Soup 4u!

Write Less, Say More: The Power of Brevity [Writing]

Fri, 11 May 2012 15:00:00 GMT

When it comes to great writing, less is more. But even if you're familiar with the mantra to "omit needless words," tightening your writing is harder that it looks. Which words should you omit? How can you write more clearly? Danny Rubin, a national news consultant and former television news reporter, demonstrates—with examples—the power of brevity. More »

Controversial Anti-Aging Chemical Resveratrol Back In The Spotlight With New Details About How It Works

Fri, 11 May 2012 14:37:20 GMT

Small molecule, big controversy. A new study clears doubts about how resveratrol causes its anti-aging effects.

Resveratrol, the famed anti-aging supplement extracted from red wine, has experienced its share of controversy. An experimental artifact, a pair of studies that questioned its health benefits, and the shady practices of one now-discredited scientist have put resveratrol in a bad light as of late. But a recent study now attempts to help set the record straight by confirming one part of the resveratrol puzzle.

Resveratrol was first identified in 2003 when Konrad Howitz, working with David Sinclair’s group at Harvard, found that it activated the protein SIRT1. Past research has “implicated” SIRT1 as an anti-aging factor due to the beneficial effects it has on glucose homeostasis, neurodegeneration, and integrity of the cell’s power house, the mitochondria. A number of studies suggested that the healthful benefits of resveratrol were via the activation of SIRT1 but it still remained to be shown convincingly. Even casting doubt on resveratrol’s ability to activate SIRT1 were two 2005 studies that showed that a fluorescent marker used in one of the experiments was activating SIRT1 itself.

To get to the molecular bottom of things, Harvard biologist David Sinclair and his team devised an elegant experiment to see if resveratrol still had the same effect on cells if SIRT1 was removed. This would be a convincing demonstration that the beneficial effects of resveratrol were indeed through the activation of SIRT1. To do this the group developed a mouse that was genetically modified so that all of the SIRT1 in its body would disappear when it was given a certain chemical. Strikingly, normal mice in the study reaped the expected benefits when given resveratrol, but mice with no SIRT1 did not.

Sinclair co-founded Sirtis Pharmaceuticals, which is developing drugs that, like resveratrol, activate SIRT1, so obviously data supporting that the benefits of resveratrol are via SIRT1 activation helps out Sinclair and other companies developing drugs meant to mimic resveratrol or otherwise activate SIRT1. Conversely, we previously pointed out that two studies which put into question resveratrol’s beneficial effects were performed by Pfizer and Amgen, companies in competition with Glaxo-Smith-Kline who bought Sirtis in 2008 for $720 million.

Does the potential conflict of interest detract from the powerful demonstration Sinclair’s team was able to show with their genetically-modified mice? There are sure to be more pieces to the resveratrol puzzle and the current experiment will have to be reproduced. But for the moment, demonstrating the link between the wine extract and SIRT1 is an important step if resveratrol will ever be shown to live up to its anti-aging potential.

[image credits: LA Times and extremelongevity.net]
images: wine and molecule

When perceptions bite tech comm’s backside

Fri, 11 May 2012 14:31:40 GMT

It can be a mightily sucktacular experience when you discover what other people think technical communicators do.

Case in point: a blog post from a college student came up in my Google feeds about tech comm. The post (to which I won’t link because it’s not fair to the author) was about word choice and how the author doesn’t understand why so many writers use big words when smaller words suffice. Yep, I’m with him on that.

OUCH! (flickr: ansik)

That’s when the author threw a punch right into the face of our profession without even knowing it. In a nutshell, he said that technical writing is exempt from the requirements of using basic language.

I think I know what the writer was trying to say: technical writing can require the use of advanced terminology. He meant no intentional malice or disrespect. Even so, his post made it clear he does not entirely understand what we do in tech comm, particularly now that the field has changed so much in past decade or so.

This lack of understanding on one student’s part generated many questions in my mind:

How many of our colleagues in other departments think we spend our lives stringing together fancy words?
Even worse, how many of those in upper management have the same thoughts?
What are we all doing to end these perceptions?

Truly good technical content requires us to break out of our cubicles and collaborate with other departments. Our professional well-being also depends on that collaboration to dispel myths about what we do—and to reinforce the value we provide.

Apple mapping a future without Google in iOS 6? (Erica Ogg/GigaOM)

Fri, 11 May 2012 14:30:02 GMT

Erica Ogg / GigaOM:
Apple mapping a future without Google in iOS 6? — Apple surprised some earlier this year when it debuted a new iPhoto app for iOS devices that featured maps from a source that was not Google. Now a new report indicates Apple may be on the verge of replacing Google Maps altogether in the next version of iOS.

Watch Vidal Sassoon’s moving, funny TEDx talk

Fri, 11 May 2012 14:06:01 GMT

At TEDxOxford last September, legendary stylist Vidal Sassoon, who died this week at 84, shared this moving talk about his extraordinary life.

As a YouTube commenter writes: “A good way to remember this humble and inspirational man.”

Plus! See this talk (and many others from TEDxOxford) illustrated by the Livescribes, a British group of live illustrators.

How rational is America? | Neil Denny | Little Atoms Road Trip

Fri, 11 May 2012 14:01:38 GMT

The home of conspiracy theories, creationism and climate scepticism is also a scientific powerhouse. Neil Denny is on a road trip to explore this contradiction

This is the first of a short series of columns, so I'll begin with a brief introduction. I'm the producer and presenter of a radio show and podcast called Little Atoms. It's a talk show mainly concerned with popular science and rationalism, encompassing the "Sceptic" movement. We're interested in how science and culture, and often science and religion, rub up against each other.

I'm not a scientist by training, my interest in science and scepticism coming quite late in life. As a child in the 1970s I was obsessed by the space race, and I was a fan of the science fiction of the era, such as Star Wars and Close Encounters and Silent Running. I read a lot of post-apocalyptic science fiction. I'd therefore have claimed that I was interested in science, but what I would have really meant was weird phenomena: Bigfoot, UFOs, and the Bermuda Triangle.

I presumed all of these things to be, if not true exactly, then at least plausible and worthy of study by researchers. I certainly wouldn't have been able to tell you the difference between palaeontologists searching for ancient bones, and the search for the Loch Ness Monster.

Then one day I accidentally bought Carl Sagan's masterpiece The Demon Haunted World, presuming from the title that it was another book about unexplained phenomena. And it was, just not in the way I was expecting. Sagan calmly explains in the book that there are natural physical phenomena that are provable, and others that are not, and that there exists in the scientific method a mechanism for telling this stuff apart. This was a revelation to me.

At the risk of looking foolish, let me reiterate that I was in my mid-twenties when this happened. From then on I obsessively devoured all of the popular science I could get my hands on. Through reading Sagan I also discovered the work of James Randi and the idea of organised scepticism.

I've been an atheist as long as I can remember, and have been an observer of the UK sceptical movement for the best part of a decade. Having been introduced to that movement via the American version, I'm interested in the contrasts between sceptical and atheist campaigns in the UK and the US.

