reflections on the technium

For this installment of Brown Bag at the Movies we will be viewing (abstract below):

• Drone Swarms are here  1:43
• The happy secret to better work  12:21
• University 2.0 – Sebastian Thrun  27:02
• A primer on 3D printing  14:50

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CEP COMMENT:  Shades of Stallone’s Demolition Man.

Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work
<http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work.html>
12:21
ABSTRACT

“We believe that we should work to be happy, but could that be backwards? In this fast-moving and entertaining talk from TEDxBloomington, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that actually happiness inspires productivity.”

BIO

Shawn Achor: Psychologist <http://www.shawnachor.com/>
“Shawn Achor is the CEO of Good Think Inc., where he researches and teaches about positive psychology.

“Why you should listen to him: Shawn Achor is the winner of over a dozen distinguished teaching awards at Harvard University, where he delivered lectures on positive psychology in the most popular class at Harvard.
 
“He is the CEO of Good Think Inc., a Cambridge-based consulting firm which researches positive outliers — people who are well above average — to understand where human potential, success and happiness intersect. Based on his research and 12 years of experience at Harvard, he clearly and humorously describes to organizations how to increase happiness and meaning, raise success rates and profitability, and create positive transformations that ripple into more successful cultures. He is also the author of The Happiness Advantage.

Book:  The Happiness Advantage

Also:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBRy3QrRGFI>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5am1ggLZKA>

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CEP COMMENT:  See also <http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/01/23/udacity-and-the-future-of-online-universities/>.

University 2.0 – Sebastian Thrun
<http://new.livestream.com/channels/556/videos/112950>
27:02
ABSTRACT

The Stanford online teaching experiment.  Dr Thrun opens up his AI class online (for free) and gets 160,000 registrants <https://www.ai-class.com/>.  He is astounded by the success, quits Stanford and starts his own online teaching academy, Udacity <http://www.udacity.com/>.

BIO

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Thrun>

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CEP COMMENT:  I’ve purchased a <http://printrbot.com/>.  Print a house <http://www.txchnologist.com/2012/printing-a-home-the-case-for-contour-crafting>.  Could 3D printing change the world? <http://www.acus.org/publication/could-3d-printing-change-world>

Lisa Harouni: A primer on 3D printing
<http://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_harouni_a_primer_on_3d_printing.html>
14:50
ABSTRACT

“2012 may be the year of 3D printing <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing>, when this three-decade-old technology finally becomes accessible and even commonplace. Lisa Harouni gives a useful introduction to this fascinating way of making things — including intricate objects once impossible to create.

BIO

Lisa Harouni: 3D printing entrepreneur <http://www.digitalforming.com/team.html>
“Lisa Harouni is the co-founder of Digital Forming, working in “additive manufacturing” — or 3D printing.

“Why you should listen to her: Lisa Harouni is the co-founder and CEO of Digital Forming, a company that works on the software side of 3D printing — the design tools needed to run the new generaion of 3D printing processes. She has a background in economics, and worked in the G7 Economics team at Deutsche Bank AG before moving over to the consumer products business.

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FUTURE CANDIDATES  /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

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CEP COMMENT:  

Neil DeGrasse Tyson: Death by Black Hole
<http://fora.tv/2008/02/19/Neil_DeGrasse_Tyson_Death_by_Black_Hole>
31:14
ABSTRACT

Neil DeGrasse Tyson discusses Death by Black Hole .

“Whether discussing the universe’s origins as host of NOVA’s “scienceNOW” or asserting that Pluto is a not a planet on “The Colbert Report,” astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson translates the universe’s complexities for a broad audience.

“Known as the great explainer of all things cosmic, Tyson first became known in the astronomy community by lecturing on the subject at the age of fifteen. He is currently the director of New York’s Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, where he also teaches. Tyson has written seven popular books including the bestselling Death by Black Hole and the memoir The Sky Is Not The Limit.

