http://view.vzaar.com/973860/player
People and Technology. A cool video showing the intersection of people and technology.
As a foreigner it is quite rare to be asked to the standard Japanese company meetings. What I mean are those meetings which are not something to do with international matters and there is no information in English. I was asked to represent our faculty to a meeting of the “Information Technology Center” (basically handling all computer administration and “Media Center” (basically libraries), representing our school. It was 6pm to 8pm on Friday night. On the one hand it was on the one hand extremely boring way to spend a Friday evening. But on the other hand I really could experience some secrets of Japanese culture. At each meeting there were two men doing almost all the talking. One man looked a bit older, talked less, and looked like the boss. We basically listened to a long list of reports. In western cultures meetings are held to actually discuss or decide something. But in Japanese meetings I think that the purpose is not to decide anything. In fact it seems everything had been decided before the meeting. At the end of the meeting they asked if anyone had questions but nobody did. We all bowed. I wondered what was the purpose of the meeting. But I guess it is a kind of “wa” or harmony which is important in Japanese culture. By me being physically present and representing the school we showed harmony with the decisions. I found it an interesting and somewhat entertaining experience of some more secrets of Japanese culture.
This is so cool and amazing. A camera which outputs a text description rather than a photo. And the method is ingenious – sending the picture to Amazon Mechanical Turk for crowd-sourcing. Are you like me, bombarded with thousands of pictures that you never have time to look at and find it so hard to search? This camera would be great. We can really search for something like “picture of a cake at a birthday party”.
Descriptive Camera Presentation (by mrichardson23)
Emotivate: n. using utopian visions of the future, dramatic pleas, and dire consequences to inspire an organization to change. Derek Abbott posted in Dictionary of Funny Neologisms
Brilliant advice from Atari Founder on how to be innovative.
From the Mindshare conference.
Be Uncomfortable
“You wanna build your IQ higher in the next two years? Be uncomfortable. That means, learn something where you have a beginner’s mind. I like to play chess. So it turns out, the neurogenesis (the birth of new brain cells) of chess, for me, is over. My brain grew a great deal when I was first learning, but once I really got it down, it’s very, very incremental. So if you want to do it right, learn how to ski. And then once you feel like you’re kind of under control, learn how to snowboard. And then learn how to rollerblade, then do tai chi, then do yoga. Stay on the uncomfortable path and you will find that you can get smarter.”
Look For Beauty
“Walk to work, even if it’s four miles. Ride a bike to work. Drive a different way. On your way there, try to find beauty. You’d be surprised how much more of the neighborhood you can perceive and experience when you’re looking for unique spots of beauty. When you get to work, you’ll find that you have a better attitude, you’re more content, and you can put away your Zoloft.”
Move Your Body
“Exercise aggressively. Twenty minutes. Thirty minutes. Get your heart rate to 80% of your ability, and then for the next three hours, just learn something. It turns out that when you are exercising aggressively, your brain is creating BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), ‘Miracle-Gro for your brain.’ That is a precursor protein for dendrite formation (dendrites are branched extensions of nerve cells). You’re putting in hardware for the software.”
Go (The F***) To Sleep
“Remember that we can only in our forebrains handle 5-7 items. Our backbrains can handle massive amounts. So when you’re given a problem, think about it before you go sleep, and chances are you can solve it by the next morning. What’s happening is, your background processing is going on with many many more synapses, and you’d be surprised by the capability you’re able to unlock.”
Trust Your Ideas
“Innovation almost has zero constituency. For example, if I showed you this left-handed purple widget, maybe no one thinks it’s a good idea, yet it’s clearly innovative. And so, when Steve Jobs and I used to hang out, one of the things we used to talk about is innovation, and I told him, ‘Steve, if you believe in something, and you go into a room and there are 50 people there, and all 50 of them tell you that you’re crazy, stick with it. Stick with your project.’”
“Innovation is hard. It really is. Because most people don’t get it. Remember, the automobile, the airplane, the telephone, these were all considered toys at their introduction because they had no constituency. They were too new. And what you’re working on right now may in fact fall right into that. And if you see clearly, the pathway to the future, stick to it.”