There is a familiar cliché in the UK media of an overtly religious, backward-looking, anti-intellectual and anti-science America, an America under sustained attack from the forces of irrationality.

It's true that professing atheism in America is still considered to be a brave and transgressive act. American sceptics, atheists, scientists and science educators are engaged in numerous battles. Creationists continue to push for the teaching of "intelligent design" alongside evolution in science classes. Campaigners fight to protect the right to legal and safe abortion, for the use of stem cells in medical research, and against the growing anti-vaccination movement.

At the same time conspiracy theories about a wide range of events from 9/11 to the moon landings remain widespread, and climate change denial continues to be a significant political force. Yet it remains a fact that America was founded on explicitly Enlightenment principles, is a bona fide secular state, will remain for the foreseeable future the number one country for science research in the world and contains a significant proportion of the world's top-rated universities. This contradiction has always interested me.

So on 12 May I'm travelling to America and embarking on a month-long, 6,000 mile road trip, with the aim of making a series of podcasts that present a wide-ranging overview of science and scepticism from an American perspective. I'll be interviewing scientists working on groundbreaking, cutting-edge science, educators combatting the encroachment of anti-science and irrationality into politics and the classroom, and writers attempting to popularise amazing ideas and concepts to the wider public.

I'm flying in to San Francisco and passing through Los Angeles, Tucson, Phoenix, Santa Fe, Roswell, Oklahoma City, St Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Washington DC, Durham, Asheville, Philadelphia, New York and Ithaca en route to Boston. I'm going to be visiting the Seti Institute, the BEYOND Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the American Museum of Natural History. I'll also be paying a visit to Kentucky's Creation Museum.

I'll be spending a weekend at the annual conference of the Orange County Freethought Alliance, and attending the 5th World Science Festival in New York. And I'll be recording lots of interviews with scientists, a very short selection of which includes Leonard Susskind, Eugenie Scott, Sarah Hrdy, Kip Thorne, David Gross, Lucianne Walkowicz, Ann Druyan (Sagan's widow), George Church, Priya Natarayan, Paul Offit, Sara Seager and Steven Pinker.

I'll be posting a weekly dispatch on this blog while I'm travelling, and I'll be returning home with enough material for around 40 podcast episodes, which will be published once a week in a new RSS feed. The first episode will go online on Friday 18 May.

You can find the feed here or search for Little Atoms Road Trip on iTunes, and also follow my progress on Twitter @littleatoms.

My trip has been made possible by a 2012 travelling fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. Each year the trust gives out around 110 travelling grants for worthwhile projects. The application process for 2012 opened this month. You should think of an idea and apply.

Neil Denny is the producer and presenter of the Little Atoms radio show and podcast, which is broadcast every Friday evening at 7pm BST on Resonance 104.4fm

Neil Denny

Apple Television Set Confirmed By Foxconn Boss [Apple]

Fri, 11 May 2012 13:45:00 GMT

Hell? Frozen! The fabled Apple television set has been confirmed by Foxconn's bossman Terry Gou. According to Gou, Foxconn is getting ready for the manufacturing of Apple's television. What would this magical device be? More »

How to correct map errors in Google Earth

Fri, 11 May 2012 12:08:31 GMT

We get a lot of emails from users asking us to correct data errors in Google Earth -- incorrect road names, mis-marked addresses, etc. We can't do that directly, but fortunately Google has a great solution to help you out.

To start, you don't actually fix the errors in Google Earth; you fix them in Google Maps, and those corrections are synced into Google Earth over the course of a few weeks.

To suggest a correction, simply right-click on an area inside of Google Maps and choose "Report a problem". The following screen will pop-up and will walk you through the process:

I've suggested quite a few edits to my local area, and all have been accepted into Google Earth/Maps and helped make my town more accurate. It's a great tool to help make Google products more accurate for everyone. To learn more about how this process works, you can visit this page in the Google Maps support system.

Secrets of the First Practical Artificial Leaf

Fri, 11 May 2012 11:00:45 GMT

Solar power is getting less and less expensive. Via ScienceDaily:

A detailed description of development of the first practical artificial leaf — a milestone in the drive for sustainable energy that mimics the process, photosynthesis, that green plants use to convert water and sunlight into energy — appears in the ACS journal Accounts of Chemical Research. The article notes that unlike earlier devices, which used costly ingredients, the new device is made from inexpensive materials and employs low-cost engineering and manufacturing processes.

Daniel G. Nocera points out that the artificial leaf responds to the vision of a famous Italian chemist who, in 1912, predicted that scientists one day would uncover the “guarded secret of plants.” The most important of those, Nocera says, is the process that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. The artificial leaf has a sunlight collector sandwiched between two films that generate oxygen and hydrogen gas. When dropped into a jar of water in the sunlight, it bubbles away, releasing hydrogen that can be used in fuel cells to make electricity. These self-contained units are attractive for making fuel for electricity in remote places and the developing world, but designs demonstrated thus far rely on metals like platinum and manufacturing processes that make them cost-prohibitive.

2Pac, "Dear Mama"

Fri, 11 May 2012 10:00:00 GMT

2Pac, "Dear Mama"
Though 2Pac never had much difficulty expressing his emotions, "Dear Mama" remains his most heartfelt display. On it, he addresses his mother with naked honesty, assuring her that however strained their relationship might be, it would never shatter. It's a private conversation made public and a record that likely inspired a nation of similarly troubled youth to sit down with their own concerned mothers. – Andrew Nosnitsky, Google Play

"Dear Mama" 2Pac

About that food ‘safety limit’ …

Fri, 11 May 2012 07:01:56 GMT

Storage container

Here is how radioactive material hotter than 100 Bq/kg used to be stored:

http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/05/how-they-used-to-stock-100bqkg-of-radioactive-waste/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FukushimaDiary+%28Fukushima+Diary%29

Now it’s stored in our food … and in us.

David Ritchie posts from Hanoi, Vietnam. Contact: kwriter@asia.com.

yellow carded

Fri, 11 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

When a person does not wash their hands after urinating they receive a yellow card. Similar to a warning in sports.

Brent got yellow carded because he is a disgusting douche bag and didn't wash after whizzing.

Did you see this on the evening news?

Fri, 11 May 2012 03:23:26 GMT

The cesium level is flat, too

No, of course you didn’t see it on the evening news:

http://enenews.com/japan-govt-data-65-of-marine-life-test-positive-for-cesium-in-nov-average-catch-exceeds-new-radiation-limits-111-bqkg

David Ritchie posts from Hanoi, Vietnam. Contact: kwriter@asia.com.

In Search of the Best (Energy) Ideas: A Q&A with ARPA-E's Arun Majumdar

Fri, 11 May 2012 01:01:00 GMT

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA–E) works on a three-year cycle: Funded projects have three years to prove worthy--or not. Program directors who help fund projects such as Plants Engineered to Replace Petroleum ( PETRO ) or Batteries for Electrical Energy Storage in Transportation ( BEEST ) have three years to steer the research. And, after three years at the helm as the founding director of ARPA–E, mechanical engineer Arun Majumdar has announced that he will be stepping down in June.

