30 June 2013

Roman Holiday ~ True Romantic Epic at Sixty!

Feast your eyes and ears on 1953's Roman Holiday!

Solar Timelapse ~ 3 Yrs in 3 Mins w/ Expert!

Stunning solar timelapse from NASA SDO showing three years in three minutes plus illuminating expert commentary by Alex Young! (Thanks to Kottke for spotting the original)

29 June 2013

"Like" Flying Paper ~ Vote for ArcLight Filmfest!

MIT alumnus filmmaker Nitin Sawhney writes the exciting news re: his Flying Paper documentary about resilient kids crafting kites...
"We have a unique opportunity to get Flying Paper into the ArcLight Documentary Festival in Hollywood as a "Fan Favorite," but we need your help by going to this link on YouTube and LIKING it. Only 5 films competing will win a spot in the festival as a "Fan Favorite" so our participation in this film festival is completely in your hands. Please go to YouTube and "Like" the link and share it with your friends and encourage them to do likewise."
Absolutely! Click thru to YouTube to vote...

25 June 2013

PlaNYC ~ A Stronger, More Resilient New York...

Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently announced PlaNYC: A Stronger, More Resilient New York recommending how to rebuild communities post-Sandy and boost infrastructural resiliency...
"If this plan is implemented, New York City will not be “climate-change proof” -- an impossible goal -- but it will be far safer and more resilient than it is today. While no one can say with certainty exactly how much safer, the climate analysis in Chapter 2 shows that the investments recommended in this plan certainly will be worthwhile.
Lives will be saved and many catastrophic losses avoided. [...] Over time, implementation of this plan would address many of the risks that a coastal city like New York faces. By hardening our coastline, by making our building stock stronger, by creating a more durable power network and better stormwater infrastructure, and so much more, we can be better prepared for anything the future holds. We are a coastal city -- and we cannot, and will not, abandon our waterfront. Instead, we must build a stronger, more resilient city -- and this plan puts us on a path to do just that. It will not be easy, and it will take time; but as New Yorkers we are more than up to the task."

24 June 2013

NeverWet ~ Liquid-Repelling Spray Coating Ships!

Gizmodo's Leslie Horn spots that NeverWet is shipping!

Young & Shaky ~ AJ Demos DBS for Parkinson's

Thanks to Kottke for spotting Andrew Johnson's video demonstrating the effects of DBS on the motor symptoms of Parkinson's Disease...
"Andrew was diagnosed with Early Onset Parkinson's Disease in 2009 when he was 35 years old. He lives with his wife and two children in Auckland, New Zealand. In November 2012 and February 2013 he underwent a surgical procedure, Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery, to help control his motor symptoms. This has been hugely beneficial to his quality of life. He is the author of a blog youngandshaky.com which he created to raise awareness of the effects of Parkinson's Disease."

Girl Rising ~ 10x10 Campaign for Education...

CNN spotlights inspiring film Girl Rising...
"One girl with courage is a revolution. CNN Films' "Girl Rising," directed by Academy Award nominee Richard Robbins, tells the stories of girls across the globe and the power of education to change the world."

One57 ~ Where The Other 0.0001% Will Live...

CNN spotlights One57, noting Luxury real estate eyes new heights...

Mobile Stratification ~ Rich vs Poor Phone Picks...

DailyMail spots maps showing that iPhones are favoured by the rich, while poorer users prefer Androids...
"Developed by Gnip, MapBox and tech-data expert Eric Fischer, the maps reveal that the iPhone are overwhelmingly used in the most densely-populated urban areas while the Android is more popular in the suburbs. Mapbox CEO Eric Gundersen said: 'The patterns of usage in each city often reflect economic stratification. 'For example iPhones, in red, are predominantly in wealthy sections of the city while Android phones, in green, have more coverage in poorer sections."
Here's New York Metro centered on Manhattan... Texan sprawlcity Houston... Indonesians in Jakarta prefer Blackberry, colored purple...

18 June 2013

RoboRoach ~ BB's Cyborg Insect on Kickstarter!

Backyard Brains is Kickstarting the epic RoboRoach allowing direct control of a living insect from a smartphone!  It's the first commercial cyborg!

15 June 2013

Ghost Army ~ Art and Illusion to Fool WWII Nazis

CBS's Jim Axelrod spots World War II "Ghost Army" used decoy art to dupe the Nazis...
"The previously unknown story of an army of artists who helped America win World War Two is being told in a new documentary, showing how the artists used their talents to "put one over" on the Nazis. Eighty-eight-year old Jack Masey's army job during World War II was to blow things up. But not the way one might think. "I was in the rubber army as I called it. The inflatable army," said Jack Masey Masey's unit had a mission: to deceive the Germans into thinking Allied forces were in one location, while real U.S. troops advanced miles away. They became known as "The Ghost Army," a thousand artists, designers and audio technicians using sights and sounds to dupe the enemy."

Flycycle ~ Czech Flying Electric Bike on BBC..

BBC spots Flycycle flying electric bike...

11 June 2013

SolSource ~ MIT Alumco Solar Cooker Kickstarts!

Our MIT Development Ventures alumco SolSource is Kickstarting!
"Our core mission is to bring innovative energy solutions to people around the world. We began this quest working with rural Himalayan families to help find a solution to meet their energy needs. Five years and thirteen prototypes later, we’ve created a product that people love and significantly improves their quality of life. Right now, many families rely on SolSource for their daily cooking needs. SolSource saves them time and money, reduces their exposure to harmful stove pollution, and preserves the environment."

