American workers are mad as hell, and they’re not going to take it anymore. That’s the clear message of flight attendant Steven Slater’s emergence as a “working-class hero,” after he threw his job away with a tirade against passengers and a . . .

[Updated at 1:05 p.m.] Mariner Energy, owner of the production platform, said in a press release that no hydrocarbon spill has been reported after an initial flyover of the incident.

"Mariner has notified and is working with regulatory authorities in response to this incident," the statement said. "The cause is not known, and an investigation will be undertaken. During the last week of August 2010, production from this facility averaged approximately 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and 1,400 barrels of oil and condensate."

The company also said no injuries have been reported.

[Updated at 12:48 p.m.] David Reed, a paramedic on board the Rowan Gorilla II oil rig located 14 miles from the platform that exploded told submitted an iReport saying he saw all thirteen workers rescued from the water.

“We were up here in the radio room and all of sudden we saw a whole bunch of smoke coming from the platform," Reed said. "Shortly after all the radios started lighting up like a Christmas tree. They called any helicopters in the area, any boats in the area to respond, they were saying there were people in the water. There were multiple people in the water.”

See Reed's iReport of what he witnessed

WWL: Coast Guard reporting production platform incident

WDSU: Production platform explodes in Gulf

iReport: Did you see the explosion? Share images

[Updated at 12:32 p.m.] White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that the federal government has "assets ready" to respond to any environmental problems resulting from the explosion of an oil platform off the coast of Louisiana.

[Updated at 12:31 p.m.] All thirteen people aboard a production platform that exploded in the Gulf are accounted for and safely on a commercial vessel according to initial information, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement.

"We continue to gather information as we respond with full force, and have oil spill response assets ready for immediate deployment should we receive any reports of pollution," the statement said.

[Updated at 11:53 a.m.] U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough tells CNN that 12 people from the production platform are in water immersion suits as they await rescue.

Colclough told CNN there are reports the production platform, which is for both oil and natural gas, is still on fire.

"We don't know what caused the rig to catch on fire," he told CNN, noting the incident is under investigation.

Asked about concerns regarding oil leaks or pollution, Colclough said "there are reports the rig was not actively producing any product, so we don't know if there's any risk of pollution."

Mariner Energy is a leading independent oil and gas exploration and production company in the Gulf of Mexico. About 85 percent of the company's production comes from offshore assets, with a growing share of that coming from deepwater developments.

The explosion comes nearly five months after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 people and causing oil to gush into
the Gulf of Mexico, leading to one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.

[Updated at 11:43 a.m.] U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough tells CNN that all 13 workers involved in the production platform explosion are accounted for, but one person is injured.

Coast Guard Choppers are on the way to the site 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay.

[Posted at 11:33 a.m.] An oil production platform has exploded 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana, with 12 people overboard and one missing, the Coast Guard said Thursday morning.

Rescue attempts are under way for at least 12 people, Coast Guard spokesman John Edwards told CNN. 13 people were on board the production platform total, Edwards said, noting 12 have been accounted for, but one person was missing.

The accident took place 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana on the Vermilion Oil production platform 380, which is owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy.

The Coast Guard has multiple helicopters, an airplane and several Coast Guard cutters en route. It's unknown if there are any injuries.

As the fugitive businessman Asil Nadir flew back to Britain from his North Cyprus bolt-hole last week, Sean O'Neill, the crime editor of The Times, scooped Fleet Street by being the only print journalist on the plane. Yet those searching Google for the latest on the breaking story that morning would have found no sign of O'Neill's exclusive – only follow-up stories by rival news organisations such as The Guardian and ITN.

eno (good friends of NeochaEDGE) is a China-based lifestyle brand founded with the purpose of inspiring a new generation of open-minded youth who are creative and original in the way they live, dress, and behave. eno combines inspiration from art, music, fashion and extreme sports to create original casual street fashion.

Recently, eno held a mid-summer celebration at Gang Hui shopping mall’s open air plaza in Shanghai’s Xujiahui district with a musical performances from Shanghai-based indie punk band Pinkberry and live-art performance by EDGE Creative Collective member Xiao Longhua. See below for photos from the event.

If you’d like to collaborate with Xiao Longhua, purchase any of his work, or view his full portfolio, please send us an email: EDGE@Neocha.com

For more from Xiao Longhua on NeochaEDGE, link here.

