Natural Recycling ~ 5,000 Larvae vs 2 Fish!

Thanks to my MIT D-Lab colleague Gwyn Jones for spotting this enthralling timelapse footage of 5,000 Larvae dining on 2 Fish! This kind of natural recycling is actually quite important. Indeed, the Swiss Eawag Aquatic Research Institute's Department of Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries has an entire Solid Waste Management research theme dedicated to the Conversion of Organic Refuse by Saprophages (CORS)...

"Saprophages are all organisms feeding of dead or decaying matter. Typical examples are earthworms, millipedes or insect larvae. Conversion of organic refuse by saprophages is an innovative technique to treat organic waste in low and middle-income countries, with degraded organic matter and saprophage organisms themselves as treatment products."

The resulting end-products are in-turn used as feed for fish farms or other livestock or are otherwise converted to beneficial use.

Trash Is Cash ~ Phillie Says YIMBY to NYC Waste

Thanks to NYTimes reporter Manny Fernandez for spotting that Philadelphians Reap Rewards from New York’s Trash...

"New York City pays Waste Management, the company that runs the landfill complex, and Waste Management in turn pays millions of dollars in fees to its host municipalities, in addition to making other donations and contributions that have turned the landfills into an unusual source of civic pride for many residents. People in Falls Township have their trash picked up for free by Waste Management. The company donated four-wheel-drive vehicles to the Morrisville Police Department. Nearly 740 people in Tullytown recently received checks in the mail, an annual gift to property owners [who] used to get $1,500 each. But business is booming at the landfills: This year, each check was for $5,000 [...] "New York’s trash is our cash," chuckled Dan Dougherty, a 56-year-old foreman watching Game 2 on Thursday night at Dacey’s Pub on West Philadelphia Avenue in Morrisville."

NIMBY? No way. Here it's YIMBY!

Whole Brain Emulation ~ Anders @ Sing Summit!

Thanks to Michael Anissimov for posting Singularity Summit 2009 videos, including this delighter by Anders Sandberg...

Desertec ~ Huge Saharan Solar Power Deal

Good to read in the BBC that Sahara Sun 'to help power Europe'...

"A sustainable energy initiative that will start with a huge solar project in the Sahara desert has been announced by a consortium of 12 European businesses. The Desertec Industrial Initiative aims to supply Europe with 15% of its energy needs by 2050. Companies who signed up to the $400bn (£240bn) venture include Deutsche Bank, Siemens and the energy provider EOn"

Robert Rines ~ R.I.P. IP Giant & Inspiring Educator

Very sad to hear Robert Rines passed away yesterday at age 87. I first met him -- as did so many fellow MIT engineers -- in the classes he taught for nearly a half-century, 6.901/6.931 Inventions and Patents/Development of Inventions and Creative Ideas. Well before our contemporary appreciation for intellectual property, Rines wrote Create or Perish and championed the power and rights of the inventor. As fellow MIT alum-entrepreneur Z Holly poignantly remembers, Bob was a...

"Friend, mentor, philanthropist, amazing renaissance man. Who else can claim they played violin with Einstein, invented high-resolution image-scanning radar, founded a law school, won an Emmy for television-turned-broadway musical, found evidence of the loch ness monster, and taught and inspired thousands of MIT engineers?"

Indeed, perhaps Bob's most epic accomplishment is founding the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, New Hampshire, which today is among the country's top places specializing in intellectual property law. The interesting back-story is that this was supposed to be the MIT School of Law -- but Rines was turned down by then MIT President Jerry Weisner, something I still think was a big mistake!

iGEM 2009 ~ Genetically Engineered Machines!

The iGEM 2009 Jamboree has been taking place at MIT over the past few days thru now! This international Genetically Engineered Machine competition has student teams compete to design and assemble engineered machines using advanced genetic components and technologies. Randy Rettberg, the director of the iGEM competition provokes us, asking...

"Can simple biological systems be built from standard, interchangeable parts and operated in living cells? Or is biology just too complicated to be engineered in this way?"

I'm delighted to see this happen, especially since I recall my conversation back in the day with TK about the power of student competitions and independent activities as an inspirational and inventive force. Lots of goodness has blossomed since then!

President Magnanti ~ New Uni Hires MIT Prof...

Great to see Singapore announce the formal selection of MIT Institute Professor and Engineering Dean-Emeritus Tom Magnanti as the Founding President of the new Singapore University of Technology and Design. This new Uni will be quite unique in having inter-disciplinary programs across four prime domains, including Architecture and Sustainable Design, Engineering Product Design, Engineering Systems and System Design, and Information Engineering and Design. Magnanti has long ties to Singapore, including helping start and run the Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA) and serving as founding director of the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (Smart). I personally know him from his time running the MIT School of Engineering where he championed the new Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, the UPOP Program, and was a strong supporter of the Lemelson-MIT Invention program and student-run MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition.

Mixed-Up ~ Celebrating A More Diverse World...

British geneticist Aarathi Prasad writes in the Telegraph that It's a wonderful, mixed-up world...

"...my daughter, and approximately 400,000 other children like her in Britain today, is mixed race. Families like mine are on the rise -- nearly one in 10 British children now lives in a mixed-race family, a figure that is six times higher than it was when I was a child [...] All my instincts as a geneticist make me question the notion of what it means to be "pure". As for it being a good thing, the potential for inherited disease in children of related individuals, or people from small communities, tells us that inbreeding is generally not a great idea. And there are very few communities in the world that are sufficiently inbred to be able to confer upon themselves the dubious honour of being "pure-bred". On the other hand, nature repeatedly shows us that genetically, diversity must be better: more diverse genes mean that animals are better at adapting to changing environmental conditions, and at fighting off and surviving infections."

Interesting stuff. Read the rest of the article for further elaboration of this sometimes touchy topic.

Birdmen ~ Wing Suited Extreme Adventurers

60 Minutes spots the Birdmen, wing suited extreme adventurers...

Faith In Technology ~ TimeWarp Meets SawStop!

Would you stick your finger into a saw to illustrate its safety features? Right, well, these jokers do just that! Thanks to MIT's Amy Qian for spotting how TimeWarp delivers answers to our inquiries... Being pretty objectivist, I ought to think of this as "Confidence In Technology" given the data, facts, and evidence which show that SawStop works. Nevertheless, I'm ultra-conflicted about how willing I would be to stick my own paw into the maw! That would be as close to an act of faith as I'd ever get!

Howtoons Your Halloween! ~ Costume Contest...

Best Costume? Let's Howtoon it! Bring your cloak on!

Containerized Development ~ Health Clinics Next

For a while now I've been interested in finding more Urgent Solutions, rapidly deployable Containerized Infrastructure, and living quarter innovations such as Tempohousing. So I'm pleased to see another addition to this mix in Bridgette Meinhold's Inhabitat article, Shipping Container Health Clinics For Developing Countries...

Inhabitat This ~ Glorious Green Goods & More!

Inhabitat delivers the latest! Get your click on these...

David v Goliath ~ Kingbird Pwns Red-Tailed Hawk!

Thanks again to the Daily Mail for spotting another epic nature story, How little bird David defended his young from Goliath the red-tailed hawk (with a mid-flight peck on the head)...

M51 Composite ~ Glorious Whirlpool Galaxy!

Thanks to BBC for posting this ESA/NASA composite image of M51...

Life Zoomer ~ U of Utah's Learn.Genetics Tool!

Wow, check out this interactive Powers of 10-esque Life Zoomer! The University of Utah has online Genetic Science Learning Center tools for "making science easy for everyone to understand" -- Fantastic!

Skyline From Memory ~ Savant Artist's Superskill!

Thanks to the Daily Mail for spotting Autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire [who] draws spellbinding 18ft picture of New York from memory... after a 20-minute helicopter ride over city!

DIY Jet Pack ~ Howtoons For Candy Capture!

Go to Howtoons, get your Jet Pack on, and max candy capture!-)

AssuredLabor ~ David Reich @ MIT D-Ventures!

Excellent to have David Reich return to our MIT Development Ventures class to share his experience over the past two years founding and building AssuredLabor -- including recently launching their Spanish-language site Empleolisto in start-country Nicaragua! David and classmates first started planning this concept as the Ad Hoc Labor idea back in Development Ventures Fall 2007 class. Since then they've adjusted business models a couple times, secured some angel financing, key partnerships, and -- most important -- thousands of company and employee customers! They're creating the Monster.com for Emerging Markets and boosting employment to the benefit of all! FYI, here's Nicaraguan TV coverage...

Bicycle Parking ~ Robotics Transforms Storage!

I've written about this bike robo-storage system before, but this video renders it very clear, including how to fast-fabricate the deployment... This is a fantastic example of a robotics and automation-enabled urban innovation.

Homemade Hero ~ Howtoons Your Halloween!

DIY Super-Homemade Hero costume for superior candy capture...

Hector Hernandez ~ Grokking Extremophiles!

