Tout est Pardonné ~ Mo on Charlie Hebdo...

First post-atrocity Charlie Hebdo cover by Luz...

Save Our Planet ~ Jane Goodall on Technology...

In USAToday OpEd piece, renowned socio-primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall writes Technology can help save our planet...

"It is hard for me to believe that I will have lived on planet Earth for 80 years as of this Thursday. I was born on April 3, 1934 and the world has changed in almost all ways possible [via technology which] would have been considered science fiction when I was young. [...] Technology alone will not solve every problem, but it is part of the solution. Let's use technology as a way to amplify our voices in support of the environment. Let's turn to Facebook, Twitter and the myriad other ways to connect and strategize with likeminded individuals about how to make this world better. Let's use technology to extend the reach of our personal influence in support of the planet we love. You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you -- for better or for worse. What you do makes a difference. Technology can help us all make a positive difference."

Megapolitans ~ US Super-Regional Blocs...

Megapolitan areas compete globally writes Haya El Nasser in the USAToday...

"The long-struggling U.S. economy has made once-competing municipalities more receptive to [...] reaching across county lines and even state borders and aligning themselves as one economic bloc. It's the birth of a new geography: "megapolitans," regions that encompass cities and counties linked through man-made and natural connections such as shared transportation networks, labor markets or water supplies. Because population and economic growth is not spread evenly across the country (the 309 million Americans occupy only a quarter of all private land), planners and demographers for several years have advocated planning on a scale larger than cities, metropolitan areas or states."

Unions Stifling US ~ Unproductive Labor Rules...

Julia Vitullo-Martin, a senior fellow at the Regional Plan Association and director of the Center for Urban Innovation, opinionates in USA Today about How unions are stifling American growth...

"Labor has become increasingly unproductive. Decades of government-sanctioned work rules and regulations that impede productivity while hindering management's ability to manage have caused construction costs to soar and efficiency to plummet. [...] This is a complaint about waste -- about organized labor's legacy of work rules, jurisdictional disputes and unproductive practices that cause costs to soar through delays and over-staffing."

Vitullo-Martin goes on to give specific and disgraceful examples of state-enforced private-sector pork -- i.e. contractually imposed and grotesque "no-work jobs" -- which infests multiple industry sectors, especially construction and manufacturing. It's pretty sickening.

Participatory Citizen Science ~ Project BudBurst

Nice article in today's USAToday entitled 'Citizen scientists' record warming data about Project BudBurst, a field campaign engaging citizen scientists in tracking the dates that dozens of plant species sprout leaves and flowers this spring and summer. This is participatory wikiscience, a very compelling movement indeed, something we've been incubating at both MIT and Harvard!