For more creative culture events in China on NeochaEDGE, link here. /// KA

政治犯出狱时间 （欢迎补充） 2010 0909陈光诚 0913陈树庆 0914吴义龙 1129秦永敏 1208杜导斌 1210哈达 1215张玉辉 2011 0124何德普 0312徐伟、靳海科 0508陈道军 0519罗勇泉 0529孙林 0609黄琦 0625齐崇怀 0626胡佳 0715阿卜杜勒加尼• 梅梅特民 0823吕耿松 0913郭飞熊 1212黄金秋 1219郑贻春 1223徐泽荣 2012 0515张起 0528胡明君、袁显臣 0813王小宁 2013 1212孔佑平 2014 0327谭作人 1123师涛 1128努尔莫哈提•亚辛 2015 0509任自元 2017 0429许万平 1222杨天水 2018 1112郭泉 2020 0621刘晓波 不明 王炳章（2002年拘捕，判刑无期） 陆建华（2005年拘捕，判刑20年） 阿布露莎（2008年拘捕，刑期不明） 刘永根（2009年拘捕，刑期不明） 海莱特·尼亚孜（2009年拘捕，判刑15年） 黄晓敏（2009年拘捕，尚未宣判） 左晓环（2010年拘捕，尚未宣判） 刘贤斌（2010年拘捕，尚未宣判）

Thanks to a partnership with Vlingo, owners of Android 2.0 or higher-equipped phones can now check in to Foursquare and update their status on Facebook and Twitter simply by speaking into their phones.

To try it out, download the free Vlingo app to your Android handset.

Using your voice, you can then update your location status on Foursquare by saying “check into Logan Airport”, locate your friends with commands like “where are my friends?” and “who’s nearby?” as well as send shout-outs to your buddies (e.g. “shout at Logan Airport waiting to board a plane to San Francisco”).

That’s not all though. The latest version of the Vlingo app also lets users share the service with their friends with the click of a button and also update their status on Facebook, Twitter and/or Foursquare at the same time by saying “social update” and speaking the message.

Previous Vlingo features remain, too: you can still use the app to send text and email messages, search the web, use Google maps and more.

As for BlackBerry, iPhone and Nokia S60 users – they’ll have to be patient for a while before they can start updating their status and locations with their voice.

Vlingo says it plans to roll out this functionality to other supported platforms in a future release but didn’t mention specific dates.

Do you consider voice-driven applications to be an ideal way to interact with mobile apps on your phone? Why (not)?

Part of the new iTunes 10 software, announced and launched yesterday, is a significant new social networking feature for iTunes called Ping. It allows you to comment on music, 'like' it a la Facebook, or rate it. Ping is also very similar to Twitter, in that you can 'follow' people and music stars. All of this happens inside of the iTunes application, either on your computer, iPhone or iPod Touch.

We took the new feature for a spin and came away intrigued, despite some initial flaws. We do however wonder at the overly commercial focus of Ping. Is this really about social networking, or mostly for Apple and artists to sell more music?

Sponsor

How to Get Ping

To access Ping, you first need to download iTunes 10 onto your computer. You'll need to also download 300+ MB worth of iPhone Software Update, to get it on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

On the computer, once you've downloaded iTunes 10 click the iTunes Store link in the sidebar. You'll see a "Get Started" link in the top right of that page (also 'Ping' appears as a menu option in the sidebar). You'll need to turn on the Ping feature and agree to Apple's privacy policy. After that, create a profile.

Note that you may encounter issues with uploading a profile photo and connecting to Facebook. If you wait for about 10 minutes, eventually your photo will upload. However Facebook Connect appears to be broken at this stage. We assume these are technical teething issues.

Once you have your profile set up, you're invited to follow other people and also stars like Lady Gaga and U2. This is very similar to how Twitter works, except that it's all happening inside of iTunes (on your computer or on your iPhone or iPod Touch).

Social Networking, or Prodding You to The Cash Register?

Ping isn't entirely intuitive. It took some head scratching to figure out that to actually post content, you need to be in the iTunes Store. You can't create new content from within Ping itself, although you can comment on what others have added.

To add new content to your Ping stream, go to the iTunes Store and either comment on an album, 'like' it or give it a star rating.

The fact that you need to be inside the iTunes Store to create new content or like something, seems a rather cynical move to encourage people to buy more music. Why not let users search inside Ping for a song or album? Or, even better, let them right-click and comment, like or rate music from within the iTunes player?

Follow The Stars

To track - and optionally comment on - what others are doing, click on the Recent Activity feed in Ping.

Ping places more focus on feature accounts than Twitter, inviting you to "set your inner groupie free by following your favorite artists on Ping." The service comes pre-loaded with accounts for some leading pop, rock and other music acts.

These accounts don't offer much more than what the stars can already do on Facebook and Twitter. The main difference is that it's within an application where people can buy the music.

I'll Follow You (If You Share My Music Tastes)

Overall, I can see Ping being useful for following friends who have similar tastes in music to me. In those cases, if they 'like' a new album then it's a great recommendation - and yes, I'm more likely to buy it. Also the ability to see which concerts they plan to go to is a useful feature.

