Star Factory ~ NASA APOD spots Messier 17...

NASA APOD spots Messier 17 -- the Star Factory...

Walkable Cities ~ Speck on Urban Design @ TED

Charles Marohn at Strong Towns spots Jeff Speck speaking on Walkable Cities at TED... And more at TEDxMidAtlantic... Finally, here's all-slide PlanningWebcast... I don't understand why planners admire on-street parking. They claim it's safer for sidewalks but frankly it's an eyesore. Why not put in trees and bike lanes? Streets should not be for storage!

City of Tomorrow ~ CNN on Urban Innovations...

CNN spotlights the City of Tomorrow...

"The United Nations predicts by 2030, 60% of the world will live in cities. Demand for clean air, water, energy -- and convenience -- will skyrocket. Along with emerging innovations, increased connectivity via the Internet and smart devices promises to help solve many of these threats. Imagine turning the ocean into drinking water, ending traffic jams, making policing smarter and creating buildings with zero carbon footprints."

See here our own Sandra Richter sharing the Bench-e -- the first prototype of a new family of smart urban furniture -- which offers solar-powered phone recharging!

Growth with Depth ~ African Transformation...

K.Y. Amoako, President of the Africa Centre for Economic Transformation, introduces their new report Growth with Depth at African Arguments...

"We hear a lot these days about “Africa Rising” [...] But beneath the surface it’s not that simple. The rate of African growth may have increased, but the structure of most Sub-Saharan economies has not changed much over the past 40 years. [...]

Thus the headline statistics disguise both residual problems and inherent vulnerabilities. [...] How can we prevent this pattern repeating itself? This is the question our inaugural Africa Transformation Report aims to answer. Its core argument is that to ensure growth is sustainable and improves the lives of the many, governments need to address structural weaknesses, and deliberately and vigorously promote economic transformation, or growth with DEPTH. This acronym stands for Diversification of production and exports, Export competitiveness, Productivity increases, and Technological advances -- all leading to Human well-being."

Read the full report and see preview...

NEONSIGNS.HK ~ M+ Online Hong Kong Exhibit

MissC at Neatorama spots Hong Kong’s Neon Signs exhibit...

"The city at night appears to be made of neon, although that is gradually changing as more modern signs, lights, and video screens replace neon. The exhibit has a historical timeline, photographs of past and present neon works, a gallery of submitted photos, maps, and videos explaining the different aspects of neon signs and what they mean. It’s a museum exhibit you can get lost in."

See also the Neon Map!

Traffic Droid ~ Cyclist Names & Shames Idiots...

DM's Lucy Crossley spots the Traffic Droid...

"This self-styled cycling superhero has been naming and shaming errant drivers using seven video cameras mounted on his helmet and bike. Clad in black lycra, Traffic Droid, aka Lewis Dediare, describes his battle as a 'war of attrition' as he cycles around London, branding drivers 'idiots' if they get in his way. As well as a camera mounted on a three foot pole protruding from his modified bicycle, the 39-year-old carries a ruler to measure how his distance from cars, before bellowing into the car window to admonish the driver and showing them a 'red card'. He then uploads his footage to YouTube and Twitter, and will often hand it over to traffic companies and police so the drivers can be further punished."

Great Red Spot ~ Jupiter's Enormous Hurricane!

NASA APOD spots the Great Red Spot on Jupiter!

Undercover Bosses ~ Great Reality TV Show...

I've written about Undercover Boss before, but it's so good a concept that I had to spotlight a bunch of episodes again! And yes I know there's something a bit contrived about settings with video cameras, with bosses dispensing largesse (sometimes), and the inherent promotional nature of the show. Nevertheless, I do think it illustrates an important but otherwise near impossible connection between everyday employees and the top of these organizations. First, boss Ron Lynch from Tilted Kilt... Second, boss Joe DePinto from 7/11... Third, boss Don Fertman from Subway... Fourth, boss Dave Rife from White Castle... Fifth, boss Coby Brooks from Hooters... Finally, boss Larry O'Donnell from Waste Management...

Making Machines that Make ~ Peek @ Solid 2014

MIT CBA's Nadya Peek on Making Machines that Make at Solid...

Flood Simulations ~ Modeling Disaster Dynamics!

Steven Ward hosts the ingomar200 YouTube page where he posts great simulations of various historical flood and related disasters. These really help visualize historical and physical dynamics of major incidents. He's got many, but here's a few I particularly like: First, Pennsylvania's Johnstown Flood (1889)... France's Malpasset Dam Disaster (1959)... Alaska's Lituya Bay Tsunami (1959)... Historic breaching at Gibraltar and Med flood... Asteroid Eltanin hitting South Pacific... Finally, simulating Las Palmas again triggering megatsunami...

ECO Cycle ~ Culture Above, Function Below!

