The fuel tank of future

This article talks about the new innovation to store hydrogen in the material - mainly carbon nano tubes and graphne - The fascinating part of this article for me is the generative structures formed from carbon nano tubes - wondering if the form has to do with the capacity to hold hydrogen inside of the material, which has to be 6% of all.

More about this article

Media Lab creates Center for Future Storytelling

David Kirkpatrick (left), Chairman of Plymouth Rock Studios, Cynthia Breazeal, co-director of Media Lab's Center for Future Storytelling, and Frank Moss, director of the MIT Media Lab, with Nexi, a mobile, dexterous social robot developed by Breazeal's Personal Robots research group. Photo / Sam Ogden


"Storytelling is at the very root of what makes us uniquely human," said Frank Moss, Media Lab director and holder of the Jerome Wiesner Professorship of Media Arts and Sciences. "It is how we share our experiences, learn from our past, and imagine our future. But how we tell our stories depends on another uniquely human characteristic -- our ability to invent and harness technology. From the printing press to the Internet, technology has given people new ways to tell their stories, allowing them to reach new levels of creativity and personal fulfillment. The shared vision of the MIT Media Lab and Plymouth Rock Studios allows us to take the next quantum leap in storytelling, empowering ordinary people to connect in extraordinary ways."

link

Movable Sclupture + Projection = perceptual experience

Guerrila gardner from london

London's guerrilla gardener and author Richard Reynolds proposes the hands on grassroot movement to change the ecology of the urban area.

Originally from http://www.boingboing.net/2008/11/04/minidocumentary-of-l.html

ARTSPEAK

The arts community is responding to climate change, and changing the conversation in the process.

by Natalie Jeremijenko •

Seed magazine

link

The point is that the artists' view is invaluable precisely because they are not experts and do not have the authority granted by science. They are only as persuasive as their images. As nonexperts—though interested and knowledgeable—they stand in for the view of the everyman. This reflects the nature of urban and natural systems. They transcend boundaries; they transcend borders, disciplines, issues, and expertise. With art, the viewer knows that she has a license to interpret, to critically evaluate the work, that her opinion matters. The same can't be said of science. Scientific arguments are presented in the public imagination as fait accompli. When definitive terms like "discovered" and "understood" are the norm, science is often a one-way conversation. The creativity on display in these exhibitions plays into the public imagination differently than the computational model, the quantitative risk analysis, or other summative representations used by environmental agencies to inform public decision-making. The art invites interpretation without oversimplification or unnecessary precision. And by combining legibility with a diverse viewership the works of art provide the opportunity for evidence-driven discussion. They invite skepticism (who trusts an artist?) and critical engagement. They incite participation, not passive consumption of facts. In a participatory democracy, strategies that raise the standards of evidence used in public debate and that engage diverse publics are worth attention. And as much as climate change is a phenomenon of the environmental commons—we are all subject to it, layperson or expert—it necessitates, and deserves, a response from the commons.