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StressCafé® by Dollard et al

stressbusiness — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:31:51 +0000

StressCafe is now available from http://stresscafe.unisa.edu.au/.

Here is an excerpt:

Welcome to StressCafé®, where Australian workers can compare their work place standards against national benchmarks (based on the Australian Workplace Barometer), helping to identify best practice recommendations, for higher job satisfaction, thus corporate productivity.

The software is unique in its ability to collect large amounts of data, and let Universities, industry, government and community groups collect, calculate, compare and share significant workplace research information in real-time.

Professor Maureen Dollard

Director of the Centre for Applied Psychological Research

BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERS ARE GIFTED ONES ALWAYS

KUSH — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:34:23 +0000

There’s Smart, and then there’s Mega-Smart

Biomedical engineers are smart people; this is a universal truth. As a rule, dim-witted people do not develop bioartificial organs or design pacemakers. But then there are the pioneers who have taken the biomedical field by storm over the past century, earning more awards and patents and inventing more devices than any mere mortal should. You could refer to this rare breed as The Ridiculously Smart Bioengineering Club, a league of gifted souls with DNA like Einstein’s.

What Do They Have in Common?

Let’s start with biophysicist Otto Schmitt. Though his parents weren’t scientists, Otto was exposed at the age of 16 to the work of his older brother Frank. Frank became a professor of zoology in 1929, and Otto was allowed to “gadgeteer” in Frank’s laboratory and create instrumentation (www.thebakken.org). Otto would also do experiments at home, much to his mother’s chagrin. His mom fainted when she went into his bedroom one day and saw Otto with sparks flying out of his nose and fingers; he had crafted his own rudimentary Tesla Ball out of spare parts to make his hair stand straight up. Despite his crazy antics with electricity, Otto survived his youth and went on to invent devices like the cathode follower.

Leslie Geddes has taught one-fifth of all biomedical engineers currently in practice. He’s patented everything from a baby pacifier that delivers medication to biomaterials (www.mit.edu). As a kid, Leslie’s dad would bring home radio parts from work for his son to tinker with. Because some relatives were physicians, Leslie decided he would like to combine electronics with medicine.

Extraordinary curiosity is a common theme in the early years of the genius bioengineers. Robert Langer, currently Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT in Cambridge, received a Gilbert chemistry and microscope set from his parents as a young boy. He was fascinated watching chemical color changes, and enjoyed watching shrimp grow with his little microscope (www.thebiotechclub.org). This young chemist would grow up to receive more than 600 patents and 160 major awards, and be the most cited engineer in history. His controlled drug delivery developments have alleviated human pain for countless patients. The stubborn Langer is oft-quoted as saying, “A lot of times somebody will tell you that your idea, or your invention, can’t be done. I think that’s very rarely true. If you believe in yourself and if you really work hard and stick to it, I believe there is very little that is impossible.”

This stubbornness gene can be found in Alfred E. Mann, entrepreneurial physicist and philanthropist billionaire. He’s said, “To say we can’t do something because other people have failed is not good enough for me” (www.inhealth.org).

It seems the formula for biomedical engineering mega-success is one part insatiable curiosity, one part influence by mentors, two parts giftedness, and three parts stubbornness.

C-DAC, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, IGNOU, IIITM Gwalior, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

universityeducation — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 06:29:38 +0000

ADMISSION IN TO INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY (IGNOU).

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) invites application from eligible candidates for admission in to the following Degree / Diploma Courses

1.   Master of Business Administration (MBA)
2.   Diploma in Management (DIM)
3.   Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDIM)
4.   Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management (PGDHRM)
5.   Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Management (PGDFM)
6.   Post Graduate Diploma in Operations Management (PGDOM)
7.   Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing Management (PGDMM).

Graduate in any Discipline with 50% marks (45% for SC / ST) holders are eligible for this course or Bachelor’s Degree with 3 years of Supervisory / Managerial / Professional Experience, or Professional Degree in Engineering / Technology / Medicine / Architecture / Law / Pharmacy or Professional Qualifications in Accountancy / Cost & Works Accountancy / Company Secretaryship etc. or Masters Degree in any subject holders are also eligible for this course. Non-Graduates (10+2 or equivalent) with six years of Managerial / Supervisory / Professional experience are eligible for taking admission in to Diploma in Management only after clearing the entrance test.

Selection will be made on the basic of OPENMAT test Conducted by IGNOU. Candidates who have successfully cleared the entrance test for admission in to Management Program conducted by Institutions like CAT / MAT & State level Tests with 40% marks are also eligible for take admission to these courses. Last date for receipt of request for Prospectus by post is 31st December, 2009.

IGNOU also Provide Post Graduate Certificate in Oral Implantology (PGCOI) & Post Graduate Certificate in Endodontics (PGCE) course.

Candidates who are registered BDS Doctors after completion of Internship & their degree should be recognized by Dental Council of India are eligible for these two courses.

Further Details can be available from

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU),
Maidan Garhi, New Delhi – 110068.

Or can be downloaded from

http://www.ignou.ac.in

ADMISSION IN TO DIPLOMA & PG DIPLOMA COURSES AT C-DAC.

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) invites application from eligible candidates for admission in to the following courses

1. Diploma in Advanced Computing (DAC): Engineering Graduates, MCA, MCS (after B.Sc.), BCA, BCS Graduates are eligible for this course.
2. PG Diploma in Wireless & Mobile Computing: Engineering Graduates or Science Post Graduates in Electronics / Telecommunication / Instrumentation and Computer Science candidates are eligible for this course.

