who says he spent two and a half years fighting the case -- got off free, Cassidy was still sentenced to almost two years in the slammer, but got out after eight months. If Ar-Ab's life is any indication of what to expect on his upcoming mixtape, be very scared (in a good way.)

Original source: Vibe

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Quadruple bottom line? How BLab's ratings help investors

Barron's Monday, September 17, 2012

Barron's writes about Berwyn-based B-Lab's impact on investing.

The process has cred. Yale School of Management now forgives student loans of M.B.A.s who work for a B Corp after graduation. Working with corporate-law firms, B Lab has also drafted legislation that would establish a "Benefit Corporation," a legal entity in which directors are held accountable for their treatment of people and the planet alongside their responsibilities to maximize shareholder profits.

Source: Barron's
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SEPTA's regenerative braking technology saving estimated 10 percent

Wired Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Early estimates place SEPTA's power savings at about 10 percent thanks to the regenerative braking system it activated in June, reports Wired.

Currently, trains running along the Market-Frankford line use the same kind of braking technology found in most hybrid cars, converting kinetic energy from braking into electricity and sending it along the third rail to a massive array of more than 4,000 30 Ah nickel cobalt aluminum batteries. Otherwise, that energy would’ve been wasted as heat. By recapturing and reusing that energy, SEPTA estimates it could save up to $190,000 a year in energy costs, not to mention decreasing wear and tear on its trains’ braking systems.

Original source: Wired

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The Words: Behind the scenes of Philly's growing Hollywood cred

CliqueClack Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Movie blog CliqueClack takes in the Philadelphia red carpet premiere of The Words, starring Bradley Cooper.

With the filming of scenes from Political Animals with Sigourney Weaver (USA), Paranoia with Liam Hemsworth and Gary Oldman, and Dead Man Down with Colin Farrell and Terrence Howard, as well as the film premieres of The Words and Think Like a Man, it looks like Hollywood’s slowly jumping on the Philly bandwagon.

I give partial credit for this to Sharon Pinkenson, Executive Director for the Greater Philadelphia Film Society; partial credit to Mayor Michael Nutter; and partial credit to the filmmakers and stars who have ties to Philadelphia and want to see it featured further, including the native Philadelphia writers/directors/star/producers of The Words – Bradley Cooper, Brian Klugman, Lee Sternthal and Jim Young.

Original source: CliqueClack

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Nutter: Hospitality holds keys to city's challenges, assets

Huffington Post Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Mayor Michael Nutter writes in Huffington Post about the Philadelphia hospitality sector's ability to transform the city.

And so while tourism attracts new people to our city, it is a major source of jobs for the Philadelphians who live here. Construction jobs each time a new hotel or museum is built; executives, managers, customer service staff and maintenance employees operating each new hotel; skilled tradesmen and women setting up and taking down every convention stage and showroom; concierges, tour guides and marketing professionals hired as new attractions come online; chefs, servers and bartenders hired when restaurants open their doors to new customers.

Some 56,000 Philadelphians are employed in the hospitality industry, and so a major priority of our city is to keep that machine running smoothly.

Original source: Huffington Post
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Historic jab: Joe Frazier's gym, legacy to be honored in Philly

The New York Times Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Late heavyweight great Joe Frazier is getting some posthumous love in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia, reports The New York Times.

Mr. Frazier’s relationship with the city was complicated. People flocked to him for autographs, especially in North Philadelphia, a neighborhood of boarded-up row houses, drug markets and littered streets. But even there, he labored in the shadow of his rival Muhammad Ali, who ridiculed him as an “Uncle Tom” and the “Great White Hope.”

Original source: The New York Times

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Six things you can get only in Philadelphia

Saveur Monday, August 20, 2012

Thankfully, Saveur's story goes beyond the cheesesteak to find six things you can only get in Philadelphia.

It was raining buckets when SAVEUR senior editor Gabriella Gershenson and I rolled into Philadelphia for a whirlwind 36-hour, 8-restaurant, million-calorie tour of the East Coast's most exciting emerging food town. This was a good thing: It meant that there was hardly a wait at all at Federal Donuts, the blazingly popular doughnut-and-fried-chicken emporium tucked away on a Pennsport side street where out-the-door lines and midafternoon sellouts are de rigueur. The sun came out for the rest of our trip, and so we criscrossed the city on foot, making our way from farmers' markets filled with jewel-like Amish produce to hushed, leafy terrace restaurants to the riotous 9th Street Italian Market, where century-old, family-run pork stores vie for space with Vietnamese produce stands and Mexican groceries. Through it all there was a continuous thread of something ineffably Philly: bright and optimistic, entirely unpretentious and yet exacting in quality. When it comes to eating, this city is operating miles beyond the cheesesteak.

Original source: Saveur

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