06/23/2017
LUNAR XPRIZE
-STAR GAZING: [posted by Sandro Alberti]
This weekend I listened to an interview with Michael Summers, astronomer + professor at GMU + author of:
Exoplanets: Diamond Worlds, Super Earths, Pulsar Planets, and the New Search for Life Beyond Our Solar System
Diamond Worlds?!!! Indeed. Apparently there is an amazing world out there, called 55 Cancri e, made 80-90% of diamond (and under such pressure that it may even be... liquid diamond! Also interesting: It’s ‘year’ is 18-hours long (very close to its star and maybe even inside the edge of the star)...
read more:
http://bit.ly/2tXXMoc
06/16/2017
RENEWABLE ENERGY STORAGE AND DISTRIBUTION
-ENERGY GRID: [posted by Gene Sci]
Today I discovered Gretchen Bakke:
Author: The Grid: The Fraying Wires between Americans and Our Energy Future
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In her book, Gretchen Bakke crafts an interesting tale of the wherefore and wherewith of the electric grid.
"America’s electrical grid, an engineering triumph of the twentieth century, is turning out to be a poor fit for the present. It’s not just that the grid has grown old and is now in dire need of basic repair. [And it's] what stands most firmly in the way of a brighter energy future."
read more:
http://bit.ly/2twvq45
05/01/2017
IDEATION
-FORECASTING: [posted by Sandro Alberti]
Today I discovered Amy Webb:
Founder/CEO: Future Today Institute
Author: The Signals Are Talking; Why today's 'fringe' is tomorrow's future.
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In her book, Amy Webb shares both general methodologies for 'future forecasting' as well as a specific 6-step process that is applicable to all of us Visionaries here, and anyone who can benefit from basic forecasting— as Amy says:
"I am shocked and dismayed that people who run businesses... are supposed to be able to read a budget... but aren't expected to do basic forecasting."
read more:
http://bit.ly/2n4BpP6
05/01/2017
IDEATION
-CREATIVITY: [posted by Sandro Alberti]
Today I discovered Brian Reich:
Author: The Imagination Gap; Stop thinking the way you 'should', and start making extraordinary leaps in imagination.
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Imagination is fundamental because it was a critical tool for early human survival. "Go back to.. cave people. Person after person would leave the cave to see what was going on. Maybe they were hunting or whatever, and wouldn't return; a dinosaur would eat them up or whatever would happen. And if we had just continued to do that, just continued to walk out of that cave without conceiving of what could possibly be out there, that we needed to prepare for, we wouldn't have become a species."
read more:
http://bit.ly/2nTj2LB
05/01/2017
IDEATION
-COPYRIGHT: [posted by Sandro Alberti]
Invention is often followed by its protection. And that protection— can potentially limit invention. "Everything in moderation", I guess. But how does one negotiate 'the fine line'?
In a recent podcast interview, I had a chance to see how Cory Doctorow does it as a writer of fiction. For him, the balance of profit (for him to continue to do what he does) and access (for his readers to engage and participate and expand upon his 'ideation'), is a life mission (for several years he was European Coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics)...
read more:
http://bit.ly/2pm7FwB
