Mega Tsunami Happen ~ Simulation of Past &...

Given the recent Indonesian disaster with Krakatoa Junior collapsing with consequent tsunami, it's worth looking at other examples of the same, including this simulation of Fogo in Cabo Verde several tens of thousands of years ago... And, of course, Krakatoa Senior some ~150 years ago was a whopper... But let's not stop there, here's the most likely thing (other than another Hurricane Sandy) to clobber the US Eastern Seaboard, La Palma in the Canarys going...

Cultural Map ~ World Values Survey Infographic

The World Values Survey measures traditional values versus secular-rational values plotted against survival values versus self-expression values:

• Traditional v. Secular values ~ On the importance of religion, parental ties, authority, and traditional family values; 
• Survival v. Self-expression values ~ On the importance of economic and physical security, ethnocentric outlook and low levels of trust and tolerance. 

Here's 2008 visualization from MapPorn...

ISU Launch Poster ~ Pat Rawlings Space Art!

Wow, I just found Pat Rawlings gallery pages which includes his poster art for the first summer of the International Space University at MIT just over 30 years ago! I was lucky enough to be an undergrad volunteer. One of my favorite posters, btw, an homage to another important Institute;-)

One WTC Timelapse ~ EarthCam's 11yr Build-vid

After all these years I finally watched the One World Trade Center build video, a timelapse by EarthCam...

Cosmic Wonderland ~ NASA's Composite Beauty!

NASA aesthetically photo-composited data from Chandra, ROSAT, Spitzer, and SuperCosmos observatories to make this Cosmic Wonderland image!

World Mapping ~ Qualities of Life & Governance...

The Economist's Democracy Index scores 167 countries...

"On a scale of 0 to 10 based on 60 indicators across five broad categories -- electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, democratic political culture and civil liberties -- concludes that less than 5% of the world’s population currently lives in a “full democracy”

Small Farmer Tools ~ Simple Efficient Solutions

This past few weeks I've discovered both Richard Perkins, Making Small Farms Work, and Curtis Stone, the Urban Farmer. I've been trying to understand the combined notions of (1) smallholder farming, (2) using permaculture & "organic" approaches, all while (3) having a profit-making orientation and these two are really good about pinning things down with numbers, planning their steps and documenting their actions, and analyzing and tuning for moneymaking. Anyways, today I just want to spotlight a couple of simple efficient solutions they're both champions of. First, the Japanese paperpot method of seedling-starting and transplanting into beds (which Stone sells via his Paperpot venture)... Second, the quick-cut and cut-again greens harvester... FYI, Perkins is also getting into the business of selling the solutions with this Farmers Tools venture. Note that neither Stone nor Perkins are the direct inventors of these tools, but they've each been really prolific in using them profitably and especially in demonstrating how they can be amazingly effective! Check out their respective YouTube channels, Ridgedale Permaculture and Urban Farmer.

Golden Gate ~ Building This Epic Infrastructure!

Arguably the most amazing piece of civil engineering infrastructure -- or certainly a Top 10 together with Roman aqueducts, the Suez & Panama Canals, various Chunnels, transcontinental railroads, the Hoover Dam, and more -- is surely building the Golden Gate Bridge as documented here... And look at those dimensions! Huge!

Longterm Lens ~ Maddison's Economic Stats...

Today I want to salute Angus Maddison who was a pioneer in macro economic history whose team investigated, gathered evidence for, and ultimately guesstimated national accounts over the longterm, including GDP and GDP/Capita...

Engelbart's Mother Of All Demos @ 50years!

SRI's Augmentation Research Center (ARC) director Doug Engelbart gave the Mother Of All Demos on 9 December 1968...

"...demonstrating experimental computer technologies that are now commonplace. The live demonstration featured the introduction of the computer mouse, video conferencing, teleconferencing, hypertext, word processing, hypermedia, object addressing and dynamic file linking, bootstrapping, and a collaborative real-time editor."

There's going to be a celebration!

World of Standards ~ Alternative Choices!

Power plugs around the world... Railway track gauges... Left vs Right-hand Driving...

China's American Dream ~ Growth Infographics!

As part of the China Rules series, Javier Hernandez and Quoctrung Bui write in the NYTimes that The American Dream Is Alive. In China...

