The Hollywood Librarian ~ Our Freedom Fighters!

Turned on the TV and surfed a bit till CCTV10 -- yes, Cambridge Community Television's Channel 10 -- caught my eye. Playing was Ann Seidl's The Hollywood Librarian, an homage to our intellectual freedom fighters...

"The first full-length documentary film to focus on the work and lives of librarians. Using the entertaining and appealing context of American movies, the film will hold some surprises for people who may think they know what librarians do. [...] Dozens of interviews of real librarians will be interwoven with movie clips of cinematic librarians and serve as transitions between the themes of censorship, intellectual freedom, children and librarians, pay equity and funding issues, and the value of reading."

Reminded me of my libraries -- and so many helpful librarians -- growing up, including public libraries in Los Altos (plus also my LA High School library!) Mountain View, Palo Alto, and the various libraries at MIT. And how hugely important these resources have been to me -- for inspiration, knowledge, imagination, solutions to problems, places to think, and more. Anyways, check out this trailer and if you get a chance, see the full thing...

First Face Transplant ~ Times Interview Update...

John Follain writes in the Sunday London Times that Face transplant patient Isabelle Dinoire reveals her new life. She has rediscovered the will to live since having the first face transplant ever in human history. But it's amazing it happened at all. With her face inadvertently ravaged by her pet dog and confronted with the prospect of poor, incomplete reconstruction at best, she said...

"It’s not worth it, I couldn’t live that way. I prefer to go" -- meaning she preferred to die. At 9pm one evening, a doctor suggested that they carry out a much more complex, and risky, transplant instead. "You think about it," he said. [...] Dinoire quickly signed the form agreeing to the transplant. "I knew what the risks were. But it was the only way of staying alive," she said. From then on, she kept harassing the medical team for news, a sign of determination that made doctors even more certain that she was psychologically fit for the transplant, despite her suicide attempt. "She became the engine of her own treatment, pushing us, asking us what the experts were up to," the surgeon, Professor Bernard Devauchelle, recalled. "She gave us strength, because a couple of times we felt discouraged. I worried the team would lose motivation." The fact that the dog had made such sharp, neat bites to her flesh was another reason for trying a transplant."

This is yet another area where so-called "medical ethicists" were forces of stagnation and superstitious luddite backwardness. In the face of this, Dinoire's doctors fought hard to...

"...overcome resistance from French medical authorities and obtain permission for the transplant. Critics worried that a face transplant was morally questionable; it wasn’t a matter of life or death, as with the heart or kidneys, they argued. A French ethics committee had the previous year estimated that the risks of surgery far outweighed the benefits. Dinoire’s doctors countered that they simply couldn’t leave her as she was and that the transplant was the best solution they could try."

The difficult surgery was amazing...

"He stitched the blood vessels, which have a diameter of just 1.5 millimetres, under the microscope. “You do two or three stitches on each vessel, using two small clamps to stop the blood flow, then remove the clamps to allow the blood to flow again,” Devauchelle remembered. “The best moment was seeing the skin grow pinker and pinker. And the lips -- they became the colour of life, they swelled up. It was like a total rebirth." The surgery included transplanting 20 muscles and reconnecting hundreds of nerve endings."

The rest of the story is most worth reading, including Dinoire's struggle to think of it as "her face" and thoughts about about the donor, the tremendous medical learnings, the psychological dimensions of recovery, and more. Absolutely human and totally epic!

Thousand Words ~ More Images to Provoke...

Bendable huge eBook screen... The Haitian White House...Hawaiian whale of a tale! Berry chilly... Waterspouts -- i.e. aquatic tornadoes... Solar eclipsing... Shaolin Soccer...Thinning the herd -- idiots drive on "frozen" canal; lose bet...Swimming with Sharks...

DIY Emergency Info ~ Engineering for Change...

Paul Polak suggests a friends idea, that people use carjacks as tools for post-quake rescues in Haiti. Then Dt Skoblar responds suggesting sturdy inflatable airbags and bike pumps. I ask for pointers to DIY emergency info more generally. Mike Glodo delivers, suggesting Engineering for Change's Online Resources for Emergency Relief. I love Facebook! Now how do we accelerate this information into the eyeballs of those who most need it?

Mountains Beyond Quakes ~ "Whatever It Takes"

Tracy Kidder's eye-opening book Mountains Beyond Mountains is about Paul Farmer and his colleagues at Partners in Health (PIH), the largest healthcare institution still able to operate in post-quake Haiti. Farmer and PIH people including Ophelia Dahl, Jim Kim, and many others have been providing quality care for nearly two decades and have built up a largely local pool of talent. Their mission is to do "Whatever It Takes" using all the means at their disposal to help people become well. The title to Kidder's book refers to a Haitian proverb that "beyond mountains there are more mountains" meaning that after solving one problem, you tackle the next. Beyond this quake, Haitians need many more partners to help them deploy urgent solutions and maximize progress towards rebuilding Haiti and a more prosperous future.

Urgent Solutions ~ Fast, Flexible, Scalable, Now

I've written before about the usefulness of containerized infrastructure and floating infrastructure -- e.g. hospital ships, power generation barges, containerized health clinics, and more. Devastation in post-quake Port-au-Prince -- and, btw, in other disaster-struck or war-ravaged recovery zones -- demands that we invest heavily in ramping up and deploying many more of these urgent solutions, certainly as an essential part of rebuilding Haiti properly. Here's further examples of fast, flexible, scalable, and re-deployable container-systems which are all needed now. First of all, water desalination and purification, for instance this HOH-USA unit... Next, wastewater treatment systems such as this Ozzi Clean unit...And modular electricity generation units, such as this HAASE Combined Heat & Power system... And, of course, flexible fuel (e.g. LPG) and clean water storage mechanisms such as these containerized tanks by Chassis King... Finally, one of my favorites, Tempohousing living spaces...

