1GOAL ~ Education for All 72M Kids Globally

Hear Jordan's Queen Rania and consider joining 1GOAL...

Lead User ~ US Army SPC Marrocco IS an H2.0...

On this US Independence Day, it's inspiring to read Lizette Alvarez's piece in the NYTimes Spirit Intact, Soldier Reclaims His Life, about US Army Specialist Brendan Marrocco...

"...who a year before had come so close to death that doctors still marvel over how he dodged it. At 22, he was a spry, charming infantryman in the United States Army with a slicing wit and a stubborn streak. Then, on Easter Sunday 2009, a roadside bomb exploded under his vehicle, and he became the first veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to lose all four limbs in combat and survive. In the nearly 15 months since, Specialist Marrocco has pushed past pain and exhaustion to learn to use his four prosthetics, though he can walk for only 15 minutes at a time."

He's the most extreme of the nearly one thousand US service members who have lost limbs in combat this past decade. Given my earlier post about MIT's H2.0 initiative, I think of SPC Marrocco as an extraordinary Lead User of the latest augmentation technologies. As he recovers and learns with his new limbs -- and, indeed, helps refine and develop them -- he IS a Human 2.0. This is both epic and heroic.

DAtE ~ Illac Diaz's Design Against the Elements

MIT alum Illac Diaz's efforts to DAtE -- Design Against the Elements -- results from years of thinking and action about addressing the challenges faced by everyday people in the Philippines, and is a global architectural design competition seeking solutions to the problems from climate change...

"...The Philippines is one of the 10 most at risk in the world for losses of life and property because of its large citizenry who are most vulnerable and least able to adapt to the wide scale challenges brought by increasing drought and flooding. This is why green may be an option for the developed world, but is growing as a necessity for those in the developing nations."

Gasland ~ Independence or Fracking Our Future?

More non-import natural gas readily accessible nearby is good, right? View Gasland and judge for yourself the total-systemic benefits of "fracking". Keyword? "Externalities"...

Greening Boston ~ Building Ever More Vital City

Great to read Eric Moskowitz's Globe piece The Greening of Boston about what's today the lovely, verdant Charles River Esplanade...

"...widely considered one of Boston’s great treasures, a ribbon of green extending for 3 miles between the shimmer of the Charles and the bustle of the city. It draws millions of residents and tourists a year, an inviting place to walk, run, or rest along the water. But that same park, despite the success of its inaugural fireworks display, was deemed a disappointment in its early years. It lacked shade trees, recreation facilities, and refreshment stands, and it seemed to go nowhere. The lack of visitors was lamented by Boston’s mayor, John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, who considered it a failure. "Instead of being able to count the people using the [Esplanade] on the fingers of one hand," he lamented, "the count should be by the thousands." Now, a century later, a new Boston park is the subject of similar criticism and hand-wringing. This long, narrow stretch of green, also criticized for its lack of shade and amenities and its sparse attendance, is named for Honey Fitz’s daughter: the Rose Kennedy Greenway."

Ironic and given the subsequent developments, also historic proof that investments in vital cities and essential civic infrastructure can take time to bear fruit and become beautiful, a process documented by Karl Haglund's Inventing the Charles River and Max Hall's The Charles: The People's River among others noted by the Charles River Conservancy. And as you can see in this image by Michael Piazza, the vista -- and vibe -- is quite different today from the DCR archival photo above...

H2.0 ~ Humanizing Technology, Making Us++

I've been thinking a lot lately about personalized health and wellness, the role of assistive medical devices, and emergent disciplines such as neuroengineering and synthetic biology. Such tranformative technologies for enabling the so-called "disabled" -- and indeed any of us -- are central to the MIT Media Lab's H2.0 activities...

"...focused on ushering in a new era in human adaptability -- an era where technology will merge with our bodies and our minds to forever change our concept of human capability."

There were several delightful provocations at the kickoff symposium as you can see in this LabCast...

Epic Declaration ~ Free Citizens, Not Subjects...

Today the USA commemorates an epic achievement, the rallying together by thoughtful civic and business leaders among the British colonists to formally articulate new and empowering principles of government. They proclaimed the Declaration of Independence, perhaps one of the most immortal of human political achievements! And this was very much a crafted and drafted document, with no less than Thomas Jefferson at the quill. So it's fascinating to see Susan Walsh's photo and read this AP newswire piece Library of Congress reveals slip made by Jefferson in draft of Declaration...

"Librarian of Congress James Billington pointed out where Thomas Jefferson originally wrote "subjects" before changing it to "citizens" in the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence. [...] it appears Jefferson used his hand to wipe the word “subjects’’ out while the ink was still wet. A distinct brown smudge is apparent on the paper, although the word itself is not legible without the help of the digital technology. "It shows the progress of his mind," said James Billington, librarian of Congress. "This was a decisive moment."

Irrigating Prosperity ~ Makunda Uses KB Pump

Thanks to IDE founder Paul Polak for spotlighting Indian farmer Makunda who uses KB treadle pump to irrigate his fields to fruition...

Salmon Cycle ~ Suzuki Describes Super System

Thanks to MIT Sloan's S-Lab for pointing out this presentation by zoologist-environmentalist David Suzuki produced by Wicked Delicate Films describing the Salmon Cycle...

Disruptive Displays ~ Roll-to-Roll Flextronics!

Interesting to read Katherine Bourzac's piece on Inexpensive, Unbreakable Displays in the latest Technology Review about Carl Taussig and HP colleagues whose goal is...