[More]

JP Morgan Suffers ‘Massive’ Losses: $4.2 Billion Probable; May Spread to Entire Sector

Fri, 11 May 2012 00:46:44 GMT

If you’ve wondered what investment banks have been doing with those hard earned bail-out tax dollars lent to them by the Federal Reserve and US government at nearly zero percent interest, here’s your answer and a demonstration in how to vaporize the GDP of a small nation in just a few weeks’ time.

In an unexpected after hours call with investors CEO Jamie Dimon said JPMorgan was facing massive losses – legal losses of $4.2 billion were reasonably possible, he said — with trading losses totaling $800 million in the second quarter.

And Dimon said it could take until the end of the year to restructure the portfolio.

Although information was still coming together at the time of writing, the Fast Money traders say developments look like they’re a game changer.

…

“I can almost guarantee it’s not just JPMorgan.” adds trader Guy Adami.

“JPMorgan looks like it’s going to bring down the entire space,” adds Steve Grasso.

In other words, all the traders are expecting financials to sell-off broadly on Friday.

“The sector hasn’t been doing well anyway,” explains Steve Grasso. “The group has been breaking down. This feels like it could be a nail in the coffin.”

Source: CNBC

CEO Jamie Dimon:

…”egregious mistakes”

…”self inflicted”

…”could easily get worse”

Via Reuters:

Look out below because this one has traders spooked and it could be a Lehman-like domino that causes a widespread market panic.

Hattip Satori

Insektoid – In Berlin F´hain, Germany

Thu, 10 May 2012 21:28:25 GMT

In Berlin F´hain, Germany. Thanks to JuliSonne for the photo!

Geocaching Presents: Geocaching en Español

Thu, 10 May 2012 21:08:01 GMT

[Editor's Note: Click on CC for English Subtitled]

Comparte tu pasión por Geocaching con este nuevo video en español. Muéstrales a tus amigos y familiares el mundo de aventuras al que se puede ingresar con solo abrir la puerta de tu casa y comparte con nosotros como fue que te iniciaste en esta maravillosa actividad.

Geocaching en Español

Explore Little Havana in Miami, Florida in this new Geocaching.com Presents video: Geocaching en Español. This Spanish language video takes you along on an urban cache run through an historic Cuban-American neighborhood.

Subscribe to the official Geocaching.com YouTube channel to be one of the first to see new videos about the evolving world of geocaching. Watch the more than 50 videos produced by Geocaching.com on our video page.

James Patton Darin R. McClure Interview Notes

Thu, 10 May 2012 17:45:32 GMT

Yesterday I was interviewed by Jim Patton the Main Anchor / Reporter at San Diego 6 News. We went all over the San Onofre topic, way beyond what is going on at the Concordia Elementary School here in San Clemente,

Here are a few of the topics we covered.

New health study for those living next to San Onofre,
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that it has asked the National Academy of Sciences to do a “state-of-the-art study on cancer risk for populations surrounding nuclear power facilities.” via @OCReggie the old study used county-wide data to reach conclusions - a blunt instrument that may again downplay the impact on those living closest to a reactor. (Residents in La Habra and San Clemente live in the same county – but few will argue that their exposure to San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is the same.)

High levels of radiation here in Corona Del Mar kelp.
These 131I levels represent a significant input into the kelp forest ecosystem. via @uscweb

What do I want from Concordia Elementary anyway?
I was asked if I had read, "What would happen to our kids in event of a nuclear melt down at San Onofre?" via CAPOUSD (sorry but this is not Readiness) I want to know where would I pick up my kids in case of an evacuation. How would I find this information if there were an emergency?

Public Real Time Radiation Monitoring in San Clemente
Special thanks to Creative Electron for using SanOnonfre.com as a beta tester of their product. Without the @iRadgeiger the closest public, real time radiation monitoring would be in Anaheim.

What is going on at San Onofre?
Get the truth from Dan Hirsch, the man whos students found that the worst nuclear accident in US history is right here in Southern California, speaking at the San Onofre Shutdown rally, April 29, 2012.

Aging Nuke Plants On Fault Lines In Tsunami Hazard Zones = Fukushimas... Any Questions?

Toothless No More – Researchers Using Stem Cells to Grow New Teeth

Thu, 10 May 2012 14:48:17 GMT

Polymer scaffolds guide stem cells growth into customized sizes and shapes.

It may be hard to remember what it was like to lose a tooth as a child, but many adults get an unpleasant reminder as they age when their teeth begin to fall out (even those who don’t play hockey) and must consider dentures or dental implants. For years, researchers have investigated stem cells in an effort to grow teeth made for a person’s own cells. Toward this end, endodontics professor Dr. Peter Murray and colleagues from the College of Dental Medicine at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) have developed methods to control adult stem cell growth toward generating dental tissue and “real” replacement teeth.

The NSU researchers’ approach is to extract stem cells from oral tissue, such as inside a tooth itself, or from bone marrow. After being harvested, the cells are mounted to a polymer scaffold in the shape of the desired tooth. The polymer is the same material used in bioreabsorable sutures, so the scaffold eventually dissolves away. Teeth can be grown separately then inserted into a patient’s mouth or the stem cells can be grown within the mouth reaching a full-sized tooth within a few months.

So far, teeth have been regenerated in mice and monkeys, and clinical trials with humans are underway, but whether the technology can generate teeth that are nourished by the blood and have full sensations remains to be seen. Teeth present a unique challenge for researchers because the stem cells must be stimulated to grow the right balance of hard tissue, dentin and enamel, while producing the correct size and shape.

As Dr. Murray explains it, humans already have two sets of teeth, baby and adult sets, over the course of their lifetimes, so “All we are trying to do is copy nature and give the person the third option to re-grow their teeth.” Not only could this be important for replacing lost teeth, but it could become a standard treatment when extreme orthodontics is necessitated. And if the tooth is malformed or fails, it can be extracted and a new one put into place.

To date, the NSU researchers have received about $1.7 million in grants for their dental stem cell research.

Dr. Murray believes that if they can demonstrate control over tooth re-growth and prove that the technology is safe, these teeth will be the first to see widespread adoption in the US. He also reports that interest has been high from the public and even fellow dentists, as evidenced by the recent selling out of his “Regenerative Endodontic Procedures” presentation at the American Dental Association conference in Las Vegas.

You can check out a news piece about NSU’s research here.

Just as developments in embryonic stem cell research launched umbilical cord banks, the promise that dental stem cell therapy holds has led to the rise of tooth banks, such as BioEden, StemSave, and Store-A-Tooth (StemSave, for instance, charges $2,430 to store a child’s tooth for 20 years.) Stem cell therapies are being actively used to repair bone damage, facial bones, and even organs like a heart, but skeptics continue to scoff at the potential of stem cells, oft citing nightmare scenarios or runaway tissue growth. Furthermore, research progress is often clouded by the politics surrounding embryonic stem cell research.