Other 24 Weeks PG Diploma Courses are as under.

1.   Post Graduate Diploma in Health Care Informatics (PGDHI): Candidates who are having MBBS Certificate / Diploma (MCI Approved ), MS / MD / DM / M.Ch., BDS / MDS, B.Pharm., M.Pharm., M.Sc (Biology, Zoology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths, Instru, Electn), B.E. / M.E., Biomedical Engineering, B.Sc. (Engg), MCA, MCS, MCM, MBA (System), BCS, B.Sc. (IT / CS), BCA, BIC, Bachelor of E-commerce Professionals with minimum 2 years relevant work experience in hospital, Insurance, Clinical, Research Organization are eligible for this course.
2.   PG Diploma in Advanced Computer Arts (Multi Media) (DACA): Candidates who are Graduates from streams of Arts, Advertising, Commercial Artist, Painting Textile, Fashion Design, Interior Decoration are eligible for this course.
3.   PG Diploma in GeoInformatics (DGi): Engineering Graduates or Science Post Graduates, Graduates with 2 years relevant experience are eligible for this course.
4.   PG Diploma in Information System & Cyber Securities (DISCS): B.E. / M.E. or equivalent (AMIE, AIETE), B.Sc Engineering, MCA / MCS (After B.Sc), M.Sc (Electronics), M.Sc. (Instrumentation), MCM (With B.Sc), MBA (Systems), BCS, B. Sc. (IT), B.Sc. (Computer Sc.), BCA, BIS are eligible for this course.
5.   PG Diploma in very large scale Integration Design (DVLSI): Engineering Graduates or Science post Graduates in Electronics, Instrumentation & Computer Science candidates are eligible for this course.
6.   PG Diploma in Language Computing (DLC): Candidates who are having B.E., B.Tech., M.Tech., MCA, M.Science (Computer Sc. / IT) post Graduates in Linguistics / Applied Linguistics / Language / Literature are eligible for this course.

Further Details can be available from

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC),
Advanced Computing Training School (ACTS) Headquarters,
5th Floor SG IT Park, Aundh, Pune 411007,
Ph. +91-20-25503100/01/02,
e-mail: acts@cdac.in

Or can be downloaded from

http://acts.cdac.in

ADMISSION IN TO INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & MANAGEMENT, GWALIOR.

Applications are invited from Engineering Graduates for Training for Professional Program for a period of 12 weeks, from 15th Jan 2009 to 15th April 2010.

Candidates who are passed B.E. / B.Tech. / MCA / MBA / M.Sc. / CSE and M.Sc. IT from a recognized institutes or colleges are eligible to attend the program. Selection will be made on the basic of Academic performance / Test in the engineering degree Reservation, as per Government of India norms, shall apply.

Further details can be available from

Dr. Anupam Shukla-Coordinator, Training for professional,
Atal Bihari Vajpayee- Indian Institute of Information Technology & Management,
Morena Link Road, gwalior, M.P.-474010,
Ph. 0751-6453666, Mob. 09229223533,
E-mail: tfp@iiitm.ac.in

Or can be downloaded from

http://www.iiitm.ac.in

ADMISSION IN TO PANDIT DEENDAYAL PETROLEUM UNIVERSITY.

Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University invites application from eligible candidates for admission in to MBA (Focused on Oil & Gas Sector).

Selection will be made on the basic of Cat-2009 Score, GD & Personal Interview. Last date for submission of application form is 10th February, 2010. Scholarship is also available for deserving Candidates.

Further details can be available from

School of Petroleum Management,
PDPU campus, Raisan – 382007,
Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
Ph. 079-23275119

Or an be downloaded from

http://www.pdpu.ac.in

ADMISSION IN TO MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (MIT).

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professional Education in collaboration with Lavasa Corporation Ltd. invites application from eligible candidates for a 3 day course in to Airport and Airline Systems-Planning, Design & Management.

Further details can be available from

Rochelle Pereira,
Ph. No. +91 22 40256225 / +91 9820117222,
E-mail: mitprofessionaleducation@lavasa.com

Or can be downloaded from

http://www.lavasa.com/high/mit_education.aspx

Regards

Dr. Pragatika Mishra
Editor-cum-Chief Executive
e-News Letter- OrissaJob.Com

Want to refer any of your colleague/friends to subscribe our News Letter on Education & Career and Jobs, please ask him/her to visit http://www.Orissajob.Com and submit their e-mail address in the RSS feed column in the right hand side. Or Subscribe directly at http://Orissajob.Blogspot.Com

Dr. Pragatika Mishra
Editor-cum-Chief Executive
e-News Letter- OrissaJob.Com

…::::::…… OrissaJob.Com- The Only Job & Career Portal Promoted, Managed& Run by Females Only.

C-DAC, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, IGNOU, IIITM Gwalior, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

universityeducation — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 06:28:47 +0000

ADMISSION IN TO INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY (IGNOU).

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) invites application from eligible candidates for admission in to the following Degree / Diploma Courses

IGNOU also Provide Post Graduate Certificate in Oral Implantology (PGCOI) & Post Graduate Certificate in Endodontics (PGCE) course.

Candidates who are registered BDS Doctors after completion of Internship & their degree should be recognized by Dental Council of India are eligible for these two courses.

Further Details can be available from

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU),
Maidan Garhi, New Delhi – 110068.

Or can be downloaded from

http://www.ignou.ac.in

ADMISSION IN TO DIPLOMA & PG DIPLOMA COURSES AT C-DAC.

