Innovation Cities - Top 100

RANK	CITY	STATE	COUNTRY	REGION	2010 GRADE
1	Boston	Massachusetts	United States	AMERICAS	1 NEXUS
2	Paris		France	EUROPE	1 NEXUS
3	Amsterdam		Netherlands	EUROPE	1 NEXUS
4	Vienna		Austria	EUROPE	1 NEXUS
5	New York	New York	United States	AMERICAS	1 NEXUS
6	Frankfurt		Germany	EUROPE	1 NEXUS
7	San Francisco	California	United States	AMERICAS	1 NEXUS
8	Copenhagen		Denmark	EUROPE	1 NEXUS
9	Lyon		France	EUROPE	1 NEXUS
10	Hamburg		Germany	EUROPE	1 NEXUS
11	Berlin		Germany	EUROPE	1 NEXUS
12	Toronto		Canada	AMERICAS	1 NEXUS
13	Stuttgart		Germany	EUROPE	1 NEXUS
14	London		United Kingdom	EUROPE	1 NEXUS
15	Munich		Germany	EUROPE	1 NEXUS
16	Milan		Italy	EUROPE	1 NEXUS
17	Stockholm		Sweden	EUROPE	1 NEXUS
18	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	ASIA	1 NEXUS
19	Melbourne	VIC	Australia	ASIA	1 NEXUS
20	Tokyo	Tokyo	Japan	ASIA	1 NEXUS
21	Rome		Italy	EUROPE	1 NEXUS
22	Kyoto	Kyoto	Japan	ASIA	1 NEXUS
23	Washington DC	District of Columbia	United States	AMERICAS	1 NEXUS
24	Shanghai	Shanghai	China	ASIA	1 NEXUS
25	Düsseldorf		Germany	EUROPE	1 NEXUS
26	Barcelona		Spain	EUROPE	1 NEXUS
27	Seoul		Korea, South	ASIA	1 NEXUS
28	Sydney	NSW	Australia	ASIA	1 NEXUS
29	Prague		Czech Republic	EUROPE	1 NEXUS
30	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania	United States	AMERICAS	1 NEXUS
31	Singapore		Singapore	ASIA	2 HUB
32	Brussels		Belgium	EUROPE	2 HUB
33	Strasbourg		France	EUROPE	2 HUB
34	Montréal		Canada	AMERICAS	2 HUB
35	Seattle	Washington	United States	AMERICAS	2 HUB
36	Nantes		France	EUROPE	2 HUB
37	Helsinki		Finland	EUROPE	2 HUB
38	Marseille		France	EUROPE	2 HUB
39	Leipzig		Germany	EUROPE	2 HUB
40	Cologne		Germany	EUROPE	2 HUB
41	Toulouse		France	EUROPE	2 HUB
42	Karlsruhe		Germany	EUROPE	2 HUB
43	Bordeaux		France	EUROPE	2 HUB
44	Austin	Texas	United States	AMERICAS	2 HUB
45	Minneapolis-St Paul	Minnesota	United States	AMERICAS	2 HUB
46	Oslo		Norway	EUROPE	2 HUB
47	Chicago	Illinois	United States	AMERICAS	2 HUB
48	Wellington		New Zealand	ASIA	2 HUB
