Lovely Hosts ~ Rainbow South Africa Reigns!

Independent of the results of the Finale of the World Cup -- which I most certainly hope will be Oranje! -- I want to wholeheartedly salute the wonderful people of the country of South Africa for hosting this Cup and thus sharing with the world how lovely your rainbow nation is! It's been great to both watch the various matches in the several new and revitalized stadiums as well as see so many news stories of local support and transformation and more. In this vein, it's good to read the commentators, including Matthew Kaminski of the WSJournal writing South Africa: After the Vuvuzelas Go Quiet and the FT interviews Over The Rainbow by Richard Lapper and Simon Kuper with five South African pundits asking Did South Africa win the World Cup? and even Barry Bearak's NYTimes piece South Africa Braces for New Attacks on Immigrants. Clearly there's room for further progress, but I for one am ecstatic with the positive progress and general prospects for South African -- and indeed greater African -- prosperity!

Cellphone Inventor ~ "Everybody Will Have One"

Thanks to Harvard's Calestous Juma for spotting this CNN interview by Tas Anjarwalla of Martin Cooper, Motorola veteran and telcoms entrepreneur most famous for inventing the cellphone in 1973!

MIT Global Challenge ~ Innovation in Action!

My MIT colleague Lars Hasselblad Torres describes the new MIT Global Challenge and posts his intro slidedeck... Plus check out the ongoing blog discussions!

Fankart! ~ At MIT, If It Doesn't Suck, It Blows!

More LOL's from MIT's gearheads gone wild! Fankart!

I Like Calamari ~ Paul Risks All, Bets on Spain!

Traitorous teutonic cephalopod picks Spain again!-) Backstory here. P.S. Breaking news flash: Victory is surely at hand! Mani the Malaysian psychic parakeet has tapped Holland as World Cup 2010 winner...

Grassroots Soccer ~ Football Is For Everyone

Thanks to Arne Hessenbruch for spotting the NYTimes piece by Celia Dugger, To Those With Nothing, Soccer Is Everything and related slideshow Grassroots Soccer...

"Jessica Hilltout, a Belgian-born photographer, drove across Africa for seven months last year to capture the continent’s love of soccer in advance of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Her photographs are currently on display in galleries in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Brussels. "As the World Cup draws to a close this week, images of the highly commercialized, FIFA-sanctioned soccer will not be the only lasting ones," writes Celia Dugger."

P.S. Those kids probably are making better balls than the Official Fullaballoni FIFA ball;-)

This is My Fiets ~ Amsterdam Loves Bicycles!

Amsterdam + Bikes...

MV Dole Chile ~ Specialized Banana Boat!

Thanks to gCaptain for spotting the MV Dole Chile, one of a growing family of specialized banana boats, naturally in all-yellow livery;-) This is a Self-Sustaining Cellular Reefer Vessel according to top industry source infosite, Ship-Technology.

IDDS 2010 ~ More Emphasis on Dissemination

Colorado State University Professor and co-host Paul Hudnut writes in his BOPreneur blog that IDDS 2010 -- the International Development Design Summit -- has just Started-Up! This fourth incarnation of the Summit promises greater emphasis on Dissemination -- the organizational, logistical, and entrepreneurial challenges of scaling up and getting good ideas spread widely!

Venture Café ~ Links at the Innovation Epicenter

As I've noted before, the new Venture Café is being prototyped by Carrie Stalder, Tim Rowe and crew this summer every Thursday afternoon-thru-eve 3-8pm at the Cambridge Innovation Center at One Broadway in Kendall Square, Cambridge. The point of the Venture Café is to connect inventive, creative, and entrepreneurial people in an informal but interesting setting in the heart of our MIT + Kendall Square innovation epicenter, all fueled by tasty morsels and fine fluids. Spread the word to venture-minded friends and colleagues!

Skateboard Disaster ~ Epic Proportions. Huge.

UniqueDaily spots epic skateboard disaster. Huge.

Piruze Sabuncu ~ Challenge Project & Turkey...

Great to have HBS alumna Piruze Sabuncu join me on MaximizingProgress.tv tonight! Piruze's co-founder of The Challenge Project with classmate Justin Wieland, an initiative which rallies different members of a social group -- i.e. friends, family, colleagues, whoever is relevant -- towards accomplishing meaningful shared challenges, especially ones with a health and fitness dimension! By allowing marathoning Moms to compete equally with golfer Grandpas on common-basis achievement goals, they bridge time and distance and help people developed a powerful, shared wellness. Very interesting to hear of their next steps and plans going forward. Piruze and I also spoke about her homeland, Turkey, and the tremendous opportunities open to this Eurasian crossroad country. Whether investment and development in Europe or the Middle East or Russia or Central Asia or Africa or elsewhere, Turkey is incredibly well positioned for growth and dynamism!

Psychic Cephalopod ~ Octopus vs Mannschaft!

The oracle octopus called it correctly!-) But pays a heavy price...

Pussy Shots ~ Slow Motion of Cats in Action!

Thanks to UniqueDaily for spotting these slo-mo pussy shots... There's more, all by Whiskas.

Tik Tok Hebron ~ Humorous Israeli Occupiers?

Not sure whether to laugh or cry...

For Ghana ~ Avenging UY's Mano Del Diablo

Sweet justice;-) The Oranje just avenged the Uruguayan Mano Del Diablo -- or Hand of the Devil goal-save -- (a riff on Maradona's infamous Hand of God goal) -- from their ignoble last game versus the would-be winners Ghana! I hereby dedicate this latest Dutch FIFA World Cup Dutch win to the Black Stars! Tough final match to come versus one the big boys of Europe, but... Perhaps we avenge 1974?!

The Lost Reunions ~ Sagas of WWII PT Boaters

I just met this morning with Danny Diaz, producer and director of The Lost Reunions, a documentary film in-the-making to capture the stories of the US Navy PT Boaters of World War II. This is an important and urgent project because with some ~1,000 US WWII veterans passing away per day, such memories must either be captured now or lost forever...

System Dynamics & Strategy ~ Morecroft Says...

Thanks to MIT's Charles Atencio for spotting this talk on Reflections on System Dynamics and Strategy at WPI by John Morecroft, Senior Fellow in Management Science and Operations at London Business School, teacher of system dynamics, problem structuring and strategy...

ProInfo ~ Brazil's School PC+Projector Combo

Thanks to new MIT Sloan Fellow Ricardo Teixeira for pointing out the Brazilian CERTI-designed ProInfo video projector with built-in Linux PC, Ethernet and WiFi connectivity. Here's a translated version of the Gizmodo article about it. The challenge was to create an easy-to-use, practical, and affordable projector for schools. Check this video of it in-use in Brazil...

Crazy Kobayashi ~ Crashes Dog Eating Contest!-)

Disgruntled six-time champion Takeru "Crazy" Kobayashi crashed the annual Nathan's International Hot Dog Eating Contest on New York's Coney Island yesterday! According to Crime Scene KC...

"Kobayashi wasn't allowed to compete because he got into a contract dispute with Major League Eating."

Priceless! See here the raw footage. Note the "interpreter"...