The New Sputnik (Thomas Friedman, 9/26/2009, New York Times)

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman entitled his piece about Green Energy Research, Manufacturing and Deployment in China "The New Sputnik".

He indicates that in China, where the percentage of engineers among political leaders and among business leaders is far higher than it is in the United States, the realization that Green Energy needs are unavoidable was reached rather quickly. Meanwhile, the U.S. political elites, aware of all the Coal plants China has commissioned, still thinks China is committed to low-tech and polluting energy sources.

As usual, U.S. political elites are deceiving themselves. I agree with Friedman and the people he quotes, such as Lester Brown, that China's leap to Green won't be realized immediately, but when it comes, it will be sudden. Should the U.S. compete? Will we have the resources to compete if we continuing pouring large amounts of funds into maintaining a huge military force around the world? Questions that I wish more of my political leaders were carefully pondering....

Andrew Sullivan Blog Entry: The Rotten Core

Andrew Sullivan, on his blog "The Daily Dish" makes a point about The Rotten Core of political innovation leadership stagnation quite apparent in Washington DC thanks to the successful "protect the status quo" activitie of corporate lobbysts and a shallow media. I suggest you read his blog entry.

Robin Chase argues for open peer-to-peer mesh networking built into vehicles! (TED.com talk March 2007)

TED.com, the web site of the Technology, Entertainment and Design set of conferences and their regular participant communities, has taken significant steps in the last 2 years to put more of their talks on the web in audio or video form or both... and allow people to comment on these talks.

One of the most curious talks was given in March 2007, by Robin Chase, one of the founders of Zipcar.com, who believes that charging people in real-time for the vehicle and road usage they initiate, can lower the transportation contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and global climate change.

In the second part of her talk, she indicates that rather than put special communication network systems in place to do only this function, such as having video cameras snap photos of license plates, or having special tags such as the EZPass that is used in many US NorthEastern and MidAtlantic States, what should actually be done is to create, as infrastructure, the mandate that all mobile devices and machines support peer-to-peer wireless communication, known as mesh networking.

I think this is a provocative idea. See her 14-minute talk yourself at Robin Chase on Zipcar and her next big idea.

Film: Lemon Tree (Etz Limon) (Eran Riklis, 2008, 1 hr 46 min, distributed by IFC Films)

This fictionalized film, shot in Hebrew and Arabic, starts with the newly appointed Israeli Defense Minister (played by Doron Tavory) and his wife (played by Rona Lipaz-Michael) moving to a part of Israel abutting (within meters) the Palestinian-agricultural lands at the extreme West of the "West Bank" ... and ends with the transformation of the Minister and his wife and a number of Palestinian's... especially neighboring Lemon Tree grower Mrs. Salma Zidane (played by Hiam Abbass), and Ziad Daud (played by Ali Suliman).

I have had the fortune to see this film twice and it is beautifully acted and full of quiet symbolism and the touching sense of people who want to be true to themselves but find themselves caught in conventional systems that spiral away from win-win solutions and spiral towards conflicts... "as I simply try to protect my home and family".

Highly Recommended

It's a landfill - and an ecopark (Christian Science Monitor covers Singapore)

In the May 31, 2009 issue of the Christian Science Monitor, correspondent Vijaysree Venkataram visits Pulau Semakau and reports It's a landfill -- and an ecopark.

Documentary: LIFE. SUPPORT. MUSIC. (Merigold Moving Pictures 2008; dir by Eric Daniel Metzgar)

LIFE. SUPPORT. MUSIC. is a magnificent documentary of 2 years in the life of Jason Crigler, a humble person in his early 30s, but also one of New York's most sought-after guitarists, who suffered what the medical profession thought would be a devastating brain hemorrhage but who instead gradually recovered a great deal of his function, in large part because of the extraordinary attention and support his wife, parents, sister, and in-laws gave him, at the same time as his daughter was being born.

The story is compelling, the filmmaking brilliant, the family members articulate and honest... This is love and determination in action. I very highly recommend this extraordinary film.

NPR Interview: Stained Glass Artist Lets The Light Through At Last

Scott Simon's interview (for NPR's Weekend Edition) with Rowan LeCompte, Stained Glass Artist Lets The Light Through At Last (April 11, 2009; 9 minutes) is a gem. Mr. LeCompte has designed stained glass windows at the Washington DC Cathedral since 1941. Highly recommended. NPR's website also links to photos of Mr. LeCompte and the Cathedral.

IBM is supplying technology to enable A Smarter Planet, led by IBM Research

I work at IBM's Thomas J Watson Research Center, and we have started to deploy some of our technologies for what we call Smarter Planet solutions. Some background on IBM and IBM Research, and some early results from IBM's Smarter Planet initiatives, all in layman's terms, are in these short videos:

Attorney Shirin Ebadi (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate) harrassed as Iranian Government Brings Bahais to Trial

Britain's News 4 Channel interviewed Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Human Rights Attorney Shirin Ebadi.

Film: Seasons in the Valley (Adam Matalon, 2008, Chatsby Films)

I love films about relationships between men. I love films about how men think about their work. The lyrical Seasons in the Valley is both: a feature-length documentary that chronicles the journeys of highly-skilled Jamaican migrant workers (with full support of the US and Jamaican government), the plight of the New York Apple Farmers who have been employing them for decades, and the bonds that have formed between these men as the fiercely competitive, global economy for fruit squeezes the Hudson Valley apple growing businesses. This is a human film, with a background of economics, but is not directly a political film.