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) invites application from eligible candidates for admission in to the following courses

Other 24 Weeks PG Diploma Courses are as under.

Further Details can be available from

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC),
Advanced Computing Training School (ACTS) Headquarters,
5th Floor SG IT Park, Aundh, Pune 411007,
Ph. +91-20-25503100/01/02,
e-mail: acts@cdac.in

Or can be downloaded from

http://acts.cdac.in

ADMISSION IN TO INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & MANAGEMENT, GWALIOR.

Applications are invited from Engineering Graduates for Training for Professional Program for a period of 12 weeks, from 15th Jan 2009 to 15th April 2010.

Further details can be available from

Or can be downloaded from

http://www.iiitm.ac.in

ADMISSION IN TO PANDIT DEENDAYAL PETROLEUM UNIVERSITY.

Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University invites application from eligible candidates for admission in to MBA (Focused on Oil & Gas Sector).

Further details can be available from

School of Petroleum Management,
PDPU campus, Raisan – 382007,
Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
Ph. 079-23275119

Or an be downloaded from

http://www.pdpu.ac.in

ADMISSION IN TO MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (MIT).

Further details can be available from

Rochelle Pereira,
Ph. No. +91 22 40256225 / +91 9820117222,
E-mail: mitprofessionaleducation@lavasa.com

Or can be downloaded from

http://www.lavasa.com/high/mit_education.aspx

Regards

Dr. Pragatika Mishra
Editor-cum-Chief Executive
e-News Letter- OrissaJob.Com

…::::::…… OrissaJob.Com- The Only Job & Career Portal Promoted, Managed& Run by Females Only.

IGNOU, C-DAC, IIITM Gwalior, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

admissionnews — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 06:19:46 +0000

ADMISSION IN TO INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY (IGNOU).

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) invites application from eligible candidates for admission in to the following Degree / Diploma Courses

IGNOU also Provide Post Graduate Certificate in Oral Implantology (PGCOI) & Post Graduate Certificate in Endodontics (PGCE) course.

Candidates who are registered BDS Doctors after completion of Internship & their degree should be recognized by Dental Council of India are eligible for these two courses.

Further Details can be available from

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU),
Maidan Garhi, New Delhi – 110068.

Or can be downloaded from

http://www.ignou.ac.in

ADMISSION IN TO DIPLOMA & PG DIPLOMA COURSES AT C-DAC.

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) invites application from eligible candidates for admission in to the following courses

Other 24 Weeks PG Diploma Courses are as under.

Further Details can be available from

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC),
Advanced Computing Training School (ACTS) Headquarters,
5th Floor SG IT Park, Aundh, Pune 411007,
Ph. +91-20-25503100/01/02,
e-mail: acts@cdac.in

Or can be downloaded from

http://acts.cdac.in

ADMISSION IN TO INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & MANAGEMENT, GWALIOR.

Applications are invited from Engineering Graduates for Training for Professional Program for a period of 12 weeks, from 15th Jan 2009 to 15th April 2010.

Further details can be available from

Or can be downloaded from

http://www.iiitm.ac.in

ADMISSION IN TO PANDIT DEENDAYAL PETROLEUM UNIVERSITY.

Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University invites application from eligible candidates for admission in to MBA (Focused on Oil & Gas Sector).

Further details can be available from

School of Petroleum Management,
PDPU campus, Raisan – 382007,
Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
Ph. 079-23275119

Or an be downloaded from

http://www.pdpu.ac.in

ADMISSION IN TO MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (MIT).

Further details can be available from

Rochelle Pereira,
Ph. No. +91 22 40256225 / +91 9820117222,
E-mail: mitprofessionaleducation@lavasa.com

Or can be downloaded from

http://www.lavasa.com/high/mit_education.aspx

Regards

Dr. Pragatika Mishra
Editor-cum-Chief Executive
e-News Letter- OrissaJob.Com

…::::::…… OrissaJob.Com- The Only Job & Career Portal Promoted, Managed& Run by Females Only.

Looking at MIT's Sixth Sense

fredzimny — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 05:43:43 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

MIT’s Sixth Sense

by David Polinchock on 17 December, 2009 – 12:24

This was one of the talks at TED earlier this year that got everyone talking about what the future of AR can look like.

This demo — from Pattie Maes‘ lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry — was the buzz of TED. It’s a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine “Minority Report” and then some.

Think about technology that allows information to be projected onto the real world and you start to realize how important this can be. Imagine that I have a peanut allergy and, as I walk through the grocery store, the Sixth Sense automatically tells me which foods are made with peanuts. Could be pretty powerful, eh?

But it also means direct information at the point of brand interaction. It means that no matter what your ad campaign says, when I walk into a store and see all kinds of information projected onto your product, from professional ratings to consumer reviews, right there, can make or break the purchase decision.

The Sixth Sense is going open source and we’ll see many more developments on this technology in the future.
http://www.futurelab.net/blogs/marketing-strategy-innovation/2009/12/mits_sixth_sense.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Futurelab+%28Futurelab%27s+Blog%29

SixthSense Augmented Reality Device Goes Open Source (singularityhub.com)
“Sixth Sense Technology” Will Be Open Source (boingboing.net)

Famed Nobel Prize Winning Economist Paul A. Samuelson Dies At 94

BBVM — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:49:25 +0000

Washington, D.C. (AHN) – U.S. economist Paul Anthony Samuelson a Nobel Prize laureate died on Sunday, he was 94. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) the school where Samuelson taught, the “Father of Modern Economics” died at his home.

