Buffett's Bazillions ~ Berkshire's Investments...

Visual Capitalist groks zillionaire Warren Buffett's investment vehicle Berkshire Hathaway!

Emergent Megacities ~ VC Visualizes thru 2100

Visual Capitalist animates Top 20 Megacities by 2100...

Artistic + Technicalities ~ Gropius on Bauhaus...

Hear about the Bauhaus from Walter Gropius himself... Plus here's some context with this Bauhaus docu...

Mega Tsunami Happen ~ Simulation of Past &...

Given the recent Indonesian disaster with Krakatoa Junior collapsing with consequent tsunami, it's worth looking at other examples of the same, including this simulation of Fogo in Cabo Verde several tens of thousands of years ago... And, of course, Krakatoa Senior some ~150 years ago was a whopper... But let's not stop there, here's the most likely thing (other than another Hurricane Sandy) to clobber the US Eastern Seaboard, La Palma in the Canarys going...

Cultural Map ~ World Values Survey Infographic

The World Values Survey measures traditional values versus secular-rational values plotted against survival values versus self-expression values:

• Traditional v. Secular values ~ On the importance of religion, parental ties, authority, and traditional family values; 
• Survival v. Self-expression values ~ On the importance of economic and physical security, ethnocentric outlook and low levels of trust and tolerance. 

Here's 2008 visualization from MapPorn...

ISU Launch Poster ~ Pat Rawlings Space Art!

Wow, I just found Pat Rawlings gallery pages which includes his poster art for the first summer of the International Space University at MIT just over 30 years ago! I was lucky enough to be an undergrad volunteer. One of my favorite posters, btw, an homage to another important Institute;-)

One WTC Timelapse ~ EarthCam's 11yr Build-vid

After all these years I finally watched the One World Trade Center build video, a timelapse by EarthCam...

Cosmic Wonderland ~ NASA's Composite Beauty!

NASA aesthetically photo-composited data from Chandra, ROSAT, Spitzer, and SuperCosmos observatories to make this Cosmic Wonderland image!

World Mapping ~ Qualities of Life & Governance...

The Economist's Democracy Index scores 167 countries...

"On a scale of 0 to 10 based on 60 indicators across five broad categories -- electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, democratic political culture and civil liberties -- concludes that less than 5% of the world’s population currently lives in a “full democracy”

Small Farmer Tools ~ Simple Efficient Solutions

This past few weeks I've discovered both Richard Perkins, Making Small Farms Work, and Curtis Stone, the Urban Farmer. I've been trying to understand the combined notions of (1) smallholder farming, (2) using permaculture & "organic" approaches, all while (3) having a profit-making orientation and these two are really good about pinning things down with numbers, planning their steps and documenting their actions, and analyzing and tuning for moneymaking. Anyways, today I just want to spotlight a couple of simple efficient solutions they're both champions of. First, the Japanese paperpot method of seedling-starting and transplanting into beds (which Stone sells via his Paperpot venture)... Second, the quick-cut and cut-again greens harvester... FYI, Perkins is also getting into the business of selling the solutions with this Farmers Tools venture. Note that neither Stone nor Perkins are the direct inventors of these tools, but they've each been really prolific in using them profitably and especially in demonstrating how they can be amazingly effective! Check out their respective YouTube channels, Ridgedale Permaculture and Urban Farmer.

Golden Gate ~ Building This Epic Infrastructure!

Arguably the most amazing piece of civil engineering infrastructure -- or certainly a Top 10 together with Roman aqueducts, the Suez & Panama Canals, various Chunnels, transcontinental railroads, the Hoover Dam, and more -- is surely building the Golden Gate Bridge as documented here... And look at those dimensions! Huge!

Longterm Lens ~ Maddison's Economic Stats...

Today I want to salute Angus Maddison who was a pioneer in macro economic history whose team investigated, gathered evidence for, and ultimately guesstimated national accounts over the longterm, including GDP and GDP/Capita...

Engelbart's Mother Of All Demos @ 50years!

SRI's Augmentation Research Center (ARC) director Doug Engelbart gave the Mother Of All Demos on 9 December 1968...

"...demonstrating experimental computer technologies that are now commonplace. The live demonstration featured the introduction of the computer mouse, video conferencing, teleconferencing, hypertext, word processing, hypermedia, object addressing and dynamic file linking, bootstrapping, and a collaborative real-time editor."

There's going to be a celebration!

World of Standards ~ Alternative Choices!

Power plugs around the world... Railway track gauges... Left vs Right-hand Driving...

China's American Dream ~ Growth Infographics!

As part of the China Rules series, Javier Hernandez and Quoctrung Bui write in the NYTimes that The American Dream Is Alive. In China...

"In a country still haunted by the Cultural Revolution, where politics are tightly circumscribed by an authoritarian state, the Chinese are now among the most optimistic people in the world -- much more so than Americans and Europeans, according to public opinion surveys. What has changed? Most of all, an economic expansion without precedent in modern history. Eight hundred million people have risen out of poverty. That’s two and a half times the population of the United States. [...] China used to make up much of the world’s poor. Now it makes up much of the world’s middle class."

Math Skills ~ Achievements vs Needs...

Causes of Death ~ Global Disease Burden by Age

The Lancet published Global, regional, and national age-sex-specific mortality for 282 causes of death in 195 countries and territories, 1980–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017 summarizing causes of human death...

"Deaths due to communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional causes continue to decline, while deaths from non-communicable diseases increase and injury deaths are stable. Declines in death rates of some non-communicable diseases have slowed or ceased. […] Non-communicable diseases remain the leading causes of death globally, and their burden is rising."

Population Proportomap ~ World Humanity 2018!

Future Commerce ~ Fall 2018 H2 Seminar...

This Tuesday 10/30/2018 from 1-2:30pm is the introductory kickoff class session of our half-semester 6-unit Future Commerce seminar in the MIT Media Lab room E14-244. Please spread the word! Listeners & cross-registrants welcome.  We explore emerging technologies that will transform financial services.  Our top thematic areas include:

• Money ~ Blockchain-based digital currencies; novel barter platforms; peer-to-peer technologies; 
• Markets ~ Wisdom of crowds & prediction markets; fraud meets flash crashes; network-enabled markets; Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs);
• Transactions & Marketplaces ~ Marketplace stack of identity, reputation, marketplace, money; the foundation of assets over IP; how blockchain, mobile platforms and digital currencies give inclusive access;
• Infrastructure ~ Identity, Security & Privacy challenges; cybersecurity; anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Client (KYC) rules;
• AI & Emerging Technologies ~ Understanding the impacts of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies on financial services.

Scheduled guest speakers include Yaniv Altshuler, CEO Endor; Snejina Zacharia, CEO Insurify; Jeremy Allaire, CEO Circle; Meltem Demirors, CSO CoinShares; Prof. Alex Pentland, Connection Science & Human Dynamics; Clara Durodié, Chair, Cognitive Finance Group; Will Graylin, CEO OVLoop; Amias Gerety, Partner, QED / fmr U.S. Treasury Dept.

Pearl Supercity ~ River Delta Conurbation!

The recent opening of world's longest (55km) sea-crossing bridge between Hong Kong + Macao + Zhuhai completes the southern connection linking a half-dozen Chinese megacities into a ~70M+ inhabitant supercity as Visual Capitalist shows...