Japanese construction design and equipment maker GIKEN created the ECO Cycle robotic underground bike storage system. I've spotlit this before, but it's such a great solution that it's worth viewing their extended promo video...

Gotthard Base Tunnel ~ 57km Under Swiss Alps!

Some more construction porn, again thanks to pointer from MIT colleague Jonas, this time the Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT), an epic railway endeavor burrowing under 57km of Swiss Alps to connect north and south in most efficient manner!

"Its main purpose is to increase total transport capacity across the Alps, especially for freight, notably between Germany and Italy, and more particularly to shift freight volumes from road to rail to reduce environmental damage caused by ever-increasing numbers of heavy lorries."

Harvesting Fog ~ Capturing Aerosolized Water!

MIT colleague Karthik spots fog harvesting technologies...

"A system for collecting fresh drinking water from fog that regularly rolls through Chile’s otherwise arid coastal region. [...] A series of suspended mesh structures [...] strategically placed on top of hills and angle toward locations where fog typically blows in from the ocean. As the fog comes through, the webbing in the structures captures small droplets of water and filters them down into a collection silo. [...] There is around 10 billion cubic meters of potential fog water produced every year along the Chilean coast."

Life Itself ~ Docu on Film Critic Roger Ebert...

Kottke spots Life Itself documentary on Robert Ebert...

Drone do Amor ~ Brazilian "Love" Quadcopters

Lovely to have Brazilian social entrepreneur Francisco Almendra share his Love Drone story...

"I am using UAVs (drones) to bring awareness and celebration to the skies in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I've created a project called the Love Drone which films what is going on in the city from above with a lighthearted touch, from the summer parties and Carnaval, to the street protests, the FIFA World Cup and the upcoming presidential elections process. In this area, I'm also thinking about ways to use small UAVs to interact with the people on the street in a variety of ways, from delivering personal messages and small objects as part of art or urban intervention projects, to projecting large scale messages using laser pointers connected to embedded electronics hooked on the internet from the air -- e.g., imagine a drone downloading tweets and projecting them realtime on a public building from the air during a street protest..."

Epic Swiss Build ~ Pumped-Storage Gigaproject

My MIT colleague Jonas Brunschwig spotted this really epic Swiss engineering project Linthal 2015!

"A new underground pumped-storage power plant will be used to pump water from Lake Limmern back up to Lake Mutt, which is 630 m higher. When needed, it can then be used to generate electricity again. The new facility will boast pump and turbine capacities of 1,000 MW each. This will boost the output of Kraftwerke Linth-Limmern AG (KLL) from the current 480 MW or so to 1,480 MW. In terms of performance, this will put it on a par with the Leibstadt nuclear power plant or the Cleuson Dixence hydroelectric power plant. This will serve to safeguard the future security of electricity supply for northeastern and central Switzerland. Construction is expected to take about five years, and the plant should go into operation in 2015/2016."

Check out build video (in German, but spectacular graphics!-)

Living with Fire ~ USGS on SoCal Burn Dynamics

io9's Mika McKinnon spots USGS video Living with Fire...

"Last year, the United States Geological Survey produced an educational video on just why fires in Southern California are so different than elsewhere, and how they're using data to develop new strategies in fire prevention and fire science."

Also, FYI, Birago says check out this Drought Map...

MIT $100K 2014 ~ 25th Annual Venture Contest!

Tonight Wed 5/14 was the Grand Finale of the MIT $100K LAUNCH contest and the unveiling of the winner of the $100,000 grand prize! This is 25th Annual incarnation of the prize, something I entered as an undergraduate (and lost) with eight ideas! 330 teams applied to compete 5 tracks. 70 semifinalists advanced. 8 finalists competed for the final price. Grand Prize winner is Disease Diagnostic Group!

Amazing Octopi ~ Clever, Camo, Flexi, Tasty;-)

GeekPress spots escaping octopus! They're really amazing!

JohnnyExpress ~ Alfred ImageWorks' Short!

Robert Gonzalez at io9 spots lovely short by Kyungmin Woo from the Korean anime house Alfred ImageWorks called JohnnyExpress...

"It's 2150. There are all sorts of Aliens living throughout space. Johnny is a Space Delivery Man who travels to different planets to deliver packages. Johnny is lazy and his only desire is to sleep in his autopilot spaceship. When the spaceship arrives at the destination, all he has to do is simply deliver the box. However, it never goes as planned. Johnny encounters strange and bizarre planets and always seems to cause trouble on his delivery route. Will he be able to finish his mission without trouble?"

Illustris ~ First Realistic Universe Simulation...

DailyGalaxy spotlights the first realistic universe simulation Illustris...

