V838 Mono ~ Timelapse Hubble Stellar Echo!

Weather.com spots V838 Monocerotis timelapse steller light echo!

Farm for the Future ~ Sustainable Growth...

UD spots Rebecca Hosking's docu A Farm for the Future exploring...

"How to transform her family’s farm in Devon into a low energy farm for the future, and discovers that nature holds the key. With her father close to retirement, Rebecca returns to her family’s wildlife-friendly farm in Devon, to become the next generation to farm the land. But last year’s high fuel prices were a wake-up call for Rebecca. Realising that all food production in the UK is completely dependent on abundant cheap fossil fuel, particularly oil, she sets out to discover just how secure this oil supply is. Alarmed by the answers, she explores ways of farming without using fossil fuel. With the help of pioneering farmers and growers, Rebecca learns that it is actually nature that holds the key to farming in a low-energy future."

Levitation ~ General Purpose Mag-Lift Display!

UD spots cool general mag levitator...

Tentacles ~ Collecting Cephalopods for Exhibit!

TheKid spots Dr Stephanie Bush at MBARI collecting cephalopods!

MindRider ~ Mood-Tracking Bike Helmet Kickin'

MIT Media Lab alumco DuKorp launches their MindRider mood-tracking bike helmet on Kickstarter!

"MindRider is a new helmet system that shows your levels of engagement (from relaxed to focused), as you move through your environment, in real-time. The MindRider app maps and tracks these levels, and allows you to share your "mind-maps" with others. These maps provide quantified insight that empower you to maximize your riding experience, and they can be a great resource for riding communities and street advocacy."

Form 1+ ~ Formlabs Improved Hi-Res 3DP...

MIT Media Lab 3DP spinoff Formlabs announces Form 1+. Not much flashy newness, but I like their video animatographics...

R.I.P. Peter Glaser ~ Solar Power Satelliteer...

Sad to read that visionary engineer Peter Glaser has passed away at age 90. Glaser worked for nearly a half-century at ADL, the pioneering technology & management consultancy, but his big passion was satellite-mounted solar panels which would beam power down to ground.

PowerUp 3.0 ~ Smartphonified Paper Airplane;-)

Jack Nicas in the WSJ spots the PowerUp 3.0, a smartphone-controlled paper airplane just successfully Kickstarted!

"Aerial drones have fought in wars, filmed movies and factored into the ambitious plans of high-tech executives who want to supply Internet service from the air. Now there is a new but familiar shape to the fast-growing world of unmanned aircraft: the paper airplane. The PowerUp 3.0, brainchild of former Israeli Air Force pilot Shai Goitein, is a lightweight guidance-and-propulsion system powered by a dime-size battery. It clips onto origami aircraft and connects to iPhones using Bluetooth, transforming them into remote-control drones."

Here's their successful Kick video...

Roll-Up Scooter ~ George Mabey's A4 Design!

The DM's Sarah Griffiths spots George Mabey's roll-up scooter!

"Fold-up scooters are a popular way to get around town quickly, but they're often bulky and awkward to carry. Now there’s a new design of scooter that's so tiny, it folds up to the size of an A4 piece of paper. A university student created the award-winning scooter by linking pieces of aluminium with a cable, which when tightened, pull them together to support an adult’s weight."

KIBO ~ KinderLabs Kids Robo Kits Kickstarting!

FYI, KIBO from KinderLabs are programming robots for kids!

"[KIBO kits are] specifically designed for young children aged 4-7 years old. It is different from any other kit out there because it appeals to both technically minded kids and those that connect more to arts and culture or physical activity. Young children learn by doing. Children build their own robot with KIBO, program it to do what they want, and decorate it. KIBO gives children the chance to make their ideas physical and tangible -- exactly what their young minds and bodies need. And KIBO does all this without requiring screen time from PCs, tablets or smartphones."

Kickstarting now...

Filmmaker IQ ~ Cinema History & Techniques!

