Tag Archives: philadelphia

enjoying the festive papal atmosphere

Here is some helpful advice from the state of Pennsylvania (our friends in rural Pennsylvania, I’m thinking) on how to enjoy yourself at the papal visit.

If you get caught up in a crowd of people:

  • Try to walk around crowds, rather than through them.
  • Stay on your feet – do not sit down or bend down to pick up something.
  • If you fall down, get back up on your feet as quickly as possible.
  • Move with the flow of people, rather than against the flow.
  • Carefully and safely make your way toward the edge of the crowd.

It bears repeating – when in the big city, be aware of your surroundings at all times, tuck your wallet into one of your socks, and do not…repeat…do not under any circumstances bend over.

Brad Pitt at the World Meeting of Families

Today was a pretty tranquil scene in Philadelphia. Although parts of the city resembled a sort of soft military occupation – police, uniformed soldiers (who were polite and helpful), TSA and border patrol (who weren’t), it was actually quiet in the absence of traffic and with a lot of people staying home from work. In the morning, people seemed to confine themselves to sidewalks out of habit, then gradually during the day, they fanned out into the streets.
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Contrast this with what is expected tomorrow…

Okay, so that’s the Philadelphia scene from World War Z… which was actually filmed in Scotland with some Philadelphia landmarks photo-shopped in.

Comcast

I engaged in some Comcast bashing recently. I’m not really sorry. You can argue that they do a lot for the Philadelphia economy. Well, that would also be true if they were manufacturing land mines. But here’s an article talking about how they do support some local startup companies.

Comcast invests in local startups through Genacast Ventures, a partnership between investor Gil Beyda and Comcast Ventures that helps fuel early-stage companies in the area, including LeadID, Invite Media and Packlate.com. One past success is a seed investment in Divide, a bring-your-own-device enterprise security company formerly known as Enterpriod. Divide eventually sold to Google.

“Our passion has always been to turn great ideas into powerful businesses — and that starts with finding talented entrepreneurs,” said Beyda, who leads Genacast Ventures. “Comcast Ventures, with the help of the Genacast and Catalyst funds, has provided unparalleled strategic and financial support for entrepreneurs just getting started. Identifying innovative leaders is the mission of all our partners, and the ability to support them with the assets from Comcast and NBCUniversal provides startups with a distinct advantage.”

Comcast has also collaborated with DreamIt Ventures to invest in minority-owned startups, including Philly outfits ROAR and LIA Diagnostics.