John Doerr: Seeking salvation and profit in greentech

Great talk (18 minute video) by John Doerr at TED regarding greentech; no doubt this is heartfelt and compelling. From the TED site:

"I don't think we're going to make it," John Doerr proclaims, in an emotional talk about climate change and investment. Spurred on by his daughter, who demanded he fix the mess the world is heading for, he and his partners at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers embarked on a greentech world tour -- surveying the state of the art, from the ethanol revolution in Brazil to Wal-mart's (!) eco-concept store in Bentonville, Arkansas. KPCB is investing $200 million in green technologies to save the planet and make a profit to boot. But, Doerr fears, it may not be enough.

network neutrality

From isen.blog, one of the more articulate posts on network neutrality that I've read, Making Network Neutrality Sustainable: SMART Letter #100.

How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic

Thanks to Grist, here is a collection of information which can be used to refute refuters.

I know there is a strong emphasis on the right-hand side of the political spectrum to debunk global warming, apparently because they see it as a liberal or big government attack on free markets and capitalism. It seems to me that global warming, while threatening, is also a fantastic opportunity for entrepreneurs and our free market economy to address the problem in ways that help grow the economy. And it seems to me that many small and large players in the market are taking this view, as previously blogged. Hmmm...

songbird

Well, Songbird looks pretty interesting, and perhaps a candidate to add to my collection of useful open source apps.

google green

Coding Horror has this article:

When Hardware is Free, Power is Expensive

about Google's focus on efficient power supplies. It includes a link to a Google whitepaper on the subject.

Google's efforts at scaling identify the issues, like power, that occur in internet-scale infrastructures. The great benefit is that theses technologies will trickle down to PCs we ordinary humans will purchase.

Pioneer Plasma Display

Well, this Pioneer 50" 1080p Plasma Display seems pretty cool!

latest Kurzweil video

Ray Kurzweil presented this session at the recent Killer App expo. It is well-recorded, including the audio, and Ray didn't rush through. Some of his more technical slides didn't seem to make it here. There is a 25minute or so Q&A period at the end.

sauna

oh boy!



care should be taken...

yahoo! green

bandwagon alert?

Seriously, Yahoo! Green looks like a good try at a portal for information and activity related to green endeavors. Its going to be interesting to see if this effort by Yahoo! gains momentum.

carp

Visited Great Meadow again yesterday; noticed some very busy fish - Carp. Buried in this article "Management at the Concord Impoundments,2000-2007" is a discussion of the carp issue.

the smiths

There are some people who know me well who are tired of hearing me explain my feelings about The Smiths - and my insistence that they were not only the best band of the 80s, but probably of any other decade as well.

Here is a cultural reference from 3Quarks Daily, which also includes a link to this fascinating site.

while we're at it: Shift Happens

via Speculist, Shift Happens

Thomas Barnett speaks

Speaking of videos and the future, Thomas Barnett speaks at Pop!Tech, and his speech is available on the web here.

In my opinion, this is worth viewing if you want a useful interpretation and analysis of what the next century might look like from a political/military viewpoint. And Thomas is an engaging speaker.

Ray Kurzweil speaks

I had occasion recently to see Ray Kurzweil speak, at RSA2007. I was impressed by his analysis and excited by many of his predictions. Now, the TED conference is putting videos online, and one is of Mr. Kurzweil.

You can see the video here. This is a variant of the speech I originally saw. I think Mr. Kurzweil has a very large slide deck, and probably doesn't use all of his material in any one speech.

One may or may not agree with all of Ray's predictions, but I think a key point is that not only is technological change continuing, its pace is increasing. And the ramifications for societal and cultural change will only become more pervasive. It seems to me that if it is true that the pace of change is increasing, and societal and cultural changes will continue to manifest, then we are in for an interesting and challenging next 20-30 years.

One extremely simple example. I can now watch Ray's video anytime I want, and link to it with this blog, and watch other similar videos quite easily. Just sitting here at my dining room table, using broadband cable and a decent recent vintage notebook PC, I have the opportunity to learn so much from so many.

Here is www.kurzweilai.net where more information is available, and it has an RSS feed.

remiss, climate, oil

I have been remiss in blogging. Getting back in the saddle again with a few climate related stories.

In particular:

UN security council holds climate debate.

Pentagon study says oil reliance strains military.

I think a significant point to keep in mind that climate change and oil consumption, which go hand in hand to some extent, can have important global and national security ramifications.

Stricter emission limits get a boost.

To a large extent, some political actors seem to see the entire topic of environmentalism, whether it means addressing climate change, or even using compact fluorescent light bulbs (read further!), as some hare-brained socialist scheme to take down capitalism, the free market, and probably motherhood and apple pie. My opinion is that tackling environmental issues head-on with attention to both science and economics will protect capitalism, free markets, motherhood, and apple pie. In fact, our market-based economy is best suited to address not just the problems resulting from environmental issues, but also their root causes. And, in many cases, this can be done by providing consumers with information they can use to make informed choices.

And our market-based economy is sensing the opportunity in alternative fuels, per this report.

Arctic melt-off: ahead of schedule.

This last points out that recent research findings continue to support the thesis that the IPCC report was too conservative in terms of reflecting the impact of melting ice at the poles.

On the other hand, I've heard of a backlash against compact fluorescent light bulbs, due to the issues with cleaning up and disposing of the mercury that would spill in case a bulb breaks. Energy Star has this to say about CFLBs and their disposal. I know our transfer station offers fluorescent bulb recycling and safe disposal.