Samuelson, was the first American to win the Nobel Prize in economics in 1970 and was deemed one of the preeminent economists of the 20th century. The Swedish Royal Academies stated, when awarding the prize, that he “has done more than any other contemporary economist to raise the level of scientific analysis in economic theory.” His expertise was sought out by numerous government officials including Presidents John Fitzgerald “Jack” Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson. He also served as consultant to the National Treasury.

His legacy includes transforming the theoretical foundations of his field and the way economics was taught around the world. Furthermore MIT officials say he is also credited with shaping the investment practices of MIT and the lives of his colleagues and students.

According to published reports his world renowned text book “Economics: An Introductory Analysis” has been translated into 40 languages and is now in its 19th edition in English. It is also the largest-selling economic textbooks of all time.

In 1996 he was awarded the country’s top science honor the National Medal of Science.

He is survived by his wife Risha Samuelson, six children from his first marriage and a stepdaughter, as well as 15 grandchildren.

The repackaging of MIT Marilee Jones: A second chance that’s come a little too soon

chuckgallagher — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:52:54 +0000

I’m all for second chances — so much so I even started a foundation to encourage others to find theirs. So when I read that Marilee Jones had started a new life as an admissions consultant, I really wanted to cheer her on — especially given all she’s had to overcome, even if as a result of her own poor choices.

A little over two years ago, Jones resigned as dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) after it was discovered she lied about her academic credentials nearly 30 years before. Still, everyone deserves a second chance — right? — and, today, Jones has reemerged as an admissions consultant who delivers this message to parents: Academic glory isn’t the be all-end all; it’s your relationship with your child that matters most.

So far, so good. But here’s something that raised my eyebrow: Jones hired a public-relations consultant, Rose Marie Terenzio, to help with her comeback. Terenzio’s first order of business was getting Jones to volunteer at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, where she could help teenage cancer survivors move on to college. However well-intentioned, these steps seem just a little too manufactured.

Here’s hoping I’m wrong. The fact is, facing the truth and operating with honesty, integrity and ethics will serve Jones well — she doesn’t need a PR firm for that. Based upon her own choices, she can now be true to herself and use her experience as a positive framework for helping others. Through that she will receive her SECOND CHANCE!

What do you think of Marilee Jones’ comeback? Too soon? Or just in time? Share your comments here.

Profiling the 50 Most: Jeffrey W. Stovall

askiatek2008 — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:40:52 +0000

As Government Technology magazine recently noted, Jeffrey W. Stovall is

Jeffrey W. Stovall, Chief Information Officer, City of Charlotte, N.C.

one of the most influential African-American leaders in public information technology.

He joined the City of Charlotte, North Carolina in May 2008 as its first Chief Information Officer. Charlotte is the fast-growing banking and retail center which recently elected Anthony Foxx as its new mayor.

Stovall oversees the evaluation of long- and short-term initiatives for e-Business, IT portfolio management, business process improvement, technology project management and strategic planning as well as the application of new technologies to solve business problems.

Prior to joining the City, Stovall worked for Sprint Nextel, where he was director of IT merger integration planning.

The Richmond, VA native received a master’s degree in business administration from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia and a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“I am honored to have my name listed among such a talented group of individuals, ” said Stovall after his selection to the 50 Most. ”I also hope that I am able to live up to the distinction by inspiring a future generation to enter a field which has tremendous impacts in all aspects of our lives.”

Meds Charity Auction

Francesco — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:19:53 +0000

The yearly charity auction organized by every “ocean” (aka section) at Sloan is a nice distraction from incoming finals. Everyone from the class can auction and bid on the most various items. In our 70-people ocean we raised 9′300$, donated to Community Water Solution.

I have to say I wasn’t very original in my auctioned item: 3 hours of consulting case preparation (there’s a good market though!) and an italian dinner (promptly outsourced to my girflriend).

On the other side I got:

A complete, 3-course plus dessert Latin lunch for 2 people
A date with the MIT Homecoming Queen (not for me, all the class collected the money for a classmate of ours)
A deluxe hug (for the entire ocean) donated by a classmate (?!)

Here’s some pics!

Related articles by Zemanta

MIT Display Lets You Control Objects With a Wave of Your Hand [Gestural Computing] (gizmodo.com)
The Unhappy 30-Year Treasury Auction (paul.kedrosky.com)
MIT Axes the 500-Word Application Essay (news.slashdot.org)

rosemaryremembers — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:43:34 +0000

Because love grows where my Rosemary goes And nobody knows like me
Garden: The Bee Buddy who did this row pieced a profusion of brightly colored flowers embellished with fun buttons.

But there’s booze in the blender, And soon it will render That frozen concoction that helps me hang on
Food: This lady (who also is a delightful neighbor) appliqued a beautiful bowl of fruit in her row. She also added margarita glasses with wedges of citrus and umbrellas to complete the scene. Oh so thirst-wuenching!

Our house, was our castle and our keep. Our house, in the middle of our street
Home: In all the row-by-rows that I have done, the final row is always called home and hearth. Obviously not much hearth time is needed in the summer but the cottage is too cute for words. The 4 heart flowers represent what our family was doing at the time. We were active-duty Army, sewing away at kids’ sporting events…

Straight out of Cape Cod, We’re keeping it real
Finally the rows all put together. I had done several row quilts and wanted to come up with a different layout. The Pentagon shape is an obvious homage to what brought us to the District in the first place. The background is a hot pink background with many,many appliqued alligators. I was trying to go with a somewhat preppy theme as summer and the pink& green combo go hand in hand for me. I embroidered white diagonal lines and then hand-quilted it with kelly green thread to allude to an argyle theme.

