Turning Vegas into a hot spot for work

By the time he's through, he hopes to help create the world's largest co-working space -- where fledgling companies, independent entrepreneurs and angel investors toil in an informal cooperative setting -- and a thriving tech ecosystem of young start-ups while burnishing downtown's downtrodden reputation.

"It is the revitalization of the city's core," says Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman. "We're seeing the fruits of a dream that started with my husband."

Like so many entrepreneurs, Hsieh and his team of advisers are pursuing tech companies to jump-start the regional economy. An influx of tech start-ups has proved to be a driver for local businesses and an impetus for cultural enrichment. In San Francisco, there are some 36,600 people who work in tech, up 13% from the dot-com peak in 2001, says real estate services firm CBRE. More than 500 start-ups have set up shop in Los Angeles and its environs.

There is competition from elsewhere in Nevada, too. In Reno, Apple plans to set up shop in a big way. In late June, Apple said it would build a $1 billion data center there. Just down the interstate from Reno in nearby Fernley,It has a 322,000-square-foot fulfillment center.

"This project could be insane," says Zappos co-founder Nick Swinmurn, who left the company in 2006 and now lives in Northern California. "could be the next Austin or just another sleepy couple of blocks in Vegas. I think it will take five years." But "Tony is in it for the long haul," he says. "He wants to live in a cool place, a utopia."

By the end of 2013, Zappos plans to relocate more than 1,500 employees from its suburban Henderson, Nev., headquarters, where it has been based since 2004, to Las Vegas' City Hall building downtown. The 300,000-square-foot campus, which broke ground in July and is under construction, can accommodate 2,000 workers.

"The idea went from 'let's build a campus' to 'let's build a city,'" Hsieh says in his soft voice.

Naturally, Hsieh wants as many Zappos employees to move downtown as possible, so one of the first uses of all that money was to snap up about 50 units in the 25-story The Ogden, one of the neighborhood's only luxury high-rise condo buildings.

Think of The Ogden as tech's version of New York's legendary Chelsea Hotel, known for its celebrity residents. But at The Ogden, engineers and technicians -- not artists and poets -- live and work side by side in a building that is equal parts dormitory and office complex.

One tenant, Romotive, wants to create the world's first affordable personal robot, for $150. Perched on the 21st floor, covering some 22,000 square feet, the transplanted Seattle start-up has sweeping vistas of the Strip. But the company's 18 employees aren't tempted by gambling, bars and other diversions. They typically work 18-hour days, eating and socializing with one another at the Ogden.

"We're building the strongest.culture here," says Romotive CEO Keller Rinaudo.

Online marketer Digital Royalty and Ticket Cake, a ticketing agency, are among The Ogden's other occupants.

A block away, Las Vegas Fashion Lab, a 5,600-square-foot co-working space, is about to open. "There's so much momentum and excitement," says owner Meghan Boyd. "Things are popping up on the grid."

The immediate neighborhood is dotted with several new businesses -- Le Thai restaurant, Tech Cocktail video production, the Coterie boutique, and the forthcoming Eat and Commonwealth restaurants. The crown jewel is the city-funded Smith Center, a $150 million theater currently home to a production of Wicked. Switch Communications opened a co-working space for midsize tech businesses in the southwest part of town.

To be sure, plenty of work needs to be done. There are pockets of vacant buildings, plenty of homeless people, and sirens from emergency vehicles puncture the night.

Still, longtime local businessman Michael Cornthwaite contends that "people go where the jobs and vibrant new businesses are."

MyBreastCancerTeam offers community

MyBreastCancerTeam formally launched today, announcing the availability of its social network for women facing breast cancer.

The site is designed to provide all forms of support women with breast cancer may need. First and foremost, it provides an empathetic, engaged, and welcoming community.

Upon signing up, members create a profile, and like any social network, it is up to the user how much information to disclose. In addition to basic information, like a profile picture, location, and age, women have the opportunity to tell their story.

