Invest in Africa ~ FT Spots Tullow's Campaign...

Fascinating story by the FT's Michael Kavanagh noting that Tullow keeps the ball rolling in Africa...

"...as founder of “Invest in Africa”, Tullow Oil has emblazoned the name of the campaign group on to TV screens in a sponsorship deal with Sunderland football club in northeast England [...] Aidan Heavey, Tullow’s chief executive, said: “At a stroke, this association will make Sunderland the most popular football club in Africa.” Mr Heavey’s claim will appear to many as quixotic. Yet it clearly reflects a desire by Tullow and its Irish founder to act as a cheerleader for investment, rather than aid, in the continent where the Chiswick-based company continues to concentrate its attention. [...] since its creation in 1985, Tullow’s main focus has been in Africa, where it now operates in 15 countries and claims to be the continent’s leading independent oil company. The stated aim of Mr Heavey’s campaign vehicle is to attract the support of other companies operating successfully in the region, challenge misconceptions about doing business on the continent and “tackle the gap between the perception and reality of doing business in Africa”. Tullow itself claims credit for encouraging local recruitment and training of senior management in the territories where it operates, as well as job creation and investment."

Very compelling indeed! Here's their promo film...

T-Rex on Charles ~ Globe Archival Photohumor!

Funny photo by Ted Dully of T-Rex on the Charles is latest From the Archives of the Globe!

Gravity Map ~ NASA's GRAIL Images of Moon!

Alok Jha of the Guardian spots NASA's GRAIL mission to map our Moon's gravity!

"To peer inside the moon, scientists used measurements from two NASA satellites called Ebb and Flow, collectively known as the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission. By measuring the tiny fluctuations in the moon's gravitational field, they have indicated that, in its first billion years, the moon (and, by inference, many of the inner planets) was fractured repeatedly by violent impacts from asteroids and other remnants from the early years of the solar system."

Miracle of Medicine ~ Reason Triumphs Faith...

Diane Speare Triant writes in today's Sunday Globe about The miracle of medicine spotlighting the historic first successful kidney transplant surgery at the Brigham in Boston back in 1954. Beyond the groundbreaking scientific, engineering, and medical essentials of this achievement is the bizarre backstory where the really anti-progress faith-freak majority was amazingly beaten by another faction of the religiously faithful, just one a bit less irrational...

"Many felt that subjecting [donor twin] Ronald, a healthy person, to a major operation not for his benefit was a breach of the Hippocratic Oath’s promise to do no harm. There were public outcries that the transplant team would be “playing God.” People compared Murray to Dr. Frankenstein. Yet Murray, a devout Christian, believed he was simply working with the tools God had given him, following a human inclination to be curious and persistent. Since he also felt a deep responsibility to address society’s concerns, he immersed himself in dialogue with Boston’s religious leaders. “We had conferences in the hospital,” he said. “We had the cardinal; we had a leader of the Jewish faith. We wanted to get the consensus.” Murray’s inclusive approach eventually won a special decree allowing the surgery from the state’s highest court."

Overcoming religious superstition impeding progress is the true medical miracle here.

Operation Petticoat ~ Brilliant WWII Spoof Movie!

Operation Petticoat with Portugese undertones;-)

Asterank ~ Cataloging & Mapping Asteroid Value

Cool new visualization tool Asterank shows economic and scientific catalog of half-million "nearby" asteroids in solar system...

"Our calculations incorporate conclusions from multiple scientific publications in addition to cross-referencing known meteorite data. Asteroid mining has been making headlines. Companies like Planetary Resources are an exciting take on the commercial viability of space industry. But how realistic are the trillion dollar estimates? How much would it cost to mine an object millions of miles away? The data on these objects are public but very sparse. Remember, it's 2012 and we are just beginning!"

Enabling Infrastructure ~ Other Cyclepath Users

Mark Wagenbuur at BicycleDutch spotlights Who else benefits from the Dutch cycling infrastructure...

"That mobility scooters are allowed to use the well-designed Dutch cycling infrastructure gives people who are not able to cycle (anymore) the freedom to travel from A to B in an independent and very safe way. [...] good cycling infrastructure is not only good for people from 8 to 80 who want to cycle, the cycle paths also shield pedestrians from motorised traffic, and they offer quality of life to people with disabilities. In short: cycle paths are good for society."

Galactic Plasma Jets ~ NASA Spots Hercules A!

NASA APOD spots Plasma Jets around Radio Galaxy Hercules A!

Meeker's Trendscape ~ Net Remakes Everything

Fred Wilson spots Mary Meeker's Internet Trends 2012... Many interesting nuggets in there, including this big-picture and longterm trendscape plot of OS-share...

Limits to Growth ~ 40 Years of Doom Dynamics

40 years ago Dennis Meadows and colleagues built upon the World Dynamics model of MIT's Jay Forrester and published The Limit to Growth about computer model simulations of global dynamics to explore the macro-possibilities of humanity on earth and study the "Predicament of Mankind." Just a few weeks ago, the Volkswagen Foundation sponsored a workshop asking whether we are Already Beyond? -- 40 Years Limits to Growth. And the Smithsonian's Mark Strauss writes Looking Back on the Limits of Growth, asking...