But the one therapy that could silence the naysayers is tooth regeneration.

The statistics on tooth loss are a bit staggering: 7 out of 10 adults age 35 to 44 have lost at least one tooth and a quarter of those aged 65 or older (or about 20 million people) have lost all their permanent teeth. Additionally, side effects from medications can effect oral health, such as changing properties of the saliva that helps fight bacterial growth. And increased tooth loss leads to poor dietary habits even among dentists, according to a recent study, which leads to secondary health effects. Add to this high sugar diets contributing to the obesity epidemic and increasing cases of periodontal disease due to neglect and you can see that the market for tooth replacement is enormous and expected to grow.

Having a full set of functional teeth is increasingly important as an aging population seeks to maintain an active lifestyle. And the growth of social media has led to people’s faces being plastered all over Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. So how your teeth look is more important than ever, especially with more people carrying high quality cameras built into their mobile devices.

Dentists are at the front line of the increased demand for perfect teeth. A 2009 nationwide survey by NSU revealed that 96% of the dentists polled expected stem cell regeneration to dominate the future of dentistry. Additionally, more than half predicted that the technology would be available within the next decade.

In mice, stem cells grew into a tooth (in green) that had similar properties to natural teeth.

Research into using stem cells to regrow new teeth has been around for at least 10 years. In 2002, Professor Paul Sharpe at the Dental Institute of King’s College in London received a $500,000 Wellcome Trust grant to translate tooth regrowth with stem cells in mice into regenerative dentistry for humans. A company was formed, Odontis, and in 2010 seemed ready to launch its BioTooth technology, but has since fallen off the radar and had its website shut down possibly suffering the same fate that led to Geron Corporation abandoning stem cell research last year. Researchers from Tokyo University in 2009 reported success with implantation of stem cell tooth germs in mice which grew into fully functional teeth within a few months. Scaffolds were also successfully used to regrow anatomically correct teeth in nine weeks by researchers at Colombia University Medical Center.

Although the promise of stem cell therapies remains to be realized, there’s little doubt that researchers at NSU and around the world will continue in their efforts to use stem cells for regenerative medicine.

Dr. Murray remains optimistic: “When dental stem cell therapies become routine it will be historic, and the most fantastic time to practice as a dentist.”

[Media: Sun Sentinel]

[Sources: ABC, BBC, DentalAegis, Ivanhoe, PopSci, Sun Sentinel]

The Rise of the New Spiritual Counterculture

Thu, 10 May 2012 14:00:23 GMT

It’s February 17 and I’m standing in front of a full room at Gatsby Books in Long Beach, CA. Once again, we’ve filled up the seats and people are standing in the back as I deliver my opening line, “If you told me several years, I’d be here talking about Jesus and ayahuasca, I would have laughed my ass off.” But perhaps more incredible than tales of spiritual awakening is that here I am on the final night of my Electric Jesus West Coast book tour, knowing we have shattered the odds.

Enthusiastic crowds have greeted me at almost all of my sixteen stops. This shouldn’t be happening as first-time author in a wilting publishing industry. But I’ve had a secret grassroots weapon, one that a lot of mainstream America doesn’t know about — it’s the flourishing new spiritual counterculture.

The audience in Gatsby Books is dressed in hipster vintage printed tees and American Apparel cotton hoodies with esoteric flares of spiral plug earrings and Peruvian indigenous bracelets. I’ve come to realize this isn’t simply the Whole Foods sustainability crew, Yoga Journal aficionados, or New Age healers. There’s a weird and intricate alchemy of deeper ecological and spiritual activism, where new design systems meet vipassana firmness of mind, plant medicine wisdom engages with Occupy ideologies, permaculture principles with a global festival culture, and a rising planetary awareness with radically practical solutions to address global challenges tidal-waving towards us.

I ask crowd, “Who here is going through some type of initiatory or healing process?” By this final night in Long Beach, I’m confident that at least nine-tenths of the audience are going to raise their hands. “There’s something unusual going on,” I tell them. “I think we’re pioneers.”

But where did all these folks come from? Over the last couple of decades transformational tribes have been actively building communities – some for fun, like the psytrance/rave movement and festival scene; some for spiritual/health reasons, like the ashrams, alternative health centers, and ayahuasca plant medicine retreats; and some to combat the immense environmental, economic, and political threats on the horizon. This includes the eco-villages, urban homesteaders, alternative energy organizations, complimentary currency groups, and digital democracy advocates.

My work over the last few years, having helped co-found The Evolver Social Movement, has been to connect members of these diverse groups and foster better collaborations, information-sharing, and build a larger transformational network. In our 2.5 years, we have grown from having one Evolver Spore (as we call our regional chapters) in Atlanta to facilitating an international community with 40+ thriving groups in the US and abroad. Every third Wednesday of the month, we synch up our efforts across the network, hosting events based on themes such as water, food, shamanism, climate change, spiritual activism, visionary art, and technology. We’ve created our own successful distribution system for a “market” unrecognized by most companies, hosting spiritual counterculture film screenings, book tours, consciousness parties, salons, and festivals.

Our cross-network building is what facilitated the uncommonly high attendance for my speaking engagements. But I admit the idea of bringing together multifarious tribes under the same umbrella didn’t originate from our second floor office in downtown Brooklyn. It came from the strangest city on earth, a temporary municipality in the middle of the desert that lasts only one week a year. I’m talking about Black Rock City where the Burning Man Festival takes place.

Covering 5 square miles of Nevada desert with a grid infrastructure, street lamps, and enough bathrooms to accommodate 50,000+ people, the festival’s mantra of “radical free expression” fosters an eclectic city able to accommodate the various yoga dens, permaculture training centers, psychedelic lectures, “Thunderdomish” battles, and all-night dance camps. This “future-tribal” alchemy has become a cultural incubator inspiring participants to start up their own organizations, projects, or even regional Burning Man groups (there are around 100 hundred regionals in North America) back home.

In terms of the counterculture, one of the biggest surprises over the last year has been the spiritual components of the Occupy Movement. In 2004, when protesting the Republican National Convention in NYC, a group of anarchists laughed at my suggestion to calm tension with police by meditating. Now Occupy Wall Street has its own “Consciousness Committee,” hosting meditation flash mobs, based on the viral MedMob model, which started in Austin in 2011 and has spread to over 300 cities.

Pop gurus like Deepak Copra, Vandava Shiva, and Robert Thurman are being greeted like war heroes at Occupy rallies. Spiritual activists, such as “The Fifth Sacred Thing” author Starhawk in Oakland, have organized healing circles for Occupiers affected by police violence. Even the signs on the back of cardboard pizza boxes relay spiritual messages: “The revolution must be a revolution of consciousness,” “Welcome to the Paradigm Shift,” and “Occupy Consciousness.”

Generally I’ve found this new spiritual counterculture believes that our monochromatic, corporate society has failed us, given us information over wisdom, consumerism over community, false advertising over deeper healing. Many seem to have given up on fixing the old systems (“Look what happened to Obama,” they say) and are now building new models of coexistence and sustainability, ones that enable us live and share our unique gifts, and to reconnect with the sacredness of nature and each other.