49	Dresden		Germany	EUROPE	2 HUB
50	Tel Aviv		Israel	EUROPE	2 HUB
51	Auckland		New Zealand	ASIA	2 HUB
52	Fukoaka	Fukoaka	Japan	ASIA	2 HUB
53	Beijing	Beijing	China	ASIA	2 HUB
54	Geneva		Switzerland	EUROPE	2 HUB
55	The Hague		Netherlands	EUROPE	2 HUB
56	Abu Dhabi		United Arab Emirates	EMERGING	2 HUB
57	Montpellier		France	EUROPE	2 HUB
58	Manchester		United Kingdom	EUROPE	2 HUB
59	Zürich		Switzerland	EUROPE	2 HUB
60	Madrid		Spain	EUROPE	2 HUB
61	Budapest		Hungary	EUROPE	2 HUB
62	Nuremberg		Germany	EUROPE	2 HUB
63	Ann Arbor	Michigan	United States	AMERICAS	2 HUB
64	Edinburgh		United Kingdom	EUROPE	2 HUB
65	Bonn		Germany	EUROPE	2 HUB
66	Aachen		Germany	EUROPE	2 HUB
67	Essen		Germany	EUROPE	2 HUB
68	Glasgow		United Kingdom	EUROPE	2 HUB
69	Los Angeles	California	United States	AMERICAS	2 HUB
70	Rotterdam		Netherlands	EUROPE	2 HUB
71	Calgary	Alberta	Canada	AMERICAS	2 HUB
72	Raleigh-Durham	North Carolina	United States	AMERICAS	2 HUB
73	Dortmund		Germany	EUROPE	2 HUB
74	Québec		Canada	AMERICAS	2 HUB
75	Vancouver		Canada	AMERICAS	2 HUB
76	Basel		Switzerland	EUROPE	2 HUB
77	Reims		France	EUROPE	2 HUB
78	Springfield	Massachusetts	United States	AMERICAS	2 HUB
79	Pittsburgh	Pennsylvania	United States	AMERICAS	2 HUB
80	Linz		Austria	EUROPE	2 HUB
81	Torino		Italy	EUROPE	2 HUB
82	Portland	Oregon	United States	AMERICAS	2 HUB
83	Antwerp		Belgium	EUROPE	2 HUB
84	St Petersburg		Russia	EUROPE	2 HUB
85	Hannover		Germany	EUROPE	2 HUB
86	Nice		France	EUROPE	2 HUB
87	Dallas-Fort Worth	Texas	United States	AMERICAS	2 HUB
88	Kobe	Hyogo	Japan	ASIA	2 HUB
89	Venice		Italy	EUROPE	2 HUB
90	Denver	Colorado	United States	AMERICAS	2 HUB
91	Kiel		Germany	EUROPE	2 HUB
92	Baltimore	Maryland	United States	AMERICAS	2 HUB
93	Osaka	Osaka	Japan	ASIA	2 HUB
94	São Paulo		Brazil	AMERICAS	2 HUB
95	Edmonton		Canada	AMERICAS	2 HUB
96	Belgrade		Serbia	EUROPE	3 NODE
97	Moscow		Russia	EUROPE	3 NODE
98	Buenos Aires		Argentina	AMERICAS	3 NODE
99	Dubai		United Arab Emirates	EMERGING	3 NODE
100	Atlanta	Georgia	United States	AMERICAS	3 NODE