Green Architecture ~ Epic Design Delighters!

This is the most epic green architecture post yet! Glorious designs...

Rick Borovoy ~ nTAG and Face-to-Face Media...

Excellent to interview Rick Borovoy tonight on MaximizingProgress.tv! Co-founder of nTAG, a smart-nametag social networking system for conferences and critical meetings, and most recently CrowdGift, which allows friends on Facebook to each easily contribute a few dollars towards a shared-gift! Turns out Rick co-founded nTAG on the basis of his PhD research at the MIT Media Lab. Currently back at MIT as a Visiting Scientist at the Center for Future Civic Media, Rick continues to build tools to facilitate face-to-face and civic engagement including projects helping neighbors connect with their neighborhood, for example, LostInBoston. Be sure to also check out Rick's Startup Whiteboard, where he shares personal experiences and lessons-learned in starting and building ventures!

Fleshmob ~ Germans Protest Bodyscanners!-)

Hysteria following the foiled Christmas Day underbomber terror attack is accelerating deployment of bodyscanners that virtually strip search innocent passengers. To protest this invasion of privacy -- and essentially ineffective but expensive fix -- members of the German Pirate Party organized this Fleshmob at Berlin-Tegal airport... Here's WIRED's piece and here's Discover's.

Rebuilding Haiti ~ Let's Finally Do It Right, Yes?

Major quakes -- or tsunamis, or typhoons, or other devastations -- will be disastrously damaging, regardless. But for people dwelling in poor constructions, lacking emergency support systems, and living in impoverished circumstances, it's totally catastrophic. Cataclysmic, really. Beyond emergency aid -- which thankfully is pouring in from goodwill globally -- let us set the stage for Rebuilding Haiti -- and doing it right, yes? Not just rebuilding the destroyed Port-au-Prince metro-area, but all countrywide. This means...

• Rapid Solutions ~ Prioritizing essentials -- and emphasizing support for those with responsive capacity -- including fast-action as only the military can, plus modular, rapid-deploy solutions;
• Emergency Response Systems ~ Immediate medical response by bolstering established institutions such as Partners In Health / Zanmi Lasante, sending hospital ships such as the USNS Comfort, transhipping rapidly deployable clinics, and generally deploying rugged sustainable solutions;
  
• Rallying the Haitian Diaspora ~ Support my MIT colleague Rebecca Roseme Obounou and her CHES team, especially emphasizing entrepreneurship, creativity, and commerce;
• Proper Infrastructure ~ Invest in and build up Power & Electricity, Water, Sanitation, Roadways, Ports, ICT, Mobiles, and more;
  
• Enforcing Building Codes ~ Too much of the death and injury was avoidable if only available materials were combined in minimally technically acceptable ways. Let's believe in reality & results, not faith & hope;
  
• Quake & Typhoon Resistant Structures ~ Let's make structures in a way savvy to the forces ravaging the region, including containerized fast-builds and sustainable villages;
  
• Reforestation ~ Can we reverse the devastating deforestation that makes Haiti disproportionately susceptible to floods, landslides, and worse? Let's build on the ethos of Kenyan Nobelist Wangari Maathai and her Green Belt Movement;
  
• Sustainable Solutions ~ Including renewable energy systems such as various Development Ventures, including especially those offered by MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition D-Track Winner Bagazo;
• Economic Regeneration ~ Haiti was once one of the wealthiest places in the Western Hemisphere. Let us all help her peoples recover that greatness and regenerate their economy and ecology of the island and all her children.

These are all achievable, compelling, and essential goals. Let's get busy rebuilding Haiti now.

Danes Biking ~ See Cycle Culture in Motion...

Thanks to Copenhagen Cycle Chic for posting these videos of cycling culture in Denmark. First this quick survey of bicycling infrastructure, including some new elements boosting safety and effectiveness... And see here Danes bicycling -- rain, shine, or snow!

UNPO ~ Unrepresented Nations & Peoples Org...

The latest news from Cabinda reminds us -- tragically, given the stupid violence involved -- of the plight of so many unrepresented and underappreciated peoples and proto-nations worldwide. Interestingly enough, UNPO -- the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization -- exists as...

"...an international, nonviolent, and democratic membership organisation. Its members are indigenous peoples, minorities, and unrecognised or occupied territories who have joined together to protect and promote their human and cultural rights, to preserve their environments, and to find nonviolent solutions to conflicts which affect them. Although the aspirations of UNPO Members differ greatly, they are all united by one shared condition -- they are not adequately represented at major international fora, such as the United Nations. As a consequence, their opportunity to participate on the international stage is significantly limited, as is their ability to access and draw upon the support of the global bodies mandated to defend their rights, protect their environments, and mitigate the effects of conflict."

These Members exist worldwide (the redder the denser)...

Global Choice ~ Saluting Women on Waves...

It's quite sad that cultural oppression manifests itself as anti-choice, anti-woman, anti-freedom laws in so many lands (the reds)... In this regard, I salute Dutchwoman Rebecca Gomperts and her colleagues at Women on Waves for their efforts to...

"...bring reproductive health services, particularly non-surgical abortion services, to women in countries with restrictive abortion laws. Other services offered by WoW include contraception and reproductive counseling. Services are provided on a commissioned ship that contains a specially constructed mobile clinic. When WoW visits a country, women make appointments, and are taken on board the ship. The ship then sails out to international waters (where Dutch laws are in effect on board the ship) to perform the medical abortions."

Here are just a few of the courageous leaders of this effort...