"...to replace heavy, fragile, expensive displays with lightweight, rugged, inexpensive ones made on plastic -- without compromising performance. [They are] using high-volume roll-to-roll mechanics, the type of high-speed manufacturing process used in newspaper production, to make high-performance transistor arrays on the 33-centimeter-wide plastic rolls. [...] The idea is to combine these transistor arrays with flexible "frontplanes" -- the part of a display that creates the images and that the transistors control. "Our goal is to make displays at a cost of $10 per square foot," Taussig says. That's about a 10th the price of today's displays. Silicon-on-plastic displays might be used in laptops, or a few thin sheets might be stuffed into briefcases, replacing printouts and pads of paper. Taussig also imagines "ginormous displays" pasted to walls to show videos and ads."

Check out the process video.

Oranje ~ Dutch Fly Past Brazilians; Fans Help!

Oranje take wing, fly past Brazil! Uruguay next. Fans help;-)

Faster ~ Every Day of JK for Eight Years...

Daily Mail delights with this JK Keller spot...

Epic Promo ~ Old Spice Dude Redux!-)

The latest Old Spice "Man" promo... The Original "Man" promo... Both humorous and well-done -- and yet I still think OS smells like shit.

Dirt ~ The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth!

The stuff is everywhere and yet rather underappreciated. Dirt!

Ben Gulak ~ Werks & Motors Vehicle Ventures

Very cool to have MIT undergrad inventor-entrepreneur Ben Gulak join me on MaximizingProgress.tv tonight! Ben's a new vehicles venturer, building both BPG-Motors, to commercialize the Uno electric super unicycle, and BPG-Werks to deploy the DTV Shredder. He's especially interested in making a difference in peoples lives, whether through a cool, green, clean personal Uno or a cool, extreme, enthralling Shredder! Check out this shred-cam footage of the DTV -- Dual Track Vehicle -- in action...It's not easy doing this while simultaneously balancing his academic career, responsibilities to investors, and commitment to employees. But commercial, personal, and military markets eagerly await!

14 Cows for America ~ Massive Maasai Gift

Thanks to Miss Cellania for pointing out in her Mental Floss article, A Bovine Gift From the Heart, about the massive Maasai gift of 14 Cows for America and the best-selling illustrated children's book which now shares this story. Author Carmen Agra Deedy, illustrator Thomas Gonzalez, and collaborator Wilson Kimel Naiyomah teamed together to tell of the generous Kenyan villagers so anguished by 9/11 they felt they had to do something to help Americans through their time of sorrow. This is an epic story of hope and heroic compassion.

Civic Transparency ~ India's Right-to-Know Law

Fascinating to read Lydia Polgreen's NYTimes piece Right-to-Know Law Gives India’s Poor a Lever in which...

"...an information revolution [is] sweeping India. It may be the world’s largest democracy, but a vast and powerful bureaucracy governs. It is an imperial edifice built on feudal foundations, and for much of independent India’s history the bureaucracy has been largely unaccountable. Citizens had few means to demand to know what their government was doing for them. But it has now become clear that India’s 1.2 billion citizens have been newly empowered by the far-reaching law granting them the right to demand almost any information from the government. The law is backed by stiff fines for bureaucrats who withhold information, a penalty that appears to be ensuring speedy compliance [...] and has clearly begun to tilt the balance of power, long skewed toward bureaucrats and politicians. [...] "This law has given the people the feeling that the government is accountable to them."

Coupling such legislation with growing use of mobiles and proactive civic media and citizen empowerment tools promises to reduce corruption, boost transparency, and increase civic competence.

Bike Friendly Cities ~ Current on Copenhagen

Thanks to Copenhagenize for spotlighting this Current piece on Creating a Bike Friendly City...

"Copenhagen embraces bicycle culture as part of daily life with nearly 40 % of residents riding a bike to work. Blogs and fashion photos are dedicated to bike style, and throughout the city you'll find bicycle bars on sidewalks so riders can rest their feet; green lights that change early for cyclists; and even friendly signs greeting "Hi Cyclist!" It's no wonder then that Copenhagen is innovating new ways of creating a bike-friendly city with a system of as many as 15 extra-wide, segregated bike routes connecting the suburbs to the center of the city"

Greener Tuna? ~ Closed-Loop Fish Farming...

Given Paul Greenberg's piece in the NYTimes this weekend on Tuna's End (with beautiful photos by Kenji Aoki), it is worth thinking about alternative pathways. So see here Kyung Lah's CNN report on 'Ranching' tuna the eco-friendly way, about Kinki University's Fish Nursery Center where general manager Tokihiko Okada and colleagues operate and refine a...

"...closed farming system, which means that the bluefin tuna raised in their ocean tanks have never been in the wild. They're produced from hatched eggs, raised, and then fished for consumption. It's one of the few programs on the globe to successfully raise the delicate bluefin tuna. For three generations, Okada has helped successfully raise bluefin tuna for the world's gourmet restaurants."

Some still consider this kind of hatchling-to-harvest ranching "unsustainable", however, because smaller wildfish are caught to feed the voracious tuna, but it's a major step in the right direction...

Desertec Networks ~ Growing Solar Initiative

The Desertec initiative has growing networks of partners exploring the use of solar power systems in various regions of the world. See here areas in the world with high solar incidence, i.e. the deserts... And what are suitable locations for systems...