Very cool. Making real physical soft toys from children’s drawings.
Who to work for to be a Growth Hacker
How do I learn to be a growth hacker? Work for one of these guys 🙂 | Andrew Chen (@andrewchen)
Adam Yauch • 1964-2012
It is with great sadness that we confirm that musician, rapper, activist and director Adam “MCA” Yauch, founding member of Beastie Boys and also of the Milarepa Foundation that produced the Tibetan Freedom Concert benefits, and film production and distribution company Oscilloscope Laboratories, passed away in his native New York City this morning after a near-three-year battle with cancer. He was 47 years old. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Yauch taught himself to play bass in high school, forming a band for his 17th birthday party that would later become known the world over as Beastie Boys. With fellow members Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Adrock” Horovitz, Beastie Boys would go on to sell over 40 million records, release four #1 albums–including the first hip hop album ever to top the Billboard 200, the band’s 1986 debut full length, Licensed To Ill–win three Grammys, and the MTV Video Vanguard Lifetime Achievement award. Last month Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with Diamond and Horovitz reading an acceptance speech on behalf of Yauch, who was unable to attend. In addition to his hand in creating such historic Beastie Boys albums as Paul’s Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication, Hello Nasty and more, Yauch was a founder of the Milarepa Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting awareness and activism regarding the injustices perpetrated on native Tibetans by Chinese occupational government and military forces. In 1996, Milarepa produced the first Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, which was attended by 100,000 people, making it the biggest benefit concert on U.S. soil since 1985’s Live Aid. The Tibetan Freedom Concert series would continue to stage some of the most significant benefit shows in the world for nearly a decade following in New York City, Washington DC, Tokyo, Sydney, Amsterdam, Taipei and other cities. In the wake of September 11, 2001, Milarepa organized New Yorkers Against Violence, a benefit headlined by Beastie Boys at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom, with net proceeds disbursed to the New York Women’s Foundation Disaster Relief Fund and the New York Association for New Americans (NYANA) September 11th Fund for New Americans–each chosen for their efforts on behalf of 9/11 victims least likely to receive help from other sources. Under the alias of Nathanial Hörnblowér, Yauch directed iconic Beastie Boys videos including “So Whatcha Want,” “Intergalactic,” “Body Movin” and “Ch-Check It Out.” Under his own name, Yauch directed last year’s Fight For Your Right Revisited, an extended video for “Make Some Noise” from Beastie Boys’ Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, starring Elijah Wood, Danny McBride and Seth Rogen as the 1986 Beastie Boys, making their way through a half hour of cameo-studded misadventures before squaring off against Jack Black, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as Beastie Boys of the future. Yauch’s passion and talent for filmmaking led to his founding of Oscilloscope Laboratories, which in 2008 released his directorial film debut, the basketball documentary Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot and has since become a major force in independent video distribution, amassing a catalogue of such acclaimed titles as Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy, Oren Moverman’s The Messenger, Banksy’s Exit Through The Gift Shop, Lance Bangs and Spike Jonze’s Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait Of Maurice Sendak, and many more. Yauch is survived by his wife Dechen and his daughter Tenzin Losel, as well as his parents Frances and Noel Yauch.
Our research mission is to empower children and youths in developing countries and communities with creative thinking and new media technologies. We aim to nurture and inspire young children to create new value propositions that will benefit their individual selves, communities and countries.
We want to view young children in developing countries as creative innovators and ambassadors of new technologies, rather than passive end-users consumers. We will conduct research in policy and creativity, design new media applications and conduct workshops to fulfill our mission and aim.
Past Achievements/ Presentations:
KMD Masters Student Maiwa conducted a 3 Day workshop for children in Botswana. Children aged between 9-11 year of age in one of the poorest locations in Gaborone, were asked to create stories (creative writing/story telling), make story boards (picture story), use molding clay to create their characters and animate their stories (stop-animation). The children did not have any knowledge of computers and molding but were very excited and most of them would like to play with computers more often participate in such workshops more if given the opportunity.