Shaping Your Future ~ MIT Media Lab in HuffPost

HuffPost's Alex Wagner writes about the MIT Media Lab: Meet the People Shaping Your Future including spotlight on our new Director Joi Ito and the core ethos of the place...

"...a hotbed of radical innovation and futuristic vision. The lab's body of 150 masters and doctoral students works across disciplines -- from engineering to music -- to develop cutting-edge products ranging from robotic chandeliers to foldable cars."

"In May, MIT named entrepreneur, innovator and investor Joichi Ito as the new director of the Media Lab. Ito is scheduled to begin his tenure in September -- a job he described as being similar to going swimming with sharks. [...] also values connectivity and is highly -- almost inhumanely -- connected." [...] Ito has a formidable Rolodex, which will presumably be put into use when he takes the helm of the Media Lab. Ito cautioned that, "Whatever I pull in here will only get traction insofar as the students and faculty want to do it. I can’t order people to do stuff." [...] I can provide value by connecting them to someone on the outside." In many ways, the Media Lab is a real-world iteration of Ito's wildly divergent interests."

Loser Scum ~ Canadian Hockey Fans Run Amok

After watching their Canucks lose to Bruins, hundreds of Canadian scum ran amok, rioting and wreaking havoc in downtown Vancouver. Inexcusable. I hope the Mounties track down everyone whose criminal behavior was captured by the cameras and they are prosecuted to the full extent of the law... Endnote ~ Disgusted by the disgraceful behavior of the relatively few riotous swine, thousands of Canadians are volunteering to help clean up and otherwise respond.

Build Change ~ More Quake Resistant Housing!

I just saw Dr Elizabeth Hausler describe the work she and colleagues at Build Change have been doing to design earthquake-resistant houses in developing countries plus train the builders, owners, engineers, and officials to actually go build them. She's the winner of the 2011 $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability -- which she officially receives tonight, 16 June 2011 at 7:30pm at an open-to-public EurekaFest event at the MIT Stata Center -- definitely go if you can! Hausler and team's core goals are compelling...

"...to greatly reduce deaths, injuries and economic losses caused by housing collapses due to earthquakes in developing countries. [This means] single family houses built with inputs from Build Change in seismically active developing countries are resistant to earthquakes and other natural disasters, and [that government] building codes are enforced or construction practices are permanently changed so that houses built in the absence of external funding and technical support are also earthquake resistant."

So far, Build Change has helped create ~20K safer houses for over 70K people with a team of 60 people, 90% of whom are locals in their operating countries Indonesia, China, and Haiti.

The New Harvest ~ Agri-Innovation in Africa

Our Harvard colleague Calestous Juma has written The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa which...

"...outlines the policies and institutional changes necessary to promote agricultural innovation across the African continent. Incorporating research from academia, government, civil society, and private industry, the book suggests multiple ways that individual African countries can work together at the regional level to develop local knowledge and resources, harness technological innovation, encourage entrepreneurship, increase agricultural output, create markets, and improve infrastructure."

I was honored to moderate an MIT international development panel on Growing Innovations ~ Improving Agricultural Productivity among Small-Acreage Farmers earlier this year where Calestous shared his learnings. Excellent topic and quite timely contribution. Buy a copy or go see the full text now online!

EurekaFest 2011 ~ Celebrating Invention+Action!

Starting today Thurs 6/16, going through Saturday 6/18 at MIT and the Museum of Science is EurekaFest 2011, the celebration of invention and action orchestrated by the Lemelson-MIT Program!

"EurekaFest is a multi-day celebration designed to empower a legacy of inventors through activities that inspire youth, honor role models, and encourage creativity and problem solving."

Check out the goodness, including high school InvenTeams, the Award for Sustainability winner Elizabeth Hausler, and 2011 $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize winner John Rogers!

2MASS ~ 3D Map of 50K Galaxies in Local Uni!

DailyMail delivers again, spotting 2MASS, the Two Micron All Sky Survey and resulting 3D map of 50,000 galaxies in the "local universe" -- i.e. looking at our near neighborhood, just 380 million light-years out!

OV-Fiets ~ Dutch Bikeshare Rentals Booming!

Thanks to Cycle Pathologist Mark Wagenbuur for spotlighting Massive number of train passengers take OV-Fiets, the Dutch bikeshare rental service run by the NS Netherlands Railways...

"OV-Fiets expects 1.1 million round-trips for 2011, up from 835,000 in 2010. Another mile stone: the number of subscribers will pass the 100,000 mark this year. Up from 34,000 in 2008 when the Netherlands’ Railways took over OV-Fiets. [...] Subscribers travel more by train, “because they can get to more places easily”. Sharing their enthusiasm with family and friends leads to more subscribers. [..] In the video below you can see how the bike share system works at the railway station in the town of Heerlen [at] one of the over 250 locations in the Netherlands where you can rent [...] This is an unattended bicycle parking facility (privately owned bicycles can be parked there too) so the rental process is completely automated."

Anti-Gravity Dancing ~ Windtube Choreography!

Miss Cellania spots Anti-Gravity Dancing!

"Four skydivers do a choreographed dance in the Skydive Arena wind tunnel in Prague, Czech Republic. The music is "Fot i Hose" by Casiokids. (via Metafilter)"

Vintage Monrovia ~ Inspiring Historical Imagery!

Thanks to Matt Jones at Moved 2 Monrovia for an ongoing stream of inspiring historical images of capital city Monrovia and info about Liberia more generally. While most folks probably think first about the more recent civil wars and destruction and diaspora, click on these photos and postcards below to see a more peaceful and prosperous past -- and to get some ideas about this West African country's tremendous future potential... Plus, don't forget the Liberia '77 documentary and website...

