A Good Way To Remember The Human Bones In The Body. Dope Pic

Santa Connects With Child Using Sign Language

Byzantine 'flat-pack' church to be reconstructed in Oxford after spending 1,000 years on the seabed

Centuries before the Swedes started flat-packing their furniture, the Holy Roman Emperor Justinian had his own version, sending self-assembly churches to newly conquered parts of his empire.

Now one of the “Ikea-style” churches, which spent more than 1,000 years on a seabed after the ship carrying it sank, is to be reconstructed for the first time in Oxford.

The Byzantine church will be on display at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology as part of the exhibition Storms, War and Shipwrecks: Treasures from the Sicilian Seas, opening in June. 

Paul Roberts, co-curator of the exhibition, said: “Everything in the exhibition will be from under the sea. It’s very different from what’s been done before. Read more.

UN values ecosystem loss to trillions of dollars a year

The study authors have calculated the cost of the “lost ecosystem services value” our planet has suffered in the last decade and a half. According to their calculations, the loss due to land degradation averages US $43,400 to $72,000 per square km, some US $870 to $1,450 per person, globally each year. The percentage of the world’s land affected by land degradation has grown a lot in the last decades – it has doubled between the late 1970s and the early 2000s. And the process is far from its end.

“This study by ELD shows the immediate and global impact of land degradation and highlights that actions to tackle it pay off,” Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for Environment, Fisheries and Maritime Affairs commented on the paper.

“Increased land degradation is also one of the factors that can lead to migration and it is being exacerbated by climate change. On our planet, the area affected by drought has doubled in 40 years. One third of Africa is threatened by desertification. As President Juncker said in his State of the Union speech last week, climate refugees will become a new challenge – if we do not act swiftly.”

Robot Taxi: autonomous mobility for senior citizens in rural areas

Autonomous mobility. A future market, everyone is targeting: Google, Uber, Tesla, Apple, Baidu and a bunch of old-econmoy automotive players. Everybody wishes to triumph with its technology. But have you heard of :DeNA?

The Japanese tech company (originally a mobile gaming company with a net worth of over $1 billion) wants to develop the best smartphone-driven orchestration software for a fleet of robocars. :DeNA just started a new company called “Robot Taxi”, with - not surprisingly - a lucrative future robo-taxi market in mind. The nice thing is, however, that they initially don’t aim for the young urban metropolitan-elite, but rather focus on rural areas and senior citizens. Gizmodo has the story:

Today, it was announced that road tests will begin next year in Kanagawa prefecture, south of Tokyo. Fifty people will travel in trips of two miles from their homes to grocery stores, with a Robot Taxi employee on board as a safety precaution, the Wall Street Journal reports. And the demographics the company is targeting? Senior citizens, and people with no access to public transportation.

Certainly, Japan has a demographic problem and the societal views on robots differ immensely to the rest of the world. But it’s refreshing to see, that (profit oriented) companies exist, which are working on future services with people in mind.

[Robot Taxi] [via gizmodo] [read more about DeNA]

This Week in Social Entrepreneurship: Weh Yeoh tells us who sets the international development agenda (hint: it's you!)

Come out for the NY+Acumen Happy Hour and Jeopardy Night Wednesday night, October 16th. It will be an exciting evening at Galway Pub where all questions (errr…answers, rather) in the game will be based on a social entrepreneurship related case study. And, as always, there will be time for drinks and conversation.

On Tuesday, October 15th join Be Social Change and the Centre for Social Innovation for NY Social Good. This is a new event series featuring for- and non- profit ventures developing innovative approaches to tackling the toughest problems facing our generation.

Make a Wave is a start-up readiness program aiming to provide 250 women in UK foundational skills to think about social enterprise. They are searching for women based in UK, over 18, and committed to attending a business skills bootcamp, among other credentials. If you are interested, read more about this program and how to apply here.

Learn how, as a student, you can get involved with social enterprises during this live Q&A on Tuesday, October 8th with the Guardian Social Enterprise Network. Learn not only how you can get involved as a student, but also how you can benefit from social enterprise and even how you can start your very own!

Who sets the agenda when talking about international development? We, as ordinary citizens, have the power to collectively shift the government’s agenda. Check out this Huffington Post article written by Weh Yeoh, who is currently running a campaign on StartSomeGood to Bring Speech Therapy to Cambodia. 

Shawn D. Ross

I am a Northwest Native living in Washington State. A graduate of Washington State University and University of Phoenix with degrees in Architecture and Education I write about social, cultural, and personal improvement on the StartSomeGood Blog and SDRinspire. I am also a filmmaker and owner of Giraffe and Penguin Productions, a single daddy of two beautiful children, avid reader, writer, and hat wearer (Not in that picture but believe me, I wear ‘em). I am currently at work on my first feature length documentary. Follow me @shawndross and visit my websites: sdrinspire.tumblr.com and giraffeandpenguinproductions.tumblr.com.

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What good do you want to create? Visit our site to learn about how to start your own campaign.

Do you have a social entrepreneurship news story or an event you’d like to see on the StartSomeGood Blog? Email Nicole (Nicole @ StartSomeGood.com)

Maps like these allow us to see the city in a new light – not just as a massive consumer of energy, but also as a potential powerhouse.

Dr Anne Maassan on the solar potential of cities.  (via thisbigcity)

There’s A Charming Treehouse Colony In Germany, Calling Your Name

This is Robin’s Nest Hotel in Hessen, Germany. It’s far from civilization: You’ll have to travelsnaking roads up a mountain until you reach the forested alcove of incredible treehouse structures. Owner Peter Becker built them as a hotel after realizing he was “missing something” in the busy city, as he told online magazine iGNANT.

AIDS-drug-gouging hedge-douche reneges on promise to cut prices for Daraprim

Martin Shkreli, the hedge-fund douche-bro who hiked the price of an off-patent drug used by AIDS and cancer patients from $13.50 to $750, then promised to lower the prices after becoming the Most Hated Man on the Internet did no such thing, because he is a liar.

http://boingboing.net/2015/11/25/aids-drug-gouging-hedge-douche.html

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