The story can be as short as a few sentences, but many women choose to share detailed accounts of who they are and their personal battle with breast cancer. They include information about their background, personalities, families, and lives, as well as what their journey has been like.

Another profile element centers around diagnosis and treatment. Women put up specifics about their condition, including the type of breast cancer, stage, the treatments they have gone through, and Hormone Receptor Info. All of this information is searchable, so members can search for women in their area, seek out kindred spirits with similar interests and beliefs, or look for patients suffering from the same type of disease.

While there are hundreds of websites that provide medical advice, online and offline support groups, and multiple social media platforms, cofounder Mary Ray said there are none that address the complicated and specific needs of those dealing with a serious disease.

“Women want to talk about their condition and connect with people who know what they are join through,” she said. “There are hospital support groups, online groups, and list serves, but it is all basic technology you’d find in the year 2000. This is the kind of information people don’t post on Facebook, but that they do want to share, and to share it with people who have been in their shoes.”

MyBreastCancer team incorporates multiple internet trends into their platform. There is an activity feed, and users can post updates and add people to their team, like they would add Twitter followers. There are “hug” and “like” options, and a percentage bar to tell users how complete their profile is. There is even a “pinboard”  a la Pinterest where women can assemble collections of images, whether it be modeling head scarves, pictures from an Avon walk, or recipes that appeal to radiation-sensitive stomachs.

The company has also created mobile apps for iOS and Android. Aside from being a smart move for any business, this is particularly useful for the user that spends extensive amounts of time at doctors offices, hospitals, and in waiting rooms.

Discussion is also a key component on MyBreastCancerTeam.

In the q+a section, women ask and answer each others’ questions and the best answers are up voted by the community. The content is, of course, searchable. A patient looking for knowledge on a specific treatment type can type in the name of that treatment, and not only view relevant threads, but also comment or directly message women who responded to ask follow up questions.

There is even a Yelp like feature, where women recommend local doctors and other healthcare providers based on their personal experiences.

Due to HIPAA regulations, healthcare providers cannot disclose medical information. While this serves to protect patient privacy, it can make tapping into a disease-centered community more challenging. However, on MyBreastCancerTeam, women have control how much information they share, which enables a meaningful dialogue about sensitive, and private, medical issues.

“We heard so many women say they don’t know what their choices are and they are overwhelmed,” said cofounder Eric Peacock.  “MyBreastCancerTeam lets women empower each other, not just with information, but with a sense of perspective. The fear in the back of your mind quickly gets mediated when you see other women feeling similar situations.”

The site is created by MyHealthTeams, which launched its first network called MyAutismTeam last year. It started with 30 parents in California and grew to over 30,000 members. The founders realized they had struck a nerve by providing a safe, online forum for people affected by disease to interact with each other.

They chose breast cancer for the second network because it is so widespread- about 1 in 8 American women will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime. As Peaock put it, chances are everyone knows someone afflicted with breast cancer. The community is there, its just a central, consolidated network that is not.

MyBreastCancerTeam is free for members. It is pre-revenue right now, although there is a business model on deck for the future. The founders do not want to plaster the site in advertising or violate their members’ trust by selling data. But they do intend to make sure of their large, engaged, and targeted user base to market products that their members may need.

Due to privacy regulations, it can be difficult for certain businesses to reach their desired audience. Working through MyBreastCancerTeam could give them the opportunity to place their product in front of potential consumers. On the other side, a formerly dispersed community could benefit from a new collective bargaining power.

MyHealthTeams is based in San Francisco and received $1.75 million in seed funding from Adams Street Partners, 500 Startups, and angel investors.

She has also appeared in the West End musical Chicago

She became a household name after appearing in a popular soap opera at the age of 20 and has barely stopped working since.

But for actress Claire Sweeney, her two decades of success on stage and screen has come at a price.

Yesterday the former Brookside and Strictly Come Dancing star admitted her relentless ambition and drive to further her career has left her suffering from ‘emotional infertility’.