Together we are creating a richly diverse ecosystem of organic farms, solar-powered earthships, mystery schools, reskilling trainings, ceremonial spaces, and gift economies. But there is no way to tell if we will be engineers of a Civilization 2.0 upgrade or post-modern Don Quixotes lancing at techno-industrialized windmills with our flimsy, rolled-up yoga mats.

Anthropologist Margaret Mead famously stated, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” I pray she is right, but one thing is certain: we aren’t so small anymore.

This article originally appeared on The Huffington Post.

Jonathan Talat Phillips is the author of The Electric Jesus: The Healing Journey of a Contemporary Gnostic and co-founder of Evolver and Reality Sandwich.

Non-spherical panoramas on 360cities

Thu, 10 May 2012 13:41:03 GMT

Over the years we've mentioned 360cities.net quite a few times. They have a great product that is easy to use, and even have their own layer inside of of Google Earth. The panoramas that they allow people to create can be quite stunning:

They've recently added some new features such as being a part of Flipboard on iOS as well as the improved Google Currents. However, I think their best new feature is support for non-spherical panoramas.

Historically, 360cities has only supported fully spherical images for use in panoramas. This means that the image must not only have a 360 degree view, but must include imagery when looking straight up or down. The result is amazing panoramas such as the one below:

The problem is that people often have 360 degree imagery, but it doesn't have the complete image directly above and below the camera. In the past, you needed to pad the image with black strips along the top and bottom in order for their site to accept it, but that's no longer necessary.

To try it for yourself, simply head over to your upload page and upload a new panorama. To explore more of the works on their site, dig into their layer on Google Earth (found inside of the [Gallery] folder) or check out some of the editor's picks on their site.

Grégoire Maret, "Lucilla's Dream"

Thu, 10 May 2012 13:00:09 GMT

Grégoire Maret, "Lucilla's Dream"
The harmonica doesn't seem too hard to play... unless you try and make it sound the way this young, Grammy-winning Swiss musician does. Grégoire Maret brings a voracious multi-genre—and generational—pull to his music. "Lucille's Dream" is a thoroughly modern jazz tune that includes elements of jam rock, fusion and Toots Thielemans' collaborations with the Brazil pop elite. – Nick Dedina, Google Play

"Lucilla's Dream" Grégoire Maret

Portable fuel cell charger can keep your iPhone fully charged for up to two weeks

Thu, 10 May 2012 12:49:42 GMT

A new, portable fuel cell charger will be available to buy this year and it claims to be able to recharge your iPhone between 10 and 14 times. The small charging device does not need to be recharged by plugging it in; it works with replaceable fuel cell cartridges which can even be carried on planes.

Fuel cell maker Lilliputian Systems today announced that Brookstone will be the first retailer to carry its portable USB power source, which will be sold under Brookstone's brand. The fuel cell device is about the size of a thick smartphone, and the lighter fluid-filled cartridges are about the same size as a cigarette lighter. It's a big step forward both for Lilliputian Systems, a 10-year-old spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and for portable fuel cell technology in general. Several fuel cell companies have developed portable power systems, but a number have failed. The new fuel cell will charge any device that has a USB cable.

The charging unit and replacement cartridges will be available to buy online from Brookstone and the cartridges can be fully recycled once depleted. There is no pricing information available at this time however the replacement cartridges are thought to cost no more than a few dollars. The system is being tested with users this year and an announcement on retail availability should follow that.

We've used all sorts of batteries for years, from household brands like Duracell and Energizer to the lithum-ion and lithium-polymer types found in many gadgets. How does the idea of a fuel cell grab you?

Source: Cnet

The Politics of Steampunk

Thu, 10 May 2012 10:00:21 GMT

Photo: Jim (CC)

I thought it would be interesting to continue the discussion from my previous post on “Steampunk and Anarchism” (found here). This next article by Magpie Killjoy explores the intersection of radical politics and steampunk fiction and aesthetic Via TOR.com:

I first consciously got into steampunk back in 2004. It was the perfect aesthetic lens for my interests: history, mad science, genre fiction, the underclasses, and radical politics. It was steampunk, really, that helped me realize how awesome it is to be classy yet poor, that we can celebrate individual and communal ingenuity without babbling on about how great this or that nation or empire might be.

Now, seven years later, I’m constantly amazed by how many people, including some of the most die-hard steampunk adherents, seem to believe that steampunk has nothing to offer but designer clothes. There are people (a minority, I would argue, just a loud one) who act like steampunk is simply a brassy veneer with which to coat the mainstream. But sorry, whether folks are happy about it or not, there have always been radical politics at the core of steampunk.

Perhaps our two most famous antecedents are H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. Wells believed strongly in creating a stateless society and dismantling capitalism. As he stated in his 1908 socialist book New Worlds for Old, “Socialism is the preparation for that higher Anarchism; painfully, laboriously we mean to destroy false ideas of property and self, eliminate unjust laws and poisonous and hateful suggestions and prejudices.”

Verne, less radical, still brought us the anti-civilization touchstone Captain Nemo. He also, near the end of his career, wrote the hard-to-find-in-English The Survivors of the “Jonathan,” which pits a man who’s motto is “neither God nor master” against the limitations of his anti-authoritarian beliefs when the character helps survivors of a shipwreck establish their colony in South America…

Why ask why?

Thu, 10 May 2012 09:06:00 GMT

"Why?" is the most important question, not asked nearly enough.

Hint: "Because I said so," is not a valid answer.

Why does it work this way?
Why is that our goal?
Why did you say no?
Why are we treating people differently?
Why is this our policy?
Why don't we enter this market?
Why did you change your mind?
Why are we having this meeting?
Why not?

kardash

Thu, 10 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT

A measurement of time totaling 72 days. Became popular after Kim Kardashian's highly-publicized marriage, which ended after 72 days. Listed as one of the up-and-coming words of 2012.

I'll see you in a kardash!!

My summer this year is only a kardash.

Their wedding lasted a few months, barely more than a kardash.

To show it’s ‘safe’

Thu, 10 May 2012 05:14:09 GMT

Define ‘safe’

They didn’t invite me:

http://enenews.com/tokyo-officials-paying-for-bloggers-to-come-to-japan-and-show-its-safe-includes-editor-of-muslim-brotherhoods-website-bloggers-have-direct-channels-to-the-audience-to-whom-established-med

David Ritchie posts from Hanoi, Vietnam. Contact: kwriter@asia.com.

The 9/11 Propaganda Archive

Thu, 10 May 2012 04:18:12 GMT

Via Media Roots:

A mysterious pair of internet archivists who call themselves ‘Neuro Linguistic Programming’ started to upload what they claim is ‘Part 1 of 40′ of American mainstream media print publications from the day of 9/11 and the immediate weeks that followed. They plan to put up full issues of Time and Newsweek that are filled to the brim with blatant terrorist fearmongering and propaganda.

