“Now that we can do anything, what will we do?”

Welcome to Massive Change Weekly, an electronic newsletter sharing news about groundbreaking achievements in global design.

Dream Guatemala Dream

Imagine changing the course of an entire country.
Imagine a better Guatemala.
Imagine reshaping a nation’s reality by rethinking its future, and creating an image powerful enough to galvanize action.
Imagine a field of vectors all pointing toward an improved condition.
Imagine if Guatemalans were to dream again…

About a year and a half ago, Bruce Mau Design was approached by a group of Guatemalan citizens who believed that through a collaborative process we could help them define the future of their country.

Before meeting them we received a letter from the Minister of Education asking us to join them in their “endeavors towards a common goal of building the spectacular Guatemala that they deserve”.

We helped this group of citizens define their identity and create the Foundation Project of Life (Fundación Proyecto de Vida), the entity that gave birth to the ¡GuateAmala! movement and which will continue to move it forward.

“We are a group of Guatemalans who deeply love and believe in our country. We are confident that the future of Guatemala is one of greatness. We believe that our people can be happy and prosperous, that in our souls there is the courage and the passion to make this a place of possibility for all Guatemalans. (more…)

“Now that we can do anything, what will we do?”

Welcome to Massive Change Weekly, an electronic newsletter sharing news about groundbreaking achievements in global design.

If you like Massive Change, you’ll love the Worldchanging blog ( http://www.worldchanging.com/ ). This is an “absolute must-read” website. The “about us” section will make it clear why we love it so much. Visit it and you will be addicted.

“WorldChanging.com works from a simple premise: that the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us. That plenty of people are working on tools for change, but the fields in which they work remain unconnected. That the motive, means and opportunity for profound positive change are already present. That another world is not just possible, it’s here. We only need to put the pieces together.

“Informed by that premise, we do our best to bring you links to (and analysis of) those tools, models and ideas in a timely and concise manner. We don’t do negative reviews – why waste your time with what doesn’t work? We don’t offer critiques or exposes, except to the extent that such information may be necessary for the general reader to apprehend the usefulness of a particular tool or resource. We don’t generally offer links to resources which are about problems and not solutions, unless the resource is so insightful that its very existence is a step towards a solution. We pay special attention to tools, ideas and models that may have been overlooked in the mass media. We make a point of showing ways in which seemingly unconnected resources link together to form a toolkit for changing the world.

“Every link we post is informed by technology, but the new possibilities we cover aren’t just high-tech. Sure, we all need to understand the uses (and dangers) of advances like biotechnology, the Internet, ubiquitous computing, artificial intelligences, “open source” software and nano-materials. But we also need to know how best to collaborate, how to build coalitions and movements, how to grow communities, how to make our businesses live up to their highest potential and how to make the promise of democracy into a reality. We need to understand techniques as well as technologies, ideas as well as innovations. How we work together is as important as the tools we use.” (more…)

“Now that we can do anything, what will we do?”

Welcome to Massive Change Weekly, an electronic newsletter sharing news about groundbreaking achievements in global design.

A few short blasts this week:

Researchers at Brigham Young University believe they have found a new compound that could finally kill the HIV/AIDS virus. Current treatments can slow it down, but not eliminate it. Although so far limited to early test tube studies, CSA-54, one of a family of compounds called Ceragenins (or CSAs), mimics the disease-fighting characteristics of anti-microbial and anti-viral agents produced naturally by a healthy human immune system. http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_3482712

Further news on desalination: China recently announced that it will produce around up to one billion liters of of fresh water produced by desalination by 2010.

The space elevator reaches one mile. A space elevator is, for now, a hypothetical structure designed to transport material from the earth into space. Though there are many different proposals for doing this, they all share the same goal of replacing rocket propulsion with the traversal of a fixed structure similar to an elevator. LiftPort proposes doing this with a cable tether that would span from the earth’s surface to a point beyond geosynchronous orbit. As the earth rotates, the inertia at the end of the tether counteracts gravity and keeps the tether taut. Vehicles can then climb the tether and escape the planet’s gravity without the use of rockets. Such a structure could eventually permit delivery of great quantities of cargo and people to orbit, and at costs only a fraction of those associated with current means. LiftPort has now produced one mile of tether, with 61,999 miles to go to reach its target of being fully operational by 2018. (more…)

“Now that we can do anything, what will we do?”

Welcome to Massive Change Weekly, an electronic newsletter sharing news about groundbreaking achievements in global design.

All of a sudden, ethanol has had its tipping point.

As everyone knows by now, George Bush got a different kind of religion this week when he announced that America was “addicted to oil” and made a surprise plea for developing alternative fuels like ethanol. A week before Bush’s State of the Union address, however, Fortune published a lengthy article, “How to Beat the High Cost of Gasoline”, where they argued, “Stop dreaming about hydrogen. Ethanol is the answer to the energy dilemma. It’s clean and green and runs in today’s cars. And in a generation, it could replace gas. Forever.”

Fortune’s piece appeared at the same time that GM (GM!) launched a new awareness campaign about their flexible-fuel vehicles that can run on both traditional gasoline and E85, which is comprised of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. http://www.onlygm.com I was surprised when I heard the first radio spot on NPR telling me that GM was committed to “energy independence”. Their slogan is “Live Green Go Yellow”.

Ford, though not as aggressive with a campaign yet, also touts its flex-fuel vehicles.

Media response to Bush’s address was extensive and, in some ways, predictably skeptical. The Wall Street Journal proclaimed “Bush’s Latest Energy Solution, Like Its Forebears, Faces Hurdles.” They cite as one of the hurdles that the “White House is offering little money to back up its rhetoric: just $150 million next year, hardly enough to revolutionize a multibillion dollar energy market”. But, as surely the WSJ knows, in the US at least, the switch to ethanol is going to have to be market-driven. High gas prices, uncertainty in the Middle East (made even more pronounced this week by the anti-Danish and anti-EU riots over political cartoons of Muhammed), a desperate need to turn GM and Ford a round, and a similar consumer demand that fueled the hybrid market, will all have a bigger impact on the transformation of the energy economy. Government will mainly help through the approach to taxes. (more…)