Floating Cabin In Washington State.

One of the many data-driven projects to make the world a better place over at DataKind.

Question

Information can be very valuable. But it loses value with age. It becomes history, and less of a tool for change.

What value does information about poverty have? Well, when it’s timely—which historically poverty data has not been—that information can trigger reactions: in monetary policy, in foreign aid, in any imaginable channel of support. Time can mitigate starvation and disease, and save untold lives.

So we wanted to know: What kind of data could be secured easily, cheaply, and quickly that might provide nearly real time analysis on poverty? We thought the answer might be written in the lights.

Check out their findings: (via DataKind | Shining a Light on Poverty)

Car accidents aren't accidents

The use of the term “accident” gives cops and courts the cover to excuse murder. In a brutal editorial, Hsi-Pei Liao talks about his daughter, who was killed by a driver when she was three. The driver got a ticket for failure to yeild and failure to use due care, and those tickets were eventually thrown out by a DMV judge who considered the case for 47 seconds.

I was nearly killed by a hit-and-run drunk driver when I was 21, who was caught and then given a $1,000 fine and a six month license suspension (when he hit me, he was already driving without a license, having had his license pulled for a previous DUI). The Ontario prosecutor didn’t give me notice of the hearing and I wasn’t allowed to testify or give a victim impact statement.

Big city cops, especially the NYPD and SFPD, are notorious for excusing people who kill with their cars, especially when the victims are cyclists. An activist group called Families for Safe Streets is campaigning to replace the term “accident” – which implies that the incident was a kind of unpredictable, unavoidable effect of the universe’s uncooperative inanimate objects – with “crash.”

In New York City, they campaigned for the Right of Way Law, which came into effect in June 2014, which allows “police to bring a misdemeanor charge if a driver kills or seriously injures someone who has the right of way in a crosswalk or a bike lane.” It’s pretty amazing that a new law was needed for this – but even more amazing was the city bus drivers’ campaign against the law, because they didn’t want to “criminalize accidents.”

Read the rest

Arctic Warming Produces Mosquito Swarms Large Enough to Kill Baby Caribou

Lauren Culler's study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B found that Arctic warming is producing larger and larger mosquito swarms, which can kill caribou.

Apparently, because of the earlier thawing of the permafrost, and the increasing amount of permafrost that is melting each, each because of climate change, the Alaska state bird, aka the mosquito, is swarming in unprecedented numbers. The article tells us that mosquitos can kill a baby caribou calf by draining its blood, because the calf is already weakened by the scarcity of food sources also attributable to climate change.

Here’s a video, showing mosquitos swarming in Alaska and annoying a baby owl and a herd of caribou.

Check out these photos, taken by scientists in Alaska. If mosquitos make you squirm, close your eyes:

109-Year-Old Woman Said Secret To Long Life Is Avoiding Men

Earlier this year, BioDigital partnered with About.com to provide interactive visualizations for common health conditions. Patients searching for information about Type 2 diabetes, for instance, are presented with a 3D model of a cell’s response to insulin, in which they can explore the process from different angles while toggling between diabetic and normal cell function. 

What’s revolutionary about the API launch, though, is that now developers can personalize the BioDigital human by integrating their own imaging data, movement data collected by wearables, and health record data, among other sources. 

So essentially, instead of clicking around the standard human model on About.com, we could soon be exploring 3D models of our own bodies, constructed with our unique health data. 

For athletes especially, the immediate advantages of virtually replicating a moving body are obvious. If you can see exactly which movements inflict pain or stress on your body, it’s much easier to understand how to avoid them. 

For medical professionals, though, the ability to visualize vast amounts of health data in real time via the BioDigital human has the potential to change the way new information is analyzed and consumed. 

 “The human body is this incredible system of systems, and there’s an infinite amount of detail,” says Sculli. “So we can start mapping cellular mechanisms, and genomic and brain activity, and all of this information that’s being collected in masses from research and wearables, and make it consumable for people.”

(via 3D Modeling Startup BioDigital Launches An API For The Human Body | TechCrunch)

Watch: eSight could be exactly what people with vision problems need.

Amazing Maps of the World

Mesmerized 😃

Texas teenager creates $20 water purifier to tackle toxic e-waste pollution

18-year-old Perry Alagappan recognised at World Water Week 2015 for his renewable heavy metal filter made from graphene that he’s keeping open source

Now a new filtering device, invented by a US teenager, could provide a cheap and easy way to purify water.

The renewable heavy metal filter, designed by 18-year-old Perry Alagappan, removes 99% of heavy metals from water that passes through it. The filter, built from graphene nanotubes, can be rinsed with a vinegar concentrate and reused. The highly concentrated waste can then be evaporated, leaving a deposit of pure metal that can be used in many different applications.

Alagappan, who was awarded the Stockholm Junior Water Prize at this year’sWorld Water Week, said the filter cost just $20 (£13) to make, up to five times less than existing reverse osmosis technology.

“I became interested in water purification when I visited my grandparents in India, and saw with my own eyes how electronic waste severely contaminated the environment,” said the recent high school graduate from Houston, Texas, on winning the prize.

Breathtaking Images of Underwater Life Captured by Freediving Photographers Alex Voyer and Alex Roubaud