Delighted to have MIT post-doc extremophile scholar Hector Hernandez on MaximizingProgress.tv tonight! We talked about his studies in the biogeochemistry of carbon sequestration. This is an important topic since so little is known about how underground microbial ecologies will affect how carbon is trapped or the operational efficiency of CO2 injection into subsurface volumes. We've known each other since serving together on the task-force advising the MIT Presidential search process, i.e. while Hector was an MIT Chemistry grad student. After Hector "made like a cylinder and graduated" he's worked together with other colleagues in MIT's Parsons Lab exploring the wide-open and still poorly understood topics of ecobiology, long-term environmental impacts, and other frontiers of environmental science and engineering!

Natural Gas ~ Meet the Methane Makers...

Thanks to BBC Magazine for spotlighting Lord Stern's report on the impact of meat production. Among other things, lots of natural gas...

Take It Off ~ Supermodels Shed C's For Climate!

What an aesthetically appealing way to show support for a cause!-) Conceived by Cameron Russell of the Chase-Russell super-family!

Energy in Brazil ~ Engevix Co-Founder Tue 10/27

Don't miss a great chance to hear about achievements, challenges, policies, and opportunities for Energy in Brazil this Tuesday, October 27, 2009 from 6:30p–8:00p in E51-115, the Wong Auditorium in MIT Sloan's Tang Center. Mr. José Antunes, Co-Founder and COO of Engevix, a fast-growing nearly $1B/year clean energy engineering firm, will speak about the Brazilian energy landscape, drawing from a 40 year career in the sector, highlighting biopower, hydropower, and solarpower. Fascinating opportunity to hear from a key player from one of the BRICs!

Reinventing Syria ~ Playing a Pivotal New Role

My favorite monthly magazine, National Geographic, spotlights Syria in the latest issue in an article by Don Belt and photos by Ed Kashi...

"Forty years of socialism -- this is what we're up against," said Abdallah Dardari, 46, a London-educated economist who serves as deputy prime minister for economic affairs. [President] Bashar has recruited Syria's best and brightest expatriates to return home. The new team has privatized the banking system, created duty-free industrial parks, and opened a Damascus stock exchange to encourage more of the private and foreign investment that has quickened the pulse of the capital and launched dozens of upscale nightclubs and restaurants. "My job is to deliver for the people of Syria," said Bashar, who is known for occasionally dropping by a restaurant, leaving the bodyguards outside, to share a meal with other diners. In his push to modernize, Bashar's most potent ally is his wife, the former Asma al-Akhras, a stylish, Western-educated business executive who has launched a number of government-sponsored programs for literacy and economic empowerment. Daughter of a prominent Syrian heart specialist, Asma was born and raised in London."

The whole story is fascinating and timely -- especially since I've been keenly supporting the Innovate Syria initiative born here at MIT -- and because Syria is the lynchpin for enabling a peaceful and vital Levant.

MIT Elevator Pitch Contest ~ Finale Thurs 10/29!

Definitely check out the Finale of the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition's Elevator Pitch Contest this week Thursday, 29 October 2009 from 7-9pm in Kirsch Auditorium! Last year Riccardo Signorelli won for his one minute Pitch on electricity storage venture FastCap. Who of the over 300 entrants this year will make it all the way to the Finale? Twelve semifinalists (two from each track) will be announced in random order and invited to redeliver their new venture Pitch in one minute or less. Both a new panel of Judges and the audience will decide on 4 prizes for $10,000 in cash. $1,000 for the Audience Choice award, $2,000 for 2nd and 3rd place winners, and $5,000 to 1st place winner for the best Elevator Pitch overall. That's serious coin for 60 seconds of work;-) See you Thursday night!

Maasai: At The Crossroads ~ Premiere Fri 10/30

Harvard's Calestous Juma, the Director of the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project helps launch Maasai: At The Crossroads this Friday in a world university premiere. This 45-minute documentary narrated by Juma is about enriching the lives of Maasai children through education while respecting their customs, traditions, and way of life. The special showing is in Harvard's Science Center Lecture, Hall D this Friday, October 30, 2009 from 6:30-8:30pm and is open to the public. MIT Media Lab spinoff One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) will demo the XO laptop after the screening. (FYI, see Dutch videojournalist Ruud Elmendorp's recent piece on XO laptops in Kibwezi, rural Kenya.) And producers and founder of Africa Schools of Kenya (ASK) will also be there.

D-Lab Design ~ OpenCourseWare Shares All!

MIT's OpenCourseWare (OCW) staff spotlight D-Lab Design! OCW is MIT's project to share via web nearly all MIT course content openly and freely available to the world. We hope that other engineering colleges and universities -- or even motivated individuals -- can benefit from having these materials to either start or enhance great offerings at their own locations.

Black Like Me ~ Exploring 1950s US Prejudices

Thanks to the BBC's Kevin Connolly for Exposing the colour of prejudice asking...

"How much does the colour of our skin make us who we are, and shape the way the world sees us?"

...and spotlighting a 50 year-old book by John Howard Griffin who...

"...embarked on one of the most remarkable one-man social and psychological experiments in history. Griffin was the white man who fooled hundreds of Americans into believing he was a black man as he travelled through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia -- and who felt at first hand the bigotry that meant. The whole business of racial impersonation might make us feel vaguely uncomfortable now, but in 1959 a black writer simply could not have found an audience for such a graphic portrayal of African-American grievance. Only a white writer prepared to take the extraordinary steps that Griffin took could tell the story. [...] He took a drug called Oxsoralen, which is to combat Vitiligo [...] and got under an ultra violet sunlamp."

This procedure worked and allowed him to embark on a six week journey in the Deep South, including working various trades. Griffin published Black Like Me in 1961 describing the problems he encountered in finding food and facilities as well as the default hatred of many everyday white people towards him. Connolly concludes...

"It is worth reading what he wrote -- and then reflecting, in this age of the first African-American president, on how far we have come. And how far we have to go."

Vintage Cycle Chic ~ The Bikable, Livable City!

One of my favorite sites is Copenhagen Cycle Chic which consistently and delightfully celebrates the vibrant cycling lifestyle and sensibly designed, cycle-friendly cities! Usually the spotlight is on contemporary beauties -- i.e. photos of cyclists in all seasons, in all situations, especially in Copenhagen, but with guest excursions to lovely spots elsewhere. Today Mikael spotted two vintage clips from Holland and Denmark -- being biased, I re-post here the Dutch one;-) And I remind all of the remarkable century-old Barcelona video!

Inspiring Inhabitats ~ Let's All Live In These!

More lovely Inhabitats! Get your click on these...

Great Charter Cities ~ Historical Travelogues...

I've been quite fascinated by Paul Romer's idea for Charter Cities -- i.e. city-scale special administrative zones with rule-of-law, openness to migrants, and attraction to investors -- as well as the pro's and con's of urban renewal and regeneration -- i.e. the tearing up of the old and building of the new. See especially recent Charter comments on urban housing. So thanks to Erica Young and Cory Kidd for spotting these late-1930s vintage travelogues. Yes, the voice-over is laced with the imperialist and racist western outlook of the time, but the images capture an important historical view on what are arguably today our greatest cities. First Hong Kong, "Gateway to China"... Second, Singapore, "Crossroads of the East"... Fascinating historical perspectives on two cities which were clearly vital freeports and transport hubs already at that time. Curious too is the emphasis on "British Imperial Power" since both of these cities would fall shockingly rapidly to Japanese forces just three years after these images were shot. Post-WWII led to the emergence of the modern Commonwealth with Singapore today a thriving independent city-state and, since 1997, Hong Kong as a special administrative region of mainland China, but effectively still a highly autonomous city.

Storing Wind ~ Obama Hears Slocum's Solution

Wind power when the wind isn't blowing? Check out the MIT way!

Remembering DEC ~ Epic MIT Spinoff Firm...

Innovation Economist Scott Kirsner writes about Remembering DEC: Memoir from Co-Founder Harlan Anderson Due Out in November...

"Harlan Anderson just turned 80 this month. With Ken Olsen, he started Digital Equipment Corp., which was one of the pillars of the Route 128 era here in Massachusetts, and at one point was the second-biggest technology company in the world. Next month, his memoirs are out: Learn, Earn & Return: My Life as a Computer Pioneer. [...] Olsen and Anderson left MIT in 1957 to start a company that would design new computers that took advantage of the shift from vacuum tubes to transistors. [...] At its peak, DEC employed an incredible 140,000 people worldwide. Olsen was replaced as its leader in 1992, and in the late 1990s, many Digital businesses were sold off, culminating in the sale of the company to Compaq in 1998."

The photo of the early DEC Board is pretty epic in that it reminds us of Jay W Forrester, MIT Sloan Professor Emeritus whose former students have gone on to found more high-impact ventures than any other Institute faculty member! Digital, MITRE, 3Com, Patni, Pugh-Roberts, Meditech -- this list continues. Jay even used his own System Dynamics methodology to model the growth of startup companies... and used it as a board member at Digital;-)

Amanda Parkes ~ Toys, Energy, DIY, Media, more!