Key to index.

All cities are graded into award categories based on their index score. In descending order of importance to the innovation economy:

NEXUS: Critical nexus for innovation across economic and social segments

HUB: Dominance or influence on key economic and social segments given current trends

NODE: Broad performance across many segments, some imbalances

INFLUENCER: Competitive in some segments, imbalanced

UPSTART: Potential steps towards future performance in a few segments (new in 2010)

Regions are defined as follows:

AMERICAS: North and South America

EUROPE: The U.N. defined Europe with European union, Western Russia, Israel and Turkish cities

ASIA: Asia and Oceania (Australia/NZ)

EMERGING: Mid-East, Africa and Caucasus states

WSOP & SCOOP FTOPS

coexist

Saw this on a bumper sticker on the way down to London for business meetings.
Thought it was a very simple but powerful message.

It's 1885 all over again!

Image via Wikipedia
More than a century ago, the creators of the new automotive industry tried out every powertrain they could invent and decided the gasoline-fueled, internal-combustion engine worked best.
Electric motors, steam engines and other ideas were tossed aside. For the next 100 years, auto makers around the world poured their research efforts into perfecting the IC engine and manufacturing methods to build it precisely and inexpensively.
That focus worked a miracle, giving us reliable and affordable personal transportation.
Now, once again, we are searching through numerous possibilities for the best powertrain for tomorrow's cars. It's 1885 again, and it may take 25 years before we discover the best way to power our automobiles in this new world.
IC gasoline engines continue to advance and downsize with technologies such as direct injection and turbocharging. Volkswagen says it even will have a car with a 2-cyl. engine, but not for the U.S. The tiny Tata Nano already is powered by a 2-cyl. engine.
Even more advanced technologies such as homogeneous charge compression ignition are waiting in the wings to further improve the IC engine's efficiency.
Diesels continue to improve. They already are more efficient than gasoline IC engines. Now they can be as clean, or cleaner. Diesels power about half the new cars in Europe, and they are not going away anytime soon, even though they are struggling to get a toehold in the U.S.
Auto makers again are experimenting with compressed natural gas. It's used widely outside the U.S., and General Motors recently announced it is rolling out CNG and liquefied-petroleum gas alternatives to the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana fullsize vans. Honda offers a CNG version of the Civic.
A number of battery-powered electric cars will hit the U.S. market late this year and next, along with extended-range electric vehicles such as the Chevrolet Volt.
Plug-in HEVs will arrive soon, as well, along with a growing number of conventional HEVs.
And a number of auto makers continue to develop electric vehicles driven by hydrogen-powered fuel cells.
Auto makers are looking at everything but steam, and someone probably will come up with a new Stanley Steamer before it's over.
Wouldn't the industry get better results without this division of research? Spreading out money and resources weakens the effort.
Imagine if all of the efforts in Asia, Europe and the U.S. could be focused on developing just one replacement for the IC engine.
Unfortunately that can't happen. No auto maker yet knows which strategy is best or what the driving public will accept. So the industry is stuck dividing research and development among half a dozen possibilities.
Engineers know that having one type of powertrain is better than having many different ones, because it provides better economies of scale and makes manufacturing and vehicle maintenance simpler.
But there is nothing we can do. The division of resources in the search for new power systems can't be stopped. We only can hope the winner ultimately turns out to be as reliable, affordable and durable as the IC engine.
WSOP & SCOOP FTOPS

Facebook tightens grip on its market position by swooping up patents

Image via Wikipedia

Facebook has acquired a broad set of patents on social networking covering the basic functions of just about any social app, ranging from friend lists to the news feed.

The patents were acquired from Friendster, which has been awarded a wide array of social networking patents over the last decade. According to VentureBeat, there are 18 patents in all; GigaOm reports the price of the portfolio was $40 million.

As with many technology patents, the Facebook patents are rather broad (some might say ridiculously obvious, too). For example, one of the patents, as we wrote back in 2006, covers “a system, method, and apparatus for connecting users in an online computer system based on their relationships within social networks.” Another covers the slightly more innovative concept of photo tagging.

For its part, Friendster didn’t do much in the way of enforcing its patent portfolio, even as it fell from prominence in the U.S. It remains to be seen what Facebook’s intentions are for its newly acquired IP, but the patents will certainly make it more challenging for others to go after the world’s biggest social networking site with claims of infringement –- at least on the core features of the product.

With numerous cases (and a movie) exploring the origins of Facebook, owning the basic patents that make social networking possible undoubtedly strengthens the company’s position.

 WSOP & SCOOP FTOPS

Failed at first? You are not alone in this category - 50 examples of bouncebackability!

Not everyone who's on top today got there with success after success. More often than not, those who history best remembers were faced with numerous obstacles that forced them to work harder and show more determination than others. Next time you're feeling down about your failures in college or in a career, keep these fifty famous people in mind and remind yourself that sometimes failure is just the first step towards success.


Business Gurus
These businessmen and the companies they founded are today known around the world, but as these stories show, their beginnings weren't always smooth.