"In a country still haunted by the Cultural Revolution, where politics are tightly circumscribed by an authoritarian state, the Chinese are now among the most optimistic people in the world -- much more so than Americans and Europeans, according to public opinion surveys. What has changed? Most of all, an economic expansion without precedent in modern history. Eight hundred million people have risen out of poverty. That’s two and a half times the population of the United States. [...] China used to make up much of the world’s poor. Now it makes up much of the world’s middle class."

Math Skills ~ Achievements vs Needs...

Causes of Death ~ Global Disease Burden by Age

The Lancet published Global, regional, and national age-sex-specific mortality for 282 causes of death in 195 countries and territories, 1980–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017 summarizing causes of human death...

"Deaths due to communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional causes continue to decline, while deaths from non-communicable diseases increase and injury deaths are stable. Declines in death rates of some non-communicable diseases have slowed or ceased. […] Non-communicable diseases remain the leading causes of death globally, and their burden is rising."

Population Proportomap ~ World Humanity 2018!

Future Commerce ~ Fall 2018 H2 Seminar...

This Tuesday 10/30/2018 from 1-2:30pm is the introductory kickoff class session of our half-semester 6-unit Future Commerce seminar in the MIT Media Lab room E14-244. Please spread the word! Listeners & cross-registrants welcome.  We explore emerging technologies that will transform financial services.  Our top thematic areas include:

• Money ~ Blockchain-based digital currencies; novel barter platforms; peer-to-peer technologies; 
• Markets ~ Wisdom of crowds & prediction markets; fraud meets flash crashes; network-enabled markets; Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs);
• Transactions & Marketplaces ~ Marketplace stack of identity, reputation, marketplace, money; the foundation of assets over IP; how blockchain, mobile platforms and digital currencies give inclusive access;
• Infrastructure ~ Identity, Security & Privacy challenges; cybersecurity; anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Client (KYC) rules;
• AI & Emerging Technologies ~ Understanding the impacts of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies on financial services.

Scheduled guest speakers include Yaniv Altshuler, CEO Endor; Snejina Zacharia, CEO Insurify; Jeremy Allaire, CEO Circle; Meltem Demirors, CSO CoinShares; Prof. Alex Pentland, Connection Science & Human Dynamics; Clara Durodié, Chair, Cognitive Finance Group; Will Graylin, CEO OVLoop; Amias Gerety, Partner, QED / fmr U.S. Treasury Dept.

Pearl Supercity ~ River Delta Conurbation!

The recent opening of world's longest (55km) sea-crossing bridge between Hong Kong + Macao + Zhuhai completes the southern connection linking a half-dozen Chinese megacities into a ~70M+ inhabitant supercity as Visual Capitalist shows...

Moral Machines ~ Discovering Ethical Views...

Nature published The Moral Machine experiment results...

"Before we allow our cars to make ethical decisions, we need to have a global conversation to express our preferences to the companies that will design moral algorithms, and to the policymakers that will regulate them. The Moral Machine was deployed to initiate such a conversation, and millions of people weighed in from around the world. [...] an online experimental platform designed to explore the moral dilemmas faced by autonomous vehicles. This platform gathered 40 million decisions in ten languages from millions of people in 233 countries and terri tories. [...] Geolocation allowed us to identify the country of residence of Moral Machine respondents, and to seek clusters of countries with homogeneous vectors of moral preferences."

Here's the summary visualization of results...

Moral Matrix ~ Libs vs Cons Outlook Differences...

Jon Miltimore in FEE writes about social psychologist Jonathan Haidt's attempts to understand and explain human morality and, in particular...

"...the five primary categories that serve as our moral foundation:

1. Care/harm ~ an ability to feel (and dislike) the pain of others; underlies virtues of kindness, gentleness, and nurturance. 
2. Fairness/reciprocity ~ the evolutionary process of reciprocal altruism; generates ideas of justice, rights, and autonomy. 
3. Loyalty/betrayal ~ ability to form shifting coalitions; underlies virtues of patriotism and self-sacrifice for the group.
4. Authority/subversion ~ hierarchical social interactions; underlies virtues of leadership and followership, legitimate authority and traditions. 
5. Sanctity/degradation ~ psychology of disgust and contamination; underlies religious notions of striving to live in an elevated, less carnal, more noble way."