It was excellent to have MIT alumna engineer-designer-entrepreneur Amanda Parkes joining me on MaximizingProgress.tv tonight! After going through Stanford's undergrad Design program, she worked in the museum exhibits sector culminating in the awesome SF Exploratorium! Attracted to the MIT Media Lab, Amanda worked with Tangible Media innovator, Professor Hiroshi Ishii on several projects, including especially DIY dynamic toys Topobo together with collaborator Hayes Raffle. This project is akin to one of my favorite DIY toys -- Legos -- in that it's assemble-your-self, but it has the additional glorious property that it also remembers how you manipulate it! So if you physically tweak it -- and thus mimic walking, for example -- then Topobo remembers how to walk! That's just brilliant! Amanda also runs the FutureCraft class with collaborator doctoral student and innovation impressario Leo Bonanni, protagonist of the Sourcemap open supply chains initiative. Beyond lab and class, Amanda connected with Sam Hill and co-founded BodegaAlgae, a clean energy company which was Finalist in the 2007 MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition and continues to pursue their algae-based biofuels business!

Speed Demon ~ Wind + Paper Plate = Howtoons!

Blow this plate and get your Speed Demon on!

Internalizing Externalities ~ Sobering Realities...

Two great pieces today in the NYTimes, one by Matthew Wald on Fossil Fuels’ Hidden Cost Is in Billions, Study Says and another by Leslie Kaufman on Nudging Recycling From Less Waste to None. Both stories are fundamentally about accounting for what historically cost nothing: the environmental and health impact of absorbing pollution and waste. That's changing fast. Fossil fuel...

"...costs the United States about $120 billion a year in health costs, mostly because of thousands of premature deaths from air pollution. [...] "The largest portion of this is excess mortality -- increased human deaths as a result of criteria air pollutants emitted by power plants and vehicles," said Jared L. Cohon, president of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, who led the study committee. Nearly 20,000 people die prematurely each year from such causes, according to the study’s authors, who valued each life at $6 million based on the dollar in 2000. Those pollutants include small soot particles, which cause lung damage; nitrogen oxides, which contribute to smog; and sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain."

At the same time, for solid wastes...

"Across the nation, an antigarbage strategy known as "zero waste" is moving from the fringes to the mainstream, taking hold in school cafeterias, national parks, restaurants, stadiums and corporations. The movement is simple in concept if not always in execution: Produce less waste. Shun polystyrene foam containers or any other packaging that is not biodegradable. Recycle or compost whatever you can. Though born of idealism, the zero-waste philosophy is now propelled by sobering realities, like the growing difficulty of securing permits for new landfills and an awareness that organic decay in landfills releases methane that helps warm the earth’s atmosphere."

By accounting for true costs, and internalizing these historic externalities, economic rationality drives us to minimize these costs. This is a good thing!

Wind to Grid ~ Early MIT Alumco Energy Invention

Thanks to WIRED archival review This Day in Tech for spotting Oct. 19, 1941: Electric Turbines Get First Wind...

"In 1941 the Smith-Putnam Wind Turbine fed AC power to the electric grid, the first wind machine ever to do so. The unprecedented project was built up from nothing, practically conjured, by Palmer Putnam, an MIT-trained geologist with no formal education or experience in wind power. He was a fascinating character, a clean-energy entrepreneur 70 years ahead of his time..."

Interesting longer story, including an epic failure mode! Plus check out video of the original turbine in action and more info about the Smith-Putnam turbines!

Density Is Green ~ The Case For Cities...

Witold Rybczynski in the Atlantic makes The Green Case for Cities...

"Density is green. Does this mean that we all have to live in Manhattan? Not necessarily. Cities such as Stockholm and Copenhagen are dense without being vertical. And closer to home is Montreal, where the predominant housing form is a three- or four-story walk-up. Walk-ups, which don’t require elevators, can create a sufficient density -- about 50 people per acre -- to support public transit, walkability, and other urban amenities. Increasing an area’s density requires changing zoning to allow smaller lots and compact buildings such as walk-ups and townhouses. In other words, being truly green means returning to the kinds of dense cities and garden suburbs Americans built in the first half of the 20th century. A tall order -- but after the binge of the last housing boom, many Americans might be ready to consider a little downsizing."

Tailball ~ Dolphins Kick Around Jellyfish;-)

Thanks to Cynical-C and Dangerous Minds for spotting the BBC short piece Dolphin Football off North Coast and related video...

Inhabitat Green ~ More Delights By Design!

Another weekly dose of green Inhabitats!

Priceless! ~ You Can't Make These Up!-)

Homeless compete for cash; honesty at work... Phobic tattoo quotes Leviticus which also forbids... Tattooing! German arm wrestler is one-limbed Popeye... 'Midget Cup' at horse race slammed... 'Ho White' isn't "sweet", angers Disney... Aussie chooses Pet Croc, divorces husband... Why are half of these Australian?-)

Income Is Development ~ KickStart's Fisher...

Thanks to Policy Innovations for spotlighting KickStart co-founder Martin Fisher's Innovations piece, Income Is Development: KickStart’s Pumps Help Kenyan Farmers Transition to a Cash Economy...

"In a cash economy, money is the primary means to securing other vital resources. Except in a few very remote areas of the world, if you ask a person in a poor place what they need most, they will tell you that it is a way to make more money. The way to address the challenge of persistent poverty is to create sustainable income-earning opportunities for millions of people. Income is development."

Winner of the 2008 Lemelson-MIT Sustainability Award, Martin Fisher and colleagues enacted this idea nearly two decades ago by founding KickStart -- today best known for their MoneyMaker Pumps -- and pursuing a powerful five-step systematic approach to ending poverty by boosting incomes:

1. Identify Opportunities ~ What ventures are profitable?
2. Design Products ~ What device or tool makes money?
3. Scale the Supply Chain ~ How do the goods get everywhere?
4. Develop the Market ~ What inspires actually buying?
5. Measure Impact & Repeat ~ Ensuring results & reinvesting!

Since starting, KickStart has sold over 130,000 pumps throughout Kenya, Tanzania, and Mali, and has had substantial impact. Their basic business model can be and is being replicated by others in different geographies and in developing and deploying different product lines. With commercial-mindedness, these ideas can accelerate development everywhere! On a final note, be sure also to see KickStart's full MoneyMaker Pump promo music video featuring Mr Ebbo;-)

Lawnmower ~ Andover, MA Goes Old School;-)

The Globe's Brian MacQuarrie writes Here’s something to chew on...

"In tough times, Andover has found a money-saving idea to chew on. The town has recruited a half-dozen goats to keep a public meadow trim and tidy. Taxpayers will not be charged a penny, and the four-legged lawnmowers will be treated to an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord of grass, brush, and other growth that is threatening to overrun the Virginia Hammond Reservation. [...] the goats might clean as much as a half-acre every three days, for free."

Such ideas are what make Massachusetts an "innovation economy";-)

EnergyNight ~ Innovations NOW @ MIT Museum!

The latest MIT EnergyNight is happening now 5:30-8:30p Friday 16 October 2009 at the MIT Museum! I'm very glad that this activity I started with Energy Club founder Dave Danielson continues, this year under the leadership of Ásbjörg Kristinsdóttir and Anil Rachakonda. FYI, here's a blast from the past -- the 2007 EnergyNight...

Rory Sutherland ~ Perceived Value & Intangibles

Thanks to Dan Greenberg for spotting this TED talk by Rory Sutherland, an ad man with Ogilvy, speaking on the role of intangible value and profiting from changes in perception...

Neurotech Clusters ~ Commercial Concentrations

NeuroInsights and NIO just released their downloadable report Neurotech Clusters 2010: Leading Regional Leaders in the Global Neurotechnology Industry 2010-2020 highlighting the San Francisco Bay Area and Boston-metro strength in commercial neuroscience as well as over a dozen other regions of note... These neurotech hotspot metro regions...

"...around the world are leading the way in innovating treatments for the largest unmet medical market, brain-related illness. By developing the necessary infrastructure to discover and develop neurotechnology -- drugs, medical devices, biologics, cell-based therapeutics, and diagnostics for the brain and nervous system -- these regions are helping spur local economies while fighting many of the most vexing medical problems of modern times, such as Alzheimer's disease, depression, obesity, stroke, epilepsy and chronic pain."

African Plantoleum ~ Mali Biocarburant's BioDiesel

Check out the latest video about Mali Biocarburant, a West African venture with smallholder farmer cooperatives as co-owners which sources Jatropha nuts and produces biodiesel... Thanks to Full Belly Project founder Jock Brandis who last summer at the International Development Design Summit (IDDS 2008) pointed me towards this company and the Dutch entrepreneur spearheading things, Hugo Verkuijl.

Videomap ~ Integrative Visual Driving Directions

Thanks to Rachel Kremen at Tech Review for spotting Videomap, Integrated Videos and Maps for Driving Directions...