Following 9/11, news media accelerated at an amazing rate, and most companies adopted internet versions of their paper or magazines. Before this was commonplace, many interesting pieces of information from that day were most likely never reprinted again– due to false information or just abandonment by the person feeding the propaganda of a particular propagandistic ploy.

‘Part 1′ gives us a look at a ‘Terrorism Survival Guide,’ an actual print magazine which was distributed and sold at grocery stores around the country. We especially like the bio-terror section with the photoshoot of the little girl in a hazmat suit holding a Barbie with a gasmask on. We hope that they continue with this project, it’s fascinating to say the least, and possible they will uncover something most journalists and researchers have completely forgotten.

iOS 6: The opposite of widgets

Thu, 10 May 2012 03:56:39 GMT

Last week I ruminated out loud about whether or not Apple needs to redesign the iOS Home screen. We've continued to discuss it on the podcast and in the forums and I realized something: as much as it'd be nice to information from apps and make it glanceable on the Home Screen, it'd be even better to take functionality of apps and make it accessibly from within other apps.

Sure, it's nice to be able to see today's date on the Calendar icon, and it would be nice to see today's weather on the Weather icon and so forth, and information density could absolutely stand to be improved on the Home screen. And yes, there's an argument to be made that familiarity is a feature and Apple won't mess with the app launcher, the familiar mechanic by which hundreds of millions of users feel comfortable using iOS. But either way, that's a fleeting concern -- I don't spend much time hanging out on the Home screen.

Apple has said all along that the goal of the iPhone and iPad was to get out of the way. They're essentially giant screens so that, when you launch an app, the device becomes the app. When you're in Calendar, it becomes a calendar. When you're in Phone, it becomes a phone. When you're in a game, it becomes that game. Arguably, the Home screen is just a simple app launcher because all Apple wants you to do is unlock your iPhone or iPad and launch apps as quickly as possible. They want you in apps. And that's exactly where I am. I'm in Twitter. I'm in Campfire. I'm in Safari.

The problem is, when I'm in an app, if anything else happens, I'm forced out of that app and into another app. If a notification pops up alerting me to an iMessage or an email, and I want to either read all of it or respond, I have to stop what I'm doing, leave the app I'm in, go to the source app, and then respond.

Notifications are actionable but not immediately functional. I can't "quick view" a Tweet or a Facebook message, I have to go to the Twitter or Facebook app. I can't "quick reply" to them in-app, I have to go back to the associated apps to respond. That either causes me to ignore messages I may not really wish to ignore, or to wrench myself out of what I'm doing to go handle them immediately.

There's more to this equation as well -- Windows Phone-style contracts so apps can better communicate with each other, and an iCloud aware Files.app so documents can be picked in-app as easily as photos and videos.

We may no longer have model alerts in iOS that you can only ignore or act on immediately, but in some ways, notifications today remain as binary as they ever were.

By contrast, jailbreak apps like BiteSMS let you quickly respond to a text no matter which app you're in. Your app (or game) pauses, a text entry box is overlayed, you enter your message, you hit send, and you're current app resumes. With apps like LockInfo, you see an email notification, and you can tap a button, and read it without even unlocking your device.

Those may seem like subtle differences -- a pause of state rather than change of state and back -- but in practice it's far more efficient. It reduces a lot of friction, and makes the experience far, far better.

It could be implemented as a popup or added to an existing layer like Notification Center (tapping the icon goes to the app, tapping the snippet flips Notification Center around and shows a preview/reply bow, for example). Apple has all the tools to make it happen.

So rather than widgets, which take app data and put it on the Home screen, I'd far prefer functional notifications that take app interactions and put them wherever I happen to be.

And I'd like it in iOS 6.

Google+ for iPhone review

Thu, 10 May 2012 02:29:47 GMT

The Google+ for iPhone app received a major makeover earlier today, and boy is it beautiful! The new Stream shows off large photos and includes many new little animations that really catch the eye.

Each story in your stream is topped with the author's profile photo and name. Behind the name is a dark, transparent bar that also displays a zoomed, horizontal chunk of the user's profile picture. As you scroll through your stream, the photos in these banners will also scroll every so slightly. It's not super obviously, but if you pay attention, you'll see it.

While scrolling, when you reach a new story you haven't seen on your screen, yet, the banner will quickly fade into the screen slightly enlarged, then quickly fall back down to normal size. I think this animation is very cool, but others have complained that all the new movements make them dizzy.

If the stories published on your stream are photos, or links with hero photos, then the pictures will be displayed in full width, front and center. At the top of the photo, you'll see the caption or comment about the story. In the bottom left you'll see a comment button and count, and in the bottom right is the +1 count. Tapping the +1 count will add a +1 on your behalf.

I'm going to pause for moment here to mention something about sharing links. If you share a link to Google+ from the plus.google.com interface, Google+ will grab an image from the article to display with the link. But if you paste a link into the sharing screen with the Google+ app for iPhone, it displays as just a simple, boring hyperlink. (See the screenshot of Rene's status above). Lame.

When sharing a status or photo with your circles, you can choose which circles to include, whether or not to attach your location, and take a photo from within the app, or choose one from your Camera Roll.

From the main menu, you can quickly access you Stream, profile, messenger, photos, and circles. You can also turn on Instant Upload to sync the photos on your phone to a private Google+ album, video chat with up to 9 friends with mobile Hangouts in Messenger, chat with multiple friends at once, and check out Nearby and What's Hot streams.

The Good

Gorgeous
Instant Upload syncs photos from your phone to a private Google+ album
Video chat with up to 9 friends with mobile Hangouts
Chat with multiple friends at once
What’s Hot and Nearby streams

The Bad

Sharing links doesn't include a photo
No iPad support

The Conclusion

I've very impressed with the new and improved Google+ for iPhone app. It's absolutely stunning and a joy to use. Sure, it has some annoyances like not showing photos when sharing a link, but it's still an improvements over the previous version. My biggest gripe about Google+, however, is the lack of users and activity. If all my friends and family used Google+, I'd be all over it. Unfortunately, they do not. So it looks like I'm stuck with Facebook for now.

Free - Download Now

Whether You Have A Job Or Not, These Structural Changes In The

Thu, 10 May 2012 00:12:26 GMT

Whether You Have A Job Or Not, These Structural Changes In The U.S. Economy Are Important To You!!

The Current Issue of the McKinsey Quarterly has these observations about "The Changing Shape of U. S. Recessions". It goes like this: From the end of World War II until the collapse of the Soviet Union, US recessions and recoveries followed a predictable pattern: when demand recovered and GDP growth resumed, employers hired again. But for the past two decades, recessions have become periods of accelerated structural change--longer "jobless recoveries" that result in years, not months, of unemployment. At the rate of net job creation, it will take more than 60 months (five years) to replace the jobs lost in the 2008-09 recession.

The impact on employment is getting deeper. In the 2008 recession, employment declined by 6.34%--twice as much in all previous postwar recessions--with 8.4 million jobs lost from peak to trough.