1. Henry Ford: While Ford is today known for his innovative assembly line and American-made cars, he wasn't an instant success. In fact, his early businesses failed and left him broke five time before he founded the successful Ford Motor Company.
2. R. H. Macy: Most people are familiar with this large department store chain, but Macy didn't always have it easy. Macy started seven failed business before finally hitting big with his store in New York City.
3. F. W. Woolworth: Some may not know this name today, but Woolworth was once one of the biggest names in department stores in the U.S. Before starting his own business, young Woolworth worked at a dry goods store and was not allowed to wait on customers because his boss said he lacked the sense needed to do so.
4. Soichiro Honda: The billion-dollar business that is Honda began with a series of failures and fortunate turns of luck. Honda was turned down by Toyota Motor Corporation for a job after interviewing for a job as an engineer, leaving him jobless for quite some time. He started making scooters of his own at home, and spurred on by his neighbors, finally started his own business.
5. Akio Morita: You may not have heard of Morita but you've undoubtedly heard of his company, Sony. Sony's first product was a rice cooker that unfortunately didn't cook rice so much as burn it, selling less than 100 units. This first setback didn't stop Morita and his partners as they pushed forward to create a multi-billion dollar company.
6. Bill Gates: Gates didn't seem like a shoe-in for success after dropping out of Harvard and starting a failed first business with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen called Traf-O-Data. While this early idea didn't work, Gates' later work did, creating the global empire that is Microsoft.
7. Harland David Sanders: Perhaps better known as Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, Sanders had a hard time selling his chicken at first. In fact, his famous secret chicken recipe was rejected 1,009 times before a restaurant accepted it.
8. Walt Disney: Today Disney rakes in billions from merchandise, movies and theme parks around the world, but Walt Disney himself had a bit of a rough start. He was fired by a newspaper editor because, "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas." After that, Disney started a number of businesses that didn't last too long and ended with bankruptcy and failure. He kept plugging along, however, and eventually found a recipe for success that worked.

Scientists and Thinkers
These people are often regarded as some of the greatest minds of our century, but they often had to face great obstacles, the ridicule of their peers and the animosity of society.

9. Albert Einstein: Most of us take Einstein's name as synonymous with genius, but he didn't always show such promise. Einstein did not speak until he was four and did not read until he was seven, causing his teachers and parents to think he was mentally handicapped, slow and anti-social. Eventually, he was expelled from school and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School. It might have taken him a bit longer, but most people would agree that he caught on pretty well in the end, winning the Nobel Prize and changing the face of modern physics.
10. Charles Darwin: In his early years, Darwin gave up on having a medical career and was often chastised by his father for being lazy and too dreamy. Darwin himself wrote, "I was considered by all my masters and my father, a very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard of intellect." Perhaps they judged too soon, as Darwin today is well-known for his scientific studies.
11. Robert Goddard: Goddard today is hailed for his research and experimentation with liquid-fueled rockets, but during his lifetime his ideas were often rejected and mocked by his scientific peers who thought they were outrageous and impossible. Today rockets and space travel don't seem far-fetched at all, due largely in part to the work of this scientist who worked against the feelings of the time.
12. Isaac Newton: Newton was undoubtedly a genius when it came to math, but he had some failings early on. He never did particularly well in school and when put in charge of running the family farm, he failed miserably, so poorly in fact that an uncle took charge and sent him off to Cambridge where he finally blossomed into the scholar we know today.
13. Socrates: Despite leaving no written records behind, Socrates is regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of the Classical era. Because of his new ideas, in his own time he was called "an immoral corrupter of youth" and was sentenced to death. Socrates didn't let this stop him and kept right on, teaching up until he was forced to poison himself.
14. Robert Sternberg: This big name in psychology received a C in his first college introductory psychology class with his teacher telling him that, "there was already a famous Sternberg in psychology and it was obvious there would not be another." Sternberg showed him, however, graduating from Stanford with exceptional distinction in psychology, summa cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa and eventually becoming the President of the American Psychological Association.

Inventors
These inventors changed the face of the modern world, but not without a few failed prototypes along the way.

15. Thomas Edison: In his early years, teachers told Edison he was "too stupid to learn anything." Work was no better, as he was fired from his first two jobs for not being productive enough. Even as an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. Of course, all those unsuccessful attempts finally resulted in the design that worked.
16. Orville and Wilbur Wright: These brothers battled depression and family illness before starting the bicycle shop that would lead them to experimenting with flight. After numerous attempts at creating flying machines, several years of hard work, and tons of failed prototypes, the brothers finally created a plane that could get airborne and stay there.

