Millions of consumers depend on The Weather Channel and weather.com for their daily forecasts, breaking weather news, and the latest in health and travel. And, on August 21, they will be able to experience a solar eclipse like never before. The Weather Channel digital properties and Twitter have teamed up for a live stream of this once-in-a lifetime celestial event, which will allow consumers to chase the total solar eclipse in real time as it moves from coast-to-coast.

A new style of wooden fencing has begun to pop up around Sacramento homes

[Image: From a project called “Slice” by HANNAH, as featured in FABRICATE 2020.] The Bartlett School of Architecture recently put out two new books, freely available for download, FABRICATE 2020 and Design Transactions. Check them both out, as each is filled with incredibly interesting and innovative work. Purely in the interests of time—by all means, … Continue reading "Building Digital with Timber, Mud, and Ice"

IBM today announced its intention to acquire Vivant Digital business (Vivant), a boutique digital and innovation agency based here. This acquisition extends the strategy and design expertise of IBM iX, one of the world’s largest digital agencies and global business design partners, with Vivant talent and expertise to accelerate clients’ digital transformations.

As businesses increasingly recognize the opportunity to increase productivity, improve customer experiences and deliver new products and services through intelligent automation, Blue Prism and IBM have joined forces to deliver a secure, scalable and easy-to-use Digital Workforce for enterprises worldwide, such as Walgreens.

IBM Watson Health™ today published its 100 Top Hospitals® annual study identifying top–performing hospitals in the U.S. based on overall organizational performance. Formerly known as the Truven Health Analytics® 100 Top Hospitals, this study spotlights the best–performing hospitals in the U.S. based on a balanced scorecard of publicly available clinical, operational, and patient satisfaction metrics and data. It has been conducted annually since 1993.

IBM today announced it has completed the acquisition of Vivant Digital business (Vivant), a boutique digital and innovation agency based in Australia, to join IBM iX. Financial details were not disclosed.

• Con vigencia de 10 años, Banorte e IBM firman alianza estratégica que permitirá establecer las bases de un nuevo modelo de banca enfocado al cliente, y mejorar sustancialmente sus índices de eficiencia para alcanzar niveles cercanos al 40%, así como retornos sobre capital superiores al 20%. El acuerdo incluye servicios de consultoría y de tecnología, investigación y desarrollo. • “Estamos plenamente satisfechos con el acuerdo logrado, pues este suma el mejor talento humano, tanto de IBM, como de Banorte Ixe, y está en línea con nuestra búsqueda de herramientas tecnológicas para servir a nuestros clientes de manera individualizada”: Alejandro Valenzuela.

El actual entorno tecnológico impulsa a las empresas a transformar sus modelos de negocio en un escenario en donde, según la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económicos (OCDE), el 25% de la economía mundial será digital en los próximos cinco años. De esta forma, el uso de nuevas tecnologías se vuelve la pieza clave para asegurar tanto competitividad, como su alto desempeño.

Como parte de su compromiso por contribuir con la tecnología más innovadora a la resolución de los desafíos y retos que enfrenta el mundo, IBM dio a conocer que seleccionó a CUCEA (Centro Universitario de Ciencias Económico y Administrativas) de la Universidad de Guadalajara (UdeG); a fin de poner en marcha en México la implementación del Programa IBM Skills Academy, con foco en competencias de tecnología de Nube.

IBM today announced that Westpac New Zealand, part of one of the world’s largest financial services institutions, has selected IBM’s private cloud technology to support its goal to be New Zealand’s leading digital bank. The new five year agreement is part of an extensive services and technology contract which includes Westpac migrating some of its business critical IT systems into IBM’s state-of-the-art Auckland data centre, enabling enhanced customer service.

At the Smarter Cities Forum in Shanghai today, IBM announced a collaboration with South China's largest hospital, Guang Dong Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, to apply new analytics technology to help doctors uncover trends and new knowledge about disease treatment from thousands of anonymous Electronic Medical Records (EMR)The tool will also enable clinicians to perform empirical studies on the efficacy of certain traditional Chinese treatments.