Owen Johnson ~ Betaspring, ConnectProvidence

Great to have Owen Johnson join me again on MaximizingProgress.tv! We talked about his latest activities in the innovation and entrepreneurship hotspot of Providence, RI. These include his continued support for Connect Providence, which helps entrepreneurial folks get linked through information, education, and fun monthly gatherings. Also Owen has launched Betaspring, a Providence-based mentorship-driven startup accelerator program. And most recently he's been working with the Awesome Foundation on launching a Providence branch. Owen's an MIT alum in CS where he discovered early-on the joys of building programmable LEGOs, virtual spaces, and working on the Web. He co-founded InterDimensions, an early web-consultancy, and the Webmasters' Guild and most recently Investment Instruments Corporation.

Prepaid Debit ~ High Growth, Hidden Hazards...

Thanks to intrepid NYTimes investigative team for spotting the The Hidden Price of Prepaid Debit... In the related piece by Andrew Martin, Prepaid, but Not Prepared for Debit Card Fees, he notes that it seems like a great way for the unbanked to engage, but...

"It’s a very expensive way to bank," said Jean Ann Fox, director of financial services at the Consumer Federation of America. [...] For many people who do not have bank accounts, or cannot get a credit card, the appeal is irresistible, making the reloadable cards among the consumer banking industry’s fastest-growing products. But their convenience comes with a catch: fees, often hidden in the fine print. [...] The MiCash Prepaid MasterCard docks cardholders a $9.95 activation fee. Like many competitors, it then charges numerous recurring fees, including $1.75 for each A.T.M. withdrawal, $1 for each A.T.M. balance inquiry, 50 cents for each purchase, $4 for monthly maintenance, $2 for inactivity after 60 days and $1 for a call to customer service."

Read the rest for more unimpressive and exploitative details. I'm nonplussed if this is how the system embraces the unbanked...

Vision 42 ~ Trans-Manhattan Sans Autos!

Great to see Alison Gregor's NYTimes piece Without Cars, a Different Sort of 42nd St. Envision a prime avenue in Manhattan owned not by autos but people and railcars!

"Vision 42 would like to turn the full length of 42nd Street into a pedestrian mall, while adding a light rail line that would connect the 39th Street ferry terminal on the Hudson River, near the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on the West Side Highway, with the 36th Street ferry terminal on the East River, near the undeveloped Con Edison sites on the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive. [...] Douglas Durst, the chairman of the Durst Organization, which owns five office buildings on 42nd Street, including One Bryant Park and 4 Times Square, said it made sense to build light rail, which is faster and creates less pollution than buses. "Real estate people should take a look at what’s happened with real estate values in other cities where there are these walking streets," said Mr. Durst, who visits pedestrian-friendly Copenhagen frequently, as his wife is Danish. "They’ve increased tremendously." Vision 42 advocates said light rail lines in Dallas had stimulated more than $1 billion worth of development. In Portland, Ore., light rail has catalyzed about $1.2 billion worth of development."

We all need to be thinking much more creatively about road and rail use, plus friendliness to pedestrians and bicyclists! This is one delightful instance of a more general movement towards more vital cities, with clean and green systems.

Dyson Air Multiplier ~ From Sucking to Blowing!

Dyson does it again, now instead of sucking, he blows!

Jam Bot ~ iRobot's Shape-Shifting Dyna-Blob!

MIT's Star Simpson spots another good one, this time iRobot's Jam Bot, a shape-shifting soft morphing dynamic blob!

Every Mission ~ Visual History of Spaceflight!

Thanks to John Mills for spotting A Visual History of Space Exploration by my favorite monthly journal plus exploratory society -- National Geographic -- as commented on by Adrian Covert in PopSci...

Cheating Death ~ Revived From Icy Nordic Grip...

Epic story! David Martin, CNN's Senior Medical Producer, writes From an icy slope, a medical miracle emerges about Anna Bågenholm's recovery from extreme hypothermia...

"Bågenholm slid down a steep, icy gully and ended up submerged head first in a hole in the ice in a mostly frozen stream. Only her skis and Telemark boots and bindings protruded from the thick, opaque ice. As the 29-year-old struggled, her friends Marie Falkenberg and Torvind Næsheim began a frantic effort to free her, made impossible by a torrent of frigid spring runoff pouring over them into the hole where their friend was submerged. [...] rescuers cut a hole downhill from Bågenholm and pulled her through the opening. She had been under the ice for about 80 minutes. "I thought we were taking a friend, dead, out of the water," [...] And the decision was made. We will not declare her dead until she is warm and dead." [...] the waiting team at the hospital were hoping the CPR that Bågenholm received after being pulled from the stream had provided enough oxygen to her chilled brain. When it's cold, the brain needs far less oxygen than it does at normal temperature, 98.6 degrees (37 Celsius), and Bågenholm was definitely cold. Her body temperature was just 56 degrees Fahrenheit (13.7 degrees Celsius). No one had ever been that cold for that long and survived. Rushed to Operating Room 11 at the hospital, surgeons rerouted Bågenholm's blood through a heart-lung machine and slowly warmed it. More than three hours after her heart stopped, Gilbert recalled watching the video probe of Bågenholm's heart. "It was standing completely still. No movement. I just saw some little shivering. No fibrillation. And suddenly it contracted. Pssh," Gilbert said, squeezing his fists to mimic a beating heart. "And there was a pause and pssh. A second contraction." Gilbert tears up at the memory. Bågenholm was alive, but months of recovery lay ahead."

Absolutely great! And evidence of so much more we need to learn about hypothermia, cryonics, healthcare, extreme medicine, and the works! Kudos to friends Falkenberg & Næsheim, Policeman Mikkalsen, Rescuer Singstad, Doctor Gilbert, and Bågenholm herself!

Synthetic Food ~ Fueling the Need to Feed...

The BBC today asserts Food production 'must rise 70%' to save us from mass-starvation by 2050. I've written before about the emergent Global Food Crisis. And a lot about food-related things, including city farms & robogardeners, sky farms, urban share-farms, agri-history, tuna harvests, ocean ranching, emerging market agri-innovations, even Meeting Your Meat, and more. But ever since seeing Star Trek Replicators pump out chow on-demand......I've known-imagined this as a potential alternative. Neil Stephenson's Diamond Age envisions MC's -- Matter Compilers -- playing this role, cranking out synthetic snacks as needed. But what will it take to invent such solutions? I've written about In Vitro Meats, which I think is a step in the synthetic direction, but there's much more to be done to have a full menu of proteins, carbs, vitamins, and caloric goodness generally, all synth'd by 'bot. But if successful, such a system would mean Food = Energy (plus component raw material) and that radically changes the Doomsayer argument away from one of agricultural land and productivity to one of energy sourcing and pricing.

Kurils Peace Park ~ Shared Sovereignty by Nature

Why not use the neutrality and peacefulness inherent in a Transfrontier Conservation Area to resolve the ongoing official state of war between Russia and Japan? A Kurils Peace Park would allow both parties to save face while resolving a long-going territorial dispute over the islands -- Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan, and the Habomai. Let's let nature reign supreme in the disputed territories -- and allow both countries to simultaneously share sovereignty. I'm not original here, as scientists from both Russia and Japan have advocated this solution before, but I think the time is ripe now for a reasonable resolution...

Mannahatta ~ Eric Sanderson @ TED on pre-NYC

I wrote about Before New York earlier, but check out Eric Sanderson's time warping TED talk! Stay 'til his last minute!

Access to Energy ~ NextBillion Spots BOP Report

Thanks to Aileen Nowlan from NextBillion for spotting New Report: Clean, Safe Energy for the Base of the Pyramid, including the Ashoka-Hystra report and video...

Youngest Headmaster ~ BBC on India's Babar Ali

Thanks to the BBC Hunger to Learn series host Damian Grammaticas for spotting The 'youngest headmaster in the world', 16-year old West Bengali, Babar Ali, who...

"...is in charge of teaching hundreds of students in his family's backyard, where he runs classes for poor children from his village. [Babar is still in formal school himself, but...] has made it his mission to help Chumki and hundreds of other poor children in his village. The minute his lessons are over at Raj Govinda school, Babar Ali doesn't stop to play, he heads off to share what he's learnt with other children from his village. [...] Now his afternoon school has 800 students, all from poor families, all taught for free. Most of the girls come here after working, like Chumki, as domestic helps in the village, and the boys after they have finished their day's work labouring in the fields. "In the beginning I was just play-acting, teaching my friends," Babar Ali says, "but then I realised these children will never learn to read and write if they don't have proper lessons. It's my duty to educate them, to help our country build a better future." Including Babar Ali there are now 10 teachers at the school, all, like him are students at school or college, who give their time voluntarily. Babar Ali doesn't charge for anything, even books and food are given free, funded by donations. It means even the poorest can come here."