Summer Row-By-Row

rosemaryremembers — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:02:34 +0000

A row-by-row quilt is a group project where each member makes rows for each other. We came up with a theme for the entire quilt and then for each individual row. Row 1 is done by the original owner which sets the tone for the rows she will be receiving. The width of the row was set at 40″ (40.5 unfinished) and there was no limit on height. Although I have done row-by-rows with other themes, I’m sharing the Summer one as I would much rather think of warmer, sunnier days while looking at the snow outside.

Our overall theme was Summer. Each row had a theme as follows: Owner’s Choice, Recreation, Food, Water, Garden, Activity, Home. We each provided a list of key words and memories for the others to draw from when planning the rows. We had a month to complete each row and we kept the results secret from each original owner until the end.

Beach baby, beach baby, Give me your hand,Give me somethin’ that I can remember
Owner’s Choice: I developed a scene at the beach that I based off a child’s coloring page. Techniques used were hand-applique, raw-edge applique by machine, embroidery and macine-piecing. I have a lot of fabric that depicts natural elements so it wasn’t too hard to find a tan that worked for the sand and I had lots of sky fabric.

Shadows on the wall, I can see them fall Here and there and ev’rywhere.
Silhouettes in blue, Dancing in the dew; Here am I, Where are you?
Recreation: We are all quilters so the woman who did my row thought that a lady quilting would be appropriate. She used a shadow-applique and embroidery technique along with machine-piecing.

We sail on yachts and we ride on horses, Every meal we eat comes in multiple courses
Water: The woman who designed this row knew that I sailed on the Charles River in high school. That was a long time ago and I only did it during the academic year but seeing boats on the water is a wonderful sight in the summer as well as other times of the year. Each of the sailboats has a college name on the sail. The one with the plaid hull is obviously for the Home of the Tartans, This row was paper-pieced.

Last night I had the strangest dream I sailed away to China
In a little row boat to find ya And you said you had to get your laundry cleaned
Activity: This quilter made an outdoor scene with Sunbonnet Sues hanging quilts on a clothesline. It was machine-appliqued and embellished by hand.

A Week in Review - 12.06.09

Michael Tith — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:01:22 +0000

1. BU’s SPH new global health initiative gets help

2. Emerson’s president will step down in 2011

3. HBS dean to retire

4. Ahead of the Bell: Ed panel to meet on new rules facing for-profit colleges

5. Vt. students respond to praise about behavior

6. New England schools caution against pricey teacher gifts

7. Former M.I.T. dean resurfaces, leaving scandal behind

8. Deployment taking toll on military’s children

9. College loans as development aid

10. A new look for graduate entrance test

11. Can a new (free) degree at Harvard spur public school reform?

12. For-profit Universities want some respect

MIT Develops New Platinum Compound As Powerful As Cisplatin But Better Able To Destroy Tumor Cells

Paul Cacciatore — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:30:43 +0000

MIT chemists have developed a new platinum compound that is as powerful as the commonly used antican

A Selection of Biochemistry Resources

biosciblog — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:30:14 +0000

: Image by BlueRidgeKitties via Flickr

Online Biochemistry Hypertext Book:

http://themedicalbiochemistrypage.org/

MIT OpenCourseWare material:

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Biology/7-014Spring-2005/VideoLectures/index.htm

Online Biochemistry Book:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/13595802/USMLE-Road-Map-Biochemistry

Medical Biocehmsitry Book:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/18252344/Medical-Biochemistry

Magazine on Biopharmaceutical manufacture:

http://biopharminternational.findpharma.com/

Electricity without greenhouse gases

davidkirkpatrick — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:35:31 +0000

And using natural gas for fuel. Regardless what your thoughts are on anthropogenic global warming, the goal of reducing greenhouse gas rests on solid scientific ground. Natural gas is a plentiful commodity in the oil and gas sector and this technology sounds like a great alternative to coal and dirtier petroleum.

The release:

Proposed system uses solid-oxide fuel cells to produce power without sending greenhouse gases into the atmosphere

A new type of natural-gas electric power plant proposed by MIT researchers could provide electricity with zero carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere, at costs comparable to or less than conventional natural-gas plants, and even to coal-burning plants. But that can only come about if and when a price is set on the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases — a step the U.S. Congress and other governments are considering as a way to halt climate change.

Postdoctoral associate Thomas Adams and Paul I. Barton, the Lammot du Pont Professor of Chemical Engineering, propose a system that uses solid-oxide fuel cells, which produce power from fuel without burning it. The system would not require any new technology, but would rather combine existing components, or ones that are already well under development, in a novel configuration (for which they have applied for a patent). The system would also have the advantage of running on natural gas, a relatively plentiful fuel source — proven global reserves of natural gas are expected to last about 60 years at current consumption rates — that is considered more environmentally friendly than coal or oil. (Present natural-gas power plants produce an average of 1,135 pounds of carbon dioxide for every megawatt-hour of electricity produced — half to one-third the emissions from coal plants, depending on the type of coal.)

Absent any price for carbon emissions, Adams says, when it comes to generating electricity “the cheapest fuel will always be pulverized coal.” But as soon as there is some form of carbon pricing — which attempts to take into account the true price exacted on the environment by greenhouse gas emissions — “ours is the lowest price option,” he says, as long as the pricing is more than about $15 per metric ton of emitted carbon dioxide. Such a pricing mechanism would be put in place, for example, by the Waxman-Markey “American Clean Energy and Security Act” that was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in July, through its “cap and trade” provisions. (A corresponding bill has not yet reached the floor of the U.S. Senate.) If the program becomes law, the actual price per ton of carbon would vary, being determined through the free market.

