Friday, September 26, 2008

Science Magazine's Visualization Challenege 2008

Science Magazine and NSF joined together to conduct The International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge 2008. One of the great achievements of technology in the recent years has been the ability to communicate complex information and ideas through visualization. This effort highlights the progress through the years as you may see in the links to the previous five Visualization Challenges. Here is an excerpt from the site:

"The winners -- in categories including photography, illustration, informational graphics, and multimedia -- captured the crystalline beauty of diatoms, the expanse of the human circulatory system, a fairy tale tea party re-invented, and the dynamic life of a plant cell."

See the visual presentation of the Visualization Challenge 2008 here. I also recommend listening to an interview with Alisa Zapp Machalek here - one of the judges of the Challenge.

Google Patent a Disruption in US Telecommunications Market Place


Google's patent filed in March 2007 and released today can bring real-time bidding to all types of wireless communications use. An excerpt from Wired:

"Google's patent filing describes "devices, systems and methods" that would automatically poll nearby wireless services to find the best price for a voice or a data connection for a "portable communications device." That connection might come via a cellphone carrier, a WiMax provider, or even a Wi-Fi hotspot. According to the patent, users can either manually select the bid they like best or they can allow the device to connect automatically with the lowest-cost provider."

Read the Wired article here.

Read the patent filed here.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Emdrive

I read about the Emdrive or electromagnetic relativity drive back in 2006 in the New Scientist here. Interestingly, recently Chinese researchers have claimed the confirmation of the theory behind Emdrives and are building a demonstration as we speak. Read details here.


Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Water thins - Air will be rarer

Brilliant presentation by way of Steve Levin at SlideShare.

Water shortages at a massive scale may arrive before the energy crisis hits home... yet who could have predicted we will be buying water 20 years ago, where today it is approx. $13B industry in the USA.

I believe we will be buying air in the metropolis of the world by mid-century on retail... wonder if air can become a CPG / FMCG product just like water? I am confident it will.

Enjoy!

Education Systems

Here is a link to a good TedTalk on Creativity and Education (given by Ken Robinson) forwarded by Aylin Koca. I have seen across the world while lecturing in Universities in North America, Scandinavia, Middle East and South Asia that a large number of students coming out are thoroughly unprepared for the 21st century. From having no concept of what the Global business world is about to not being able to look beyond what they have been taught. I truly see some of these students looking like deer when they look at headlights coming at them at 60 mph.

I believe that just like the consumer has come to realize that they can choose, similarly the students will start to ask why we are still using the same methods of teaching from 100 years ago while the world is moving at 100 times the speed from 100 years ago.

And the students must (as they are the consumers of education), otherwise... the educational bureaucracies (the corporation) must continue to sell and make money from the shortest and easiest paths available to them.