Recommended Readings 080727 ~ On Aging, Dirty Words, Displays, Security, Dorms, Schools, Africa, Contraception, Tourism, Peacekeeping, the Future...

A few more tasty news morsels this week...

• The Globe Magazine has a nice Boomers Issue about staying Forever Young. Nice mention of MIT Age Lab.
• Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau this Sunday is an homage to George Carlin who, quite obviously, "didn't work in print." Indeed he worked live and in your face!
• Scott Kirsner in his Innovation Economy column encourages Rethinking Display Technology. Includes a nice illustration and mention of Dave Merrill's Siftables.
• Jesse Noyes of the Boston Business Journal writes that MIT alumnus entrepreneur Patrick Sobalvarro's startup Intellivid's assets rolled into Tyco security unit. Security systems is one of the relatively stealthy business clusters in Boston-metro with such firms as Raytheon, Iron Mountain, and others in this area.
• Dawn Wotapka writes in the WSJ about businesses in the collegiate real estate sector in Campus Living, and Even a Theater: Specialized Developers Helping More Colleges To Meet Housing Needs.
• Malin Rising in the AP writes about Big change for welfarist Sweden: School choice and for-profit private enterprises being the preferred providers.
• It's good to see Manchester United hero's new goal: educating Africa's Children writes Jonathan Northcroft in the Sunday Times.
• The USAToday's Rick Hampson writes that Americans finding purpose in hopes for Africa's future, with religion-driven volunteerism booming, something I'm rather ambivalent about.
• John Allen opines about the Pope vs the Pill in the NYTimes about the papal edict Humanae Vitae which reiterated the church's ban on artificial birth control (a stunningly medieval stance condemning millions to lives of misery and poverty and reinforcing anti-woman policies worldwide).
• Bret Stephens opines in the WSJ about Al Gore's Doomsday Clock and Gore's challenge to America. Stephens asserts "Serious people understand [Gore's idea] is absurd."
• On the other hand, Robert McFarlane and George Philippidis opine about How Free Trade Can Help Solve the Energy Crisis.
• Martin Fackler in the NYTimes writes that Flush With Cash, More Asian Tourists Flock to Japan which is probably a great way to lower long-lived tensions and misapprehensions throughout Asia about Japanese. Tourism is a better pathway to co-prosperity!
• Harvey Morris in the FT interviews the UN's Jean-Marie Guehenno who reveals that Conflict interventions push close to 'the outer limit of peacekeeping' which is a worrisome thing given the growing demands for such actions.
• The Daily Galaxy writes The Future Isn't What it Used to Be! (It's Going to be Better) about the UN State of the Future report.

Randy Pausch ~ R.I.P.

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch spoke about Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams at CMU on September 18, 2007. I'm sad to say he gave this talk knowing he had terminal cancer and only months to live and, indeed, he passed away yesterday. I most highly recommend you watch his Last Lecture for yourself... Be sure to also read Jeffrey Zaslow's WSJ articles, both from last September, A Beloved Professor Delivers The Lecture of a Lifetime, and this weekend, Professor Aimed 'Last Lecture' At His Children... and Inspired Millions.

Discover Our World ~ Boom-De-Yada !-)

Thanks to my entrepreneur friend Gregg Favalora (a.k.a. G-Fav), the founder of Actuality, for spotting this delighter from Discovery... The world is such a brilliant place!

Pole Dancing Exercises China ~ What Would Confucius Think?

Intrepid investigative reporter Jimmy Wang of the NYTimes casts his eyes on the latest hot movements in the Middle Kingdom in this piece entitled From the Erotic Domain, an Aerobic Trend in China... Be sure to also see the NYTimes in-depth video report about aero-eroto-bics.

Spoofing the Republicrats ;-)

Leopard vs Croc ~ Battle Royale at the Nature Reserve!

Thanks to the eagle-eyed Paul Hsieh from GeekPress and friends at Cynical-C for spotting these amazing photos by Hal Brindley of a natural battle royale published in the Telegraph... Plus check out the video-ized version of all the photos at halbrindley.com who tells the whole surreal story of his Best Day Ever!

Dr Vivek Murthy of B & W and Epernicus.com on HighTechFever

I interviewed Vivek Murthy, an attending physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and co-founder of the scientist's social networking site Epernicus.com, on my HighTechFever TV show today. Epernicus helps solve a key challenge in science: how to find the right people with the right expertise in one's larger network right now. Few existing social networks capture information that is relevant to scientists, and those that do make it far too hard to find specific skills and expertise. Epernicus targets such problems directly. Some 2-3000 people have signed up so far, with more daily.