These developments are symptoms of deeper changes. In earlier recessions, companies kept more workers on the payroll than they needed, trading some productivity for the ability to meet demand quickly when it bounced back. Recent downturns, on the other hand, have been a time for tough decisions about which activities are essential and which are not and about the footprint a company needs to be globally competitive. More layoffs than in the past have been permanent; firms are relying more on temporary, contract workers; and technology is changing the nature of work by helping to disaggregate jobs into smaller tasks that can be performed by combinations of people and increasingly intelligent machines, sometimes in far-flung locations. The evolution of these forces will shape the future of US job creation.

Months elapsed between return of real GDP to prerecession peak and return of employment to prerecession peak.

1948    6
1953    7
1957    6
1960    6
1973    3
1981 6

1990    15
2001    39
2008    60+

The Great Recession Conspiracy contains a survey of jobs that will face increasing demand in the immediate, and longer, future. They all require more education and/or training. If you are out of work now, or really worried about the safety of your current job, stop reading here and go to work on a plan for your new career. Your old job ain't comin' back!!!

Caught on Tape: Rampant Vote Fraud By Government Officials On House Floor

Wed, 09 May 2012 23:06:34 GMT

As voter registration and identity fraud becomes a hot button issue across State legislatures you’d think that at least one group of voters – our elected officials – would understand the importance of laws and procedures designed to maintain the integrity of our legislative process.

According to the rules of the Texas State House of Representatives, for example:

Any member found guilty by the House of knowingly voting for another member on the voting machine shall be subject to discipline deemed appropriate by the house.

Given how clearly this rule is defined, and the fact that it’s common sense for each House member to be allowed only a single vote as is generally the case in all democratic voting proceedings, you’ll be astonished to see legislators not only voting for laws on their colleague’s voting machines when they’re not present, but actually racing to beat each other to the punch.

Eye Witness Account: I certainly noticed that there appeared to be far more votes on the tip board than there were people in the room.

Via The Daily Sheeple:

The entire process – from the election of our State and Federal representatives at polls across America, to the very act of creating laws within the halls of our most hallowed institutions – has been compromised.

State representative Debbie Riddle blames the rule breaking on there being too many laws to pass and not enough bathroom breaks, the answer to which may be the novel idea that we pass fewer laws, something that the American people could desperately use given the literally tens of thousands of pages of statutes and regulations we’re expected abide by.

Whatever the case, the rules are clear. If our State and Federal legislators expect us to live under the rule of an iron fist originating from the legislation they create, then we expect them to live in kind.

There was a time in America when the corruption, fraud and injustice by elected officials was punished in full view of the public.

Perhaps it’s time we break out the tar and feathers again.

Hat tip: Southern Boy

Tweet your Congressional Representatives!

Wed, 09 May 2012 21:46:44 GMT

Powdered Baby Flesh Pills Being Smuggled Out Of China

Wed, 09 May 2012 21:20:14 GMT

Eating baby flesh concentrate in pill form is sort of a dark version of the current U.S. yuppie trend of consuming the placenta for nutritional purposes after giving birth. Will this be China’s next big export? Via the BBC:

The Korea Customs Service said it had found almost 17,500 of the capsules being smuggled into the country from China since August 2011. The powdered flesh, which officials said came from dead babies and foetuses, is reportedly thought by some to cure disease and boost stamina.

Capsules were being dyed or switched into boxes of other drugs in a bid to disguise them. Some of the capsules were found in travellers’ luggage and some in the post, customs officials said.

Minimalist Quiver wins Korduroy TV Quiver Kontest

Wed, 09 May 2012 20:49:36 GMT

Surfy Surfy's very own Jared Muscat won the staff pick for Korduroy.TV's Show Us Your Quiver contest.

Jared writes,

I shaped the wooden handplane last summer. I call this plane "Ramona." It is 22" x 8 3/4" x 3/4" It is my plane for when Beacons is a mushbugger but I still want to catch waves out the back and weave barrels on the very inside. A good friend calls it the longboard handplane.

The swim fins are the classic Churchill Makapuu Fins, I got big ugly feet thanks to my dad and these are the best fit. Just so happen to provide a good kick as well. I am a bit jealous of Pierce Kavanagh who has one of the original sets of Makapuus, the raddest rubber I have ever seen.

The green & white handplane is an Enjoy Handplane Ed Lewis gave to me a couple of weeks back. I tend to leave the handplanes on the shore if the waves have a good amount of size and are hollow, I feel like those are times when all you need are the fins; but that is not often when you live behind Beacons, thus this handplane is currently my daily go-to.

The bicycle is a Puch 27 1/4" beauty that I lucked into on Craigslist 2 years ago for way less than it is worth. It has ten speeds and I use it daily to get to work, find some fun waves, and grab my farmers market feed. I don't have a car, so this is my main method of transportation for the moment.

The Bonzer is a Russ Short model shaped by Malcolm Campbell I grabbed from Surfy Surfy last fall right before a run of really good north swell. Bonzers are such incredible boards when you have a wave with some depth and speed, just so dependable in the pocket, where it matters most. The Russ Short is my favorite Bonzer because it is one of the first that they used, with its wide-point forward and 3 fin set up, also Russ Short happened to rip. I like the template because of the way you can utilize foot placement to hold simple lines in the barrel. If this board is in arm the reasoning would be to get barreled a lot, thus it doesn't go out often.. It is 6'4" x 20 1/4" x 2 1/2"

The runner up quiver pick is Michael Fraley's impressive group of mostly Christenson small wave speedsters. To read about Fraley's quiver click here.

To see all the quivers visit Korduroy's photo gallery on the Facebooks.

Surfy Surfy Online Store!

UN Investigator Says U.S. Should Return Stolen Land To Indian Tribes

Wed, 09 May 2012 19:54:04 GMT

"The Treaty of Penn with the Indians" by Benjamin West (1771)

Says a new UN report on the conditions of Indigenous peoples in the Americas. Chris McGreal writes in the Guardian:

A United Nations investigator probing discrimination against Native Americans has called on the US government to return some of the land stolen from Indian tribes as a step toward combatting continuing and systemic racial discrimination.

James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, said no member of the US Congress would meet him as he investigated the part played by the government in the considerable difficulties faced by Indian tribes.

Anaya said that in nearly two weeks of visiting Indian reservations, indigenous communities in Alaska and Hawaii, and Native Americans now living in cities, he encountered people who suffered a history of dispossession of their lands and resources, the breakdown of their societies and “numerous instances of outright brutality, all grounded on racial discrimination”.

“It’s a racial discrimination that they feel is both systemic and also specific instances of ongoing discrimination that is felt at the individual level,” he said. Anaya said racism extended from the broad relationship between federal or state governments and tribes down to local issues such as education.

Continued Here

Our Deepest Fear

Wed, 09 May 2012 19:31:55 GMT

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

----from A Return to Love, by Marianne Williamson.