IBM dio a conocer que el Tecnológico de Monterrey está transformando la gestión del entorno laboral de todas sus unidades de negocios con su solución de gestión de talento, Kenexa. La solución permite a los profesionales de Talento y Cultura (Recursos Humanos) del Tecnológico de Monterrey, tomar decisiones estratégicas a fin de impulsar los resultados de negocio basadas en hechos, es decir, sobre la base del análisis de talento (reporteadores) de su tradicional encuesta de clima organizacional.

Diltex -empresa mexicana propietaria de las marcas Ilusión y Fiorentina, socios de Vanity Fair Brands y franquiciatarios de David's Bridal en México- e IBM, anunciaron que la compañía dedicada a la industria de la moda está mejorando la experiencia del cliente y fortaleciendo su producción, distribución y comercialización a través de su transformación digital.

MineHub Technologies e IBM anunciaron hoy una colaboración para utilizar la tecnología blockchain con el objetivo de mejorar la eficiencia operativa, logística, financiamiento y reducir los costos en la cadena de suministro de concentrados minerales de alto valor, desde la mina hasta el comprador final.

PROESAH – asociación civil formada por un grupo de doctores, profesores y alumnos de la Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero-, anunció el día de hoy el lanzamiento de una aplicación llamada LUZi, que utiliza tecnología de Inteligencia Artificial (IA) de IBM para analizar el riesgo obstétrico. El objetivo del proyecto es reducir la mortalidad materna e infantil en las comunidades rurales de Guerrero, México.

Unitec today announced that the number of people employed in two Delivery Centres at its Mount Albert campus now exceeds 500, and continue to drive benefits for Unitec students and the Auckland economy.

CEMEX, S.A.B. de C.V. (BMV: CEMEXCPO), una de las compañías de materiales para la industria de la construcción líder en el mundo, e IBM (NYSE: IBM) anunciaron hoy que CEMEX llevará a cabo una importante transformación tecnológica diseñada para optimizar sus operaciones, mejorar notablemente la experiencia de sus clientes y aumentar la eficiencia del negocio.

Durante la cumbre Business Connect 2017 en la Ciudad de México, IBM presentó a la Transformación Digital como una de las áreas de mayor crecimiento para los negocios en 2017 y mostró cómo las soluciones cognitivas (de analítica avanzada, de nube, de engagement), están transformando la forma en la que trabajamos y vivimos.

El Tecnológico de Monterrey e IBM en México abrieron hoy el Innovation & Digital Marketing Center en el Campus Santa Fe de esta institución, un espacio único en su tipo en Latinoamérica que ofrecerá a la comunidad universitaria y a los emprendedores herramientas de Analítica y Smarter Marketing.

IBM y la Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC) firman Convenio de Colaboración que incluye conceptos de Iniciativa Académica, Reclutamiento, Investigación, Responsabilidad Social y Proyectos Especiales. Formación de profesionales en las nuevas necesidades de las organizaciones: expertos en cómputo en la nube, analistas de big data, desarrolladores de soluciones móviles y de redes sociales aplicadas a negocios

Vodafone New Zealand, a leading telecommunications services provider, and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a partnership to deliver the Digital Vodafone 2021 program in New Zealand. The vision for Digital Vodafone 2021 is to create the most engaging digital customer experience by adopting agile as a way of working, embracing new technologies and simplifying business models. The program is supported by IBM iX, one of the world’s largest digital agencies and global business design partners.

IBM, rejoint par plus de 100 partenaires commerciaux, lance le réseau IBM Digital Marketing dans le cloud et aide les directeurs marketing (CMO) et leurs équipes à intégrer plus rapidement et plus facilement de nouveaux services marketing, afin de mesurer et d’améliorer leur efficacité en temps réel.