My Next 40 Years ~ Maximizing Progress Towards Liberty, Prosperity, and Vitality for ALL

Just to give you an aesthetic indication of what four decades looks like, here is yours truly as a youthful builder on the beach in California... ...and here relatively recently in Massachusetts next to the Media Lab with our MIT Great Dome in the distance... Key question now: What to do for my Next 40 Years? Well, I want to be relentlessly Maximizing Progress towards a first-world, world-wide by 2050. That means achieving political Liberty, economic Prosperty, and cultural Vitality for everyone on Planet Earth. A BHAG, but not impossible. Let's get to it -- join me!

Freedom of Speech ~ Including Sarcasm, Irony, Cynicism, Obscenity, Profanity, et al

It's a most wonderful thing to live in a modern and civilized enlightenment society which values -- and protects -- freedom of speech because there are, unfortunately, more than a few backwards and swinish theocratic hellholes on Planet Earth today -- members of the United Nations, appallingly enough -- where people are oppressed, assaulted, and even killed for questioning received revelations and daring to draw even kindly caricatures, such as these... ...as evidenced by the aftermath to the Danish portraits of the prophet.

Ending of an Institution ~ Off To the Grad Student Ghetto...

This is not a public advertisement... The Muddy's sister organization, the Thirsty Ear Pub, has been forced to close for good this week in its current location because unwise MIT higher-powers have chosen to sequester all new graduate student housing into an isolated ghetto in the styx to the northwest of campus. But fear not, MIT-folk can continue to get quenched when the New Thirsty re-opens end of August in the New Ashdown.

One Giant Leap for Mankind!

Apollo 11. Still amazing.

Recommended Readings 080720 ~ On Mobiles, Malaria, Africa, Asia, Canines, Collaboration, Platforms, Charisma, Overspending, Age, Trust...

Some readable morsels this week...

• Pascal Zachary writes in the NYTimes from Inside Nairobi, The Next Palo Alto? about the boom in mobile phone programming and innovation in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa. (If you're interested in this, I suggest looking into Nathan Eagle's EPROM effort.)
• Mark Schoofs writes in the WSJ that the Clinton Foundation Sets Up Malaria-Drug Price Plan. They're bringing market-mechanisms and supply-consistency in an effort to reduce price instability and hence producer uncertainty. There's still work to be done, of course, but this is an exciting step.
• Interesting interview by Andrew Davidson of the Sunday Times entitled On a mission to save Africa of Richard Harvey, former boss of British insurer Aviva, who quit to pursue charitable works in Malawi and Kenya. His mission now is to get business to help solve more of Africa's problems.
• Michael O'Hanlon writes in the USAToday about Vietnam's model for N. Korea, surveying the evolution of former Cold War enemy to emerging Asian tiger economy and imagining parallels up north.
• Just in time for the Olympics, China bans dogs as food from restaurants. Not dog food, nor hot dogs, but actual canine cuisine. Too bad, I actually was looking forward to tasting a roast of Rover.
• Andrew Stone of the Sunday Times spotlights Andrew Ritchie, founder of Brompton Bicycle, who found others to work with in creating his folding bike for commuters.
• Lindsay Brooke writes in the NYTimes about Mr. Ford's T: Mobility With Versatility, spotlighting the hundreds of add-on and specialization kits reinforcing the value of the Model T core-platform. Reminds me of mobile phones as the platform of today. (And some people still think the whole "pimp your ride" movement is novel!-) Definitely checkout the online photo slideshow of Model T variations.
• In his Critical Faculties column, Mark Oppenheimer writes Charm School: Scholars unpack the secrets of charisma, and suggest the elusive quality can be taught.
• Good to see Peter Peterson, co-founder of Blackstone Group spending a pile of his coins to create a documentary entitled I.O.U.S.A. to provoke politicians into spending less than they extort from society in taxes.
• Anemona Hartocollis writes in the NYTimes about the very welcome Rise Seen in Medical Efforts To Improve Very Long Lives (or Treat the Very Old).
• In Afghanistan, Getting to Know The Neighbors Is Half the Battle writes Michael Phillips in the WSJ about the role of trust in nation-building.

Feynman on Finding Things Out

Thanks to Cynical-C for spotlighting Richard Feynman's The Pleasure of Finding Things Out videos...

The End ~ Portraits of Pre-and-Post Mortem

I'm very moved by this series of portraits by German photographer Walter Schels and his partner Beate Lakotta who "recorded the poignant and revealing interviews with the subjects in their final days." As the UK Guardian story, This is the end, indicates, these photos are of "people before and on the day they died".