Public Figures
From politicians to talk show hosts, these figures had a few failures before they came out on top.

17. Winston Churchill: This Nobel Prize-winning, twice-elected Prime Minster of the United Kingdom wasn't always as well regarded as he is today. Churchill struggled in school and failed the sixth grade. After school he faced many years of political failures, as he was defeated in every election for public office until he finally became the Prime Minister at the ripe old age of 62.
18. Abraham Lincoln: While today he is remembered as one of the greatest leaders of our nation, Lincoln's life wasn't so easy. In his youth he went to war a captain and returned a private (if you're not familiar with military ranks, just know that private is as low as it goes.) Lincoln didn't stop failing there, however. He started numerous failed business and was defeated in numerous runs he made for public office.
19. Oprah Winfrey: Most people know Oprah as one of the most iconic faces on TV as well as one of the richest and most successful women in the world. Oprah faced a hard road to get to that position, however, enduring a rough and often abusive childhood as well as numerous career setbacks including being fired from her job as a television reporter because she was "unfit for tv."
20. Harry S. Truman: This WWI vet, Senator, Vice President and eventual President eventually found success in his life, but not without a few missteps along the way. Truman started a store that sold silk shirts and other clothing–seemingly a success at first–only go bankrupt a few years later.
21. Dick Cheney: This recent Vice President and businessman made his way to the White House but managed to flunk out of Yale University, not once, but twice. Former President George W. Bush joked with Cheney about this fact, stating, "So now we know –if you graduate from Yale, you become president. If you drop out, you get to be vice president."

Hollywood Types
These faces ought to be familiar from the big screen, but these actors, actresses and directors saw their fair share of rejection and failure before they made it big.

22. Jerry Seinfeld: Just about everybody knows who Seinfeld is, but the first time the young comedian walked on stage at a comedy club, he looked out at the audience, froze and was eventually jeered and booed off of the stage. Seinfeld knew he could do it, so he went back the next night, completed his set to laughter and applause, and the rest is history.
23. Fred Astaire: In his first screen test, the testing director of MGM noted that Astaire, "Can't act. Can't sing. Slightly bald. Can dance a little." Astaire went on to become an incredibly successful actor, singer and dancer and kept that note in his Beverly Hills home to remind him of where he came from.
24. Sidney Poitier: After his first audition, Poitier was told by the casting director, "Why don't you stop wasting people's time and go out and become a dishwasher or something?" Poitier vowed to show him that he could make it, going on to win an Oscar and become one of the most well-regarded actors in the business.
25. Jeanne Moreau: As a young actress just starting out, this French actress was told by a casting director that she was simply not pretty enough to make it in films. He couldn't have been more wrong as Moreau when on to star in nearly 100 films and win numerous awards for her performances.
26. Charlie Chaplin: It's hard to imagine film without the iconic Charlie Chaplin, but his act was initially rejected by Hollywood studio chiefs because they felt it was a little too nonsensical to ever sell.
27. Lucille Ball: During her career, Ball had thirteen Emmy nominations and four wins, also earning the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center Honors. Before starring in I Love Lucy, Ball was widely regarded as a failed actress and a B movie star. Even her drama instructors didn't feel she could make it, telling her to try another profession. She, of course, proved them all wrong.
28. Harrison Ford: In his first film, Ford was told by the movie execs that he simply didn't have what it takes to be a star. Today, with numerous hits under his belt, iconic portrayals of characters like Han Solo and Indiana Jones, and a career that stretches decades, Ford can proudly show that he does, in fact, have what it takes.
29. Marilyn Monroe: While Monroe's star burned out early, she did have a period of great success in her life. Despite a rough upbringing and being told by modeling agents that she should instead consider being a secretary, Monroe became a pin-up, model and actress that still strikes a chord with people today.
30. Oliver Stone: This Oscar-winning filmmaker began his first novel while at Yale, a project that eventually caused him to fail out of school. This would turn out to be a poor decision as the the text was rejected by publishers and was not published until 1998, at which time it was not well-received. After dropping out of school, Stone moved to Vietnam to teach English, later enlisting in the army and fighting in the war, a battle that earning two Purple Hearts and helped him find the inspiration for his later work that often center around war.