However, Ping is probably not going to be very useful for following friends who don't share my music tastes. That could be most of them. You may be a mate of mine on Facebook, but if you listen to electronica then sorry I'm not very interested in the content you're liking (you probably feel the same way about the alternative music I tend to favor).

Have you tested out Ping yet? Let us know your verdict in the comments!

Discuss

Risk.  Everyone in China is exposed to it.  Some recognize it, and act on it, better than others

This was the topic of several conversations between myself and Neal Beatty (Regional Director, Global Client Services for Control Risks).  In some ways it was a followup to the interview I did of Dane Chamorro, his colleague, but this time it was over lunch and encompassed a much larger set of issues…. and given the importance nature of risk, I asked Neal if he would do All Roads readers the favor of answering a few questions about risk in China, if risks here are different than in other regions, and how good firms are at planning for and managing risk.

Below is part 1 of the interview, and with its focus on identifying the risks, and how firms work with “China” risk, there are lessons for everyone.

1. Are the risks of doing business in China any different than say in the US or EU?
Every operating environment has its own risks. What makes overseas operations more complex for multinationals is that many of the operational issues in China (kickbacks, conflict of interest, corruption, etc) are exacerbated by the very fact that they are so far from the comforts of home, and from familiar regulatory and legal environments.

When the company sets up in China, either through acquisition of a local firm, or through establishing a JV or their own facility, the operating environment is often alien. Everyone’s read the books on “doing business in China” and that’s a great start for people new to the country. But that’s just scratching the surface, and often seems to lead managers to over-emphasize or over-simplify a few features of operating environment, so for example you often hear “China is all about “guanxi”; we don’t worry about risk X because our local guys have great connections”. There’s also a tendency even these days to get carried away with the “China is different” concept, and lose sight of commercial and risk-management principles and processes the company applies elsewhere. China is different in many ways and understanding the differences is vital, but that doesn’t mean there’s some mysterious formula here that only a few people understand – like everywhere else, you need a well-informed, comprehensive and rigorously planned out approach to managing risk, not silver bullets. Few companies sit down from the very start, and map out what the risks to the business in China could really be.  They will no doubt have looked into the financial and commercial risks in some detail, but what about the operational or general business risks, not to mention the reputational risks? There is even a potential downside to hiring someone with fantastic local connections to run the business or engage as a joint venture partner, and this needs serious consideration, too.

In China, what you see is not always what you get. This can be especially true of understanding who you’re dealing with in business, whether it’s your key hires, an M&A target, or new partner or supplier. People and entities can have so many hidden interests, connections and potential conflicts that you simply can’t be sure who you’re getting into bed with unless you’ve really done your homework the right way –  specialist due diligence is essential.

2. What are the real risks of doing business in China?  What can business lose if they misjudge their environment?

Some common risk issues include:

• Compliance & integrity issues: internal fraud (kickbacks and conflicts of interest are most common)
• Corruption & Graft: recognized by the government in Beijing as a serious issue in China.  And now an increasingly serious issue in the US and UK with the growing impact of anti-corruption laws.
• IP issues -  counterfeiting, internal theft of critical information, and the protection of your trade secrets are major issues
• Business partners: Who really is your prospective JV partner? How did they accumulate their wealth? Does your partner or key staff have undeclared family or business connections to a competitor or supplier?
• Political and regulatory risks – this is largely more of a strategic, ‘big picture’ issue, but companies who lose touch with the prevailing political pressures affecting their industry can find themselves exposed to problems or shifts that they weren’t expecting.
• Supply Chain risks – lack of transparency and controls along the chain
• Natural Disasters – typhoon, flood, earthquake
• Business disputes – the concept of “illegal detention” by business partners as a means to settle a dispute over payments due; threats by disgruntled former employees.
• Restructuring & labour disputes – closing a factory, or dealing with the disgruntled employee who seeks revenge on a manager
• HR risks – associated with the new HR law and the complexity of hiring & firing staff.

Obviously the extent to which a particular company is exposed to these risks will depend on their specific circumstances, for example the size of the company, the location, the industry and the effectiveness of its own internal risk mitigation controls. But if you show a group of managers the list of risks above, many will admit that they have experienced several of these issues in China.

Most issues will have been dealt with and the business will have survived intact, but once in a while, something happens that has a catastrophic impact on the business, that no-one could have foreseen.

One of the most serious potential risks to any business in China is the tacit acceptance of the “This is China” approach to business ethics and compliance issues. “We can’t do business without paying the occasional bribe to win contracts” or “it’s OK to allow employees to take a few kickbacks from suppliers – that’s how business is done here”. I’ve heard similar sentiments from managers in China and I worry that they are leaving themselves exposed to more serious issues further down the line. By condoning “low level” corruption within the organization, there is a serious risk of it getting out of control and in the worst case putting the entire operation in jeopardy. A zero tolerance approach is certainly not easy, and requires time, effort and budget, but I would say it is the best way to operate in China, just as in other parts of the world. And it is essential that senior management lay down the law and set out the company culture towards such issues from the very start. The Chinese idiom 上梁不正下梁歪 (if the top beam is not straight the whole structure is crooked) is very true.

