February 2010:
suggested links

Muhammed Yunus
& Ending Global
Poverty



A lecture at MIT


A Picture/Poem
collection
of links



| last week's links |

From MIT WORLD: Distributed Intelligence
http://mitworld.mit.edu/browse/


About the Lecture: Muhammed Yunus

"Imagine a bank that loans money based on a borrower’s desperate
circumstances -- where, as Muhammad Yunus says, “the less you have,
the higher priority you have.” Turning banking convention on its head has
accomplished a world of good for millions of impoverished Bangladeshis,
as the pioneering economist Yunus has demonstrated in the last three decades.
What began as a modest academic experiment has become a personal
crusade to end poverty." [...]

"About the Speaker

Muhammed Yunus [Wikipedia page]
Yunus Center [official website]
Founder and Managing Director, Grameen Bank: Banking for the Poor
2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Muhammad Yunus made his first loan of $27 to a group of 42 Bangladeshi
village women, to help free them from debt to moneylenders and allow them
to build their furniture business. He established the Grameen Bank in 1983
to help millions of Bangladeshis escape from poverty. The bank now has
branches in more than 36 thousand Bangladeshi villages and in other
countries." [...]

"To me poor people are like bonsai trees. When you plant the best seed
of the tallest tree in a flower-pot, you get a replica of the tallest tree, only
inches tall. There is nothing wrong with the seed you planted, only the
soil-base that is too inadequate. Poor people are bonsai people. There is
nothing wrong in their seeds. Simply, society never gave them the base to
grow on. All it needs to get the poor people out of poverty for us to create an
enabling environment for them. Once the poor can unleash their energy and
creativity, poverty will disappear very quickly."

Creating a World without Poverty: Social Business and the
Future of Capitalism (2007)

"Poor people always pay back their loans. It's us, the creators of institutions and
rules, who keep creating trouble for them."

Grameen Bank II: Designed to Open New Possibilities (2002)


Watch the Yunus lecture below, as well as a few links I've selected
from the remarkable MIT WORLD: Distributed Intelligence website . . .





Ending Global Poverty
Muhammad Yunus
September 14, 2005
Running Time: 53:29


The Most Important Number in the World: Bill McKibben

Climate Change: The Economics of and Prospects for a Global Deal Sir Nicholas Stern

The Six Webs, 10 Years On: Bill Joy

Chomsky on Gaza: Noam Chomsky

iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It: Steve Wozniak




One Laptop per Child: Revolutionizing How the
World's Children Engage in Learning
Walter Bender [talk given in 2007]



Internet Regulation and Design: A View from the Front Line: Alan Davidson

What’s New at the Media Lab?

A Roadmap for the Edge of the Internet
Dr. Alan Benner

A Few Things Learned from Craigslist Craig Newmark

Planet Water: Complexity and Organization in Earth Systems Rafael Bras





Other related links of interest:

TED: Ideas worth spreading
http://www.ted.com/

A few selected video talks / performances . . .

Wade Davis on endangered cultures

Edward Burtynsky on manufactured landscapes

Ethel performs "Blue Room"

Gustavo Dudamel leads El Sistema's top youth orchestra

"The Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra contains the best high school musicians
from Venezuela's life-changing music program, El Sistema. Led here by Gustavo
Dudamel, they play Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10, 2nd movement, and Arturo
Márquez' Danzón No. 2. About Gustavo Dudamel and the Teresa Carreño Youth
Orchestra The Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra is the national high-school-age youth
orchestra of El Sistema, made up of the best young musicians from throughout
Venezuela. Gustavo Dudamel, himself a . . . [...]

Jose Abreu on kids transformed by music

"About Jose Antonio Abreu: Jose Antonio Abreu founded El Sistema ("the system")
in 1975 to help poor Venezuelan kids learn to play a musical instrument and be part
of an orchestra. 30 years on, . . . [...]

