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In acting they call it a "cattle call." Hundreds of up-and-coming actors file in to the same audition in hopes of being chosen for a role. It's quite a demeaning process. Kind of hard to tell with a name like "cattle call," but the process goes something like this: The actor stands in the center of a cold, uninviting room and faces a table with what is essentially a panel of judges, similar to a firing squad.

InterSys Consulting keeps its operations lean by outsourcing and working in the cloud.

This and more important news from your Fast Company editors, with updates all day. Google Buys Motorola .

An intimate look at a group of elite Beijing high-school students reveals how China's schooling system is one of the resurgent nation's greatest strengths--and biggest weaknesses. .caption {color:#666;font-size:11px;} .caption img {border-bottom:2px;} During recess, students at the Second High School Attached to Beijing Normal University--like their counterparts across the nation--gather in the courtyard to do calisthenics.

These elements are the building blocks of a modern society, and China has all of them. Until now

Author Tina Rosenberg realized that while our common conception of peer pressure is negative, it can be used to drive people to improve their own behavior.

Here's what I am seeing.

Have you mastered your social media strategy?

Caffeine is a trickier substance than we generally acknowledge. Here's what you need to know to get more out of caffeine--starting with a suggestion to go cold turkey. Caffeine seems so simple, even if you're a veteran user.

Your food sucked, your server's attitude hovered somewhere between dismissive and hostile, and if there was an award for longest time elapsed between courses (delivered by the cockroach you saw skitter across the eatery's bathroom wall) this restaurant would win. Hopefully the grand trifecta of dining disasters does not happen to you. And if so, my condolences, and hopefully a trip to a nice Danny Meyer establishment to make it up is in order.

Leave it to a psychologist at the University of Essex to discover that the secret sauce in irresistible video games is the characters' personalities--especially those that leave just enough creative space for players to pour themselves into.

Author David Bornstein says that when it comes to covering social innovation, the media is doing it wrong. Instead of showing what's wrong in the world, how about showing how smart solutions can bring about change

In the aftermath of the riots, a couple of noble London architects are injecting some guerrilla design into the cleanup process, and helping those who can't rebuild. The U.K. riots of the past week have done incalculable damage to businesses and homes.

The ocean is a virtually limitless source of water, if we can get the salt out.

In January, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg tapped Rachel Sterne to be the city's first chief digital officer--and ever since then, the 27-year-old (28 on Monday) has been on a tear, dragging New York into the 21st century.