3. How much of the risk is political vs. cultural vs. commercial?

It is all three. The risks listed above could happen in any country in the world, but what makes China unique is the combination of engrained local business culture and business practices, and very patchy, often lax, legal and regulatory enforcement. This can result in people thinking there are no personal consequences to their actions.

I don’t believe Chinese people are any different in terms of morals or bad behavior than someone from Northern Ireland. But in China, there are cultural norms that sometimes conflict with the corporate expectations. For example, the concept of a conflict of interest is not understood in the same way as in the EU /US. To many Chinese people it seems perfectly reasonable to consider engaging a supplier owned by a family member or old school classmate. After all, I trust these people far more than some random supplier that approaches me at a trade fair. And if laws are unevenly enforced, then employees may never expect that their unethical, and often illegal, behavior might land them in jail.

And a kickback is often seen as nothing more that natural reward for the sales effort, something owed to the salesman, who probably doesn’t make much money anyway: no-one gets hurt, so what is the problem?

Where these three areas (political v cultural v commercial) often overlap is when doing business away from the big Tier One cities. Generally speaking, the influence of local politics on local business is more unrestrained away from the biggest cities. This can pose its own set of unique risks that can only be mitigated by a very thorough due diligence process prior to forming a business relationship in that location.

4. What are the biggest risks that you feel firms overlook when entering China?

I feel the biggest risk is not taking the time to sit back and look really seriously at “what if this doesn’t go according to plan?” or “what if this should happen?” The opportunities in China are huge, as all the business books tell you, but although most people are aware to some degree that there are very considerable risks out there, not so many are keen to think too long about the downside and address that head on when they don’t see any immediate, severe problem.

If you are new to China, whether sourcing, selling or manufacturing, the first step needs to be to ask for advice. But who to ask? Lawyers are a necessity, but as I have seen from my own experience, they do not always give you the full picture of the risks your operation may face.

So the biggest risk is actually not actively assessing and properly planning for the risks! Many firms still don’t really do this until something goes wrong.

5. Are there firms that are in denial on obvious risks?

I would have to say yes.

I once spoke to the head of a multinational R&D facility in Pudong who had first-hand experience of unaccompanied visitors strolling around their facility, with access to any number of laptops left sitting on desks. When asked whether he was concerned about competitors entering the facility to steal trade secrets, the executive replied “but why would anyone want to steal trade secrets from this facility? We have dozens of such facilities in the US, why would they come all the way over here?” The conversation on business risks didn’t go much further.

And then you have an attitude of some foreign managers who, after having worked in China for many years, feel there is no alternative to “low level” kickbacks and bribes. Leaving behind the ethical arguments for a moment, and focusing on the bottom line –it simply is not cheaper in the long run to pay bribes if you had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines in the US and Europe, and you factor in the potential reputational impact.

And then there is the argument ”well, all my Chinese competitors pay bribes to win contracts, so I have to”…

How does the average firm’s risk profile change over the course of its china life?  can a firm run risk free?

I don’t think any company can run “risk free”, no matter what sector or what size of operation. From the largest MNC with multiple manufacturing and distribution facilities around China, to the “one-man-band” sourcing operation, everyone will face risks.

Moreover, you can never reduce risk to zero. No matter how good your risk management program, there will always be someone who does something without considering the possible outcomes and impacts thoroughly, or simply faces a problem that couldn’t be anticipated or couldn’t be prevented. And thus you need to be able to react appropriately and have contingencies in place.  But a good awareness of the risks from the very beginning, along with regular (twice a year) reviews of your level of risk exposure, will go a long way to mitigating many of your operational risks.

Invesment bank hires public relations firm Brunswick to find out the state of its reputation.

For some in Silicon Valley, Asia remains an alluring black box. A promising world with pockets of hyper growth, obscured by a tangled web of unfamiliar languages, customs, regulations and native ecosystems. Although the walls are coming down fast, the road to Asia’s markets remains an intimidating one for many.

Enter Dave McClure, founder of 500 Startups (a recently launched $30M super angel fund) and Geeks On A Plane, a program that takes tech entrepreneurs and investors to emerging markets. In its own small way, Geeks On A Plane is attempting to bridge that gap between the Valley and the rest of the world. Earlier this year, roughly 55 “Geeks” traveled to several key hot spots in Asia, including Shanghai, Singapore, Seoul and Beijing, to connect with the region’s top entrepreneurs, to mingle with Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and to sample local tech conferences like Shanghai World Expo and CHINICT.

