2012 Linkin Park World Tour Engages WeatherOps to Provide Event-Specific Meteorological Services

The stage at the Indiana State Fair on August 14, 2011 was hit by a high-velocity wind gust in front of a severe thunderstorm, causing it to collapse. Seven people were killed and 43 others were injured.
The 2012 Linkin Park World Tour, has engaged the services of Weather Decision Technologies®, Inc. (WDT), an Event Safety Alliance corporate sponsor, to provide event-specific meteorological data under its event venue safety model, WeatherOps. As an outsourced expert weather team designed to safeguard attendees, assets and artists, WeatherOps utilizes proprietary data assimilation and forecast generation to steer venue and production management during times of adverse weather.
The band’s tour begins May 18th to celebrate the release of their much anticipated new album, “Living Things.” During this tour, Linkin Park outdoor venues worldwide will be closely monitored for extraordinary weather events, employing WeatherOps exclusive color-coded system by which decisions regarding tour events, in relation to weather, will be made. In addition to adverse weather, production crews will receive daily updates regarding the forecast in the next tour stop, up to 7 days in advance.
"It's our belief that this technology will help to protect our artists, their fans and those involved with the safe execution of our shows,” said Jim Digby, Linkin Park World Tour Manager. "Instant access to a Meteorologist who is in tune with our specific event, date, and time proves invaluable from a protection and a financial standpoint," said Digby....
100,000 LED lights down the Sumida River, Japan

Photo: tokyo-hotaru.com
The inaugural Tokyo Hotaru festival was held last weekend. And kicking off the festivities were an impressive display of 100,000 LED lights – made to resemble hotaru (fireflies) – that floated down the Sumida River through central Tokyo. Dubbed “prayer stars,” the LEDs were provided by Panasonic, who claims that the balls, which were designed to light up upon contact with water, were 100% powered by solar energy. After illuminating a large stretch of the river, which also hosts a popular fireworks festival in the summer, the LEDs were all caught in a large net....
Money and Happiness: China Surveys Suggest a Limited Link

After two decades of extraordinarily rapid economic growth, people in China aren’t much happier than when they started, suggests a new review of happiness and national income in the world’s largest, most economically accelerated country.
On the whole, China’s wealthy are slightly happier than before, but little appears to have changed among middle-income earners. Among lower income brackets, life satisfaction seems to have dropped precipitously.
These trends are not an argument against capitalism or economic growth — but they do hint at shortcomings in using standard economic metrics as shorthand for well-being.
“There is no evidence of an increase in life satisfaction of the magnitude that might have been expected to result from the fourfold improvement in the level of per capita consumption,” write researchers led by economist Richard Easterlin in their May 15 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper....