IdeaFestival

Monkey's mind hacks prosthetic arm to feed itself

What conclusions can be drawn from experiments demonstrating that a Macaques monkey, using only its thoughts, can control a prosthetic arm to feed itself? More in this video.

Wayne

For organizations, "wrenching change" comes sooner or later

At Museum 2.0, Nina Simon writes about establishing an organizational skunkworks, a place where sanctioned saboteurs break the rules so that the organization can, in a strategic sense, change the rules. It's a thoughtful riff on a subject she obviously cares about: the museum experience. The top of her post features the image of a famous aircraft with these words:

Would you trust a small group of rule-breakers to change your organization? Lockheed did.

And addressing a complaint about rule breakers, she makes this trenchant observation about change and organizations:

Ok, you might say. But why do I need to put these people in a separate room and let them ignore the accounting forms? Doesn't that fracture our overall institutional culture? Can't we innovate [with] our current systems?

Yes. But it will be wrenching institutional change, or it will be wrenching institutional lack of change.

Fair enough.

Wayne

Email Apnea

"Email Apnea?' I can relate.

Wayne

Great minds she'd like to devour

I've heard of food for thought, but thought for food? Following each entry with a single hyper-linked demand - "learn!" - game designer Jane McGonigal suggests a list of people whose minds she'd like to devour. You may devour her mind at the IdeaFestival in September.

Wayne

Mars orbiter snaps picture of Phoenix descent to planet

For the very first time a spacecraft - the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter - has taken a picture of second spacecraft - Phoenix - as it descended to another planetary body. Think about that for a moment.

Clicking on the second image, also taken by MRO, will enlarge it to clearly show - from top to bottom in the image - the lander, the  ejected heat shell, which bounced on the surface, and the chute still attached to the back shell. The lander dropped the last three thousand feet or so from the back shell before settling by rocket on the surface. Amazing.

Wayne

"Bliss and ReUnion"

Here is a picture of Indian Fort Mountain in Berea from Kentucky resident and frequent Flickr contributor "code poet." It's entitled "Bliss and ReUnion." I find it just a wonderfully lit and composed scene and wanted to share.

Wayne

Good vibrations: "Playing the web"

Using the sonorous qualities of a famous kinetic sculpture has her point of departure, Cocktail Party Physicist Jennifer Ouellette describes how science and the arts might make use of the discovery of phonons - the rough acoustical equivalent of photons.

Just as we can manipulate light with mirrors or pipe it through fiber optic cables, she describes how phonons might be manipulated in unusual ways. For example, material science might create "blind" and "deaf" materials, substances that do not interact - that have "bandgaps" in other words - for certain optic and sonic frequencies.

Stolen Stories

Every now and then I take my daughter to McDonald's. (Yes I know but they do have salads, milk and fruit now) And every time we are there, there is this interesting man sitting in one of the booths, drawing and writing a fantastic story. Sitting around him on the table are his carvings; beautiful pieces that depict the characters in the fantastical story he is writing. So it was with extreme sadness that I read this. 

So many times there are stories out there that never get published. There are Harry Potters, Grendels, Raskolnikov's, Junie B Jones and others floating around in people's heads. They never even get the chance to become a sentence on a piece of scrap paper. I too have a story, several in fact that have never had the chance to become. So when someone has one, when someone has put years and years into a story and then it just disappears because another felt it was funny to take something, that makes me sad.

So write down your ideas. Explore those fantasy worlds you've been pretending since you were a child. Allow yourself to become the writer that is in you. If nothing else, it will give you a sense of accomplishment that you've put a thought down for posterity. And while you are, think of that man in the booth at McDonald's and send him some positive energy. This world needs good stories to read, to explore, to experience. And the loss of even one is a tragedy.

Tina 

Life, Liberty and the (Mapping) of Happiness

Having interviewed 100,000 people thus far, Gallup has published a happiness index that it hopes will offer some insight into the state of the nation's well being by - ahem - asking people how well they're doing. And as of earlier this year, 49 percent of people in the U.S. say that they're "thriving," compared to two percent in Cambodia and 83 percent in Denmark, according to Gallup.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index is billed as providing "unrivaled insight into the everyday emotional experience of Americans over time."

Hat tip: Freakonomics and Justin Wolfers, who has contributed several Freakonomics posts highlighting the relationship between politics, personal wealth, wealth distribution, and country of origin to happiness.

Wayne

Bonus Wikipedia word of the day: Etiology

IF Salon

I am in San Francisco today for an IdeaFestival (IF) Salon hosted by Tiffany and Leonard Shlain, both of whom will be presenting at the 2008 IF. This event being held at Leonard's home is the first of what may be a series of Salons around the US and perhaps other countries to extend the reach of IF and discuss emerging issues, innovation and important ideas. Nearly 60 interested and creative thinkers from the West Coast will attend what I expect will be a fascinating evening and discussion. I will let you know how it goes.

Kris