“Asia is easily a third, possibly close to half of the world’s population, I think there’s a lot of innovation and a lot of growth that is happening in China, India, and Southeast Asia,” McClure says. “Some of the internet models that we’ve seen are starting to be transferred over there, and actually a lot of the internet business models are being copied over here…There’s actually an explosion of social networks happening in all those countries.”

Although McClure doesn’t consider himself an expert in doing business in Asia, through his trips and his new relationships, he says he now has a better understanding of the internal dynamics of Asia’s disparate markets and is acutely aware of common Western misconceptions. In particular, he says it was very eye opening to learn how advanced China actually is and how many have underestimated the region’s technological and economic progress.

“Well I think people tend to look at China as being a pretty big opportunity but they also tend to think about China as being a little bit behind and I think that’s just really the wrong impression. China has actually got more internet users than the US, they certainly have more mobile devices than the US…You know the top 10% of the Chinese population probably has more average spending power than the average US citizen…and they’re buying a lot of cars, they’re buying a lot of houses, they’re buying a lot of consumer products online.”

While not everyone can join a Geeks On A Plane Tour, Dave McClure is sharing a collection of mini-documentaries from his latest trip with TechCrunch TV. The videos were shot and produced by Ben Henretig, founder of Micro-Documentaries, a new startup that creates highly polished, short (hence micro) videos for clients. The first of four episodes is on their trip to Shanghai (second video from the top). You can also watch McClure’s interview with TechCrunch TV, where he discusses his new fund and expounds on his trip to Asia (first video).

Of all topics, this is one of the perennials. People want more traffic, more attention, more awareness to their blog. It’s fair. We work hard on our blogs. We want more attention and traffic. If your business depends on volume, this is especially important (for instance, if you’re using ads). Getting traffic is a tricky business, and it requires a lot of experimentation. I’ll tell you what’s worked for me, so far, and I’ll tell you what you might try. Maybe others will educate us both in the comments on their best methods.

Great Titles Help

The first few seconds of someone’s attention are the hardest to pass. If you have a lame blog post title, no one’s going to want to read the post. For whatever reason, we react to “how to,” we react to “7 great,” we react to all kinds of things. Not sure where to look? I stole this advice from Brian Clark years ago: go to the grocery store, buy some ladies’ magazines like Cosmopolitan, and learn how THEY write headlines on the front page.

Graphics Don’t Hurt

This entire series (and most of my blog posts) use graphics to catch your eye. It’s an easy way to get one’s attention. Screen captures help. Video helps. There are tons of ways to get people into a receptive space with your material, and graphics are just the easiest one.

Now that we’ve got a decent title, decent graphics, let’s be quick about your content.

Brevity Is the Game

Keep your posts brief (unless you want tons and tons of bookmarks). People don’t have all day to read. If you can keep your posts between 250-500 words, that’s in alignment with most people’s attention spans. Hey, you’re welcome to write whatever length you want. You asked me how to grow traffic to your blog. I can only give you results that I’ve tested. When I write a super long piece, I get much less involvement with it.

Share Your Blog

I’ve written about making shareability a priority. If you don’t have easy-to-share buttons on your blog, you’re missing the easiest way for people to see your stuff on Facebook, on LinkedIn, on Twitter, and all the other sites where it would matter. Sharing out is a great way to make some more traffic happen. I also automatically push my posts into Facebook with their notes feature. I have an automated post into twitter via @broganmedia, but don’t do this same effect on my primary @chrisbrogan account.

Subscriptions or No?

In my case, subscriptions to my blog matter. I want people to subscribe, because I don’t necessarily survive on ad revenue. If you’re trying to monetize via ad revenue, and if your ads are in the header and the sidebar, a subscription really won’t help you get more traffic. If for whatever reason you want people to come to your website directly instead of via your RSS feed, you might want to obfuscate where you put your subscription information.

If you’re like me, you ask for the subscription all the time. In fact, I’ll ask now. You’re not yet subscribed? Enter your email (I respect your privacy):

Guest Posts

Over in the Third Tribe, we talk about guest posts quite often as a great traffic-builder to your blog. Find someone who has a very similar kind of blog topic to yours (not sure where to start? Check out Alltop), and offer a guest blog post. Oh, and then actually follow through. I have heard recently from my friends who accept guest posts that often, people ask for something, get approval, and then don’t take an action. That doesn’t sound like a good plan. Just FYI.

Consistency

This is one of those points where people disagree. I blog daily. Truth be told, I’m up to 2x a day most days. Why? Because the more I blog, the more people subscribe. I learned it from some of the larger blogger sites out there.

Lots of people justify once a week, or once every two weeks. That’s fine. But if you want to grow traffic to your blog, that’s a very long slow crawl towards that growth. That said, no matter which frequency you’ve chosen, stick to it. The moment you drop off the map, people who haven’t yet subscribed to you lose sight and move on.