Capt. Charles Moore on the seas of plastic

Janine Benyus shares nature's designs

Dennis vanEngelsdorp: a plea for bees

Jared Diamond on why societies collapse

James Balog: Time-lapse proof of extreme ice loss

"Photographer James Balog shares new image sequences from the Extreme Ice Survey,
a network of time-lapse cameras recording glaciers receding at an alarming rate, some
of the most vivid evidence yet of climate change." [...]

Ben Saunders skis to the North Pole

Sergey Brin and Larry Page on Google

Jeff Skoll makes movies that matter

Jimmy Wales on the birth of Wikipedia

Deborah Gordon digs ants



Other unrelated links of special interest:


Oregon Field Guide: Old Tree
http://www.opb.org/programs/ofg/segments/view/1739

"Join a 3-day journey deep into the Eagle Cap Wilderness in search of a truly ancient tree.
Discovered on a dangerously steep mountain, the limber pine could be among the oldest
trees in Oregon – and it’s still alive."


Picture/Poems recommends its BEST OF THE WEB:
Climate Change: Coral Reefs on the Edge

"In clear and direct language, Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, one of the world's
leading coral biologists, presents his scientific findings that document how C02
emissions are pushing the world's coral reefs to the brink of extinction." [...]


Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK)


USGS researcher Dan Fagre is featured in a New York Times online web video
about Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

OCCRI: Oregon Climate Change Research Institute
http://www.occri.coas.oregonstate.edu/About_OCCRI.html



The Story of Cap & Trade from Story of Stuff Project on Vimeo.


"What is The Story of Cap & Trade?
The Story of Cap & Trade is a fast-paced, fact-filled look at the leading climate solution being discussed at Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill. Host Annie Leonard introduces the energy traders and Wall Street financiers at the heart of this scheme and reveals the "devils in the details" in current cap and trade proposals: free permits to big polluters, fake offsets and distraction from what’s really required to tackle the climate crisis. If you’ve heard about cap and trade, but aren’t sure how it works (or who benefits), this is the film is for you."
"


INTERNET ISSUSES: Understanding Net Neutrality

"According to Google:

"Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet. The Internet has operated according to this neutrality principle since its earliest days... Fundamentally, net neutrality is about equal access to the Internet. In our view, the broadband carriers should not be permitted to use their market power to discriminate against competing applications or content. Just as telephone companies are not permitted to tell consumers who they can call or what they can say, broadband carriers should not be allowed to use their market power to control activity online,"

—Guide to Net Neutrality for Google Users"

TPN: The Connections Show,
with Stan Relihan

Connections #050
"Vinton G. Cerf is Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google.
Widely known as the “Father of the Internet,” Vint (together with his colleague,
Robert Kahn) is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and basic architecture
of the Internet."
(1) History of the Internet: Part I (Past)
| windows: r click; Mac: opt + click |

Connections #051
(2) History of the Internet: Part II (Present)
| windows: r click; Mac: opt + click |

Connections #052
(3) History of the Internet: Part III (Future)
| windows: r click; Mac: opt + click |


\Vint Cerf: The Internet in 2035

From cloud computing to interplanetary communications, Internet pioneer Vint Cerf talks about life in 2035.


AARHUS UNIVERSITETS PODCASTARKIV




"
Mobile and the Interplanetary Internet (Bundle Protocol on Earth and beyond)
We will look at current statistics of the Internet and then consider the wide range of applications that are emerging and some very significant changes coming to the Internet in the next couple of years. We will also consider new business practices that are arising from the spread of Internet and the key role that mobiles are playing in its accessibility. There is a trend towards including sensor networks on the Internet and many devices/appliances. From this we can see an kind of smart electrical grid of "intelligent and networked"
devices emerging. Collaborative tools are also of increasing interest, including automatic language translation. Finally, we will have a serious look at the extension of the Internet to operate across the solar system to support manned and robotic exploration."s


SaveTheInternet.com

"Net Neutrality means no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers from blocking, speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or destination."

Obama on YouTube: "I'm a big believer in Net Neutrality."


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