Tasmania’s St Virgil’s College has signed a two-year agreement with IBM to equip staff and students with Apple iPads and Mobile Device Management (MDM) software as part of its digital education delivery commitment.

Customer transaction and processing time reduced with the new digital engagement

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced its intention to acquire Vivant Digital business (Vivant), a boutique digital and innovation agency based here. This acquisition extends the strategy and design expertise of IBM iX, one of the world’s largest digital agencies and global business design partners, with Vivant talent and expertise to accelerate clients’ digital transformations.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a new collaboration with Thiess, one of the world’s largest contract miners, to use Big Data to improve machine availability and operational productivity utilizing predictive analytics and modeling technologies. This initial collaboration focuses on Thiess’ Mining haul trucks and excavators, and will help unify asset management and business operations.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Digital Alchemy, a leading Australian database marketing service provider, has extended its commitment to IBM’s Enterprise Marketing Management (EMM) software to more quickly and easily enable cross-channel interactive campaigns for its clients.

Sydney, Australia – 29 May 2014: The IBM (NYSE: IBM) 'Heart of the City' installation at this year's Vivid Sydney is using data analytics to map and visualise the real-time movement of festival attendees with WiFi devices walking around the 40-plus installations along the Vivid Light Walk precinct.

One-shot,*not what you might think* Now that Harry and Ginny are dating, Ron needs to get his brotherly duties out of way, but who is he going to talk to if not Harry? Read to find out... R&R!

Eeeeeeep!!! A STARRED REVIEW from Booklist for CATALYST, my next kids book, out 6/9! Thanks for brightening my day, Booklist!

https://www.booklistonline.com/Catalyst-Sarah-Beth-Durst/pid=9729210

The award-winning title from ILMxLAB heads to PlayStation VR this summer.

The Solutions to the Climate Crisis No One is Talking About

Both our economy and the environment are in crisis. Wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few while the majority of Americans struggle to get by. The climate crisis is worsening inequality, as those who are most economically vulnerable bear the brunt of flooding, fires, and disruptions of supplies of food, water, and power.

At the same time, environmental degradation and climate change are themselves byproducts of widening inequality. The political power of wealthy fossil fuel corporations has stymied action on climate change for decades. Focused only on maximizing their short-term interests, those corporations are becoming even richer and more powerful — while sidelining workers, limiting green innovation, preventing sustainable development, and blocking direct action on our dire climate crisis.

Make no mistake: the simultaneous crisis of inequality and climate is no fluke. Both are the result of decades of deliberate choices made, and policies enacted, by ultra-wealthy and powerful corporations.

We can address both crises by doing four things:

First, create green jobs. Investing in renewable energy could create millions of family sustaining, union jobs and build the infrastructure we need for marginalized communities to access clean water and air. The transition to a renewable energy-powered economy can add 550,000 jobs each year while saving the US economy $78 billion through 2050. In other words, a Green New Deal could turn the climate crisis into an opportunity - one that both addresses the climate emergency and creates a fairer and more equitable society.

Second, stop dirty energy. A massive investment in renewable energy jobs isn’t enough to combat the climate crisis. If we are going to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we must tackle the problem at its source: Stop digging up and burning more oil, gas, and coal.

The potential carbon emissions from these fossil fuels in the world’s currently developed fields and mines would take us well beyond the 1.5°C increased warming that Nobel Prize winning global scientists tell us the planet can afford. Given this, it’s absurd to allow fossil fuel corporations to start new dirty energy projects.

Even as fossil fuel companies claim to be pivoting toward clean energy, they are planning to invest trillions of dollars in new oil and gas projects that are inconsistent with global commitments to limit climate change. And over half of the industry’s expansion is projected to happen in the United States. Allowing these projects means locking ourselves into carbon emissions we can’t afford now, let alone in the decades to come.

Even if the U.S. were to transition to 100 percent renewable energy today, continuing to dig fossil fuels out of the ground will lead us further into climate crisis. If the U.S. doesn’t stop now, whatever we extract will simply be exported and burned overseas. We will all be affected, but the poorest and most vulnerable among us will bear the brunt of the devastating impacts of climate change.