"Forty years after the release of the groundbreaking study, were the concerns about overpopulation and the environment correct? Recent research supports the conclusions of a controversial environmental study released 40 years ago: The world is on track for disaster. So says Australian physicist Graham Turner, who revisited perhaps the most groundbreaking academic work of the 1970s, The Limits to Growth."

Finally, Der Spiegel's Markus Becker interviews Meadows who says Humanity Is Still on the Way to Destroying Itself...

"...we are going to evolve through crisis, not through proactive change. [...] The fact that the collapse hasn't occurred so far doesn't mean it won't take place in the future. There is no doubt that the world is changing, and we will have to go along with it. There are two ways to do that: One is, you see the necessity of change ahead of time and you make the change, and the second is that you don't and are finally forced to do it anyway. [...] the geological record clearly shows that the global temperature doesn't increase in a linear way. It jumps. If that happens, a collapse will occur. But it would be nothing new, of course. Societies rise and fall. They have been doing so for 300,000 years."

Printing Buildings ~ MIT's Oxman on CNN Next

Great to see MIT Media Lab colleague Neri Oxman on CNN Next...

"A new model of the world has emerged over the past few decades: the World-as- Organism. This new model inspires a desire to instill intelligence into objects, buildings and cities. It is a model that stands in contrast to the paradigm of the Industrial Revolution, or the World-as-Machine. [...] the future lies in questioning what an inhabitable structure is. When we consider printing concrete with variable density as in bones, we do not mean to do this simply to reproduce the same old buildings. These technologies will enable us to create buildings that are entirely different than the ones that we inhabit today."

MIT Student Sleeping ~ Habits Under Pressure!

The Tech interactographic by Leon Lin and Aaron Scheinberg shows When are MIT students asleep? ...

Sky Gardens ~ High Parks, Streets, Bridges...

BBC series on Reaching for the Sky explores Skyscraper Gardens in greencity Singapore...

"With a growing number of people living and working in tall buildings, architects have become increasingly concerned with finding ways to introduce horizontal spaces -- providing a place for residents to socialise, exercise and get some fresh air. Sharanjit Leyl visited The Pinnacle@Duxton building in Singapore, a public housing complex of seven buildings linked with "sky bridges"

Timelapse Jets ~ Compressing Airport Landings!

Thanks to Michael Zhang at PetaPixel for spotting fascinating views of jets approaching San Diego International by Cy Kuckenbaker... And another of jets approaching London Heathrow...

Troubled Waters ~ Future H2O Stress Worldmap

CSMonitor cover story Troubled Waters by William Wheeler asks Global water crisis: too little, too much, or lack of a plan?

"The global water crisis -- caused by drought, flood, and climate change -- is less about supply than it is about recognizing water's true value, using it efficiently, and planning for a different future, say experts. [...] Water is a part of everything we do: It feeds crops, powers cities, cools computer servers, and is key to the manufacturing of everything from clothes to cars. The billion more people expected on the planet by 2025 will increase water demand for all of those functions. And just to feed those people, water withdrawals for agriculture are expected to increase by about half. But it's not only about the additional mouths to feed; it's also the growth of new appetites. Much of the growth in demand will emerge from the swelling sprawl of bustling, slum-pocked metropolises across the developing world. For the first time in history, the share of the global population living in cities recently surpassed 50 percent -- on its way to 75 percent expected by 2050."

See here worldmap of today's and projected water stresses...

Boatlift ~ Resilient Maritime Response to 9/11...

9/11 is yet to be adequately avenged and the cultural cancers that enabled it are yet to be fully exorcised from Earth, but there are positive lessons to be learned from the civil service and civilian emergency reaction, including the resilient maritime response documented here in Boatlift...

Ice on Mercury ~ Innermost Planet's Crater H2O

NASA APOD spots Ice on Mercury's north pole...

The Gods Must Be Crazy ~ SAfrican Humor Film

The Gods Must Be Crazy!

Chosen Vessel ~ Amazon River Hospital Ship...

The Guardian spots Peruvian Amazon's floating hospital...

"The Chosen Vessel, run by NGO Project Amazonas, provides medical services to the remote villages of the Peruvian Amazon. There is an on-board doctor and dentist, and free reading glasses are given to those who need them. The boat hospital has treated 200,000 people in the 16 years it has been sailing on the river."

Reminds me of Mercy Ships and the Phelophepa.

Reconfigurable Robots ~ MIT CBA's Milli-Motein

MIT's David Chandler writes about The robotic equivalent of a Swiss army knife...

"The little device is called a milli-motein -- a name melding its millimeter-sized components and a motorized design inspired by proteins, which naturally fold themselves into incredibly complex shapes. [...] The team had to invent an entirely new kind of motor: not only small and strong, but also able to hold its position firmly even with power switched off. The researchers met these needs with a new system called an electropermanent motor."

Thus mechanical proteins as programmable matter!