David Grosof ~ OptiOpia Affordable Eyecare

I interviewed David Grosof, co-founder and President of OptiOpia -- the affordable eyecare company -- on my MaximizingProgress.tv (aka HighTechFever TV) show tonight. This business was born at MIT through the impassioned work of genius inventor-engineer Saul Griffith -- OptiOpia co-founder and Chairman, then at the MIT Media Lab -- who realized there needed to be a better way to both capture the correct prescription and craft the correct lens to create inexpensive, everyday eyeglasses for the nearly one billion people worldwide who need such glasses but either can't afford them or can't get a supply. Saul built prototype systems, won the HBS business plan contest, and most recently embarked on the OptiOpia venture to spread the best solution. After his own doctoral studies in neuroscience and clinical research career in vision ailments, David originally met Saul while attending the MIT Sloan MBA program and subsequently joined forces to drive the widespread distribution of what they describe as:

Affordable Technology for Eyecare: (1) a low-cost auto-refractor to get the right prescription and (2) a lens molder for on-the-spot on-demand lens manufacture.

This is an excellent example of a developmental entrepreneurship venture addressing one of the key global consumer health gigachallenges!

Urban Innovations ~ Towards Green, Clean, Intense, Smart, Responsive Vital Cities!

Several recent interesting advances in the realm of green, livable, ecologically-savvy, smart and vital cities! The WSJ's Ana Campoy points out that With Gas Over $4, Cities Explore Whether It's Smart to Be Dense specifically looking at Sacramento, CA's blueprint for growth. See the Before-After images, including these examples... and the related video... And Steven Erlanger in the NYTimes spotlights that A New Fashion Catches On in Paris: Cheap Bicycle Rentals as I've noted before. In San Francisco, CA, if you Can’t Find a Parking Spot? Check Smartphone writes John Markoff in the NYTimes. But all is not smooth sailing. Boston, for instance, just can't get its act together. Noah Bierman writes in the Globe that Open road tolling stalled, not installed about slow technology upgrades and ongoing inefficiencies. Noah also writes that the endless, infamous Big Dig is now covered by -- what a surprise -- Not-So-Green Acres, and is a pretty barren and dreadfully misdesigned place. And continuing as the bearer of bad Boston news, Noah writes about the Summer of discontent on Red Line, which the MBTA officialdom can't seem to maintain, fix, or run properly. Tactically speaking, we today live in a pretty shitty city. On the other hand, bold thinkers are imagining really dramatic greening of future cities as Bina Venkataraman writes in the NYTimes story entitled Country, the City Version: Farms in the Sky Gain New Interest. Thanks to Cory Kidd, now based in Hong Kong, for pointing me to this delighter as well as an earlier piece on vertical hog farms! There's a great slide-show of Towers of Food design variants by Dickson Despommier, a professor at Columbia University and his students, including these samples... On the commercial side of things, I've been really impressed with the public pronouncements of United Technologies or UTC, the group which makes Otis elevators, Carrier air conditioners, and an array of power, fire, security and other systems crucial to city living. UTC Chairman George David, in a recent advertisement in the WSJ, wrote about Why do we have cities? and on the basis of this intellectual-historical survey, positioned the strategy and vision for UTC. Fantastic! Read for yourself this and the rest of their Leadership Series of adverts...

Neurotechnology @ MIT & Beyond ~ An Enormous Emerging Research & Venture Domain

I've written before about the promise of Neurotechnology broadly -- the advances through neuroscience and neuroengineering of our ability to diagnose and treat mind, brain, and nervous system ailments of all types. Here at MIT, various colleagues and I are adding our piece, including with Chuck Eesley co-organizing Neurotech@MIT gathering this Tuesday night July 15th 2008, from 7-9pm. This informal evening of drinks, brainstorming, and conversation with fellow inventive and entrepreneurial friends will be at the Royal East over dinner. The Royal East Restaurant is at 792 Main St. Cambridge, MA. We each chip in to split the cost. Plus check out our MIT Neurotech blog.

This Fall 2008, together with Ed Boyden and Rutledge Ellis-Behnke, I'm co-teaching Neurotechnology Ventures, an Institute-wide elective projects-course at MIT on the challenges of envisioning, planning, and building startups to bring neuroengineering innovations to the world... The whole arena of Neurotechnology is blossoming. Further anecdotal evidence includes the recent Rice Business Plan Contest where over 10% of all 36 semi-finalists were Neurotech-related.

Recommended Readings 080713 ~ On Risk, Kids, Rehab, Toys, Competition, Hybrids, Rights, Robots, Animals, Co-Existence, Cruelty, Jeddah Boyz & Girlz...

