From the category archives:

Our World

Words, Images and Music

February 22, 2010

For a couple years now, I have been mulling over a project that combines photography and word, collected widely and presented in publishable form (kind of like this). This project has always taken a back seat to current realities, although a few people have heard the concept. At the core, it plays on the power [...]

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How to Spend It

February 17, 2010

Every so often, the FT includes this insert. I believe the WSJ does something similar. It’s entertaining, and a strange glimpse into a world I don’t know (50ft yachts and tennis bracelets).
Quick suggestion of how to spend that money? Try this.
I’m not anti-wealth, in fact I like it. I just feel there are some fantastic [...]

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Launch Week: Skoll Associate Fellows

February 12, 2010

Many times over the past couple years have I answered the questions: why an MBA, why Oxford?
Today’s launch of the Skoll Associate Fellows program indicates why I chose to come here. Recognizing that there was a large and and passionate social entrepreneurship community, far beyond just the Skoll Skollars, the Skoll Centre has kicked off [...]

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Launch Week: Saving Darfur

February 9, 2010

I’ve decided that this is Launch Week on Cashewman. Yesterday was Ethical Ocean, a new online store for ethically sourced goods. Check it out everyone! I sense this one has some nice moment already.
Today it’s Saving Darfur: Everyone’s Favorite African War, a book by journalist Rob Crilly. I’ve been following Rob’s blog and tweets for [...]

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Yesterday I Totally Microwaved a Lecture

January 29, 2010

The inventors of the microwave thought their device would be used for cooking whole meals from scratch. It never really was, but users found out that it reheated food pretty well, saving the appliance from the graveyard of failed inventions.
Yesterday, rendered immobile by back pain, I Skyped in to listen to a 3 hour lecture [...]

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Flashback to War Times

January 25, 2010

My mom found this newspaper recently. The date? September 8th, 1943. Italy had just quit WW2. But what is fascinating is the extent to which the war dominated the discourse. Through the newspaper there is virtually nothing that isn’t related to it somehow. Articles, war bonds, movies, comics, cigarettes, classifieds (remember those?): everything tied in [...]

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6 Great Development Blogs

January 18, 2010

No longer living in Ethiopia or Senegal, I’m not as tuned into the workings of on-the-ground development. Thankfully we have some good folks who keep us in the loop and help us learn more. Here are my favorites.
Blood and Milk. Alanna Shaikh writes all over the place, but her own Blood and Milk blog is [...]

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Excessive Packaging from Creative and Lexar

January 5, 2010

Two recent purchases.
First, this Lexar SD card. The packaging is 28 times the size of the product. Many consumer electronics segments are becoming commodified. Memory tops that list: there’ s little to differentiate Lexar from Sandisk and others beyond branding and advantages such as packaging design. I understand the need to convert browsers to purchasers [...]

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Phone Power

January 3, 2010

A powerful, reoccuring theme for me recently recently has been the growing importance of mobile technology. This is as profound a shift in many parts of the developing world as it is in the richer nations. Mobile adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa is ocurring at staggering rates. The International Telecommunications Union puts out a report each [...]

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Portraits of Power

December 31, 2009

All shots from Platon. See the real deal here.
Photographer Platon camped out at the UN summit in the fall to shoot as many world leaders as he could. The photography is advanced, but even more interesting is his commentary for each photo, as he describes either the process or some aspect of the result. Well [...]

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