Ideas

In Banking, Should There Be a Public Option?

Wed, 2013-10-02 09:59 — Gina Angiola

The New York Times Opinion Pages, October 1, 2013

Below is an interesting online forum discussing the pros and cons of a public bank. The participants include:

Ellen Brown, Author, "The Public Bank Solution"; Mark A. Calabria, Cato Institute; Eric Hardmeyer, Bank of North Dakota; Pierre Beynet, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; Celeste Watkins-Hayes, Northwestern University; Michael Likovsky, Author, "Obama's Bank"; Hester Peirce,Mercatus Center, George Mason University;Heather Morton, National Conference of State Legislatures

FULL ARTICLE HERE

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Slow Ideas - Some Innovations Spread Fast. How Do You Speed the Ones That Don’t?

Thu, 2013-07-25 18:51 — Kathy Gilbeaux

We yearn for frictionless, technological solutions. But people talking to people is still the way that norms and standards change. Illustration by Harry Campbell.

newyorker.com - by Atul Gawande - July 29, 2013

. . . In our era of electronic communications, we’ve come to expect that important innovations will spread quickly. Plenty do: think of in-vitro fertilization, genomics, and communications technologies themselves. But there’s an equally long list of vital innovations that have failed to catch on. The puzzle is why.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Small in Size, Big on Power: New Microbatteries a Boost for Electronics

Tue, 2013-06-18 15:21 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The graphic illustrates a high power battery technology from the University of Illinois. Ions flow between three-dimensional micro-electrodes in a lithium ion battery. Image - Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology

submitted by Albert Gomez

news.illinois.edu - by Liz Ahlberg - April 16, 2013

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Though they be but little, they are fierce. The most powerful batteries on the planet are only a few millimeters in size, yet they pack such a punch that a driver could use a cellphone powered by these batteries to jump-start a dead car battery – and then recharge the phone in the blink of an eye.

Developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the new microbatteries out-power even the best supercapacitors and could drive new applications in radio communications and compact electronics.

Led by William P. King, the Bliss Professor of mechanical science and engineering, the researchers published their results in the April 16 issue of Nature Communications.

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The 'Chemputer' That Could Print Out Any Drug

Fri, 2012-07-27 17:48 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Chemistry professor Lee Cronin with the 'chemputer' he has adapted from a 3D printer. Photograph: Murdo Macleod

When Lee Cronin learned about the concept of 3D printers, he had a brilliant idea: why not turn such a device into a universal chemistry set that could make its own drugs?

guardian.co.uk - by Tim Adams - July 21, 2012

Professor Lee Cronin is a likably impatient presence, a one-man catalyst. "I just want to get stuff done fast," he says. And: "I am a control freak in rehab." Cronin, 39, is the leader of a world-class team of 45 researchers at Glasgow University, primarily making complex molecules. But that is not the extent of his ambition.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Lee Cronin - The Cronin Group - University of Glasgow, U.K.
http://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/cronin/

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The City as Lab: 21 Metropoles Prepare to Prototype

Sat, 2012-05-05 23:15 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Living Labs Global co-founder Sascha Haselmayer addresses the crowd in Rio de Janeiro

submitted by Albert Gomez

good.is - by Zak Stone - May 4, 2012

In a megapolis like Mexico City, any planning initiative that moves citizens from cars to busses will pay off in reductions to traffic and air pollution. A major deterrent to using public transportation in the city? Comfort, according to Dr. Julio Mendoza, director of Mexico City's Institute of Science and Technology. Many would rather drive than experience that particular breed of public transportation-pegged anxiety: waiting helplessly on the street corner for a bus that feels like it won't ever arrive.

After participating in the Living Labs Global Award program, a competition designed to help cities solve planning challenges, the Mexican capital may have found a fix. In February, Mexico City and 20 other LLGA participants around the world put out an open call to companies to pitch solutions to important but fixable problems.

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Video - USRio+2.0 Conference - Demo Alley Exhibitors

Sun, 2012-02-05 23:14 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Also see other USRio+2.0 videos in the right side-bar (in the link below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqCTuvnsHGk

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Reframing Resilience

Sat, 2012-01-28 13:48 — mdmcdonald

First, there is great value in a systems approach as a heuristic for understanding interlocked social-ecological-technological processes, and in analysis across multiple scales. Yet we need to move beyond both systems as portrayed in resilience thinking, and the focus on actors in work on vulnerability, to analyse networks and relationships, as well as to attend to the diverse framings, narratives, imaginations and discourses that different actors bring to bear.

For More:

http://resilienturbanism.tumblr.com/post/7573475902/reframing-resilience

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Guardian: Maps and Lists of Occupy Everywhere Sites

Mon, 2011-10-24 07:42 — mdmcdonald

The below Guardian article provides a map and lists of where Occupy Everywhere protests are emerging. They are primarily, but not exclusively in the U.S. and Europe, in countries where the economy is in significant decline and inequities are significant. In most of these places, the youth fear that their future will be worse than their parents, due to the greed of a global elite insensitive to the destruction they have caused economically and environmentally.

The list includes 951 cities in 82 countries.

To see the story and full list, go to:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/oct/17/occupy-protests-world-list-map

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Guardian: Snapshots of the Occupy Everywhere Protesters Views

Mon, 2011-10-24 07:25 — mdmcdonald

This Guardian photo slideshow depicts how the Occupy Everywhere movement is growing globally. The protesters talk about what is motivating them. In generzl, they are talking about how their governments have failed to provide the fundamentals of resilience to their generation. They intend to take these matters into their own hands.

Occupy protests: Rita Maestre, Madrid