Writers and Artists
We've all heard about starving artists and struggling writers, but these stories show that sometimes all that work really does pay off with success in the long run.

31. Vincent Van Gogh: During his lifetime, Van Gogh sold only one painting, and this was to a friend and only for a very small amount of money. While Van Gogh was never a success during his life, he plugged on with painting, sometimes starving to complete his over 800 known works. Today, they bring in hundreds of millions.
32. Emily Dickinson: Recluse and poet Emily Dickinson is a commonly read and loved writer. Yet in her lifetime she was all but ignored, having fewer than a dozen poems published out of her almost 1,800 completed works.
33. Theodor Seuss Giesel: Today nearly every child has read The Cat in the Hat or Green Eggs and Ham, yet 27 different publishers rejected Dr. Seuss's first book To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.
34. Charles Schultz: Schultz's Peanuts comic strip has had enduring fame, yet this cartoonist had every cartoon he submitted rejected by his high school yearbook staff. Even after high school, Schultz didn't have it easy, applying and being rejected for a position working with Walt Disney.
35. Steven Spielberg: While today Spielberg's name is synonymous with big budget, he was rejected from the University of Southern California School of Theater, Film and Television three times. He eventually attended school at another location, only to drop out to become a director before finishing. Thirty-five years after starting his degree, Spielberg returned to school in 2002 to finally complete his work and earn his BA.
36. Stephen King: The first book by this author, the iconic thriller Carrie, received 30 rejections, finally causing King to give up and throw it in the trash. His wife fished it out and encouraged him to resubmit it, and the rest is history, with King now having hundreds of books published the distinction of being one of the best-selling authors of all time.
37. Zane Grey: Incredibly popular in the early 20th century, this adventure book writer began his career as a dentist, something he quickly began to hate. So, he began to write, only to see rejection after rejection for his works, being told eventually that he had no business being a writer and should given up. It took him years, but at 40, Zane finally got his first work published, leaving him with almost 90 books to his name and selling over 50 million copies worldwide.
38. J. K. Rowling: Rowling may be rolling in a lot of Harry Potter dough today, but before she published the series of novels she was nearly penniless, severely depressed, divorced, trying to raise a child on her own while attending school and writing a novel. Rowling went from depending on welfare to survive to being one of the richest women in the world in a span of only five years through her hard work and determination.
39. Monet: Today Monet's work sells for millions of dollars and hangs in some of the most prestigious institutions in the world. Yet during his own time, it was mocked and rejected by the artistic elite, the Paris Salon. Monet kept at his impressionist style, which caught on and in many ways was a starting point for some major changes to art that ushered in the modern era.
40. Jack London: This well-known American author wasn't always such a success. While he would go on to publish popular novels like White Fang and The Call of the Wild, his first story received six hundred rejection slips before finally being accepted.
41. Louisa May Alcott: Most people are familiar with Alcott's most famous work, Little Women. Yet Alcott faced a bit of a battle to get her work out there and was was encouraged to find work as a servant by her family to make ends meet. It was her letters back home during her experience as a nurse in the Civil War that gave her the first big break she needed.

Musicians
While their music is some of the best selling, best loved and most popular around the world today, these musicians show that it takes a whole lot of determination to achieve success.

42. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Mozart began composing at the age of five, writing over 600 pieces of music that today are lauded as some of the best ever created. Yet during his lifetime, Mozart didn't have such an easy time, and was often restless, leading to his dismissal from a position as a court musician in Salzberg. He struggled to keep the support of the aristocracy and died with little to his name.
43. Elvis Presley: As one of the best-selling artists of all time, Elvis has become a household name even years after his death. But back in 1954, Elvis was still a nobody, and Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry, fired Elvis Presley after just one performance telling him, "You ain't goin' nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck."
44. Igor Stravinsky: In 1913 when Stravinsky debuted his now famous Rite of Spring, audiences rioted, running the composer out of town. Yet it was this very work that changed the way composers in the 19th century thought about music and cemented his place in musical history.
45. The Beatles: Few people can deny the lasting power of this super group, still popular with listeners around the world today. Yet when they were just starting out, a recording company told them no. The were told "we don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out," two things the rest of the world couldn't have disagreed with more.
46. Ludwig van Beethoven: In his formative years, young Beethoven was incredibly awkward on the violin and was often so busy working on his own compositions that he neglected to practice. Despite his love of composing, his teachers felt he was hopeless at it and would never succeed with the violin or in composing. Beethoven kept plugging along, however, and composed some of the best-loved symphonies of all time–five of them while he was completely deaf.

Athletes
While some athletes rocket to fame, others endure a path fraught with a little more adversity, like those listed here.

47. Michael Jordan: Most people wouldn't believe that a man often lauded as the best basketball player of all time was actually cut from his high school basketball team. Luckily, Jordan didn't let this setback stop him from playing the game and he has stated, "I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
48. Stan Smith: This tennis player was rejected from even being a lowly ball boy for a Davis Cup tennis match because event organizers felt he was too clumsy and uncoordinated. Smith went on to prove them wrong, showcasing his not-so-clumsy skills by winning Wimbledon, U. S. Open and eight Davis Cups.
49. Babe Ruth: You probably know Babe Ruth because of his home run record (714 during his career), but along with all those home runs came a pretty hefty amount of strikeouts as well (1,330 in all). In fact, for decades he held the record for strikeouts. When asked about this he simply said, "Every strike brings me closer to the next home run."
50. Tom Landry: As the coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Landry brought the team two Super Bowl victories, five NFC Championship victories and holds the records for the record for the most career wins. He also has the distinction of having one of the worst first seasons on record (winning no games) and winning five or fewer over the next four seasons.

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Building Schools for the Future - Halton hammered

The decision of the coalition government to axe the building schools for the future programme (BSF) has had a massive impact on Halton and many other constituencies across the country. Some of the poorest areas have been hardest hit and none more so than Halton, the 30th most deprived borough in England and Wales and one of the country's smallest unitary councils.

Eleven schools in the Halton have been affected - of these 8 have had their building projects axed and three under review. Two of these are sample schools and are amalgamations with the intention of locating the schools concerned on to one site.

In the case of Wade Deacon as a sample school, if their planned expansion is rejected by the education secretary, in excess of 400 pupils would be without a school. The Grange School was to be expanded as an all-through school to take pupils from 3 years to 16 years. It would provide neighbourhood nursery provision and resource provision units for both primary and secondary pupils with speech and language communications difficulties and those pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorder. The current buildings have significant condition issues.

Also affected are three Special Schools and two Pupil Referral Units. The decision made by Michael Gove is destroying a well thought out plan for providing all secondary pupils with state of the art facilities to learn. It will also lose the opportunity for much closer involvement with local communities by making schools and their facilities more accessible. This is essential if we are to continue the superb educational improvements we have seen in Halton in the last ten years.

The Tories' accusation that that they have to cut the programme because there is not the money to fund it is just not true and is certainly not an argument schools in Halton accept. In a response sent to shadow education secretary Ed Balls, from David Bell, the permanent secretary at the Department of Education, it made clear that the money for BSF was there.
It is difficult to convey the dismay and despair of headteachers, teachers and pupils in Halton schools over the scrapping of their new school building projects. In addition to the time and resources the LEA has put into BSF, schools have spent hundreds of hours of staff time in developing the project and their own school plans.
Importantly, the proposed plans received cross party support locally and Halton was commended by the previous government for the manner in which it approached the proposed reorganisation of the secondary school provision and the level of consultation undertaken across all stakeholders in preparation for BSF.
There is no doubt in my mind that the real reason for the axing of BSF is to pay for the Conservative's free-market schools policy. The poorest areas will suffer as a result.
 WSOP & SCOOP FTOPS

World Trade Centre Find!