A bunch of interesting stand-alone items this week...

• Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein writes in the Sunday Globe IDEAS section about Throwing precaution to the wind: Why the 'safe' choice can be dangerous about the influential but incoherent and even risky Precautionary Principle. (Anyone curious about digging into this further might want to read about the Proactionary Principle, the opposition to Precautionary.)
• Rosemary Bennett, Social Affairs Correspondent to the Times, writes Children need risk to thrive as adults, says Dragons’ Den judge Simon Woodroffe, asserting that the "obsessive “safety-first” culture in schools will rob Britain of the next generation of entrepreneurs just when the country needs them most..."
• Mark Baard in the Globe's Personal Tech section writes of a great collaboration -- Brown, RISD students create toys for kids with cerebral palsy -- part of the Toys and Technology for Rehabilitation program in Providence, RI.
• Nearly two years ago, Professor Seymour Papert was traumatically brain-injured while visiting Vietnam. Linda Matchan in the Globe writes In Search of a Beautiful Mind about Seymour's vital struggle to recover. (It sickens and disgusts me that MIT "has refused to help pay for his home care" so I too am contributing to the Seymour Papert Recovery Fund and furthermore hope his case helps contribute to our understanding of neurorehabilitation and neurotherapeutics more generally.)
• Gerrit Wiesman writes in the FT Entrepreneurship column on Bike power without pedals about the Mertens' business Kokua and their prime-product, Like-a-Bike, a pedal-less two-wheeler for toddlers. Theirs was such a great idea that everyone copied it, something simultaneously flattering and economically deadly.
• Rhys Blakely in the Times writes from Bombay, India that the Mobile phone rings end of letter writers, another story of competitive pressures squeezing out the vintage trades. Or at least some such trades, since India's professional ear cleaners still find work.
• Given the hype about hybrid autos, it's certainly a rude shock when customers discover, as Jonathan Soble and Bernand Simon write in the FT, that Patience is a virtue when Prius battery supply chains go flat. It seems ramping up manufacturing capacity is at least as difficult as accurately forecasting demand.
• WIRED has a nice set of articles about The Petabyte Age, in which massive numbers of sensors, processors, data bits, and networks make everything we do massively different.
• Donald McNeil Jr of the NYTimes surveys the implications and consequences When Human Rights Extend to Nonhumans. Inquires he: "Should apes be treated like people? Which apes? Which people?"
• Curiously enough, Adam Liptak, also of the NYTimes, covers the latest analysis of whether McCain is even eligible to be elected President. It would seem that the rights of "natural-born citizenship" do not extend to those with the misfortune of being born outside of the USA. Could Obama actually win solely by virtue of this legal technicality?! Seems to me the Supreme Court will have enough on its hands deciding which human rights should be extended to fellow humans, nevermind monkeys.
• Technovelgy inquires: Do People Prefer Humanoid Robots? Short answer: Yes.
• BBC inquires: Does Baby Panda Prefer Panda or Cat Mother? Short answer: Cat.
• It's amazing to read that Holocaust siblings meet after 66 years. Matthew Chance of CNN writes their story of separation and now finally reunion. Watch for yourself their great joy! (And a salute to the tireless volunteer Red Cross wonder-workers who sleuth these families together!)
• Across another line of separation, BBC shares with us the Third Letters between Anav Silverman, a young Israeli woman who works in Sderot and Mona Yousef, a young Palestinian woman living in northern Gaza. May such personal links accumulate into ever larger and stronger and more vibrant bridges between peoples who may well discover they need not be separated.
• The Economist writes that Iranian Ahmad Batebi need be Silent No More about his suffering under the cruel and unwise regime back home.
• Across the Gulf in Saudi Arabia, in the meantime, the BBC's Crispin Thorold interviews the Jeddah Boyz, as you too can see in Saudi drivers pimp their rides. There aren't any Jeddah Girlz, however, because even though Saudi women want right to drive, they live in the only country on Planet Earth which prohibits it.
  

Map of US Freight Flowing Thru Texas

This cool US map shows lines of freight moving in through just Texas, with line width indicating volume... All part of a larger discussion about a Trans-Texas Corridor, a transport & logistics gigaproject.

Asimov on the Future of Humanity ~ Some Sort of Federal World Government

Here SF giant, prolific author (including of the Foundation and Robot series), and renowned secular humanist, Isaac Asimov, describes the challenges facing all of humanity, including the Greenhouse Effect... ...followed by his proposed solution, "some sort of federal world government" enabled by "both the carrot and the stick" here in Part II.