“His professional research explores star formation, dwarf galaxies, exploding stars, and the structure of the Milky Way, topics which he writes about in his long running “Universe” column in Natural History magazine. Tyson’s varied honors include the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal and People Magazine’s 2000 “Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive” – City Arts & Lectures ,

BIO

Neil deGrasse Tyson
“Neil deGrasse Tyson was born and raised in New York City where he was educated in the public schools clear through his graduation from the Bronx High School of Science. Tyson went on to earn his BA in Physics from Harvard and his PhD in Astrophysics from Columbia. Tyson’s professional research interests are broad, but include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our Milky Way. Tyson obtains his data from the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as from telescopes in California, New Mexico, Arizona, and in the Andes Mountains of Chile. In 2001, Tyson was appointed by President Bush to serve on a 12-member commission that studied the Future of the US Aerospace Industry. The final report was published in 2002 and contained recommendations (for Congress and for the major agencies of the government) that would promote a thriving future of transportation, space exploration, and national security. In 2004, Tyson was once again appointed by President Bush to serve on a 9-member commission on the Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy, dubbed the “Moon, Mars, and Beyond” commission. This group navigated a path by which the new space vision can become a successful part of the American agenda. And in 2006, the head of NASA appointed Tyson to serve on its prestigious Advisory Committee, which will help guide NASA through its perennial need to fit its ambitious vision into its restricted budget. In addition to dozens of professional publications, Dr. Tyson has written, and continues to write for the public.

Ryan Wyatt
“Ryan Wyatt is a science visualizer for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. A longtime planetarian, he is actively involved in promoting fulldome video technology within the planetarium community. He manages the Fulldome Mailing List and also maintain web pages related to standards development for fulldome video. Hi work at the Museum relates strongly to the Hayden Planetarium’s Digital Universe dataset, with an emphasis on creating content for the planetarium “space shows,” including Cosmic Collisions and The Search for Life.

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CEP COMMENT:  

Richard Preston: Panic in Level 4
<http://fora.tv/2008/06/12/Richard_Preston_Panic_in_Level_4>
29:48
ABSTRACT

“Richard Preston talks about Panic in Level 4: Tales of Intrigue from the World of Science. These dramatic accounts, all updated since appearing in The New Yorker, are true tales, taking readers on a journey to military labs, hospitals, and jungles around the world, revealing frightening forces and constructive discoveries that are reordering our world – Book Passage

Bio
Richard Preston Jr.
“The author of seven books, including The Hot Zone, The Cobra Event and The Demon in the Freezer, which are his “Dark Biology” series. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages, and he’s won numerous awards, including the American Institute of Physics Award and the National Magazine Award. He’s also the only person who isn’t a medical doctor ever to receive the Centers for Disease Control’s Champion of Prevention Award for public health. He’s the brother of bestselling author Douglas Preston.,

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CEP COMMENT:  

Erica Frenkel: The universal anesthesia machine
<http://www.ted.com/talks/erica_frenkel_the_universal_anesthesia_machine.html>
11:23
ABSTRACT

“What if you’re in surgery and the power goes out? No lights, no oxygen — and your anesthesia stops flowing. It happens constantly in hospitals throughout the world, turning routine procedures into tragedies. Erica Frenkel demos one solution: the universal anesthesia machine.

BIO

Erica Frenkel: Medical technologist
“Erica Frenkel is program officer at UAM Global <http://www.uamglobal.org/uam_team/>, hoping to bring safe anesthesia to hospitals all over the world.

“Why you should listen to her: Erica Frenkel helps lead UAM Global, a social enterprise enabling safe surgery through innovative anesthesia technology. She has been a Peace Corps volunteer, managed the Global Media AIDS Initiative for the Kaiser Family Foundation and helped shape public health initiatives as a consultant for the Clinton Foundation, the Liberian Ministry of Health, Merck Vaccines, and the Wellcome Trust.

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CEP COMMENT:  

Defcon 19: build your own radar system
<http://dangerousprototypes.com/2011/11/14/defcon-19-build-your-own-radar-system/>
45:45
ABSTRACT

“At the Defcon 19 (2011) conference Michael Scarito demonstrated how to construct your own radar system. The project is based on a design by Dr. Greg Charvat from MIT and uses synthetic aperture techniques to generate a two- or three-dimensional image. (You can read Dr. Charvat’s research paper here <http://web.mit.edu/gr20603/www/website%20pdfs/AMTA08_low_power_real_time_S_band_imager.pdf>.)

“The hardware operates in the 2.4 GHz ISM band (shared with WiFi.)
 
“For a further detailed explanation of this technology, see the dissertation of Manh Hung V. Le, Dimitris Saragas and Nathan Webb from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute here.
 
A free MIT course on this topic is available through their Opencourseware presentation “Build a Small Radar System Capable of Sensing Range, Doppler, and Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging.” <http://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-ll-003-build-a-small-radar-system-capable-of-sensing-range-doppler-and-synthetic-aperture-radar-imaging-january-iap-2011/index.htm>

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