In a move regarded as unusual by the media, the French research group refused to provide copies of the journal paper to reporters in advance of its publication, unless they signed non-disclosure agreements. The NDAs would have prevented the journalists from approaching third-party researchers for comment.
I'm not a fan of GMOs, but I don't believe in pursuing lesser evils for a greater good, either. This kind of behaviour harms the credibility of journalists as well as scientists for a public whose interests are already so fractured that they're quick to find reasons to write things off as bullshit.
Congested narrator voice aside, there's plenty to be excited about in this video about Sony's ambitions for the future. (I'm really glad there's no 3D TV punting ... that shit was stupid.)
Use of cords and disposable batteries are among the few things this century that frustrate me about our exponentially improving technological landscape. Why are we still using them? Thankfully, viable alternatives are beginning to crop up, like solar- and wind-powered charging stations that you can keep in your pocket.
The ability to measure and track one's own energy use at a glance is also a growing trend in modern tech-savvy architecture. It isn't unreasonable to imagine that in the next handful of years, residences will come equipped with such devices in the same way most cars now come stock with GPS.
But while screens and other wifi-ready affordances proliferate (consider the piece of paper in this video that was apparently also a mobile device), it's important to remember that software must increasingly divorce itself from reliance on hardware -- that is, software must be increasingly hardware-agnostic. Most of your data -- like personal energy use -- will be kept in the Cloud, accessible wherever you are and through whichever device you wish to see it. It's a tough line to walk when the software still needs to be a little bit hardware sensitive (for example, showing information in a different format depending on the device being used).
In any event, it's a brave new world we're walking into. And I can't wait to get rid of all these bloody cables.
Last week at Le Web, I got to hear Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides talk about the commercialisation of space travel. Here's an interview I did with him, followed by video of his talk.
Among other things, we discuss where the program is now, its potential for facilitating sustainable development on Earth, and product partnership opportunities. Dig in!
Someone recently asked me if I am optimistic about the future of humanity. Despite dire statistics and the (anecdotal?) knowledge that people care more about maintaining quality of life than about big-context global sustainability*, I still feel that people work best at gunpoint. The worst may not yet have arrived, but neither has the best, and we have to traverse the former for the latter. That is just how we are. (Hopefully the wake-up call isn't full-on apocalypse, though.)
For as much waste and destruction we're capable of producing, we are just as equipped for producing miracles. There are some who say we are fascinated by our trajectory toward imminent tragedy. This isn't the case, and every little thing we do -- connecting with the world, self-organising for human rights, cooperative farming, purchasing locally, correcting wrongs, even advertising with greater care for both the long-term sustainability of the brand and our children -- makes a ripple in the sea of our collective destinies.
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*There are currently as many people alive on Earth today as the total number of human deaths since the beginning of organised civilization: 6.8 billion. Is that not ostentatious?
However much you may advocate the adoption of the electric vehicle, it's still difficult to face skeptics whose arguments often boil down to "we're not ready for that." That statement is usually supported by a number of vague "facts" that betray how little we actually know about electric cars: the little mileage you get, how they're too slow to drive on freeways, how it only makes sense if you have a house with a garage so you can plug it in...
(Actually, this last is a problem, but what if we all make like Manitoba and start changing our communities as a function of where we're headed? A plug on every street, sir!)
I like this ad because it distills all the cloudiness surrounding the electric transport quandary into one reasonable message: We've already switched to electricity for many things; why not for travel?
The ad preps you for this message by depicting everyday scenarios in which electric gadgets -- blow dryers, vending machines, credit card readers -- possess combustible engines, with all their fickleness and the pollution that comes along. The people in the ad simply live with it, the same way we live with car pollution.
That they never complain, never so much as wrinkle their noses, is part of the ad's charm: it enables you to laugh at the grace with which all that exhaust is dealt, to see the situation with clearer eyes, to accept that we've also been a bit silly about this, because it's what our society has collectively decided to accept, in the same way the ad's fictional society accepts combustible engine computers and toy dogs.
All this builds elegantly in your mind as the piece progresses. The narrator only raises her voice to drive the tagline and brand home. But the crazy thing is, you feel convinced.
UPDATE:Jeff Kwiatek sent over this variation on the ad for the Nissan Leaf, which launched on the same day:
The two companies are basically one (Renault holds something like 43% of Nissan, and the latter holds something like 15% of the former, so it's all one big mutual neck-sucking fest). It isn't unusual for companies of global scale to have a kind of "share with pride" policy on the inside, which doesn't exactly thrill their myriad agencies, but it does save them money: a good idea on one side of the world gets generously replicated elsewhere, or for a "different" brand.
I have to say though, the Leaf variant lacks the finesse of Renault ZE's "The Electric Life." Even its name fell a few points on the je-ne-sais-quoi scale: "Gas Powered Everything"? Would a little less obviousness have killed us?
For its most current campaign, Electrolux takes it upon itself to boat out to the middle of various seas - where yonder lay islands of discarded plastic! - to recuperate goodies for making new vacuum cleaners.
Nice way to take a small but role-modelesque stab at a growing problem. (While scraping some brand cream off the top. Although curiously, it hasn't enjoyed much buzz since its June launch.)
Now, whose job is it to be promoting this bad-boy?