Film: USA vs. Al-Arian (Line Halvorsen, 2007, Dalchows verden Films)

The US Government has held former University of South Florida Professor Sami Al-Arian under arrest since February 2003. Dr. Al-Arian, who was born in Kuwait to parents who were refugees from Palestine, and has spent all his adult life in the United States, has been an outspoken political advocate for Palestinians, and a severe critic of Israel, but the US Government thinks he may have been doing something much more sinister. This is in part because of his association with a former US academic who returned to Palestine and founded the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization, an organization the US Government classifies as a Terrorist organization. The US would like to convict him and continue to imprison him; his family's hope right now is that he would be deported and perhaps start a new life with his mother who lives in Egypt.

Norwegian filmmaker Line Halvorsen was able to spend much of 2003-2006 with Dr. Al-Arian's wife and children and his attorneys, as well as with the US Prosecutor, and also interviewed Dr. Al-Arian in prison, and she has made an amazing, and disturbing film. If you can see this film, which has won a number of film festival awards, I think you will find it amazing. Otherwise see the 12-page Overview prepared for the press.

Information about the film, where it will be shown, where it can be obtained on DVD, is at USAvsAlArian.com.

Nicholas Kristof in NYTimes: Putting Torture Behind Us

Putting Torture Behind Us, a column in the New York Times by Nicholas Kristof, is well worth reading. I support both suggestions about harvesting insights through a post-Guantanimo commission and repurposing the facility for health research.

Inaugural Speech of President Barack Obama

Inaugural Speech of President Barack Obama, January 20, 2009, video and text from NYTimes.com .

Eloquent as always, but with enough specifics about how government, business, and personal behavior ought to be changed.

How happy I am with this dramatic improvement in the quality of our national political leadership!

There was also a touching and classy musical performance during the Inauguration ceremony (you can listen here, or watch here) as well as eloquent invocation, benediction, and poem.

An editorial in the New York Times gives a good summary of why this inaugural address was one that spoke to Americans as thoughtful and needed citizens, and not simply as consumers of political rhetorhic.

HBO.com and HBO - 7pm ET, 11:30pm ET January 18, 2009 Inauguration Celebration Concert

See also: New York Times: At Lincoln Memorial, Uplifting Music and a Talk of Challenges

President-elect Barack Obama's remarks, as prepared for delivery to "We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial"

Broadway Show: In The Heights

In the Heights won the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical, and I highly recommend it. With dancing, a variety of music, a strong ensemble cast, and story line blending elements of Fiddler on the Roof (Old Country-New Country, Adults-Young People), Rent, and West Side Story, it is a most enjoyable and touching show. The action takes place in Washington Heights in the late 1990s, as Puerto Rican and Dominican Republic Immigrants deal with a hot July and struggles of keeping their small businesses solvent. The music and lyrics were written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also plays Usnavi, a Bodego owner, in the show.

IBM's Approach, and Results, with Corporate Responsibility

Tom Raferty of Greenmonk interviews IBM VP Stan Litow (MP3) on IBM's approach to Corporate Responsibility, Sustainability, and meeting social challenges, posted on December 2, 2008, is an excellent overview of what IBM is doing. Details are in the IBM Corporate Responsibility website.

Paul Krugman: The Madoff Economy (Dec 19, 2008)

The Madoff Economy by Paul Krugman captures much of what I have been thinking for several years. By luring bright individuals into the financial sector, rather than into other fields, we have reduced the true wealth and the true capacity of our civilization. We can all be angry at those who were dishonest, but maybe we want to ask some questions about the honest people whose work is mostly about concentrating or allocating funds but not about applying them more directly to actual social and human needs.

Film: In A Dream (2008, Jeremiah Zagar, Herzliya Films)

Herzliya Films with Red Lights Films created a truly touching and provocative portrait of an artist and his family. Filmmaker Jeremiah Zagar began in 2001 to film the work and philosophy of his father, Mosaic-maker extraordinare Isaiah Zagar, and his mother, gallery owner Julia Zagar... and through the honesty of his father and his mother, during a period of personal and family challenges, we understand how, for some people, making art becomes the salvation from some of the unresolved demons which haunt their lives.

Very highly recommended. Will be shown in July 2009 on HBO.

Film: Under Our Skin: The Untold Story of Lyme Disease (dir by Andy Abrahams Wilson, Open Eye Picutres, 2008)

Under Our Skin: The Untold Story of Lymn Disease is an interesting film which follows a series of patients struggling with what apparently is chronic or persistant Lyme disease, and a series of physicians trying to treat them, and another series of physicians convinced that chronic Lyme disease does not exist, and another physician who on his own time is studying the behavior of the bacterial agent which causes Lyme disease and comparing it to other bacterial vectors of disease.

This is a film about medicine, microbes, mavericks and money.

Film: Ne le dis à personne / Tell No One (Guillaume Canet 2006, based on a novel by Harlan Coben)

Ne le dis à personne / Tell No One is a thriller directed by Guillaume Canet, staring Francois Cluzet in the role of Docteur Alex Beck. This film has suspense in almost every second, includes excellent supporting performances by Marie-Josée Croze, Kristen Scott-Thomas, Nathalie Baye, André Dussollier, Jean Rochefort, Marina Hands and others, and I highly recommend it. It is currently playing in select US theaters with subtitles - the film was made in France, and a DVD release is planned for mid-October.