Friday, May 28, 2004

Jose Ku Sia

Just found the portfolio of Jose Ku Sia, Jr. , a fellow MIT alumni. He's into rapid prototyping and product design. His recent work on Design and Evolution reminds me of Franco Lodato's Book Bionics in Action.

Thursday, May 20, 2004

Cambridge Chronicle Police Logs

Cambridge Police Logs courtesy ofCambridge Cambridge Cambridge Chronicle...

Adele Naude Santos, MIT's new dean of Architecture

After a nice dinner at Outback with Jim's parents, I was delighted to receive my latest issue of PLAN. It listed the new dean of Architecture, Adele Naude Santos, and some pics of her buildings. I really enjoyed reading about it. Later, I found a good site, by an MIT student called not to scale . a journal of thoughts on architecture. Interesting ways to glimpse what's going on in the MIT Architecture department. Anyway, her buildings look way cool, and I like the idea of landscape blending into a building.

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

CELab - Designing Bits & Pieces

CELab - Designing Bits & Pieces. On May 10, the MIT Media Laboratory and the Consumer Electronics Association will co-host a symposium at MIT's Kresge Auditorium, followed by a research open house at the Media Lab. Walt Mossberg, Personal Technology columnist at the Wall Street Journal, will serve as emcee.

My favorite talk was by Hugh Herr. Now that is cutting edge!

Thursday, May 06, 2004

EWG Report || Focus Pocus

EWG Report || Focus Pocus: "came under immediate fire from independent scientists and public health activists for failing to adopt the recommendations of a National Academy of Sciences study on mercury (NAS 2000), and for not providing pregnant women with complete information on what fish to avoid during pregnancy - particularly tuna.
Speaking to the press in May 2001, Dr. Robert Goyer, chairman of the NAS committee on mercury toxicity, criticized the Agency's health advisory for mercury, saying 'The F.D.A. should be providing people with the best information and let them be the judge. The F.D.A. has stopped short of what it should have done.'
Newly-available, internal FDA documents obtained by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) reveal that FDA, under pressure from the seafood industry, is deliberately withholding critical information from pregnant women on mercury-contaminated tuna and other fish, and using 'focus group' sessions as a justification. "

Saturday, May 01, 2004

CHI 2004: April 24-29 | Vienna, Austria

Just got back from my trip toCHI 2004: April 24-29 | Vienna, Austria. It was nice that this year, people were way more accepting of ambient communication and telepresence. It was a bonus to see so many telepresence projects, and instead of hearing questions on the merits of such work, noting the acceptance and queries about the research. Also, the SV party was rocking! They had the German DJ pumping out techno and people dancing on the tables by the end of the night. The best part was when the Chairs got up and danced, after people shouted "more more more" so that the DJ would do an encore. What a conference!