I just stumbled across John Hess and colleagues great work at Filmmaker IQ, an online film school exploring cinematic topics in-depth! Here's three examples of their stuff, starting with The History of the Movie Trailer... The Origins and Formatting of Modern Screenplays... Hollywoods History of Faking It ~ The Evolution of Greenscreen Compositing...

Above Central Park ~ Iconic Manhattan Acres!

DM spotlights aerial photos, including Sergey Semenov's shot of Central Park!

Cat's Eye Halo ~ NASA Spots Planetary Nebula!

NASA APOD spots Halo of the Cat's Eye...

Giants of Iceland ~ World's Strongest Humans?-)

Nice little VICE docu on the Giants of Iceland!

Macondo Blowout ~ Deepwater Disaster Anime

gCaptain spots the CSB's draft investigation report video anime of BP's Macondo well blowout and Deepwater Horizon disaster...

"The blowout preventer (BOP) that was intended to shut off the flow of high-pressure oil and gas from the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico during the disaster on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on April 20, 2010, failed to seal the well because drill pipe buckled for reasons the offshore drilling industry remains largely unaware of, according to a new two-volume draft investigation report released on June 5, 2014, by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB)."

Negroponte's Advice ~ Mix Market and Mission!

MIT Media Lab co-founder Nicholas Negroponte advises new grads...

"Do mix market with mission. It is, in fact, a period today where you can take an avocation and turn it into something that's very intimately connected with what you do. And if you are, you know, toying with taking a job because it pays well but you hate it, don't do that. Don't ever do that because it is the saddest period. You're gonna wake up every morning and unless you really wake up and not only smile about it but you tell your spouse or your family what happened and how excited you are. That's the life you want to live and more than ever before lots and lots of people can do that. And so that's why I think graduating today would be really interesting. Thirty years ago we were a bit more in lockstep obedience and you did things because you were supposed to and opportunity didn't include making the world a better place."

Roominate ~ Building Toys for Creative Girls!

I just heard MIT Professor Emeritus Rod Brooks of iRobot and now Rethink Robotics fame speaking this morning about his venture experiences. He was particularly proud of his MIT alumna daughter's company which is making Roominate -- building toys encouraging all girls to be creative artists, architects, engineers, and visionaries! Alice Brooks is clearly a chip off the old block;-)

"The Roominate line is designed by Alice and Bettina -- two engineers out of Caltech, MIT, and Stanford on a mission to get more girls interested in engineering. They believe that early exposure through toys will inspire the next generation of female technology innovators. They designed Roominate to get young girls to have fun with STEM, while building hands-on skills and confidence."

Maggot Feed ~ Insects Next Link in Food Chain!-)

The BBC's Nic Fleming investigates How insects could feed the food industry of tomorrow...

"Millions of maggots squirm over blackened pieces of fruit and bloody lumps of fetid flesh. A pungent stench of festering decay hovers over giant vats of writhing, feasting larvae. It's more than enough to put most people off their lunch. Yet these juvenile flies could soon be just one step in the food chain away from your dinner plate."

Mmm, sounds tasty!

Whale Power ~ Enhancing Oceanic Abundance;-)

The BBC Power of Nature series spotlights Why whale poo is good for the oceans... and us!

"Oceans envelop three-quarters of our planet’s surface. The survival of three billion people depends on their incredible bounty. Only now are we discovering how the ocean’s largest inhabitants are helping to enhance this. [...] When phytoplankton use up all the nutrients in the water, this vital growth goes into decline. But nature provides an unexpected lifeline, in the form of whale excrement. Whales excrete near the surface, releasing huge amounts of nutrients."

Exponential Technologies ~ Towards Abundance...

UD spots Exponential Technologies leading to Abundance 360...

"Armed with exponential technologies like artificial intelligence, 3D printing and cloud computing, today's entrepreneurs are poised to create abundance. This Draw Shop video, originally created for entrepreneurs in Peter Diamandis' Abundance 360 coaching program, illustrates the powerful implications of six key technologies: 3D printing, robotics, artificial intelligence, the "Internet of Things," infinite computing and synthetic biology."