huge income variance in US causes problems

 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/opinion/kristof-a-failed-experiment.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1353679201-umNpP/bDgn/Z+AIybjMkTA

"the top 1 percent of Americans now have greater collective net worth than the entire bottom 90 percent."

This is going back to the middle ages when there was just serfs and lords.  Is that what we want?  

replacing old phone booths with touch screens

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57552857-93/nyc-payphones-get-revived-as-touch-screen-tablets/

"The plan is to erect a total of 250 kiosks in old phone booths throughout the five boroughs -- from the Upper East Side to Sunny Side to Brooklyn Heights. The installations should be complete in the beginning of 2013, according to GigaOM. The end-goal is for the city to eventually replace all of its 12,800 outdoor pay phones."

Information available at the touch of a screen will be paid for by advertising.  Cool!

web site to advertise open source jobs

http://www.fossjobs.net/

This is the first website exclusively for Free & Open Source jobs: We only list jobs that directly improve and involve FOSS or Open Hardware projects. The platform is open source itself.

simple solar house works well in South Africa

http://www.aljazeera.com/video/africa/2012/11/20121118164915406219.html

"Andreas Keller, a master's student in South Africa, wanted to find an environmentally friendly way to improve people's living conditions in the country's shanty towns.

The idea he came up with is the eco-friendly i-Shack - insulated with cardboard, complete with a rainwater harvesting system and solar-powered electricity.

Thanks to a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, there are plans to build 100 more i-Shacks."

   This is grreat. Very simple, passive design that vastly improves the living conditions of shanty town dwellers. Sometimes simple things can make a huge difference.

ideas will rule over authority; Larry Summers and V agree!

   If you've got an hour this is supposed to be a useful thought experiment on where we're going.

mobile solar power for Sandy victims

http://gizmodo.com/5957963/this-solar-truck-is-bringing-emergency-energy-to-rockaway

"Greenpeace has had Rolling Sunlight set up since last Wednesday night, many days before the Red Cross or FEMA were on the scene. They've been able to get five solid days/nights of power, with one shorter night due to a particularly cloudy day. For such occasions they do have traditional generators they can use.
It's great to see some outside-the-box thinking applied to emergency relief. This is the only solar truck Greenpeace has in the United States, though, and it's only able to power one aid station. So, if you've been cooking up some sort of slick alternative energy generator, you have thousands of people eagerly hoping to be your first beta testers."

    This is interesting in many ways. How many such mobile solar systems would be needed to bring the bare minimum of electricity back to a storm ravaged location?  hospitals, people relying on medical equipment to stay alive, running refigerators to keep important supplies and foods from spoiling. This could be a money and life saver in the long run.  Did the Red Cross or FEMA bring this?  Nope.  Greenpeace.

power your cell phone by burning twigs

http://www.rsvlts.com/2012/11/02/biolite-fire-powered-cell-phone-charger/

"Using only twigs for fuel, you’ll be able to cook soup in a pot on top and plug in your USB device on the side. The charge time is comparable to charging via a USB port on a laptop computer, the company cites.  The stove comes with its own stuff sack, packs down to about 8 × 5inches, and weighs 2 lbs."

Only $129!