Image via Wikipedia

Archaeologists working at the World Trade Centre site in New York have found the remains of a wooden ship apparently buried there more than 200 years ago.

The remains of the 30ft length of a wood-hulled vessel were found when workers excavating the site, where a new World Trade Centre is being built, hit a row of wood timbers, The New York Times reported.

"They were so perfectly contoured that they were clearly part of a ship," said archaeologist A. Michael Pappalardo.
The archaeologists have been working on the site - scene of the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001 - to document historical material uncovered during construction.

They estimated that the vessel could date from the mid to late 1700s.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries wooden cribbing was used to extend lower Manhattan further into the Hudson River.
The vessel was discovered about 20 to 30 feet below street level on the World Trade Centre site.
The area under excavation had not been dug out when the original Twin Towers were built in the 1960s and 1970s.

Mr Pappalardo said the whole vessel may have been two or three times longer than the portion found.
He and his team believe the the hull had been deliberately truncated and had probably been used as landfill material.
Workers also found a 100lb anchor in the same area on Wednesday, but they are not sure if it belongs to the ship.



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2010 Failed States Index

This year's index draws on 90,000 publicly available sources to analyze 177 countries and rate them on 12 metrics of state decay -- from refugee flows to economic implosion, human rights violations to security threats. Taken together, a country's performance on this battery of indicators tells us how stable -- or unstable -- it is.

To check out the current interactive map from the Foreign Policy site   click here...

In brief : 
- Somalia tops the list for a 3rd year running
- the top 5 countries on the list are all African. 
- Iraq and Afghanistan are next at 7th and 6th respectively. 



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Twitter Trending Analysis - Top 10 Worldwide

Trending: Worldwide

Twitter helps people learn about languages and places and also gives a different perspective to what is happening locally in that region , city or country ...

The world cup is reaching the end with the semi-finals starting today so there is no surprise to see the trends showing up for the beautiful game...

 

• Frida Kahlo
• Today is the Birthday of Frida Kahlo - a famous Mexican painter ( I realised I knew of her once I looked at her art) - see pic
• Hup Holland Hup
• A chant for the Dutch football team written in 1950 which translates to Go Holland Go.( Holland is a fantastic place to visit check out these last minute hotels )
• Pulpo Paul
• El Pulpo Paul has been predicting the winner of the games - he picked Germany to beat Argentina
• Felipe Melo
• Brazilian footballer who had a torrid time against the Dutch is trending heavily as people are advising him to keep clear of going home as millions of Brazilians are a tad upset at their shock departure!
• #worldcup
• If you put a hashtag before the word you can do a search for all comments. During the world Cup a Football is inserted against your post on twitter to!
• #uru
• Another World Cup special this time allowing a Uruguyan flag to be entered against your post  - if you insert #ned a Dutch flag will appear on your post - simples!
• Holanda
• Holland are turning into many people's favourites - admit it no one really likes the Germans!
• #idefinitelydont
• A random hash tag which allows people to post crazy 140 character posts relating to the hash trend
• Uruguai
• Uruguay - playing tonight
• Alemania
•  Germany - playing tomorrow and the real surprise team of the tournament after scoring 4 goals in 3 of their matches so far

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• Hup Holland Hup! (thedutchfiles.com)

The world has gone PC mad!

No wonder the UK is going down the pan . Some of the stuff people write in responses to articles in the Mail and other papers can distract you for many an hour. This blog is well worth a visit and has quite a reasonable following - though I can't comment on the quality as this is the first day I have stumbled across it.  Speak Your Branes is the name of the blog.

On a side note and if you read the latest article on the linked blog well done Emile!

Got to admire Emile Heskey …. had a disastrous World Cup …. comes home , puts a Strawberry frock on and wins the Women’s title at Wimbldeon!




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