Natural gas already accounts for 22 percent of all U.S. electricity production, and that percentage is likely to rise in coming years if carbon prices are put into effect. For these and other reasons, a system that can produce electricity from natural gas at a competitive price with zero greenhouse gas emissions could prove to be an attractive alternative to conventional power plants that use fossil fuels.

The system proposed by Adams and Barton would not emit into the air any carbon dioxide or other gases believed responsible for global warming, but would instead produce a stream of mostly pure carbon dioxide. This stream could be harnessed and stored underground relatively easily, a process known as carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). One additional advantage of the proposed system is that, unlike a conventional natural gas plant with CCS that would consume significant amounts of water, the fuel-cell based system actually produces clean water that could easily be treated to provide potable water as a side benefit, Adams says.

How they did it: Adams and Barton used computer simulations to analyze the relative costs and performance of this system versus other existing or proposed generating systems, including natural gas or coal-powered systems incorporating carbon capture technologies.

Combined-cycle natural gas plants — the most efficient type of fossil-fuel power plants in use today — could be retrofitted with a carbon-capture system to reduce the output of greenhouse gases by 90 percent. But the MIT researchers’ study found that their proposed system could eliminate virtually 100 percent of these emissions, at a comparable cost for the electricity produced, and with even a higher efficiency (in terms of the amount of electricity produced from a given amount of fuel).

Next steps: Although no full-scale plants using such systems have yet been built, the basic principles have been demonstrated in a number of smaller units including a 250-kilowatt plant, and prototype megawatt-scale plants are planned for completion around 2012. Actual utility-scale power plants would likely be on the order of 500 megawatts, Adams says. And because fuel cells, unlike conventional turbine-based generators, are inherently modular, once the system has been proved at small size it can easily be scaled up. “You don’t need one large unit,” Adams explains. “You can do hundreds or thousands of small ones, run in parallel.” Adams says practical application of such systems is “not very far away at all,” and could probably be ready for commercialization within a few years. “This is near-horizon technology,” he says.

Source: Journal of Power Sources: “High-efficiency power production from natural gas with carbon capture”

Funding: The research was partly funded from the BP-MIT Conversion Research Program

Global Entrepreneurship Week Wrap-up

Rishi Dean — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:01:04 +0000

As the Global E-Week site puts it: “25,000 Events, Millions of Participants, 1 Week”. Certainly an impressive initiative that we should all continue to do our part to support. Personally, I could only make it to three events in Cambridge MA which were absolutely incredible – here’s my recap of those.

MIT Science & Engineering Business Club’s “Innovate, Create, Initiate” Workshop
I had the privilege to attend a student-run workshop session to help fellow students to nurture their ideas, form teams around them, and to understand what was required to develop them into businesses.
There was a lot of ground to cover in the day long workshop, but the team hit on the important highlights:

Intro to MassChallenge: These guys are doing amazing things and John gave an inspirational talk…more on MassChallenge later.
Team Building: MIT Sloan professor Tom Kochan gave a crash course into how teams are formed and what makes for good team dynamics. The participants then organized them selves into groups to put those newly learned skills to the test to build the tallest towers out of the contents of a ziploc bag of building blocks (see image).
Product Design: Blade Kotelly gave a crash course in his 10-step design process, and then put the crowd to the test to apply it to an interesting target market.
Business Plans: Ken Zolot was up next to do a mini-version of his business plan course that he gives during IAP at MIT. The thing that resonated the most with the crowd is where he posed the question of 3 rooms: there are three rooms at MIT and you can join one of them – do you go into the room with the perpetual motion machine (technology); the room with Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Barack Obama (team); or do you go into the room with 5 o the most incredible experts in the world on H1N1 (market)?
Pitching: The final activity was the elevator pitch; teams were given 60 seconds to explain their ideas to a panel of judges (including me). I was impressed at the level of polish of the ideas and the poise of the students….although I did ask every one to talk about $$$…but hey, it’s MIT.

Overall, the event was a fantastic display of energy and collaboration. The students impressed me with their ideas, and the work they’ve put in to develop them so far. Innovation is alive and well at MIT.

MassChallenge’s MassAccess event

MassChallenge, the non-profit initiative to help catalyze entrepreneurship in Massachusetts, put on their MassAccess “speed networking” event. Overall it was an incredible opportunity to connect people of all backgrounds and interests from emerging entrepreneurs, established entrepreneurs, investors, customers, mentors, and more. The overall intent was to foster collaboration with the intent of building networks and businesses. I met a number of great people, with lots of passion and enthusiasm — and found myself routinely asking the question “how can I help”.

The team at MassChallenge put together an incredible event – and they’re only just getting started. So keep an eye out for more as the business plan competition portion kicks off next year.

MIT $100K Event: Eric Ries
As part of the event series for the MIT $100K, I attended a talk by Eric Ries – noted entrepreneur and author of the blog Startup Lessons Learned (also known as the Lean Startup). Eric’s talk was eye opening, and extremely pragmatic. Eric’s blog is a great source, and you should check it out; I’ll continue to post about the applications of his principles.