This is a great story of entrepreneurial persistence and passion, but also a powerful case example of kid-to-kid, older-to-younger and peer-to-peer learning.

Startup Bootcamp ~ Inspiring Lessons Now @ MIT

The student-run Startup Bootcamp is happening now at MIT! Great lineup of folks speaking, including Robin Chase, Alexis Ohanian, Dan Bricklin, Angus Davis, Dharmesh Shah and more. Tune in via Justin.tv (whose co-founder Kyle Vogt is also speaking, as I write this, literally right now, Mon 11:45am;-) Sponsored primarily by Hemant Taneja and colleagues at General Catalyst venture capitalists. The big challenge for me listening in is answering "Where's the Boot in this camp?" since it's mostly just warstories and venture remembrances so far. Ah, Hemant kicks in with some good tips about VC funding. And Dan Bricklin shares his suits, lawsuits that is! Nuts & Bolts getting busted out as should happen in any good Bootcamp!

Shoot Straight ~ Goldwater on Gays in the Military

Interesting to hear that President Obama is planning to get rid of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." In addition to decriminalizing prostitution and drugs and drinking age laws, eliminating this legalized phobia clears up one of the big remaining inconsistencies disconnecting US from the American Constitution. Getting the State out of people's private affairs is something one of my heroes, Barry Goldwater, championed...

"Everyone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Caesar. They'll still be serving long after we're all dead and buried. That should not surprise anyone. [...] The conservative movement, to which I subscribe, has as one of its basic tenets the belief that government should stay out of people's private lives. Government governs best when it governs least -- and stays out of the impossible task of legislating morality. But legislating someone's version of morality is exactly what we do by perpetuating discrimination against gays." [And finally] "You don't need to be 'straight' to fight and die for your country, you just need to shoot straight."

Barry was right then and his ideas are still right now!

Piano Staircase ~ Fun Theory of Behavior Change

Thanks to Sean Fabre and other FB friends for spotting the Piano Staircase in Sweden, one of the projects of TheFunTheory.com!

Community Therapeutic Care ~ Plumpy'Nut Plus!

I wrote earlier about Plumpy'nut, the lifesaving therapeutic food, so it was great to see this recent Guardian video report on how foods like this are making possible a different and improved system of treatment called Community Therapeutic Care...

Legalizing Prostitution ~ SAfrica's Cup Calls...

Thanks to the Guardian for reprinting The Observer's piece by Tracy McVeigh and Savious Kwinika on the Call to legalise World Cup sex trade...

"Calls are growing for South Africa to legalise prostitution ahead of next year's football World Cup in an effort to limit HIV infection among millions of fans visiting the country for the tournament. [...] Professor Ian Sanne, head of the clinical HIV research unit at Johannesburg's Witwatersrand University, said the party atmosphere being touted by the football authorities, travel companies and the South African government was a green light to alcohol abuse and promiscuity among fans next summer. [...] Sanne said not only would the visitors be at risk, but young South Africans and the sex workers too, opening the way for the virus to spread at a dramatically increased rate. "HIV/Aids is a problem globally and there is a great need to encourage and enforce better health and responsibility, especially to the young South Africans who could be at risk during the World Cup," he said. He called for legal frameworks to regulate the practice of sex workers rather than discriminate against them."

Beyond the substantial public health benefits of decriminalization, we have the basic moral and legal principle that free choice is what should dominate any exchange between consenting adults. Whether money or love is involved ought to be entirely up to them. The officious organs of the state should just get out of the way.

Dope vs Drought ~ How Illegalization Ruins Earth

Thanks to the Christian Science Monitor's Eoin O'Carroll for noting that Marijuana growers worsening California drought...

"Large marijuana plots hidden deep in California’s public lands have illegally diverted hundreds of millions of gallons of water, compounding shortages caused by the state’s ongoing drought. [...] ...most of the environmental destruction is caused not by Mendocino’s local pot growers, who have long taken advantage of the county’s mild climate and tolerant views toward the drug, but by mostly Mexican crime syndicates that, in the 1990s, began planting large plots deep in the woods, which they would abandon after the October-November harvest. [These sites...] ...are as remote as the growers can get, often three miles from the nearest road. They contain an average of 6,600 plants, tended by an average of seven growers who live in tents the entire season, from May to October. The growers are aided by scanners, radios, night-vision goggles, an arsenal of weapons, and truckloads of plastic pipe to divert area streams to their plants, sometimes from as far as a half-mile away. When they abandon the site in the fall, they leave behind mountains of trash, about as much trash as a small city dump."

The title is a bit deceptive, however, because the root-cause of the worsened environment are in fact the unconstitutional drug laws criminalizing agriculture, trade, and freely-chosen consumption and thus making such extreme, violent, and destructive measures financially lucrative. Solution: Decriminalization. Treat all foods, drugs, alcohols, tobaccos alike -- i.e. as things any citizen has the liberty to choose to grow, trade, and/or consume as they please.

Great Story ~ Totally Believable Excuse ;-)

Top Inhabitats ~ Glorious Goodness On High!

Inhabitat keeps delivering the goods! Click-here...

Speaking Piano ~ Voice Rendered Via Notes!

Thanks to MIT's Star Simpson for spotting the Speaking Piano...

Remittances ~ The Economist on Family Capital

The Economist spotlights The aid workers who really help on the powerful role of migrants sending money home to families, an amount often higher than formal foreign direct investment and more valuable...

"Beyond cash remittances, do migrants boost human welfare in other ways? The UN’s latest Human Development Report, published on October 5th, makes a refreshing attempt to say yes. Rather than calling migration a problem to be solved, it offers the development case in favour of the freer movement of labour. Most obviously, note the authors, by crossing a border most migrants find a richer, longer, healthier and better-educated life than they would otherwise have had: over three-quarters go to a country with a higher rank on the human development index. The report (and others) also makes the case that migrants send home useful values as well as cash. Demetrios Papademetriou, head of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, DC, argues that such “knowledge transfers, the social and political remittances” are very important. He and other migration watchers are turning their attention from the flow of money to the flow of ideas."

Migrant money represents a kind of Family Capitalism that's potentially hugely powerful, but today quite fragmented and un-organized. But big: check out this UNDP map...

Que Sera Sera ~ Great Song, Thai Commercial!

One of my favorite songs sung by Thai kids in an insurance commercial! There are a bunch of these by the same company; really well done. Of course, this was made famous first by the beautiful Doris Day!

C3 Technologies ~ Realistic 3D City Models!

Amazing what the guys at C3 Technologies are able to do to automagically create über-realistic 3D city models by stitching together high-resolution aerial photos taken by calibrated cameras mounted on normal airplanes, potentially even AUVs... Plus, check out their highest-resolution democlips online! AND most important, check out their interactive online demos!!!

Indigenous Capital ~ de Soto on Amazon Rights

Thanks to Paul Hudnut for spotting Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto's new video The Mystery Of Capital Among The Indigenous Peoples Of The Amazon... Ever since reading El Otro Sendero -- in English, The Other Path -- I've been impressed with de Soto's practical sensibility about the "informal" economy and the power of property rights. No wonder he won Cato's Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty! And another point: seeing the challenges of and connections among the Native Americans in the video makes me remember the history of the Americas and how badly their ancestors were shafted by the imperialist Spanish and other colonizers. These rights issues need solutions now.

Mozambique Infrastructure ~ New Rail & Port...

Having just read again Paul Collier's The Bottom Billion, and coming to appreciate the poverty trap of being landlocked with bad neighbors, it's heartening to read in the BBC that Mozambique to build coal railway...

"...link the coal-rich northern Moatize mines to Nacala port by 2015. [...] the railway is part of Mozambique's plan to become a regional trans-shipment route. Its three key ports -- Maputo, Beira and Nacala -- are strategically important to Mozambique's neighbours, especially landlocked Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as parts of South Africa."

Given Collier, this is an enlightened move and puts this interesting country in the spotlight again. Mozambique is an ex-Portuguese colony but, unusually and intriguingly, is a member of The Commonwealth. This aspiration for greater integration is excellent and one I hope The Commonwealth will embrace further as it enters its next 60 years and beyond. Finally, the role of Brazilian giant Vale in developing the Moatize mines is an emergent element of post-colonial engagement among the Lusophone countries.

A Day at Disney! ~ Magic Kingdom Timelapse

Accelerate thru Uncle Walt's world with this tilt-shift timelapse...

Innovate Kendall ~ History of Near Neighborhood

Just got back from the Kendall Square Association Spotlight featuring Dr Bob Krim, Executive Director, Boston History & Innovation Collaborative who spoke about...