Market Your Blog

You can always market your blog the good old fashioned way. I’ve had people hand me business cards at events that had a compelling question or interesting graphic, and then a URL to their blog. More often than not, I’ll at least check out the post. You might make postcards and bring them to the places where your prospective readers might congregate. For instance, if you write a restaurant blog, why not have a business card tray by the mints? Make an offer, just like you do with any other kind of marketing.

Often times, we sit around inside the fishbowl of social media and hope people from outside will find us. Here’s a hint, hero: the people you need are out there wondering what they can do to learn more about the thing you’re talking about. Go get ‘em, tiger.

How Do You Grow Traffic To Your Blog?

I’m a big fan of the basics: write about what they need, make sure they see that you wrote about it, make it easy to carry on the relationship, make it easy for them to promote you to others.

Seems like a simple formula, and yet, we go through all kinds of hoops to come up with trickier methods. Try this one first. What do you say?

Sometimes the titles just write themselves. On Tuesday Virgin America and Loopt partnered to offer people two-for-one tickets to Cancun or Los Cabos from California. All you had to do was check in on Loopt at SFO, LAX or one of a variety of taco trucks in San Francisco and Los Angeles in a four hour window.

So how did it go? Loopt says 1,300 people checked in to a single taco truck in San Francisco, and 80% of those people have already bought tickets on Virgin America for flights. It was Virgin’s fifth highest revenue day ever, says Loopt (we’re confirming with Virgin).

Added Loopt CEO Sam Altman by email: “You should also mention that we are on fire.” And indeed they are. Loopt has more than four million users, despite the fact that they are covered far less often than the smaller Foursquare. Loopt is quietly becoming a very large presence in the mobile, um, presence war.

Also, Virgin America doesn’t suck.

Withings, the Paris-based company behind the famous tweeting wifi body scale, has just scored 3 million euros from French VC firm, Ventech. It’s the company’s first round of funding and will be used primarily for the development of 2 new products, which should come out within the next 6 months.

For anyone who isn’t already familiar with the company’s first product, the tweeting wifi body scale, it’s a terrific wifi-connected device that tracks your weight. May sound simple but it can recognize up to 8 users and allows you to transfer your weight information to a computer, iPhone or iPad – which is where the Tweeting comes from, obviously. The product launched officially last year on June 25 goes for €129 in France and is a great little way to track a fitness program or diet.

For now, the 20-person company is entirely based in Paris but the product is distributed across several continents. The US accounts for roughly 40 percent of sales – as does Europe – and the rest of the world makes up the remaining 20 percent. With a partner in Japan, the startup it is planning to actively develop distribution in Asia – in Korea and Taiwan in particular.

The team still isn’t releasing info on the number of scales sold-to-date nor details concerning the 2 new products that are currently being developed. But we do know that one of the 2 will most likely be a similar, health-related product and other will be for more casual, everyday use.

TechCrunch Europe is looking for a freelance events and sponsorship organiser who will be responsible for the production of TechCrunch Europe events from conception through to completion, working closely with the Editorial team and partners across Europe. This job is also posted on CrunchBoard

Events will include:

•– conferences

•– networking events (meetups, breakfasts etc etc)

•– awards ceremonies

Location: Largely London-based, but available to work on events across the UK and Europe. Some travel involved where required.

The role of the event organiser will be hands-on and also involves working closely with the TechCrunch Europe editorial team and the Editor. Applicants must be able to complete a wide range of activities requiring clear communication, excellent organisational skills and attention to detail, in addition to working well under pressure, ensuring the smooth and efficient running of an event. But it’s not just logistics. We’re also keen to find someone who can come up with speaker and content ideas in partnership with the editorial team.

What’s not in the role description:

The tech scene in Europe is a lot of fun. Check out The Europas or GeeekRolla for instance. And there are huge possibilities awaiting anyone who wants to get involved. We’re easy going, very flexible, work a lot on email, Twitter and IM (so no need for too many dull meetings) and don’t stand on ceremony.

Who would this suit?

We think this role would suit either an existing freelance contractor, or someone in an existing events company looking to strike out and use this as a basis to get into the tech scene. But it’s really about finding the right person for us.

Typical activities will include:

•– dealing with an incoming stream of inquiries from sponsors and potential event partners;

•– researching the market to identify opportunities for events;

•– producing proposals for events (e.g. timelines, venues, suppliers, legal obligations, staffing and budgets);

•– agreeing to and managing a budget;

•– securing and booking a suitable venue or location;

•– ensuring insurance, legal, health and safety obligations are adhered to;

•– coordinating venue management, caterers, stand designers, contractors and equipment hire;

•– liaising with confirmed speakers or special guests as invited by the editorial team;

•– planning room layouts and the entertainment programme, scheduling presentations and panel discussions;

•– coordinating staffing requirements and staff briefings;

•– selling sponsorship/stand/exhibition space to potential exhibitors/partners;

•– preparing delegate joining instructions and papers;

•– liaising with TechCrunch Europe on marketing and PR to promote the events

•– coordinating suppliers, handling client queries and troubleshooting on the day of the event to ensure that all runs smoothly;

•– speaker/stage management on the day, ensuring presentations and panel discussions run according to schedule;

•– post-event evaluation and accounts.