Shale Potential ~ Global Map of Frackable Fuels...

Kevin Bullis in TR spots global shale potential...
"The EIA report concludes that Russia has even more technically recoverable shale oil than the United States. Three countries have more shale gas—China, Argentina, and Algeria. Geologists have long known that some shale deposits contain large amounts of oil and gas, but it’s only recently that hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling technology have made it feasible to extract."

10 June 2013

Sandbox Summit 2013 ~ Cities & Ventures!

Excellent to see the Sandbox Summit happening tomorrow Tues 11 June 2013. Great speakers including Robin Chase, Desh Deshpande, Clara Brenner, and more! And the overall theme is about Re-Imagining Cities Through Entrepreneurship, a topic near-and-dear to my heart.

09 June 2013

Global City Startups ~ Mapping Venture Geos...

Thanks to Brad Feld for spotting Richard Florida's piece in the Atlantic on The New Global Start-Up Cities and embedded maps by Martin Prosperity Institute's Zara Matheson...
"The world [...] is spiky, with its most intensive economic activity concentrated in a relative handful of places. Global tech is no exception -- and it is taking a decidedly urban turn."

08 June 2013

Defend US Constitution ~ Rep Massie on DNA...

MIT alum and now US Representative Tom Massie excoriates recent and insidious violations of the US Constitution... P.S. Here's more Rep Massie courtesy Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie!

Stealing Africa ~ Why Poverty? on What's Right...

Why Poverty? shares Stealing Africa documentary...
"Zambia’s copper resources have not made the country rich. Virtually all Zambia’s copper mines are owned by corporations. In the last ten years, they’ve extracted copper worth $29 billion but Zambia is still ranked one of the twenty poorest countries in the world. So why hasn’t copper wealth reduced poverty in Zambia? Once again it comes down to the issue of tax, or in Zambia’s case, tax avoidance and the use of tax havens. Tax avoidance by corporations costs poor countries and estimated $160 billion a year, almost double what they receive in international aid. That’s enough to save the lives of 350,000 children aged five or under every year. For every $1 given in aid to a poor country, $10 drains out. Vital money that could help a poor country pay for healthcare, schools, pensions and infrastructure. Money that would make them less reliant on aid."

Don't Play With Trains ~ Aussie Rail X-ing PSA!

For the Love of Physics ~ MIT's Walter Lewin!

You can never get too much of MIT's Walter Lewin! Alas, MIT has decided to persecute Professor Emeritus Lewin for his stupid personal outreach to some students which they claim is "harassment" or worse. MIT -- meaning the ankle-biters currently leading the Institute -- has decided via an extra-judicial process to not only banish Walter from his historical tenure-rights, but eliminate most of his videos. I consider this appalling and egregious overreach and anti-freedom, but I'm not one of the assholes in charge either, and they crap on me too for my outspokenness and willingness to call them on their infinite bullshit...

Sky Gardens ~ More Green Delights-by-Design!

Several lovely Sky Garden greenscraper designs!

06 June 2013

Bedmap2 ~ NASA & BAS Visualize Antarctica...

io9 spots NASA IceBridge mission and British Antarctic Survey's Bedmap2 of Antarctica sans ice!

GrassRootsMobile ~ Pay-Per-Use Electricity...

MIT Media Lab's Pragun Goyal is in Nairobi, Kenya prototyping his GrassRootsMobile powerstrip that turns electricity on (or off) with the messaging of M-Pesa currency on pay-per-use basis...

02 June 2013

Fertile Continent ~ Detailed Soil Atlas of Africa...

Thanks to Emeka Okafor at Africa Unchained for spotting the new Soil Atlas of Africa...
"Using state-of-the-art computer mapping techniques, the Soil Atlas of Africa shows the changing nature of soil across the continent. It explains the origin and functions of soil, describes the different soil types that can be found in Africa and their relevance to both local and global issues. The atlas also discusses the principal threats to soil and the steps being taken to protect soil resources. [...] It presents a new and comprehensive interpretation of an often neglected natural resource."

01 June 2013

Big Cities ~ Global Map of Urban Agglomerations...

World Bank study on Cities & Flooding maps agglomerations...

Jordan Swamped ~ Refugee Influx Overwhelms...

PBS reports on how Jordan Struggles with Next Door's Chaos and Influx of Syrian Refugees...
"More refugees continue to pour into the Hashemite kingdom every day, and this has put an enormous strain on Jordan. It's a relatively poor country that already hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Iraq war and more than two million Palestinian refugees who have come in various waves over the past 65 years. Last week, the country took out a $150 million dollars World Bank loan to deal with the refugee crisis, and King Abdullah made a plea for help at a World Economic Forum."

NL Railmap ~ Beck-style View of Dutch Trains!

Harry Beck tubemap-style visualization of entire Dutch rail system!

Life Begins at Rewirement ~ Uploaded Elderly?

io9 spots Life Begins at Rewirement short film on uploading the elderly as alternative way of future nursing care... See also Behind the Scenes...

Pangea Politica ~ Modern Borders Mashup Map!

io9 spots Pangea Politica, the supercontinent from 300 million years ago mapped with today's geopolitical borders...

Smartphone Stats ~ Market Share by Platform...