"What Haidt found is that both conservatives and liberals recognize the Harm/Care and Fairness/Reciprocity values. Liberal-minded people, however, tend to reject the three remaining foundational values -- Loyalty/betrayal, Authority/subversion, and Sanctity/degradation -- while conservatives accept them. It’s an extraordinary difference, and it helps explain why many liberals and conservatives in America think “the other side” is bonkers."

World Economy 2017 ~ Visualizing Global GDP...

WEF spotlights Visual Capitalist infographic visualizing global GDP...

Human Capital Index ~ Developing Youth...

BBC Africa's Farouk Chothia reports on the World Bank's Human Capital Index...

"...a new way of measuring economic success and gauges how much effort is being put into developing the youth. The higher the investment in education and health the more productive and higher earning the workforce tends to be, the World Bank says. African countries dominate the bottom of the index."

Music, Media, Money ~ Waves of Discovation...

Visual Capitalist shares Music Revenue infographics...

Corruption Perceptions Index ~ Econographic!

The Economist Daily Chart reminds us of Corruption...

"At least 6bn people around the world live in corrupt countries, according to Transparency International’s (TI) latest ranking of perceptions of corruption in the public sector."

World of Debt ~ Percentograph of Borrowings

WEF spotlights Visual Capitalist infographic on what $63 trillion of world debt looks like...

"Around the globe countries have taken to the idea of running constant deficits as the normal course of business, and too much accumulation of debt is not healthy for countries or the global economy as a whole."

Totality ~ Amazing Eclipse Image from the Air!

Photographer Jon Carmichael captured an epic image of solar eclipse totality from the air! It's a photo-montage...

"Within a matter of seconds, it goes from broad daylight to completely nighttime," Carmichael recalled. "Everybody just kind of gasped and went silent. And I'm just focusing on getting these shots. [...] I took over 1,200 photos." The final image shows the eclipse just as the plane passes over the Snake River, separating Oregon from Idaho. It took close to a year after the flight for Carmichael to assemble the final print."

Occupations & Ideologies ~ Spectrum Mapping...

Political scientist Adam Bonica estimates the ideologies of individuals, politicians, and organizations...

Technology Adoption ~ Percent in US vs Time...

Visual Capitalist shares The Rising Speed of Technological Adoption from Our World in Data...

Rising Region ~ The True Size of Africa

Thanks to MapPorn for revisiting The True Size of Africa!

Giant Leaps ~ Celebrate Past, Ask What's Next?

On 20 July 1969, Astronaut Neil Armstrong made One Giant Leap For Mankind!

"When the lunar module lands at 4:18 p.m EDT, only 30 seconds of fuel remain. Armstrong radios "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Mission control erupts in celebration as the tension breaks, and a controller tells the crew "You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue, we're breathing again." [...] At 10:56 p.m. EDT Armstrong is ready to plant the first human foot on another world. With more than half a billion people watching on television, he climbs down the ladder and proclaims: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Aldrin joins him shortly, and offers a simple but powerful description of the lunar surface: "magnificent desolation."

Declaration of Independence ~ Worthy Reading...

Everyone should read the Declaration of Independence...

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. [And there's more!]"

Pyrotechnic Injuries ~ All Are Free to Be Stupid...

Vox spotlights research from the Journal of Surgical Research which reveals The people going to the hospital for fireworks injuries are exactly who you think...

"You’ll never guess when these hospitalizations spike. Here are all the hospitalizations from 2006 to 2010 sorted by month..."

"Teenage boys and young men hurt themselves with fireworks way more than everyone else. Men and boys, overall, accounted for 76 percent of all fireworks-related hospital admissions in the study..."

Global Exports ~ Physical Stuff Sold Internationally

HowMuch maps the Global Export Economy in One Map... 

"We got our numbers from the World Trade Organization [...] The WTO tracks the total value of physical goods each country sends across its borders. Remember, these numbers exclude services -- we are only focused on physical items. To create our map, we changed the size of the country depending on the value of exports, and we likewise added a shade of blue for easy reference. This approach highlights the outliers and identifies several key trends."

Enlightenment Now ~ Pinker on Progress...

Professor Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress summarizes proof that health, wealth, and happiness are improving worldwide due to enlightenment values of reason, science, and humanism. He discusses this in his TED talk Is the world getting better or worse? A look at the numbers...