The Bump and Connect: Why Kendall Square is the World’s Innovation Center

This is a subset of the larger Innovate Boston! story published by the Collaborative a couple years ago. Fascinating stuff about Kendall Square, including being one of the pioneering places for sewing, bicycle manufacture, firefighting equipment (i.e. woven hose), AI, and more recently biotechnology. Krim spotlighted some important things, and I learned several new historical morsels, but he missed some essential elements of greater Kendall Square too, including:

• The Davenport railroad car manufactory, later the site where Watson called Bell for the first long-distance phone call, later still home for the Kaplan Furniture manufactory, then Polaroid, and today the MIT-owned location of Shire Pharmaceuticals;
• Davenport's later failed real estate venture, the Charles River Embankment Company which created the landfill MIT is now quartered on;
• MIT's Arthur D Little's Research Palace, part of Million Dollar Research Row on Memorial Drive, whose near Kendall neighbors included another MIT alum Dick Morse's National Research Corporation (creators of MinuteMaid frozen concentrate, the name a pun on Minutemen), Lever Bros US HQ, and the Electronics Corporation of America;
• Jay W Forrester's Project Whirlwind which later spun out MITRE and Digital Equipment Corp and whose other MIT students later founded pioneering System Dynamics consultancies including Pugh-Roberts and pioneering offshoring ventures such as Patni, both long headquartered in Kendall;
• Technology Square, the first urban brownfield redevelopment linked to a technology university and inspiration for Cambridge Center, University Park, and more;
• The MIT-role in intentionally shaping neighborhood development, including Bob Simha of the Planning Office commissioning the mid-1960s Opportunities in Kendall Square by DUSP Professor Kevin Lynch;
  
• Harvard alum Edwin Land's Polaroid, long a dominant employer in greater Kendall Square;
• And last but not least, Isaac Fox & Robert Tishman and sons Marvin Fox & Maynard Tishman's F&T Diner -- the ultimate Bump and Connect venue -- located since 1924 in the heart of Kendall proximate to the current Inbound T station but razed -- and not rapidly replaced -- in an act of Institutional and urban stupidity as part of mid-1980s "neighborhood and infrastructure improvement". The site today serves as a ghastly MIT-owned parking lot.
  

And more. But he only had an hour! Anyways, afterwards Krim said another eye-opening thing: he attributes much of the vitality of the area to the great rivalry between MIT and Harvard!-)

Building Oasis of the Seas ~ Great Video Gallery!

Thanks to gCaptain for emphasizing the great gallery of videos on the Oasis of the Seas build-website! The latest is of their revolutionary rescue boats, but one of my favorites is of Central Park on board!

Elephant Birth ~ Struggle For Life at Safari Park!

Thanks to UniqueDaily for spotting Elephant Birth...

Myomo ~ Cool MIT NeuroRobotics Innovation!

Very cool to have Myomo CEO Steve Kelly share with our MIT Neurotechnology Ventures class the story of his neuro-driven robotic rehabilitation spinoff venture from MIT. Winner in the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition (back in the $50K days), Myomo is pioneering...

"...a new category of non-invasive medical device technology to help people relearn how to move severely weak or partially paralyzed limbs. Originally an acronym for "Muscle-Motion," Myomo (pronounced MY-O-MO) was re-defined as "My-Own-Motion" by one of the first patients to ever use our device."

Very cool! Check out their e100 NeuroRobotic system in use at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital...

Sourcemap ~ Unshackle Your Supply Chains!

Very cool to see my Media Lab colleagues ramping up Sourcemap, an open info system helping consumers grok their supply chains -- i.e. knowing the root source of your stuff. This helps people be informed purchasers of product by replacing opacity with transparency and letting clarity rein in complexity. You might, for example, chose to live a more sustainable lifestyle as a consequence...

More Nobels? ~ Systems Sciences & Applications

In an Open Letter to the Nobel Prize Committee, co-authors Larry Brilliant, Rodney Brooks, Peter Diamandis, Tim Hunt, David King, Lynn Margulis, Steven Pinker, Peter Raven, Frans de Waal, and E. O. Wilson propose...

1. "The creation of Nobel prizes for the Global Environment and Public Health. The new prizes would focus on applications of science rather than basic research. As with the existing peace prize, organisations would be eligible. The environment prize would recognise successes in promoting sustainability, mitigating climate change or reducing biodiversity losses. The public health prize would recognise improvements in global health, such as the reduction or eradication of disease. (We present these lists as examples; they are not intended to be complete)."
2. "The expansion of, or an addition to, the prize for physiology or medicine to recognise contributions from across the life sciences. Fields that are currently excluded, such as ecology, would become eligible. More emphasis would be placed on the rapidly expanding field of neuroscience. This could be achieved by expanding the existing prize for medicine or physiology or by the addition of new prizes for fundamental biology (including ecology, genetics and cellular, molecular and evolutionary biology) and behavioral science (including psychology and neuroscience)."

Interesting, but do these really go far enough?

Flipped ~ How Private Equity Extracts $$$...

Eye-opening NYTimes piece by Julie Creswell on Profits for Buyout Firms as Company Debt Soared and related video Flipped: How Private Equity Dealmakers Can Win While Their Companies Lose. Wild.

Scaling Education ~ Sramana Mitra on Strategy...

Forbes columnist (and MIT alumna) Sramana Mitra writes in The Education Solution...

"...there is still a stigma attached to online education. Elite institutions do not want to dilute their brands by expanding the reach of their methodology using online channels. This is a mistake, a humongous lost opportunity, and one that needs to be revisited because an astoundingly large number of people in America need retraining and career makeovers right now. In India, China, Brazil and Indonesia, the sheer size of the populations suggests that nothing other than online education can meet the needs of billions of people hungry for an opportunity to learn and secure a passport out of poverty. The adoption of online education has happened largely in the for-profit education world..."

Yes, indeed, and Mitra goes on to spotlight University of Phoenix, Grand Canyon University, LA College, and others. And in our Development Ventures class (and sister offerings) we've been actively exploring mobile offerings and other ways of dialing-up scalable educational experiences for everyone, everywhere. This is a very compelling domain!

The Great Migration ~ African Trek on 60 Minutes

Check out The Great Migration in jeopardy on 60 Minutes...

Breakfast Machine! ~ Performance Food Prep ;-)

Thanks to Mark Wilson at Gizmodo for spotting this...

Young Scientist Centre ~ Kids Learning-by-Doing!

Cool to read Sarah Ebner's SchoolGate column in the LondonTimes on the launch of the Young Scientist Centre at the Royal Institution, a combo of museum, eventspace, playground, and exploratorium. In an inspired strategically philanthropic move, the global cosmetics giant L'Oreal is the prime underwriter for the new Centre which aims to...

"...emphasise that science must be more than just facts. [...] "Real science takes time," [says the Centre director] "Sometimes experiments don't work and you have to do them again and that's very time consuming. But it's vital to get a true understanding of the subject. These days it's so easy to download a fact, but do you understand it? What I feel is that sometimes, when things are taught without true experimentation, students don't understand it. And that needs to change. Children can do science at school, but they don't necessarily learn what a real scientist is -- planning an experiment, needing to repeat things, having a clear hypothesis and testing it."

Yes, indeed, that trial-and-error, learning-by-doing, and doing-it-yourself ethos is absolutely crucial for every kid everywhere to experience!

SKS Microfinance ~ For-Profit, Scalable, Mobile

The LondonTimes piece criticizing microfinance also mentioned...

"In India, Vikram Akula, the founder of SKS Microfinance, the country’s largest micro-lending bank, says he is modelling his growth plans on "Coke, Starbucks and McDonald’s." He describes Yunus as his "inspiration", but says it is time for a younger generation of bankers to "push it to the next level... with the unabashed goal to be extremely profitable."

Interesting ambitions! See here two interviews with Akula... And, since I wrote about the WSJournal's piece on microfinance slum bubble credit crisis, I urge you to read Akula's scathing rebuttal letter.

Microfinance Hype? ~ Critical Questioning...

In today's LondonTimes, Tony Allen-Mills writes World poverty guru ‘fails’ to spread wealth, noting that...

"Microcredit is not a transformational panacea that is going to lift people out of poverty," said Dean Karlan, a Yale economics professor who studied the phenomenon in the Philippines. "There might be little pockets of people who are made better off, but the average effect is weak, if not non-existent." [and] While few dispute Grameen’s success in improving the lives of many Bangladeshi women -- the principal recipients of small loans intended to help them start their own businesses -- economists and poverty experts note that little research has been done on the net effect of microlending compared with, for example, constructing a rural factory that creates hundreds of jobs. In the Philippines study, Karlan and a colleague, Jonathan Zinman, examined users of a microcredit bank to see what differences existed between poor people who received loans and those who were denied. Their answer was disheartening. Not only were there few significant differences between the two groups over a number of months, but many of the loan recipients used their funds for household expenses instead of setting up businesses. Some bought new televisions."

MIT's own Jameel Poverty Action Lab researchers weighed in...

"A similar study of micro-lending in Hyderabad, India, found no effect on health and education in families that received small loans. A study by poverty researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found minor benefits, but the real problem, according to Esther Duflo, an MIT professor, was the expectation aroused by the glowing image of Grameen. "Why did we expect all these things to happen?" Duflo told The Boston Globe. "Microlending is useful, but it’s not like the miracle drug to end poverty."

