With the capitalization of talent Gladwell means the degree up to which we make use of the potential of people. How poverty is a constraint on capitalizing talent seems quite clear. Poverty, or should we say social class, has several negative effects on the ability of people to develop their talent,...

Nearly 20 years ago three guys from the University of Sussex were looking for dark matter. But shooting electrons on carbon rods they accidentally created a third elementary form of carbon. The buckminsterfullerene was good for a Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1996) but figuring out what to use it for ha...

Some analysts project that 14% of the TV sets sold in the U.S. in 2012 will be Net-enabled, up from just 1% last year others think it is a mission impossible: "The experience of watching TV as opposed to using a laptop computer or mobile device is different...TV is a 'one too many' medium." Well, do...

Breaking the walled garden? It is still early stage but it is getting clear that the phone is no longer an application itself, it has become a platform supporting other applications. Before the iPhone hardly anyone ever downloaded an application, but it's getting more common today. The new app store...

20th century: century of coal As Professor Smil notes: "The common perception is that the 19th century was dominated by coal, the 20th century by oil." But as a matter of fact, that is not the case at all. As the world has been using more and more energy for its needs, in relative terms today we use...

What is going on? Why this push for nation wide broadband in the USA, because that is what it is in my opinion. With local telephone rates zero narrow band internet is already available to every American. But broadband is where the market is. Broadband is where Google and Microsoft (and every other ...

A piece of art Renzo Martens sees his documentary as a piece of art, and prefers for it to be shown in art galleries rather than in cinema's during various festivals. Just like a painting that Van Gogh painted, the piece of art is never the reality. Rather it is a depiction of a scene that  is bein...

See this book in Amazon Ubiquitous computing--almost imperceptible, but everywhere around us--is rapidly becoming a reality. How will it change us? how can we shape its emergence? Smart buildings, smart furniture, smart clothing... even smart bathtubs. networked street signs and self-describing soda...

A partner research-institute (VINT) just released their 2008 study, this year it is about the Third Media Revolution. Their study is presented via a conference and now a book (which is available for free at this site). 'Me the Media' deals with user generated content and the questions it raises. Lik...

Politics like a pendulum Russia has always had a dynamic relationship with the West. Dr. Boele sees it as a pendulum that is swinging back and forth between approaching and embracing the West and then rejecting any relationship whatsoever. This has been going on since the time when Napoleon invaded ...