Mobile Numbers

Some facts from NewsWeek on the world's usage of mobile phones portrayed in a more interesting fashion than your average bar chart.

Social Network Statistics

Some rather big number crunching going on here with regard to the growing social network scene. Although read some of the comments here for a more objective viewpoint. Still impressive all the same.

Huxley vs Orwell

A brilliant cartoon pitching Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World' against George Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' in a battle over whose predictions became reality. Social and political atrophy seems to be the winner.

TEDGlobal 2009 : Thursday

More thought provoking talks from the live video streams of TEDGlobal in Oxford yesterday courtesy of Wieden & Kennedy. The TED website has become such a global phenomenon of spreading ideas that they have now added a translator covering up to 40 different languages. With Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Arabic being the most popular.

Paul Romer, a new-growth economist, suggests building more cities to reduce the human footprint. His argument is that cities are higher concentrations human populations. Currently, humans populate 3% of the world's arable land. Any extra billion people would only take up another 1% if housed in cities. Hong Kong is a perfect model for a successful economy as a special administrative region which should be copied in places such as Guantanamo Bay.

Michael Pritchard, an inventor, has created a new syringe whose plunger breaks after use to prevent infection from spreading through reuse. Apparently, 64% of all injections in India were considered unsafe because of badly recycled syringes. Another notable invention is his new water bottle called the LifeSaver, that can filter elements as small as 25nm. The Polio virus is about 50nm. The global cost to provide the world with clean drinkable water is $20bn. The UK alone spends $12bn on foreign aid.

Rob Hopkins of transitionnetwork.org, an open source network of ideas. He champions resilience as being more important than sustainability. The globalisation of the world has concentrated our dependence on a few elements making us very vulnerable to any sudden changes in climate or economy. He suggest a spread of this risk through microeconomics.

Tim Brown of IDEO wants a return of big design which should inclusive of people by asking the right questions.

Misha Glenny, an BBC journalist says one industry bucking the trend of the credit crunch is organised crime, which accounting for 16% of the world's GDP.

Loretta Napoleoni, a Macroeconomist, says organised crime launders $1.25 trillion globally, double that of the UK GDP. She says that there is no escaping our relationship with crime which has permeated our society and economy.

The moving story of Emmanuel Jal, from a war child soldier to Hip Hop artist.

Ross Lovegrove, an Industrial Designer, references nature to create minimally efficient & organic design. The new design discipline of Bio-mimicry.

Nick Veasey's amazing X-Ray photography shows the hidden beauty of everyday objects from clothing to Jumbo Jets, the later of which took 2 painstaking months to complete.

Eric Giler, of MIT: 40 billion disposable batteries are made every year to satisfy our need for mobile energy. WiTricity hopes to change this with wireless power using Resonance Energy Transfer.

Parag Khanna, a geopoliticalist: a 100 new countries have been formed since the end of WW2. Contrary to current beliefs, the world is actually fragmenting due to artificial borders collapsing. But he suggest that conflict can be overcome with shared cross-border infrastucture.

Zeitgeist, The Movie

'Zeitgeist - The Movie' and 'Zeitgeist: Addendum' are two fascinating documentaries about alleged historical and modern conspiracies including the origins of Christianity, the 9/11 attacks and the banking system.

Both have won the Artivist Film Festival & Awards dedicated to recognising activist efforts by filmmakers around the world.