SWITL ~ Wow, Semi-Liquid Picker-Upper!

Wow, thanks to Paul at GeekPress for spotting the SWITL semi-liquid picker-upper by Furukawa Kiko! (Via Kottke and earlier Engadget!)

Dangerously Chic?! ~ NYC's "Finest" Think So!-)

Thanks to Daily News writer Christina Boyle for sharing this "Only in America" story of life in the big city -- Biker pulled over by NYPD for sexy outfit: 'I thought he was joking' says Jasmijn Rijcken...

"The leggy Dutch tourist said she was pulled over by an NYPD cop for flashing too much skin while on two wheels. "He said it's very disturbing, and it's distracting the cars and it's dangerous," Rijcken told the Daily News. "I thought he was joking around but he got angry and asked me for ID." [...] "I didn't even think for one second that my outfit could be harmful or disturbing," she said. As general manager of a Dutch bicycle company, Rijcken was in New York to attend the New Amsterdam Bike Show and hopped on her wheels that sunny day to experience biking in New York City first hand. [...] NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said: "Whether this story bears even a modest semblance of what actually occurred is impossible to establish without being provided the purported officer's name and getting his side of the story."

Yes, indeed, this could all be a viral marketing promo spoof since Jasmijn is indeed pimping that lovely VANMOOF cycle! Nevertheless, just in case, methinks New York's "Finest" could use a good inoculating dose of international cycle chic!

Macro Photo ~ DIY High-Magnification Imagery

Cool DIY intro to Macro Photography... Thanks to Star Simpson for link via dɸ/dt to this lovely work by Thomas Shahan.

Tankbot ~ Guan's Land-Bear-Shark Treadboard!

Check out Charles Z Guan's latest Tankbot -- a.k.a. the Land-Bear-Shark -- an electrified über-treadboard (i.e. skateboard + tanktread + robot = bastard child!-)

Personal Fabrication ~ MIT's NeilG on Future...

Timbuktu Chronicler Emeka Okafor spotlights MIT CBA's Neil Gershenfeld's talk at MakerFaire on The Future of Fabrication...

"Fabbing and Fab Labs and current state of the research about digital fabrication [is] the act of embodying computation. From machines that make machines to code that becomes an object, like information does in proteins. [...] “the killer app for digital fabrication is personal fabrication.”

MIT 150 ~ Finale Celebration Super Salute!

Newly minted MIT alumnus Thomas Luan took this fantastic foto of the Pru saluting MIT's 150 years!

Last Farewell ~ MIT's Hiroshi Ishii at TEDxTokyo

MIT Media Lab's Hiroshi Ishii at TEDxTokyo on The Last Farewell...

"The digital world is a dry one. This is not a necessary consequence of its being digital; it is because of the supremacy of a kind of “technical-efficiency-ism,” in which the question of how much information can be trimmed away for compression is given precedence over more fundamental consideration concerning which information it is that conveys human warmth and emotion. The handwritten manuscript of the «Last Farewell» and my dog-eared paperback anthology are both asking us questions about the meaning of the “traces of human presence” missing from the present-day Cyberspace."

Ocean Matters ~ NatGeo on Planetary Ecosystem

National Geographic shares Why the Ocean Matters...

"Covering 72 percent of the Earth and supplying half its oxygen, the ocean is our planet's life support system -- and it’s in danger. Watch this video to learn why a healthier ocean means a healthier planet..."

Dutch Intolerance ~ Foreigner "Coffeeshop" Ban?!

Wayne Drash from CNN shares the appalling news that Dutch to ban foreigners from pot shops...

"The Netherlands plans to ban foreigners from the country's famed pot shops [a.k.a. "coffeeshops"], a decision Amsterdam's tourism industry hopes goes up in smoke. [...] "Persons who do not hold Dutch citizenship will not have access to the coffee shops," the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice said in a statement."

This is a big step backwards away from classic Dutch policies of liberty and tolerance and openness. And, as a minimum, it ought to be illegal to discriminate among different EU citizens. Beyond these freedom fundamentals, however, is the sheer stupidity of official reasoning...

"The Cabinet expects that closure of coffee shops to foreign drugs tourists will ensure that they no longer travel to the Netherlands to purchase and consume cannabis. After all, many of them can use the illegal markets..."

In other words rather than tolerating the legal, regulated suppliers, the incompetent officialdom wants to encourage the growth of informal drug resellers -- a.k.a. scalpers -- and unregulated, illegal dealers. Just brilliant. As I've noted before, the Dutch Retreat from civilized liberty is dismaying.

Solar Blast ~ NASA/SDO's Helioviewer Video!

Thanks to Bad Astronomy for spotting when this morning The Sun lets loose a HUGE explosion...

"...a solar flare (an enormous explosion of pent-up magnetic energy) coupled with a prominence (a physical eruption of gas from the surface). This event blasted something like a billion tons of material away from the Sun."

Check out commentary video from The Sun Today's Alex Young...

Living His Dream ~ MIT's Srikanth Bolla!

Thanks to Gaurav Agarwal for spotting the MIT Spectrum story Living His Dream by Liz Karagianis w/ photo by Len Rubenstein about Srikanth Bolla...

"a 19-year-old sophomore who is blind [who] traveled to Hyderabad, India, to develop a computer-training center for visually challenged students. “If we train the blind to get computer skills, they will excel independently and be able to get good jobs,” he says. Last year, Bolla shared his dream to create the center with staff at MIT’s Public Service Center, which provided Bolla with a fellowship and the know-how to make his dream come true. [...] “I refused to let my disability interfere with my dreams,” he says.

Inspiring! And a reminder that everyone must make the most of their own unique abilities! (Also makes me think of MIT's Pawan Sinha and his Project Prakash)