Haiti - the politics of rice

In a two part 22 minute documentary video from Youtube/Al Jezeerah, Avi Lewis examines the reasons for Haiti's poverty and what the present crisis might bring. There continues to be two forces in contest in Haiti - on the one side justice and hope that the Haitian people might be returned their opportunities, and on the other that the globalized version of economic impoverishment will be re-asserted.

Two pieces of good news. IMF has under pressure changed their immediate offer of a $100,000,000 loan with the continued minimum wage stricture to a grant. Venezuala has forgiven a $380,000,000 debt for past oil and is shipping more across the Dominican Republic border.

X PRIZE Foundation

X PRIZE Foundation Peter Diamandis' vision has attracted many of the "movers and shakers" of our time. The X-prize endeavor is a nurturing of the seeds of the future. Explore this site and discover the many new x-prize areas. But first listen to his talk on TV Ontario in their Big Ideas series. LINK (Please be patient - this link loads before playing). The talk was delivered at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo in Oct 2008. Peter describes how this all came to be and introduces us to their current projects, not the least of which is Singularity University.

View Past Public Lectures - Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

Public Lectures Here is a wonderful collection of physics lectures. Another indication of the web sharing that so rapidly is extending the university to the people.

Here's their self description: "Perimeter Institute is a major centre for theoretical physics research, attracting a diverse community of resident and visiting scientists from around the world. They cluster in Waterloo, Ontario, to forge new, mind-bending ideas about the ultimate nature of our universe, from space and time to matter and forces. Driven by curiosity, their mission is to unlock nature’s most profound secrets hidden deep inside the atom and far across the universe."

Videos - Gapminder.org

Videos - Gapminder.org i thought i'd check up on hans rosling. well worth the visit. he's got 3 dozen video shorts now illustrating his incredible gapminder presentation system of statistical data. subjects include cancer and hiv rates, millenium development goals, co2 emissions, world health and income.