XO Progress ~ Towards One Laptop Per Child

Thanks to the Economist for highlighting Education in Uruguay ~ Laptops for All...

"Nearly all of Uruguay’s 380,000 primary-school pupils have now received a simple and cheap XO laptop, a model developed by One Laptop Per Child, an NGO based in Massachusetts. The government hopes this will help poorer and disadvantaged children do better in school while also improving the overall standard of education. These ambitions will be tested for the first time later this month when every Uruguayan seven-year-old will take online exams in a range of academic subjects. The rest of the world should be intrigued: the first country in Latin America to provide free, compulsory schooling will become the first, globally, to find out whether furnishing a whole generation with laptops is a worthwhile investment."

Certainly there are challenges, as the article goes on to note, but it's excellent to see this effort be tried at scale. And XO's are being deployed in several countries. Thanks to Dutch videojournalist Ruud Elmendorp for spotlighting Small Machine, Big Mission: The XO laptop exciting children in Kibwezi, rural Kenya...

Relax, It's FedEx ~ Even An MBA Can Do It;-)

Ooooh, snap! Ayusman Sarangi spots FedEx ad on ease of use;-)

Inhabitatable ~ Going Green is Good!

Inhabitat continues to delight-by-design!

Companions ~ The Healing Power of Pets

Wonderful to read When Illness Brings You Closer to Animals in the NYTimes by Tara Parker-Pope, as well as her earlier piece, The Healing Power of Dogs. And also see the slideshow on Stefanie Rinza: The Animal Rescuer.

Adi Dassler ~ German Original Sportsman!

Timelapse Typhoon ~ Nangka over Hong Kong!

Thanks to UniqueDaily for one hell of a blow job!

MIT International Development Fair ~ Fri 10/2 1p+

The MIT International Development Fair
Friday, 2 October 2009, 1-3 pm
Lobby 13

I'm proud to be one of the co-founders and historical organizers of the MIT International Development Network (IDN)! We connect everyone who engages in practical and ethical international development at MIT and beyond. To accelerate this 2009-10 academic year, on Friday October 2nd, we host our eighth annual MIT International Development Fair to help introduce incoming students and other members of the MIT community to the many student groups, classes, centers, programs and academic departments at MIT who, through their activities, have demonstrated an interest in sustainable international development. Throughout the year we organize large-scale Institute-wide events spotlighting and celebrating aspects of International Development at the Institute, including an end-of-semester Fall ID Celebration on December 10th, the International Development Night in the early spring, and the end-of-semester Spring Showcase event again featuring all the student projects from the D-Lab family of classes.

Moments of Science ~ IgNobel 2009 Performance!

Just got back from Harvard's Sanders Theatre where demoguru extraordinaire Daniel Rosenberg and I ran our nth Annual Moments of Science at the IgNobel Prize Ceremony! Two demos this year, modestly aligned with the RISK theme of the Ig's:

• Golfball Atmosphere representation of gas laws!
• Tesla Coil exciting a Fluorescent Tube (a.k.a. the GlowBar in homage to Nobelist Roy Glauber who crafted the demo in the first place!-) Thanks to Isabelle R for slipping it to Daniel!
  

See Daniel's explanations! Someone asked, "Are we Mad Scientists?" "No, Angry Engineers!-)"

Michael Gordon ~ MIT AITI on Mobiles in Africa

Great to interview MIT's Michael Gordon on MaximizingProgress.tv tonight! Michael's a doctoral student in Computer Science at MIT CSAIL who, as an extracurricular activity, runs AITI -- the African Information Technology Initiative -- a student-run effort promoting...

"...development in Africa through education in appropriate information and communication technologies (ICTs). During MIT's summer recess, AITI sends MIT students to Africa to teach African undergraduate and high school students. AITI partners with local African institutions to offer classes focused on mobile phone application development with an emphasis on independent research, problem-solving, and entrepreneurship."

Very cool! And the basis for some compelling Development Ventures! Check out the live interview here...

Impact Assessment ~ SABMiller Review Study

Very interesting to read on the Ethical Corporation site SABMiller -- The cost-benefit analysis of beer by James Geary about INSEAD Professor Ethan Kapstein's...

"...methodology designed to estimate a corporation’s social, environmental and economic impact on the countries in which it operates. [...] to measure what to date has remained largely unmeasured -- the specific costs and benefits resulting from doing business in specific markets. "This is a relatively new thing," Kapstein says, "reflecting the demand from stakeholders for hard data on corporate impact." If Kapstein’s method catches on, this kind of statistical analysis could help companies put hard numbers behind their corporate responsibility efforts, enabling them to determine what delivers the biggest bang for their bucks in national and regional markets."

The SABMiller study was on their Nile Breweries subsidiary in Uganda and publicly released last June at the Africa WEF in Cape Town. Among the compelling findings was the degree of employment multiplier...

• SABMiller’s business in Uganda supports 44,000 jobs and generates income of £92m for the country.
• The brewer does this despite having only 430 employees in the country, at its Nile Breweries subsidiary.
• For every person Nile Breweries employs, a further 100 jobs are created in the company’s supply chain.
• Of the £92m generated for the Ugandan economy, £55m is taxes paid to the government. Nile Breweries pays £28m of that.
• Locally sourced Eagle Lager generates 50% of Nile Breweries’ revenue, providing 8,000 farmers with 70% of their income.

Move Me ~ Personal Transport Inventions...

The Segway is a lame way compared to these new moves! I've noted the Enicycle before... And now Honda's competitor, the U3-X mobility device... ...which uses this Stunomatic Polywheel. And here's Focus's earlier, simpler, more bike-like Self-Balancing Unicycle (SBU)... Our old favorite, the MIT GreenWheel... And for kids learning to cycle, here's the Gyrowheel... A shout out to MITERS friends for pointers to many of these!

The National Parks ~ America's Best Idea!

Just watched the premier of Ken Burns' The National Parks on PBS!

"America's national parks are a treasure house of nature's superlatives -- 84 million acres of the most stunning landscapes anyone has ever seen. They became the last refuge for magnificent species of animals that otherwise would have vanished forever; today, they remain a refuge for human beings seeking to replenish their spirit. The national parks embody a radical idea, as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence, born in the United States nearly a century after its creation. It is a truly democratic idea, that the magnificent natural wonders of the land should be available not to a privileged few, but to everyone."

The idea of protected parks and nature preserves open to all is indeed an epic invention of America. Today there are thousands such areas worldwide. And, as I've written before, are the basis for Peace Parks and other transfrontier concepts helping us move into a post-nationalist future.

Aquaculture Boom ~ Scrutinizing Seafarming...

Interesting to read Aquaculture boom under scrutiny: Seafood farming creates concerns and optimism by Juliet Eilperin of the WashPost...

"Although there is still debate about farming’s share of the world fish supply -- the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates it stood at 44.3 percent in 2007, whereas the PNAS study says it will reach over half in a matter of months -- no one questions that aquaculture has grown exponentially as the world’s wild catch has flattened out. In 1970, farmed fish accounted for 6.3 percent of global seafood supply. This trend reflects global urbanization -- studies show that as more people move to cities, they are consuming more seafood -- but it is changing the world’s seascape as well."

The fears surround parasites, second- and third-order effects, the open-loop nature of fish meal trawling, and more. I've written before about ocean ranching and how aquaculture is illustrating the need for much more sophisticated understanding of ecosystems engineering.

Inspirational Teachers ~ Before I Forget: Thanks!

RISD's President John Maeda recently commented about the few teachers who inspire. Not for me. There were many! In this I consider myself amazingly fortunate. And I've been remiss in not publicly saluting and thanking them! For starters: Mrs Braun in Kindergarten who inspired-allowed me to design the playground treehouse. Ms Gunnell who urged Astronomy in third grade. Mrs Corea who inspired studying Anatomy. Ms Prescott in Junior High who taught us more Spanish in one month than her successors could in a year. Mr Johnson in High School who encouraged us all towards Geometry in ninth. Mr Cone who got me rigorously onto Physics in tenth. Mr Chadda for whom no Calculus was too small as a senior. Mr Janowski for whom Chemistry was "performance art". At MIT, Prof Bradt who sent me a personal note congratulating me for my Physics performance. Professors Kemp & Wrighton who made Freshman chemistry live! Prof Bon who welcomed me as a Sophomore into a grad class on Moonbase design. Prof Lewin who continues to inspire with his online Physics video lectures. Prof Green who ensured that Sophomore year O'Chemistry was bang-fully demo'd! Prof Witmer who unified my interest in aerospace structures and spent hours with me beyond the lectures. Prof Edgerton who I only met in the elevator -- but what a charge-up! And that just brings me from K-12 to Sophomore year at MIT;-) Beyond this, several more...

Green Metropolis ~ For Clean Living, Go Urban

Very compelling to read about Green Metropolis by David Owen. The Washington Post's Jonathan Yardley reviews this book in a piece called Clean Living...

"Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, And Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability. Owen finds in New York City, Manhattan in particular, a model that the rest of the country could profitably emulate. A city of "extreme compactness," New York "is the greenest community in the United States." The "average Manhattanite consumes gasoline at a rate that the country as a whole hasn't matched since the mid-1920s," and "eighty-two percent of employed Manhattan residents travel to work by public transit, by bicycle, or on foot," which is "ten times the rate for Americans in general, and eight times the rate for workers in Los Angeles County." It all derives from being a very crowded place."

Beyond density, of course, are other important dimensions, including amenities such as competent mass transit, efficient hackney, rental, and rideshare services, aggressive automation, glorious greenroofs and delightful parks and accessible greenspaces. Vital Cities are more urgently needed than ever!

Connecting Rwanda ~ BBC on Digital Africa...

Thanks to the BBC's Adam Blenford for this audio slideshow on Connecting Rwanda...

"...the country's government is taking the internet into rural areas -- where even electricity is a luxury -- and [inspiring] hopeful students at a key science and technology college in the capital, Kigali."

Get Inhabitat ~ Some Delightful Designs Here...

Inhabitat delivers this week's delighters...

The Big Move ~ Humanity's Global Journey

Yet another delighter from my favorite monthly magazine, National Geographic, this time visualizing humanity's global journey...

Urban Dreamscape ~ Capital City Brasilia at 50!

Given the tremendous recent interest in vital urbanization, green designs, charter cities, and more, it's good to read Nick Foster's FT piece Urban Dreamscape about Brasilia at 50, the from-scratch new capital of the Latin giant...

"Brasilia was not the first capital to be designed from scratch. Planned at the end of the 18th century, Washington, DC, was the fulfilment of article one of the US constitution and provided for a national capital distinct from the states, as well as a location that was considered more secure than Philadelphia. The site of Canberra was selected in 1908 as a compromise between the great Australian rivals Sydney and Melbourne. And today a slew of new cities is being raised in locations such as China and the Middle East. Astana -- a work in progress that is the new capital of Kazakhstan – has a population of 700,000 and has provided a blank canvas for architects such as Norman Foster. But Brasilia can surely lay claim to being the most ambitious urban creation. The US capital was sited next to an existing settlement (Georgetown) and Canberra -- although it is now Australia’s biggest inland city -- is an easy morning’s drive from Sydney. Set against this, Brasilia was both the engine that opened up a vast, virtually empty, tract of central Brazil and -- at its inception, at least -- a piece of particularly Brazilian social engineering."

Very interesting to learn lessons from this experience.

Mobile Marvels ~ Economist Special Report!

Excellent to see The Economist's latest Special Report on Mobile Marvels ~ Telecoms in Emerging Markets!

"The reason why mobile phones are so valuable to people in the poor world is that they are providing access to telecommunications for the very first time, rather than just being portable adjuncts to existing fixed-line phones, as in the rich world. “For you it was incremental—here it’s revolutionary,” says Isaac Nsereko of MTN, Africa’s biggest operator. According to a recent study, adding an extra ten mobile phones per 100 people in a typical developing country boosts growth in GDP per person by 0.8 percentage points. In 2000 the developing countries accounted for around one-quarter of the world’s 700m or so mobile phones. By the beginning of 2009 their share had grown to three-quarters of a total which by then had risen to over 4 billion."

Alumcos from our MIT Development Ventures class have been building on this massive mobiles shift since 2001. These include Assured Labor, Click Diagnostics, Dinube, Dimagi, CellBazaar, WAY Systems, and more!

Sarah Jones ~ One-Woman Global Village ;-)

A clever and different and delightful TED talk...

Free Work = Zero Valued = Painful Lesson...

Here's a tip, one I had to learn the hard way: Volunteer and do something for free and the typical bureaucratic organization that suckered you into doing that values your contribution at roughly what it cost them: Zero. I just sat through the most appalling non-profit board meeting where a new, senior, well-paid administrator asserted that "all contributions are valued" but admitted upon inquiry that only ca$h financial contributions were actually measured. Well, guess what, people care about what they account for. No record = it didn't happen. Thus, if you are so naively stupid -- as I admit I have personally been for years now -- to volunteer hundreds (if not thousands) of hours at zero pay -- i.e. for free -- that turns out to not actually count for $#!+ in comparison to financial donations. But even an old dunce like me learns eventually. From now on, no freebies. You want my help, you pay for it.

P.S. To clarify, this is totally different from the inter-personal favor banking that happens when individuals help each other out. I continue to be personally helpful to friendly and appreciative folks -- and to ask favors of others. The big difference is that I remember -- and value -- those who helped me.

Clinician Panel @ MIT Neurotechnology Ventures!

We had an excellent group of Boston-area clinicians join us last night in our MIT Neurotechnology Ventures class...

• Elizabeth Hoge -- HMS, Psychiatry/Anxiety, MGH
• Elizabeth Lawson -- Neuroendocrine Clinic, MGH
• Steven Schachter -- CIMIT, Neurotechnology, BID
• Carl Marci -- HMS, Social Neuroscience/Psychiatry, MGH
• Emad Eskandar -- HMS, Neurosurgery, MGH
• Darin Dougherty -- HMS, Psychiatric Neuroimaging

Hearing from these doctors about their challenges in treating patients, what kinds of devices, systems, and services would be helpful, and, in some cases, of their "dream solution" game-changers was hugely instructive. Afterwards, a couple of us went over to MIT's Muddy Charles Pub for some "over-the-counter neuroceuticals" and brainstormed at least a dozen venture IdeaPitches stemming directly from this clinician discussion!

Aydogan Ozcan ~ Lensfree Imaging Diagnostics

Just saw TR 35 honoree Aydogan Ozcan visit us from his lab at UCLA to the MIT Media Lab to speak about A new tool for TeleMedicine: Lensfree On-Chip Imaging for High-throughput Cytometry and Point-of-care Diagnostics, a device he calls LUCAS. Think of this as an instrument add-on to a mobile...

"He's made prototypes mounted in cell phones to demonstrate the technology and has started a company called Microskia to develop it. The first products are likely to be simple microscopes that plug into a cell phone or laptop through a USB cord and display the magnified images on their screens; the first uses will probably be in remote medical centers, to diagnose anemia, cancer, and infectious diseases such as malaria."

Empleolisto ~ Bringing You Assured Labor!

Our MIT Development Ventures alumco Assured Labor launches Empleolisto in Latin America! They...

"...make it easy for employers to connect with great candidates by compiling an extensive database of candidates in emerging markets and pre-screening them for diligence and integrity using match-making technology. Employers can view and select compelling candidates 24 hours a day and by using mobiles, employers can start interviewing candidates in hours instead of weeks, all for a price less than using classified ads."

Great work and serving a real need. Check out the Nicaragua Channel 8 TV interview with co-founder David Reich!

Great Inhabitats ~ Green Glories for Us All...

Click-on some of the latest from Inhabitat...

Liberation Biology ~ Let's Redefine "Normal"...

Thanks to IEET for posting Natasha Vita-More's Nano’s Neo Normal where she points out...

"In the book, Liberation Biology, Ronald Bailey writes, "What if a biomedical researcher discovered that our lives were being cut short because every human being was infected in the womb by a disease organism that eventually wears down the human immune system's ability to protect us?" (Bailey 2005, p. 49) In other words, would a person whose immune system starts declining after puberty, and finally gives up before 123, be normal? This statement largely sums up my transhumanist view that "normal" is misunderstood. The physiological (cognitive and the somatic) state of human existence "normality" ought to be a state of enhancement."

Improvement and enhancement should be "normal"; by contrast, the norm of "stagnation" should be decidedly "abnormal".

How Civilized! ~ Beers & Beauty at Oktoberfest!

How civilized to be able to consume alcohol at a reasonable age, to do so as part of a celebration of life (as opposed to being a illegal sinner), to have cheerful and pretty servers, and to be able to walk outside with beers without getting arrested by a misguided Masstapo. Thanks to The Big Picture for the proof that it's possible somewhere on Earth...

Job Voyager ~ Viewing Changing US Occupations

Thanks to Neatorama for spotting Job Voyager charts showing occupational shifts over 1850-2000... What are the trends going-forward?

InnoCentive ~ Innovation Marketplace For Ideas

Interesting to read in the Economist about InnoCentive: A market for ideas...

"...the world’s first open innovation marketplace. Conceived in 1998 by three scientists working for Eli Lilly, a big drug company, InnoCentive was spun off as an independent start-up three years later. It is based on a simple idea: if a firm cannot solve a problem on its own, why not use the reach of the internet to see if someone else can come up with the answer? Companies, which InnoCentive calls seekers, post their challenges on the firm’s website. Solvers, who number almost 180,000, compete to win cash prizes offered by the seekers."

They've done a good job of handing IP issues and generally providing market-making liquidity to human capital markets. Great lead indicator of things to come.