"A set of large-scale cosmological simulations, including the most ambitious simulation of galaxy formation yet performed. The calculation tracks the expansion of the universe, the gravitational pull of matter onto itself, the motion or "hydrodynamics" of cosmic gas, as well as the formation of stars and black holes. These physical components and processes are all modeled starting from initial conditions resembling the very young universe 300,000 years after the Big Bang and until the present day, spanning over 13.8 billion years of cosmic evolution. The simulated volume contains tens of thousands of galaxies captured in high-detail, covering a wide range of masses, rates of star formation, shapes, sizes, and with properties that agree well with the galaxy population observed in the real universe."

Birdly ~ Oculus Rift VR Flight Simulator...

MIT's Jonas Brunschwig pointed me to Birdly...

Eclipsed Sunset ~ NASA APOD Spots Wall's Shot

NASA APOD spots Eclipsed Sunset photo by Andrew Wall...

Pee Shooter ~ Vigilante Clean Indian Soakers;-)

Sophie Jane Evans at the DailyMail spotlights Pee shooters...

"Vigilantes take to the streets of Mumbai with a water tanker so they can spray anyone caught taking a leak in public. [...] Tanker features enormous water canon and the sign: 'You Stop, We Stop'. Also includes rooftop area, from which masked activists can spray public. It aims to deter those who feel no shame relieving themselves on streets. Vehicle is believed to be manned by anonymous group, the Clean Indian."

Laying Pipe ~ Haverkamp on Allseas Audacia!

gCaptain's Rob Almeida shares great timelapse operations video by Wouter Haverkamp of the Allseas offshore pipelaying vessel Audacia!

London Evolution ~ Timelapse Urban Anime!

Thanks to MissC for spotting London Evolution...

"Developed by The Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (UCL), as a partnership project between English Heritage, The Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (University of Cambridge)/Dr Kiril Stanilov and Museum of London Archaeology (with the Mapping London and Locating London's Past projects), and was initiated and directed by Polly Hudson (PHD). The London Evolution Animation (LEA) shows the historical development of London from Roman times to today, using georeferenced road network data brought together for the first time. The animation also visualises (as enlarged yellow points) the position and number of statutorily protected buildings and structures built during each period."

CENTR ~ Interactive 360 Pano Video Camera!

Thanks to Valentin Heun for spotting CENTR which is Kicking now...

"CENTR generates 360° HD video in real time on a device that fits in your pocket. [...] CENTR Camera stitches videos together from four independent HD image sensors. CENTR footage can be viewed though your desktop, smartphone, or tablet in real-time via Wi-Fi through the CENTR interactive player. Create everything from amazing panoramic time lapses to the ultimate 360° selfie."

This is cool! I'd forgotten till now that video stitching together a crown of multiple cameras was my 6.111 lab final project back as an MIT undergrad! It's about time this went commercial!-)

MIT CityHome ~ Live Large on Small Footprint

MIT Media Lab's CityHome enables living large in a small footprint...

"An ultra-efficient, responsive urban home, providing a hardware and software ecosystem for personal space customization."

Curating Innovation ~ Bonsen on Social Physics...

Yours truly pontificating about Curating Innovation...

Overview Effect ~ Perspective on Earth & Mankind

Thanks to Kottke for spotting the Overview Effect...

"First described by author Frank White in 1987, is an experience that transforms astronauts' perspective of Earth and mankind's place upon it. Common features of the experience are a feeling of awe for the planet, a profound understanding of the interconnection of all life, and a renewed sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment."

MIT Bitcoin Expo ~ Exploring P2P Cryptocurrency

MIT Bitcoin Expo 2014 this past Saturday...

The Nod ~ One Ring to Control Them All...

Andy Boxall at DigitalTrends spots the Nod, a ring which turns your finger into a high-tech magic wand...

"Essentially a clever, wearable universal controller, which will interact with many mobile devices running Android or iOS, Windows or Mac computers, the Nest thermostat, TV, and even connected lightbulbs. To make things work, use gestures."

Big Steel Box ~ How Ship'n Containers Are Made!

Anish at MarineInsight answers How Are Shipping Containers Made? by pointing out this great video by the folks at Big Steel Box...

African Tech Hubs ~ Mapping Creative Hotspots...

WhiteAfrican spotlights map of African Tech Hubs...

BIG MEN ~ Boynton's African Oil Dilemma Docu...

Thanks to CGDev's Todd Moss for spotting Rachel Boynton's new BIG MEN documentary which...

"Follows the Texas-based Kosmos Energy as it searches for oil off the West African coast and then, soon after their discovery, as they renegotiate with a new government in Accra. The film also delves into the entrenched corruption and violence in the Niger Delta, providing a stark backdrop to the growing worries about what might happen in Ghana. I was lucky enough to see the film recently and it has three big strengths:

1. Incredible access to key players, including inside Kosmos, the Government of Ghana, and the swamps of the Delta. 
2. The complexities of the issues facing countries and investors are thoughtfully handled with care and subtlety. 
3. The tension of a real-life thriller. "

Check out trailer...