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Official hotel for ACE 2012 is the luxurious and stunning Crowne Plaza Kathmandu

Special prices have been negotiated for ACE participants.

Single Deluxe occupancy           – USD 130.00 per room per night             

Double Deluxe occupancy          – USD 140.00 per room per night             

The above rates are subject to 10% service charge and 13% VAT and further include buffet breakfast.

For those attending ACE on a budget (such as students and post docs), we are pleased that room sharing is available. Please either book together or inform at the booking you would like to room share (we will match you with a same sex ACE participant). Room sharing which will cost you USD 70 only.

To reserve please kindly send an email with heading “ACE 2012 Conference Booking” to the following email address:Sabina.dangol@scp.com.np – for extra safety please also do send the cc copy to the following email address:reservation@scp.com.np

We look forward to seeing you in Nepal!

Brilliant summary from New York Times of Innovations that could change our lives and world.

My good friend and fellow Young Global Leader Parag Khanna is about to release a book which sounds very exciting called “Hybrid Reality”. In this book he also writes about our Lovotics research. Check it out!

Hybrid Reality argues that what human civilization needs more than anything is not greater IQ or EQ, but TQ: technology quotient. In this Hybrid Age of disruptive technologies, accelerating change, and deep anxiety about the future, we explain how the “balance of innovation” has superseded the military “balance of power” as a measure of national potential, and provide a global tour of how the smartest countries, cities, and companies are harnessing new technologies to gain an edge. Each of us also needs better TQ to adapt to a future in which robots are normal social actors in our lives, healthcare becomes a vehicle for physical enhancement, academic pedigree dissolves in a global skills market, and virtual currencies enable tax-free transactions. Whether the future is a dystopian global class struggle over technology or a Pax Technologica of transparency, access and equity will depend on spreading TQ above all else.

Read the short eBook ‘Happiness in 90 Seconds’ and allow yourself to be reminded of what you already know: How to be happy.

“Happiness in 90 Seconds” by Philipp Winterberg, illustrated by Lena Hesse

I first heard Beastie Boys when I was in high school. I still remember the incredible energy and excitement when I heard songs such as “Fight for your right”. This was the totally new sound of hip-hop and to me it was the sound of rebellion. As a normal teenager growing up in small-city Adelaide Australia, it felt revolutionary. While most kids were into rock and roll, suddenly a totally new sound was in town. I remember a few like minded kids as myself dressing up with baggy sweat suits, sneakers, and baseball caps and playing hip-hop loudly. Adam Yauch was benevolent and stood up for causes such as Tibetan freedom. 

I am saddened by another one of my teenage heroes has passed away. And I had planned the next time Beastie Boys tour Japan I would definitely go (I wanted to see Beastie Boys live). It is another group which I grew up with that I can never see whole, such as Bee Gees, Men at Work, Michael Jackson. Now I have made more resolve to see any one of my teenage favorites as soon as possible. Life is short and death is near always.

Loss of the Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch felt across borders – Chicago Sun-Times

Sadness after the news Friday that Yauch, 47, died after a three-long year battle with throat cancer cut across all kinds of demographics, just as the Beastie Boys’ hip-hop managed to do.

Adam “MCA” Yauch, a founding member of the groundbreaking Brooklyn punk band-turned-rap trio with Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz, was “the benevolent Beastie” — a fierce and angry young voice in the beginning, but one who matured, became a filmmaker (launching his own Oscilloscope Pictures) and committed himself to social change. A Buddhist, Yauch used his fame to raise awareness for the Tibetan independence movement (organizing several Tibetan Freedom Concerts in the late ’90s) and created a nonprofit to support the cause (the Milarepa Fund).

The Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just three weeks ago, but Yauch was not in attendance. During the ceremony in Cleveland, Diamond and Horovitz read a letter from Yauch. “For anyone who has been touched by our band, who our music has meant something to, this induction is as much ours as it is yours,” it said.