"We will never have a perfect world, and it would be dangerous to seek one," he says. "But there's no limit to the betterments we can attain if we continue to apply knowledge to enhance human flourishing."

MIT Media Ventures ~ Spring 2018 Projects!

Professors Alex "Sandy" Pentland, Cynthia Breazeal, and I together

with colleague instructors David Shrier, Beth Porter, Steve Derezinski, and Thomas Hardjono were pleased to have ~75 students in our MIT Media Lab & MIT Sloan cross-listed Media Ventures class this past Spring 2018 semester working on nearly three dozen projects! These projects are a combination of new venture proposals pursuing entrepreneurial concepts and innovation roadmaps exploring a larger landscape of emerging technology possibilities. Just to give you a taste for the wide range of topics covered, here they are in alphabetical order...

• Acciyo ~ Assistive AI for Active News Readers
• Aion Therapeutics ~ Bio-derived Neuroceuticals  
• Alpaca ~ Scaling Online Marketplaces  
• Bias Detection ~ AI/ML for Fallacy Detection 
• Bienvendido ~ Home Purchase Fund for Mexico 
• Blockchain + Healthcare ~ Traceablity & Authentication 
• Blockchain x Music ~ Fast, Inclusive, Artist-Friendly 
• Climate Media Engine ~ Provocative Short Videos 
• Digital Health ~ Proactive Care Innovation Roadmap 
• Equalizr ~ Speech Pattern Analysis & Coaching 
• EthAnalytics ~ Blockchain Venture Impact Metrics 
• FundONE ~ Democratizing Political Fundraising 
• Hustle ~ Changing Contractor Career Options 
• Levio ~ Home Swapping for LGTBQ Travelers 
• Markets for Data ~ Vertical & Horizontal Roadmap 
• Mindful VR ~ Overcoming Test Anxiety, Boosting Scores 
• Mobile Digital ID ~ Authentication & Login Tech 
• Nutrition Tracking ~ Consumer Innovation Roadmap 
• Oncotector ~ Surgical Cancer Detector 
• Personal Media Venture ~ MIT Tech x Business Examples  
• Project Tokenize ~ Alternatives to Debt & Equity 
• R&D Megafunds ~ Financial Instruments for Good 
• Recipere ~ New Age Clinical Research Portal 
• Restaurants & Tech ~ For Kitchens, Tables, & Beyond 
• Smart Devices for the Disabled ~ Innovation Roadmap 
• Space Economy ~ Astropreneurship Roadmap 
• Straight Line Capital ~ Alt Funding Platform 
• Tech to Fight Sex Trafficking ~ Tools Roadmap 
• Told Ya! ~ Peer-to-Peer Casino-less Betting  
• Trustee ~ Digital ID for Consumer Use 
• Waffle ~ Re-imagining Insurance Holistically 
• Wakanda Institute of Technology ~ New MIT Conference 
• Zilper ~ Trenchless Construction for Piping 
• Zippi ~ Inclusive Finance in Brazil

Minorities & Health ~ Nordenstedt on Metrics

Professor Helena Nordenstedt gives TEDxKTH talk with help of Gapminder visuals on Minorities & Global Health, a framework for better understanding how health and economics go together...

MIT New Ventures ~ A Nuts & Bolts NanoMBA...

We've been hosting our MIT January/IAP 2018 class on the Nuts & Bolts of New Ventures for the past two weeks! Tonight's session with one of my favorite people, Yonald Chery, holistically integrates learnings via our live case study, MIMIO (f.k.a. Virtual Ink). Highly recommended!

On The Rise ~ Global GDP-Change 2018 Fo'cast

The Economist graphically visualizes fastest-growing and shrinking economies in 2018...

Billion-USD Events ~ Disaster Cost Mapping...

NOAA maps Billion-Dollar Disaster Event Types...

Global Economy ~ GDP by Geo & Proportion...

The WEF shares World Bank data plotted by HowMuch about the Global Economy, mapping GDP by geography and proportion...

Wealth vs Lifestyle ~ OECD on Quality of Life...

OECD looks at range of indicators in latest study on Quality of Life...

Education and Religion ~ US Degree Attainments

Pew researched Educational Attainment of US Religious Groups...

Innovation and Religiosity ~ Is Reason > Faith?

The Economist charts Innovation and Religiosity...