It is a condition she say all modern women occupied with working will be able to identify with.

But she added, despite being 41 she is determined she will have children.

She says: ‘I read an article about ‘emotional infertility’ which is where you’re just so busy you never bother to think or make space for having a family and I can relate to that definitely.

'I’ve suffered from putting my career first like a lot of women. When I was coming up to forty it did cross my mind- oh blooming hell here’s another job that’s going to take me away for the year and before you know it more times goes by’.

Miss Sweeney is probably still best-known for her role as Lindsey Corkhill in long-running soap Brookside.

In 2007, Miss Sweeney ended her six year relationship with businessman Tony Hibbard and spent the last few years focused on work- starring in the BBC drama Candy Cabs and presenting ITV’s 60 minute makeover.

She has also appeared in the West End musical Chicago.

But last Christmas, Miss Sweeney began a romance with an old friend- Liverpool-based businessman, Daniel Riley.

And although it’s early days, Claire says the relationship has helped to restore her dream of having children.

She says: ‘I definitely want to have children, that’s still part of my plan, so hopefully watch this space. I believe in fate but I think you do start thinking; yes I am at an age now where I do have to think about it and consider it.

But then a friend of mine has just got pregnant at 46. She had been trying for years for a baby and then got pregnant naturally at 46’.

Miss Sweeney has just completed a nationwide tour of Willy Russell’s classic play Educating Rita, opposite former Stars in their Eyes presenter Matthew Kelly.

Stepping into the award-winning shoes of actress Julie Walters, who starred as Rita in the film version, Liverpool-born Sweeney said she felt at home playing the role of Rita- a working-class hairdresser who seeks to better herself through education.

And the actress has also often spoken about the challenge of maintaining a slender figure.

In 2008 she fronted an ITV documentary where she put on two stone in just six weeks- to prove how easy it is to become obese.

Although she is back to her slimmer self, Claire admits she finds her figure far from perfect. She confesses: ‘Since doing that documentary I got a belly and I can’t get rid of it.

'I think if you store fat in a certain area it stays - I just can’t shake the stubborn little belly. But I find staying slim really hard, because I love food I am a butcher’s daughter.

Contest in Memphis reveals soul of jookin

Jookin, an increasingly popular dance style that originated in Memphis, doesn't claim the flashiest or most difficult of urban dance moves.

The kung-fu windmill spins of break dancing or the spastic aggression of west-coast krumping seem far more physically taxing. But jookin has a unique elegance that — unlike breaking or krumping — allows it to be emotionally poignant in various musical contexts, from rap to classical.

On Saturday evening, in the shadow of the Sears Tower in Crosstown, organizers of a dance "battle" attempted to acquaint jookin's technique and footwork with the world's most established dance form — classical ballet.

In this "Urban Ballet Showcase," staged by Memphis Urban Dance (MUD) Entertainment, competitive stylists paired off in one-on-one matches, competing for a final showdown with one of the evening's two headliners, who were also dueling each other.

A key move in jookin is known universally to ballerinas as being "en pointe," or on the tips of the toes. Jookers, however, are predominately male. Instead of pink satin pointe shoes, they wear colorful sneakers emblazoned with logos such as Nike and Adidas.

The ability to balance on the ends of the toes, frozen in elaborate contortions of torso and limb, is the hallmark of a top dancer. But also, as in classical ballet, the more control a jooker has over his body (especially the feet), the closer he comes to perfecting this mostly improvisational style.

One of the most instructive rounds of the evening, between master jookers G-Nerd and Daniel Price, was danced to a live string quartet playing a Mozart sonata. Their smooth-flowing arms and streamlined footwork might have put a Nutcracker prince to shame.

Personality — aka "showmanship" on the score cards of three anonymous judges — further engaged the audience, and Dr. Rico's humorous costume changes, Spider's mime-like comedy improvisations, and LaShonté Anderson's playful references to Michael Jackson, drew shouts of approval from the crowd of around 2,000.

For the finale, G-Nerd squared off against Division I-ranked Brandon "B. Frank" Franklin. G-Nerd's slow-motion, 360-degree pirouette while dramatically removing his baseball cap resulted in other competitors showering the stage with their own hats. He was declared the winner.

The exhibition was peppered with group dance routines by local schools U-Dig Dance Academy and SubRoy Studios. The Beale Street Flippers also exhibited their skills.

Now that future jookin competitions are in the works, organizers should try to inform viewers about the style's finer points so that distinctions can be made between showmanship and expert technicality. Sure, jookin sizzles to high-energy music. But a quiet Mozart melody reveals it to have unexpectedly light and lyrical soul.

Ordinary being acclimated for extraordinary

At aboriginal glance, a new building display in Kentucky seems to be an array of accustomed stuff: a hammer, shoes, accurate instruments. On afterpiece inspection, these backward items accomplished the extraordinary.

The accumulating at Western Kentucky University appearance added than 140 accepted items acclimated by luminaries in entertainment, politics, art, literature, sports and science.

There's accessories acclimated by charlatan Robert Ballard, who apparent the bones of the Titanic; a blur splicer from documentarian Ken Burns' alteration allowance and ball shoes beat by Liza Minnelli in a Tony Award-winning performance.

Other items cover a bang acclimated by above President Jimmy Carter to body Habitat for Humanity houses, Jay Leno's board microphone for several years on "The Tonight Show" and lab accessories acclimated by Nobel Prize-winning scientists.

It's a mish-mash of "ordinary accoutrement that helped ascertain a nation's greatness," WKU President Gary Ransdell said.

The abiding exhibit, alleged the "Instruments of American Excellence Collection" — opens Sept. 21 at the Kentucky Building on Western's campus in Bowling Green.

The accumulating is the abstraction of Dan Murph, a country songwriter who lives abreast the WKU campus and in Nashville, Tenn.

Murph, the accumulating chairman, hopes the display inspires visitors to accompany their own aerial ambitions.

"If the accumulating causes just one being to amend their career aisle or dream bigger or appear up with a new abstraction or cartel to try something they consistently capital to try, again the accumulating is a absolute success," he said.

Murph approached Ransdell about two years ago with his abstraction for the exhibit. Soon, a baby accumulation of acceptance and administrators was alive with Murph on accumulation a account of noteworthy humans to acquaintance for donated items to body the collection.

It didn't yield long: Sculptor Raymond Kaskey beatific an old board mallet acclimated in some of his award-winning work. Again came addition big bolt — accessories acclimated by Ballard, the acclaimed underwater explorer, to advice affix his command centermost with abysmal sea robots.

"That's the aboriginal account area we looked at anniversary added and realized, 'OK this can work, this is possible,'" Murph said.

The acknowledgment amount would be the backbiting of any solicitor. About three-quarters of those contacted accept contributed, Ransdell said. The university spent about $125,000 to clean and adapt the display space.

Items ambit from bookish to whimsical.

There's a apprenticed archetype of the U.S. Constitution that now-retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor kept in her accommodation and lab accoutrement acclimated by Roger D. Kornberg, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

There are antic backdrop from Hunter "Patch" Adams, a doctor and amusing activist who was portrayed in a cine by Robin Williams.

There's a flat microphone acclimated by Sam Phillips to almanac the aboriginal hits of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis at Sun Flat in Memphis, Tenn. There's a dabble from Charlie Daniels, a customized billy from Boston Pops aqueduct Keith Lockhart and ballet shoes beat by acclaimed ballerina Sara Mearns.

There's a agitation from tennis abundant Chris Evert, a skateboard from Tony Hawk, a soccer shoe from Mia Hamm and a golf club from Jack Nicklaus.

Murph's admired item, though, is from anyone who's not a domiciliary name.