•– In addition there will be the opportunity to run sponsorship on new TechCrunch Europe products

What we offer:

•– Commission only structure designed to incentivise, with lots of potential

•– The opportunity to become a key player on the tech scene in Europe

•– The chance to become part of an awesome team building TechCrunch in Europe

To apply:

In the first instance please email our admin assistant Jane Wagstaff on JaneEWagstaff [@] gmail.com

Ever since it became stable enough to use on a day-to-day basis on a Mac last year, Google Chrome has been my browser of choice. Other browsers have been adding some nice features — but Chrome keeps adding them faster. And today on its second birthday, that rate of change isn’t slowing down.

Google has officially rolled out Chrome 6 as the latest stable version of the browser today. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone using the dev or beta builds of the browser, but it’s nonetheless an important mark as it means it’s stable enough for mass consumption.

Remember that it was just two years ago when Google surprised the world by announcing a new browser (a little early) via a comic. The next day, we got the first shots of what the browser would look like — and it was released as a beta for Windows users. It actually looks pretty much the same today, but it’s now much, much faster (and when it launched it was already faster than most browsers out there).

Google says that Chrome today is a full three times faster when it comes to JavaScript performance versus Chrome circa 2008. The rapid speed increases have also undoubtedly pushed rival browsers to become faster, so we’ve all benefited.

Arguably more important to me is that despite adding all the new features – and extensions — Chrome still seems lightweight today. I fondly remember the good old days of 2004 when I first started using Firefox as my main browser and thinking how fresh and lightweight it felt compared to the atrocity that was IE. Firefox, sadly, got bloated over the years. So far, Chrome hasn’t put on the same weight. Here’s hoping it never does.

As I said, Chrome is also showing no signs of slowing down from a development standpoint. The browser is already in the process of morphing into version 7 as well. Chromium, the open source browser that Chrome is based on, has been hit version 7 a couple weeks ago — and the dev build of Chrome just went 7 as well. Google has said they hope to iterate every six weeks going forward.

These next few months are going to be arguably the most interesting times for the browser yet. The Chrome Web Store will soon open, bringing tightly integrated web-based apps into the browser. And then, of course, Chrome OS is due before the end of the year.

Happy birthday Chrome.

Chrome then:

Chrome now:

我们的好朋友eno是由一群来自美国服饰界的先锋所成立的创意休闲品牌，他们用积极正面的态度引导年轻人实现创意梦想。其服装创意性来自于街头，而并非高高在上的时尚圈，融合了艺术、音乐、时尚和极限运动的灵感以体现生活态度，集结创意社群的力量，把概念独特、张扬个性的服饰带给更多的年轻人。

最近，eno在上海港汇的露天广场举办了系列盛夏庆典，包括本土乐队Pinkberry的精彩演出和锋潮创意集体成员小龙花的涂鸦大作，请大家欣赏！

如果想与小龙花合作, 购买他的作品或查看其完整档案, 请发邮件至: EDGE@Neocha.com

锋潮上更多关于小龙花的内容，请看这里。

锋潮上更多关于创意活动的内容，请看这里。/// 咖小西

People are increasingly sharing different types of information on Twitter. For example, Tweets point to web pages, photos, videos, hashtags, people, check-ins, and more. Exploring Tweets is a great way to discover new and interesting information. And with devices of all shapes and sizes connecting to the Internet, we’re constantly looking for new ways to make this easier. To date, we’ve created applications for a variety of mobile phones, giving you instant access to Tweets and great content when you’re on the go.

Today we are bringing Tweets to a device that really lets content shine - the iPad. Twitter for iPad takes advantage of the iPad’s fluid touch interface, letting you move lots of information around smoothly and quickly – without needing to open and close windows or click buttons. There are a few things we want to point out that make this app a really fast and fun way to read real-time content.

Panes: Tapping on a Tweet opens a pane to the right. Depending on the content in that Tweet, you’ll see a video or photo, or maybe a news story, or perhaps another Tweet. You can continue tapping on Tweets, opening new panes, and getting new content as long as you’d like to. And, it’s really easy to move between panes by swiping to the right or left.


Media: When you tap a video link or open a web page with an embedded video, you can play that video inline. And, let’s be honest, video is great but sometimes it can take some time to load. The panes in Twitter for iPad let you look through your timeline while a video is loading, and then you can just swipe back to the video when it’s ready to play. You can also pinch on a video to watch it fullscreen.

