In 2012, Urban Outfitters’ web sales totaled $663M, up from $7M in 2003 [LINKS]

Who’s No. 1? [Internet Retailer] “Among all the retailers that have held spots in the Internet Retailer rankings over the past decade, chain retailer Urban Outfitters also showed the biggest jump in web sales—more than 9000% to $663.3 million in 2012 from about $7.3 million in 2003.”

How a few Philly high school students organized themselves into a few hundred in four days [Axis Philly] “So, on Friday, another CAPA student, Maureen Smith, created a new Facebook page: Silenced Students March — announcing a plan by her and some of her classmates to protest the threatened cuts. […] The response — recorded online in blow-by-blow Facebook posts — was immediate, enthusiastic, and complex as any overnight organizing effort.”

Multiplayer games, a high-tech garden pump and more at Lehigh Valley Tech’s second hackathon [Keystone Edge] “…the top winner earlier this month at Lehigh Valley Tech’s  second annual hackathon, was Let’s Play Internets, a light-hearted use of technology billed as “an online game for social people.”

Inventing the Future: Making Scientists Outside the Lab [Keystone Edge] “Despite its incredible promise, Philly’s regional life-science sector is undergoing a complicated transition. Over 6,000 life science workers lost their jobs due to a series of mergers, acquisitions and layoffs among major pharmaceutical and biotech companies. The Pennsylvania Life Science Institute [PA LSI], a nonprofit affiliate of Pennsylvania Bio, is working to get them re-employed. ”

One Big Workbench [New York Times] The Hacktory‘s Georgia Guthrie is quoted in this feature on makerspaces around the country. “But there are reasons beyond additional space that it might be better not to build or tear things apart at home. Laser cutters are prized within the maker community, but they run the risk of catching on fire, said Georgia Guthrie, who belongs to the Hacktory, a hacker space in Philadelphia. “You have to have a fire extinguisher near them at all times,” she said.”

2 Philly firms buy Euro plants: QlikTech, Triumph [Philadelphia Inquirer] “Qlik Technologies Inc., Radnor, says it has acquired one of its software suppliers, NComVA AB, a Sweden-based company that develops ‘advanced visualization technology.'”