It's an old brace of tennis shoes beat by award-winning abecedary Rafe Esquith, accepted for accepting amazing bookish after-effects from acceptance at an burghal school. Esquith said he believes agents should consistently be on their anxiety disposed to students.

"That affectionate of gave me goosebumps," Murph said.

Carter's bang looks like "it's apprenticed in 10,000 nails," Murph said.

"It afflicted what is accepted of presidents already they leave office," he said. "They are no best accustomed to sit down and address their memoirs until the day they die. They are accepted to get off the couch now and accomplish a aberration in the world."

The items announce the harder plan that went into their endeavors.

"Sometimes abundance can be accomplished with the simplest of instruments or tools, if you've got the mind, the affection and the spirit to put those accoutrement to work," Ransdell said.

Accident highlights increasingly problematic scooter issues

The headlights were bearing down and the speed limit had just shot up to 60 mph, but Perry Smith wasn't worried.

As he cruised down Highway 25, the longtime high schoolteacher assumed the driver behind him would do what most did when they came up to their relatively slow-moving counterparts -- flick a quick signal, dart into the other lane and pass him and his scooter on by.

That didn't happen this time.

The 22-year-old driver of the other vehicle, he learned later, was eating a taco as she drove and she didn't see him. The 4,000-pound Chevrolet never slowed, hitting him directly from behind. Smith was knocked up on the roof of her car, his head hitting the windshield as he flew. He dropped to the hard pavement, injuring his back and giving him a severe case of road rash.

His scooter rolled underneath her Chevy, and both caught fire.

"Had I not been wearing a helmet, I don't imagine I would be alive," Smith said Wednesday, two years after the incident. "I heard about what happened with the college student. My heart goes out to her. It's just an awful tragedy. I wish she had been wearing a helmet. She'd probably be in a lot better shape."

As it is, Meg Herndon, the 21-year-old Southeast Missouri State University student, remained in critical condition Wednesday at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, according to spokeswoman Ann Vassett. The senior from Fenton, Mo., was airlifted there Sunday after a motor vehicle accident that involved a full-size four-by-four pickup colliding with the scooter she was riding at the corner of Sprigg Street and Normal Avenue.

She was not wearing a helmet, law enforcement confirmed in the days since. But officers have been quick to point out that, unlike those who ride motorcycles, scooter riders are not required to by Missouri law.

And Herndon, a popular soccer player who is studying to be a nurse, is nowhere near the rule's exception. Most local scooter drivers don't wear a helmet.

Sgt. Kevin Orr, who heads the Cape Girardeau Police Department's traffic division, said the city has an "extremely large" number of scooters on the road right now. They also are involved in several accidents each year, he said. According to police records, 11 scooters were in crashes in 2010, 14 in 2011 and five so far this year.

But a lot of them take place in the warmer months after the university resumes classes, he said, because many of those who ride scooters in town tend to be college students. While helmets may not be a legal requirement, Orr said he'd like to see scooter drivers volunteer to wear them.

"If I was going to give you the best and safest advice," Orr said, "in my opinion, helmets ought to be required for scooter riders. They're on two wheels as opposed to four. If they do everything they're required to do, it's still not as safe as being in a four-wheeled vehicle."

Doug Richards, director of the university's police department, said he knows students are driving the scooters in droves. Almost 400 students have registered as scooter riders this semester. He expects that number to continue to grow in the coming years, considering that scooters don't require insurance, can be bought for about $1,000, don't call for state registration and are cheap on gas.

"It's all about the economics," Richards said. "We've seen the numbers just escalate, and it is posing a major safety problem. It's becoming a real issue."

Scooters offer little crash protection, are sometimes hard to see and have few safety requirements, he said.

"When that motorized vehicle goes up against cars and trucks, it's going to lose," he said.

The university sends letters to students who register scooters offering safety tips, such as being familiar with the vehicle, making sure all components are functioning and to follow the rules of the road, Richards said. He's also interested, he said, with working with city officials to see if making helmets legal can be mandated by law.

