04 Education – Page 52 – Public Intelligence Blog

2010/08/052010/08/05

Event: 7-30 Sept 2010, San Diego CA, World Resources Simulation Center Demo

04 Education, 05 Energy, 12 Water, Augmented Reality, Earth Intelligence, Geospatial, info-graphics/data-visualization, Technologies, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

The philosophical foundation for The WRSC is in its founding premise stated as a question posed in R. Buckminster Fuller's World Game™ simulation:

“How do we make the world
work for 100% of humanity
in the shortest possible time
through spontaneous
cooperation without
ecological damage or
disadvantage to anyone?”

The World Resources Simulation Center (WRSC) will be a non-profit visualization facility where you can literally “see” the critical trends of global and regional issues, the relationships between issues, and the consequences of different strategies. For detailed information, begin by downloading the proposal documents to learn more about the specifics of the project. Next, explore several quick demonstrations of new technologies and how data and mapping information can be utilized in powerful new ways. (videos follow, continue with post) Continue reading “Event: 7-30 Sept 2010, San Diego CA, World Resources Simulation Center Demo”

2010/08/042010/08/04

Event: 6 Aug – 25 Sept 2010, Denver CO, Art of Dirt: Exhibit on Water Tech & Art fr Dev Countries

01 Poverty, 04 Education, 12 Water, International Aid, Technologies

A two-part exhibition of water technologies and artwork from developing countries where Denver-based IDE works to cultivate prosperity.

Part I (August 6 – 31) of the exhibition features photographs of the people IDE works with every day, along with displays of the innovative water technologies IDE has developed as part of its Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded “Rural Prosperity Initiative” – extremely affordable water pumps, drip irrigation and water storage systems. Special events scheduled throughout the run of the exhibition offer opportunities to meet IDE staff from around the world and learn about their work.

Part II (September 1 – 25) features the addition to the exhibition of paintings from local artists in IDE countries, brought to Denver especially for this show. The artwork will be offered for sale through a silent auction with proceeds benefiting IDE.
Low-cost water technologies, access to better seeds and growing techniques, and better connections to markets are the foundation of the IDE approach to cultivating prosperity in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Continue reading “Event: 6 Aug – 25 Sept 2010, Denver CO, Art of Dirt: Exhibit on Water Tech & Art fr Dev Countries”

2010/07/272010/07/29

Event: 29-31 July 2010, Berkeley CA, Open Science Summit

01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 04 Education, 07 Health, 10 Security, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commerce, Government, Reform, Technologies

Objectives: Create an annual flagship event and news hub to build and maintain the identity of the international Open Science Movement. Organize the various sub-communities into an effective, global, socio-technological force for rapid change in science/innovation policy. An attempt to gather all stakeholders who want to liberate our scientific and technological commons and enable a new era of decentralized, distributed innovation to solve humanity’s greatest challenges. Continue reading “Event: 29-31 July 2010, Berkeley CA, Open Science Summit”

2010/07/27

Video: Social Experiments to Fight Poverty

01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 04 Education, 07 Health, International Aid, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

Video Link

About this talk

Alleviating poverty is more guesswork than science, and lack of data on aid's impact raises questions about how to provide it. But Clark Medal-winner Esther Duflo says it's possible to know which development efforts help and which hurt — by testing solutions with randomized trials.

About Esther Duflo

Esther Duflo takes economics out of the lab and into the field to discover the causes of poverty and means to eradicate it. Full bio and more links

2010/07/232010/07/23

Building an Audio Collection for All the World’s Languages

04 Education, Academia, Audio, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Languages-Translation

The Rosetta Project is pleased to announce the Parallel Speech Corpus Project, a year-long volunteer-based effort to collect parallel recordings in languages representing at least 95% of the world’s speakers. The resulting corpus will include audio recordings in hundreds of languages of the same set of texts, each accompanied by a transcription. This will provide a platform for creating new educational and preservation-oriented tools as well as technologies that may one day allow artificial systems to comprehend, translate, and generate them.

Continue reading “Building an Audio Collection for All the World’s Languages”

2010/07/222010/07/23

DHS: A Political Filter for FOIA Info Requests

04 Education, 11 Society, Civil Society, Government, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Media, Open Government, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy

See article showing politics versus public interest

By TED BRIDIS (AP) – July 21, 2010

WASHINGTON — For at least a year, the Homeland Security Department detoured hundreds of requests for federal records to senior political advisers for highly unusual scrutiny, probing for information about the requesters and delaying disclosures deemed too politically sensitive, according to nearly 1,000 pages of internal e-mails obtained by The Associated Press.

The department abandoned the practice after AP investigated. Inspectors from the department's Office of Inspector General quietly conducted interviews last week to determine whether political advisers acted improperly.

The Freedom of Information Act, the main tool forcing the government to be more open, is designed to be insulated from political considerations. Anyone who seeks information through the law is supposed to get it unless disclosure would hurt national security, violate personal privacy or expose confidential decision-making in certain areas.

Continue reading “DHS: A Political Filter for FOIA Info Requests”

2010/07/22

Dangers in the Dust: Inside the Global Asbestos Trade

02 Infectious Disease, 03 Environmental Degradation, 04 Education, 07 Health, 09 Justice, 10 Security, Civil Society, Commerce, Corporations, Corruption, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, True Cost