Gestures: You can pinch on a Tweet to quickly view details about the author and to take actions on a Tweet, such as reply or retweet. Put two fingers together and pull down on a Tweet to peek at the replies, showing the entire conversation leading to that Tweet.

A new study by email software purveyor Xobni confirms what we bloggers know to be true, there’s actually no such thing as a day off in the Internet age (Want more visceral proof than an email study? Check out the timestamp of this post).

Information anxiety has pretty much put the kibosh on “time off” as two out of three Americans and Brits check their email outside of regular business hours (ha) and half of Americans email while on vacation (double ha).

The Xobni study, an online survey of 2,200 British and American adults conducted in August, holds that the traditional 9-5 work day has gone the way of the Dodo, due to the fact that Americans and Brits can’t stop checking their email. Apparently we sneak a peak at out inboxes while on vacation, weekends, sick days and even when we are (gasp!) in bed.

The press release blames this behavior on the down economy and the iPhone, but I blame it on the fact that we now live most of our lives online, and we feel compelled to check our email/Facebook/Twitter because that’s where most of the exciting stuff is happening anyways.

More highlights from the study/the life we have chosen:

* The 9-5 work day has gone the way of the Dodo. 72% of Americans and 68% of Brits say they regularly check their email on vacations, sick days, and at home in bed.

* Yes, IN BED. Conveniently for Xobni, work email in bed is apparently, you know, like a thing, with 1 in 5 Americans checking email as the first thing they do in the morning or the last thing they do at night before falling asleep (Again I can personally vouch for this).

According to Xobni, email has become an addiction, and like most addictions it is fueled by peer pressure:

* 27% check email outside of regular working hours because they feel it is expected.

* 26% of Americans feel they can’t handle/overwhelmed by the number of emails they receive during vacation.

Everyone in the world agrees that managing email has become a challenge to our sanity. And various companies are scrambling towards solutions including Google with its recent Gmail Priority Inbox launch and Xobni, obviously. My favorite low-fi way to deal with the bottleneck is a service called Sentenc.es which makes it clear to your email reader that you are limited to short responses.

Even though I’m not sure how well that will work, in bed.

Video, vaguely related.

Email overload image above: Ario_

Google is celebrating the second anniversary of its Google Chrome browser with the release of new stable and beta versions, bringing and even cleaner and simpler user interface and increased speed and performance.

As the Google Chrome Blog points out, Chrome 6 is years beyond where most imagined browser technology when it was first introduced just two years ago.

Sponsor

The Google Chrome Blog takes a retrospective look at how much browsers have changed over the past two years, remarking that when Chrome was first introduced in August of 2008, "JavaScript was 10 times slower, HTML5 support wasn't yet an essential feature in modern browsers, and the idea of a sandboxed, multi-process browser was only a research project."

In addition to some cosmetic changes, the new version of Chrome brings form autofill features, making it so you don't have to type in again and again that ridiculously long email address you now regret choosing. It also brings extension and autofill synchronization, meaning that your autofill data will remain the same from desktop to laptop to netbook.

Among the myriad features, the user interface seems to have an impact in the browser market. The soon-to-be-released Internet Explorer 9 looks like it stole a page from Chrome, adopting the clean and simple design that lets the browser step out of the way. Chrome's design manages to portray what we find most appealing about Chrome (which replaced Firefox as the default browser months ago now) - its lightweight operation. Just as it steps out of the way of the page, in terms of design, the browser manages to step out of the way of other programs, managing to run well (even on a netbook) without hogging all of the processing power.

If you haven't yet, we highly recommend giving Chrome a spin.

Discuss

Sarah Cohen, the Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, figured there had to be an easier way for journalists to organize their notes on chronological events.

“Time and place are two of the most important aspects in stories,” Cohen said. “Most reporters I know are still keeping a 40-page chronology in Word for long running stories.”

So, with a grant from Duke, Cohen hired two research scientists, Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg, to design a visual tool to allow reporters to not just organize their notes more effectively, but to also see the results of their research over time.

Viegas  and Wattenberg were the brains behind the IBM Many Eyes project and now work for Google.

The tool they came up with, an open source program that is free to download and use, makes it possible for journalists to look at the reams of data that went into those old 40-page text chronologies or multisheet spreadsheets in new and more useful ways.

“Say you’re working on the BP story, you can say, ‘I only want to see what happened in May having to do with birds,’’’ Cohen explained.

You can also look at how often President Barak Obama talked about the disaster in May, drill down into how when the president mentioned Gulf wildlife or any number of other functions. But the program doesn’t just making searching data easier – it’s a visual tool that makes understanding data points over time easier.

“The way journalism is going, as there are fewer boots on the ground. It’s important that they’re spending their time efficiently,” Cohen explained.