Still, Todd Rapp, owner of Campus Scooters in Cape Girardeau, is dubious that anything short of that will work. He sells 300 to 400 new scooters a year -- more than half of those to college-age buyers -- and he's tried to encourage buyers to wear helmets. He's even had promotions where he has given helmets to new owners, but few seem interested.

"They just don't want to wear a helmet," he said. "The guys don't think it looks cool, and the girls say it will mess up their hair. They need to realize that when their head hits concrete at 30 miles an hour, it's going to hurt."

Coincidentally, Rapp was nearby when Herndon had her accident and he rushed to the scene. He remembers seeing her lying still on the street from an impact so hard it knocked off her shoes.

"That's not something that you forget," he said.

when suddenly a fireball came from the staircase

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Factory fires in two of Pakistan’s major cities killed 45 people and injured dozens more on Tuesday, officials said, including some who had to break through barred windows and leap to the ground to escape the flames.

Survivors recounted how their colleagues were trapped behind blocked exits, and firefighters said that one reason why the blazes were so deadly is that the buildings — a shoe factory in the eastern city of Lahore and a garment factory in the southern port of Karachi —lacked clear escape routes.

Such safety issues are common through Pakistan, where buildings also lack emergency equipment like alarms and sprinklers and municipal rules are rarely enforced.

The fire that swept through the four-story shoe factory in Lahore killed 25 people, some from burns and some from suffocation, said senior police officer Multan Khan. The factory was illegally set up in a residential part of the city.

It broke out when people in the building were trying to start their generator after the electricity went out. Sparks from the generator made contact with chemicals used to make the shoes, igniting the blaze. Pakistan faces widespread blackouts, and many people use generators to provide electricity for their houses or to run businesses.

One of the workers, Muhammad Shabbir, said he had been working at the factory for six months along with his cousin. He said all the chemicals and the generator were located in the garage, which was also the only way out of the building. When the fire ignited, there was no way out. Shabbir said he had just gone outside the factory when the fire started, but his cousin was severely burned and died at the hospital.

A firefighter at the scene, Numan Noor, said the reason most of the victims died was because the main escape route was blocked.

‘‘The people went to the back side of the building but there was no access, so we had to make forceful entries and ... rescue the people,’’ said Noor.

Firefighters broke holes in the factory’s brick walls to reach victims inside. At the morgue, bodies were lined up on a hallway floor, covered with white sheets.

The second blaze at the garment factory in the southern port city of Karachi, the country’s economic heart, killed at least 20 people, said the head of the emergency department at the Civil Hospital in Karachi, Tariq Kamal Ayubi.

More than 40 others were injured, said another hospital official, Nazir Abbasi. All were workers at the factory.

Pakistani television showed video of the five-story factory with flames leaping from the top-floor windows and smoke billowing into the night sky. Firefighters could be seen pounding on the metal grates covering some of the windows and pulling out smoke-covered bodies.

Many of the workers were injured when they jumped from the burning building, said another doctor at the hospital, Karar Abbasi.

One was a 27-year-old pregnant woman who had to leap from the second floor and was now suffering complications with her pregnancy, said hospital officials.

An injured factory worker Mohammad Ilyas, speaking at the hospital, said he was working along with roughly 50 other men and women on one of the floors when suddenly a fireball came from the staircase.

‘‘I jumped from my seat as did others and rushed toward the windows, but iron bars on the windows barred us from escaping. Some of us quickly took tools and machines to break the iron bars,’’ he said. ‘‘That was how we managed to jump out of the windows down to the ground floor.’’

His leg was injured in the fall.

Others weren’t so lucky. An Associated Press reporter saw a charred body partially hanging out one of the factory’s barred windows. It appeared the victim tried to escape but couldn’t make it through the bars.

Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in a statement expressed his shock and grief over the deaths in both cities.