Here is a Slideshare presentation that is very close to what he presented at MIT:

Summary and a personal rant

With so many things going on across the globe, it’s pretty disappointing to see Canada’s turn out in Global E-Week. While there are great things going on in Canada, like Challenge Your World and Impact, it’s particularly pathetic that Waterloo — my alma mater, and a school that wants to pride itself on innovation and entrepreneurship — was a virtual no-show. Maybe I missed something (and if I did please let me know) but we certainly have a long way to go if we’re really going to get serious about fostering an innovation culture in Canada…taking a few notes from Cambridge MA is a good place to start.

Masdar City - Welcome, To The Future.

matthewceo — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:55:44 +0000

There is a world, a world in which we live in, where not everything is as perfect as we wish it was. But the folks over at the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company want to change that. They will be in charge of the creation and production of Masdar City, the world’s first city to have a sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste ecology. The area, will cover 2.3 square miles, and will be powered by a 40-60 megawatt solar power plant, photovoltaic modules will be stationed on all roofs producing another 130 megawatts, with wind farms built just outside of the city’s borders powering the city with another 20 megawatts.

Masdar also intend on hosting the largest hydrogen power plant in the world, stationed in the United Arab Emirates. It’s water supply will be roughly 60% less than similarly sized communities and will still be enough for all 50,000 inhabitants, 80% of that water will be recycled, with the other 20% being waste water being used for crop irrigation. They also have a nice little waste plan, attempting to reduce it to zero, they will use waste for fertilizer and if an extra power source is needed they will use waste incineration. Metals and plastics will be re-cycled or re-used for other purposes.

As for travel, automobiles are to be outlawed within the city borders, instead the inhabitants of Masdar City will accomplish travel through public mass transits and podcars (personal rapid transit). The city will also be surrounded by a perimeter wall channelling out hot desert winds and instead allowing cooler breezes to roam through it’s streets. Educationally, Masdar City will have the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), the little sister to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Below are some pictures of what’s to come.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_rapid_transi

Foi dada a largada para projeto de pesquisa que reúne Famecos, MIT e Grupo RBS

sortimentos — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:05:32 +0000

Na segunda-feira, 16 de novembro, professores e alunos da Faculdade
de Comunicação Social (Famecos) da PUCRS, representantes do Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) e jornalistas do Grupo RBS reuniram-se
para dar inicio ao projeto denominado Locast. A primeira etapa da pesquisa,
que se dará pela produção de conteúdos envolvendo o jornalismo
geolocalizado, acontece até o dia 23 de novembro.

LEIA MAIS NOS SITES
:: SORTIMENTOS :: http://www.sortimentos.net/?p=4696
:: GEBBEG VARIEDADES :: http://gebbeg.com.br/?p=7548

Best u.s. Architecture Schools::2010

whu — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:18:37 +0000

via::archdaily Cornell University Greenway Group ranks top Architectual schools in the nation, inclu

This Week: U.S. Housing and Human Rights Tour

antieviction — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:58:44 +0000

Events:

Monday November 16 – Discussion at Red Emmas

Tuesday November 16 – Discussion at Africa Action at 12pm-2pm and at 5:30pm-7:30pm

Thursday, November 19 – Brecht Forum at 7:30pm

Friday, November 20 – Massachusetts Institute of Technology at 12:30pm-2pm and Emerson College at 3pm-5pm

Saturday, November 21 – Alliance to Develop Power at 12pm

–

Folks,

I hope this message finds you well. Over the past few month, I have been helping to organize a visit to the U.S. by a South African social movement activist from the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign (www.antieviction.org.za).
South Africa will be on the global stage as host of the 2010 World Cup. Yet, with one of the world’s highest rates of economic inequality and social protest, it is likely that the country’s glaring contradictions and its militant poor, perhaps more so than the “beautiful game,” will be center stage next summer.

For the past nine years, Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign has been one of the most prominent organizations of militant poor, fighting against evictions and police brutality as well as for free basic service and quality health care in South Africa’s poor and working class communities. As a coordinating body of over 15 community organizations in the Western Cape Province, the AEC has been at the forefront of challenging the neoliberal economic policies have been imposed since the fall of apartheid, recently helping to found the Poor People’s Alliance as a national network of poor people’s movements.

This month, one of the Anti-Eviction Campaign’s coordinators, Ashraf Cassiem, is going around the U.S., speaking at college campuses and meeting with activist to share information about post-apartheid community struggles, particularly with the forced removals and the resulting protests taking place in the run up to the 2010 World Cup. He is also here to witness the work being done in the U.S. around layoffs, foreclosures, and other issues that have come to the fore with the current recession.

I know this is short notice, but I wanted to make sure you knew about our events. Please feel free to come and bring your friends if you can.

Peace, Toussaint
215-837-4071

Monday, November 16:

Red Emma’s Presents an Evening of Discussion and Solidarity with Ashraf Cassiem at 7pm at 2640 St. Paul Street (http://redemmas.org/uploads/posters/aec.jpg)

Tuesday, November 17:

Lunch at the Institute for Policy Studies hosted by Africa Action, ”Housing Struggles World Wide” 12-2 pm at Institute for Policy Studies, 1112 16th St. NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036 (http://www.africaaction.org/events/index.php?op=view&eventid=2051)

“Housing Struggles World Wide” Panel Discussion, 5:30-7:30pm, Real Time Africa, 4000 Chesapeake St NW Washington, DC 20016
(http://www.africaaction.org/events/index.php?op=view&eventid=2071)

Thursday, November 19:

Brecht Forum @ 7:30pm, “This is not the freedom we fought for: Poor Peoples movements in post-apartheid South Africa” 451 West Street (between Bank & Bethune Streets), New York, NY 10014 (http://brechtforum.org/events/post-apartheid-moment)