Just how rich is Apple? [Infographic]

Wed, 09 May 2012 17:52:32 GMT

We've seen plenty of research showing just how profitable Apple is and how much market share they've claimed in the worlds of smartphones and PCs, but a new infographic really puts Apple's obscene cash flow into perspective. Some of the figures dug up by the creator, a gadget price and feature comparison site called Sortable, are really interesting. For example, Apple has enough money to buy RIM, Nokia, Twitter, Adobe, Netflix, and T-Mobile and still have cash leftover. Apple has also beat Wall Street estimates for 16 out of the last 17 quarters. Many of the other figures are ones that we've seen before, only these are presented all pretty-like.

Here's the infographic (click to enlarge), and just below it is a recent video detailing some of the ridiculous things Apple could do with its cash reserves.

Source: Sortable via Macgasm

TED: Karen Bass: Unseen footage, untamed nature - Karen Bass (2012)

Wed, 09 May 2012 15:32:39 GMT

At TED2012, filmmaker Karen Bass shares some of the astonishing nature footage she's shot for the BBC and National Geographic -- including brand-new, previously unseen footage of the tube-lipped nectar bat, who feeds in a rather unusual way …

Automation Comes To The Coffeehouse With Robotic Baristas

Wed, 09 May 2012 14:45:43 GMT

It may not look like a barista is in this box, but Briggo's robot is inside prepping the next espresso shot.

Say goodbye to lattes with funky tastes or attitude from coffeehouse baristas. At the University of Texas, a startup called Briggo LLC has installed a coffee kiosk run by a robotic barista in the academic center, which is visited by 10,000 students a day. Designed by Deaton Engineering Inc., the kiosk is segmented into brewed coffee and espresso drinks, and the drinks can also be prepared according to customer milk, syrup, and sweetener preferences. According to founder and CTO Charles Studor, inside the kiosk is a “big industrial machine” with about 250 sensors that mirrors the physical motions of a human barista.

With this new “robista”, as its called, Briggo aims to meet the two biggest needs of coffee drinkers: convenience and quality.

To get their java jolt, students submit an order online, via mobile, or at the kiosk, and can even receive a text or email when the drink is ready. The brewed coffees take 15-30 seconds to prepare while espresso drinks require about 2 minutes. So customers can easily submit an order and then head to the kiosk to pick up their coffee just as its completed. Each coffee is labeled with the customer’s name and also displayed on the kiosk. Prices are cheaper than typical coffeehouse prices, and kiosk operators still oversee the flow and refill stock.

The touch menu offers a variety of coffee drinks with prices and prep times listed.

With patents pending, the robot remains behind closed doors, but according to Sprudge, an actual espresso machine is used with a real tamper and steam wind, along with a milk refrigerator. Since the espresso machine hasn’t been re-engineered, in all likelihood Briggo’s automation may be much closer to a “true” robot than what’s going on inside a vending machine.

Still, the question that probably matters the most is, how does it perform? Feedback has been positive, with good reviews popping up in the press and even Wired. A YouTube video shows students talking about Briggo very positively:

The robot may not be able to prepare espresso that would impress coffee aficionados who pride themselves on perfect crema, but it seems that the 99% are satisfied with what they pay for. Perhaps that’s because the Director of Coffee and Kiosk Operations is Patrick Pierce, an award winning barista. Briggo brought Pierce on as a consultant at first to understand exactly what Pierce does when he pulls espresso, so that an automated system could be designed to perform each step. Studor said, “We’re taking a nationally recognized barista and mimicking what he’s doing, consistently.” The system is designed so that each variable that goes into the perfect coffee can be adjusted, just as in a manufacturing process. Along with former CEO of Dell Financial Services, Kevin Nater, and CIO John Craparo, who worked at GE, the Briggo team initially raised $5 million in funding and is using its connections in technology to prepare for expansion.

The Briggo logo is a reminder of the robotic love in each cup.

Besides the technology to prep great tasting coffee, the company clearly has incorporated key priorities that go hand-in-hand with the modern coffee culture. Briggo aims to be socially responsible by using only organic fair trade beans from a Peruvian collective of growers and compostable cups and lids. It utilizes social media heavily, with an active Twitter feed with coffee slogans, giveaways and specials as well as any service delays. Its hours of operation are convenient for students, operating until midnight M-Th (key study times) and 10 PM on the weekends. Patrons can also setup an account that will allow them to save their favorite drinks, and an app for Android is available. There’s even a T-shirt for Briggo promoting the”coffee robot.”

The startup has a vision to introduce robot kiosks into other universities as well as places with clientele similar to the up-all-night college students, such as convention centers, hospitals, courthouses, and transportation centers, like airports and train stations. In other words, primo real estate. They also are working on a smaller version, with the possibility of franchising to build the brand.

Now, maybe you’re thinking: Sure coffee’s a big deal, but “robotic manufacturing” big?

Even with all the coffee available through coffeehouses, kiosks, fast food places, convenience stores, vending machines, and home brewers, it’s still easy to underestimate the size of the coffee industry. The world’s most traded commodity is oil, but second is coffee. More than 400 million cups of coffee are consumed globally each day, and in the U.S, coffee is a $19 billion dollar a year industry, the eighth highest globally with the average American drinking 3 cups a day.

Coffee is about as big of a business as they come, so it’s a perfect place for an innovative startup to bring the power of technology, and the reason is simple: it’s what brought customers back to Starbucks.

Starbucks, once claimed #7 in 2008 on CNN Money’s 100 Best Companies To Work For but dropped to #98 last year, in part because it lost some of its luster from years gone by. That’s why the company has actively embraced technology, such as mobile payments and free Wi-Fi, in addition to social media. For all its increased efforts to be seen as a community-building, technology-embracing, environmentally-responsible, employee-supporting company, it is regarded by many as the McDonald’s of coffeehouses. But Burger King, Wendy’s, and a host of other fast food hamburger joints still get a piece of the pie, but strangely Starbucks stands head-and-shoulders about its coffee competitors.

And what has been Starbuck’s traditional selling points? Convenience and quality, exactly what Briggo is aiming to perfect with the robot kiosk.

But the elephant in the room is the fear of humans losing jobs to robots. Because of the size of the coffee industry and the fact that coffeehouses have a strong “third place” social element to them that is hard to replicate at a kiosk, human baristas will be around for a while. However, a chain like Starbucks may not be able to remain 100 percent human forever.

Perhaps the 2035 logo will be a robotic eye as well?

Recently, Starbucks announced it is moving into single-cup brewing machines with its new Verismo line positioned to go up against the popular Keurig machines. So it’s clear that the tried-and-true coffee merchant is open to ideas to expand its brand, and a robotic kiosk might just be the solution it needs to expand into even more locations while downsizing workforce overhead.

Briggo may be the first of its kind in the coffee world, but its a triple shot threat that may usher in a future “Battle of the Robistas.” And, as a fair warning, if a robot ever learns to perfect the power-packed and highly addictive Café Cubano, we are all doomed.

[Media: AdWeek, Briggo, Sprudge]

[Sources: Austin Chronicle, Bizjournal, Briggo, Coffeemarvel, KEYE, Wired, YouTube]