Third, kick fossil fuel companies out of our politics. For decades, companies like Exxon, Chevron, Shell, and BP have been polluting our democracy by pouring billions of dollars into our politics and bankrolling elected officials to enact policies that protect their profits. The oil and gas industry spent over $103 million on the 2016 federal elections alone. And that’s just what they were required to report: that number doesn’t include the untold amounts of “dark money” they’ve been using to buy-off politicians and corrupt our democracy. The most conservative estimates still put their spending at 10 times that of environmental groups and the renewable energy industry.

As a result, American taxpayers are shelling out $20 billion a year to bankroll oil and gas projects – a huge transfer of wealth to the top. And that doesn’t even include hundreds of billions of dollars of indirect subsidies that cost every United States citizen roughly $2,000 a year. This has to stop.

And we’ve got to stop giving away public lands for oil and gas drilling. In 2018, under Trump, the Interior Department made $1.1 billion selling public land leases to oil and gas companies, an all-time record – triple the previous 2008 record, totaling more than 1.5 million acres for drilling alone, threatening multiple cultural sites and countless wildlife. As recently as last September, the Trump administration opened 1.56 million acres of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, threatening Indigenous cultural heritage and hundreds of species that call it home.

That’s not all. The ban on exporting crude oil should be reintroduced and extended to other fossil fuels. The ban, in place for 40 years, was lifted in 2015, just days after the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement. After years of campaigning by oil executives, industry heads, and their army of lobbyists, the fossil fuel industry finally got its way.

We can’t wait for these changes to be introduced in 5 or 10 years time — we need them now.

Fourth, require the fossil fuel companies that have profited from environmental injustice compensate the communities they’ve harmed.

As if buying-off our democracy wasn’t enough, these corporations have also deliberately misled the public for years on the amount of damage their products have been causing. 

For instance, as early as 1977, Exxon’s own scientists were warning managers that fossil fuel use would warm the planet and cause irreparable damage. In the 1980s, Exxon shut down its internal climate research program and shifted to funding a network of advocacy groups, lobbying arms, and think tanks whose sole purpose was to cloud public discourse and block action on the climate crisis. The five largest oil companies now spend about $197 million a year on ad campaigns claiming they care about the climate — all the while massively increasing their spending on oil and gas extraction.

Meanwhile, millions of Americans, especially poor, Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, already have to fight to drink clean water and breathe clean air as their communities are devastated by climate-fueled hurricanes, floods, and fires. As of 2015, nearly 21 million people relied on community water systems that violated health-based quality standards. 

Going by population, that’s essentially 200 Flint, Michigans, happening all at once. If we continue on our current path, many more communities run the risk of becoming “sacrifice zones,” where citizens are left to survive the toxic aftermath of industrial activity with little, if any, help from the entities responsible for creating it.

Climate denial and rampant pollution are not victimless crimes. Fossil fuel corporations must be held accountable, and be forced to pay for the damage they’ve wrought.

If these solutions sound drastic to you, it’s because they are. They have to be if we have any hope of keeping our planet habitable. The climate crisis is not a far-off apocalyptic nightmare — it is our present day.

Australia’s bushfires wiped out a billion animals, California’s fire season wreaks more havoc every year, and record-setting storms are tearing through our communities like never before. 

Scientists tell us we have 10 years left to dramatically reduce emissions. We have no room for meek half-measures wrapped up inside giant handouts to the fossil fuel industry. 

We deserve a world without fossil fuels. A world in which workers and communities thrive and our shared climate comes before industry profits. Working together, I know we can make it happen. We have no time to waste.

In the latest episode of their improvisatory, highly customizable podcast, Ken and Robin talk Armitage Files and Dracula Dossier for Fall of Delta Green, Chicago film fest, James Damato, and Cornelius Agrippa.