Friday, November 20:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology @ 12:30-2pm, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 10-485, Cambridge, MA 02138

Emerson College @ 3-5pm, Walker Building Rm 233, 120 Boylston St, Boston, MA

Saturday, November 21:

Alliance to Develop Power @ 12pm, ” South African activist to share strategies with ADP leaders,” 130 Union Street, Springfield, MA

Texting and driving just don't mix -- even hands-free

davidkirkpatrick — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:29:09 +0000

An interesting blog post from Dan Ariely, a visiting professor at MIT’s Media Library on the “tiny irregularities” of texting while driving:

Sad story out in the New York Times describing growing concerns about texting while driving. In Britain, a woman was sentenced to a 21-month sentence after it was found that she had been texting while driving, which resulted in the death of a 24-year old design student. In many ways, texting while driving illustrates a case in which tiny, individual irrational decisions can accumulate and cause widespread suffering, not only for the individuals who are texting, but their unsuspecting victims. Unlike cases of drunk driving, in which the driver’s decision making abilities are impaired, drivers who text are at their full wits to wait until they’ve pulled over to check their texts, and yet in the process they routinely underestimate the risk they impose to themselves and others.

The professor was quite wrong, however, on one aspect of the issue:

… we can hope that cell phone companies are continuing to explore voice activation technologies that can read text messages aloud and also transcribe them from voice — thereby by-passing the problem altogether.

In researching web content I created for an insurance website, I came across this research that finds hands-free listening to mobile devices is not much safer than hands-on cell phone use because the issue is the distraction of the usage, not merely taking eyes off the road ahead (all bold text my emphasis):

Five states currently ban the use of hand-held cell phones in favor of hands-free devices while driving. However, several studies have shown that there is little difference between the two when it comes to minding the road ahead. Both hand-held and hands-free devices involve listening. The act of listening is what distracts drivers from paying attention to the road. A study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University placed participants in a functional MRI scanner that allowed researchers to observe brain activity while the subjects “drove” on a computerized roadway. Without distractions, the area of the brain that lit up most was the area involved in spatial perception (knowing where you are and what’s around you). When the same subjects were tasked with listening to and correctly answering a series of questions as they drove, the area of the brain that lit up most was the area involving language comprehension, while activity in the spatial perception area of the brain decreased by as much as 37 percent. Multitasking places high demands on the brain.

out online?

socialBedia — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:51:56 +0000

As part of my studies I have been introduced to First Monday which is one of the first peer-reviewed open access journals on the internet, about the internet. In an attempt to get to grips with quantitative (measurables) and qualitative (opinioned observation) research methods, our group has been tasked with reading October’s p apers and analysing the approaches utilised.

One study presented was Gaydar: Facebook friendships expose sexual orientation (Jernigan and Mistree 2009) especially as I had read coverage of the research and the privacy debates in the mainstream media in recent weeks.

The research utilised the quantitative techniques to profile 4080 Facebook users within the MIT Facebook network. And hypothesis testing was undertaken to establish “a method for accurately predicting the sexual orientation of Facebook users by analysing friendship associations” (Jernigan and Mistree, 2009).

Despite the success of the study (which did accurately predict Facebook user’s sexual orientation based on the information the information collated about their Facebook friends) I think it is interesting to consider some of the “problems” surrounding this methodology (many of which were identified by Jernigan and Mistree).

Equal contact status – This was part of the basis of the study (people having a predisposition to socialise with people “like” them). Although this may predominately be the case it ignores the fact that there are anomalies and not everyone behaves in this way.

Human sexuality - In Facebook users sexuality has to be defined by distinct categories (interested in men, women, both men and women or undefined). In reality sexuality is more complex than this… as the authors describe “the world can not be divided into sheep and goats” (so to speak!) Is it realistic to expect the identity chosen in Facebook to always match the “reality”. Also this means that identities such a transgender remain ignored.

“Friends” – What is a Facebook friend? Many FB users have 100s(+) of so called “friends” within their network. How representative are these connections in comparison to an individuals “sympathy group” which is the average number of people (12) whose death would leave you truly devastated. This piece of research can not get under the skin of this question.

The tools - The recruiting/profiling of each FB account was undertaken by an automated spider (Arachne). Although this helps remove human bias from the research process it also means the subtleties of human interpretation are missed. For example the study can not account for the differences that arose between lesbian and gay male FB relationships. Also the way in which the spider operated meant that it collated data over 18 days in total rather than taking a ’snapshot’ at one point in time.

Trade offs - The nature of the logistical regression model used means that there is an ongoing balancing act between “specificity , a measure of the model’s susceptibility to false positives, and sensitivity, the probability the model correctly predicts a characteristic” (Signorovitch, 2007 in Jernigan and Mistree, 2009).

Threats to validity – Jernigan and Mistree also identify various threats to the validity of the results of the study, including the selection method (the validation dataset came from profiles known to the authors to be gay males by prior knowledge) and history – National Coming Out Day was held 13 days before the research began.

Ethics – The data for this research was obtained without the knowledge of the FB users, although it was in the public domain and the individuals have been anonimised. This raises many questions regarding privacy and the ethics of collecting information in this way.

In conclusion it can be said that the study can not reveal causation but only correlation. The methodology is useful to obtain an overall picture however human identity and relationships are complex and therefore maybe can not be fully understood utilising these techniques.

Image c/o Kaptain Kobold licensed under Creative Commons.