Last year at Pop!Tech, Cary Fowler, Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, spoke of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway. February 26 marks the official opening of the “Doomsday Vault,” as it has come to be called. It is intended to protect the Earth’s crop diversity against gradual or catastrophic losses. Sited deep inside a wild Arctic mountain in Norway, seeds from around the world will be mechanically cooled to -20 degrees, which will keep seeds alive for up to 19,000 years. To ensure that developing nations can participate in this important seed bank, The Global Crop Diversity Trust is providing funding so that a diversity of all crops will be secure forever – even in the event of an asteroid or nuclear disaster.

Link to a video about the Seed Vault on the National Geographic website.

To read about specific crop strategies, regional strategies, or to make a donation to this effort, visit http://www.croptrust.org.

Also, last week, the BBC World’s Earth Report aired a documentary about the vault. To read the transcript and watch the video, click here.

Entrance to Global Seed Vault- Credit Image Mari Tefre/Global Crop Diversity Trust

Peggy Shea Andrews

August 29th marked the two year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

To commemorate the event for our community, Pop!Tech selected a very special installment for our August Book Club. This week, many of you will have received a copy of Chris Jordan’s book of photography, In Katrina’s Wake: Portraits of Loss from an Unnatural Disaster.

The book provides an opportunity for reflection on one of the worst natural disasters in the history of our country. All proceeds are being donated to hurricane relief charities, but the Book Club donation will be going to a new member of the Pop!Tech community - a man named Craig Howat.

A few months ago, Craig applied to receive a Participation Grant to attend this year’s conference. Craig has been a teacher in Lousiana for 12 years. When his school laboratory was destroyed by Katrina, he and his dedicated students raised funds to rebuild a brand new science center. Together, they’ve raised over $10,000 to pay for supplies and materials, and they continue to fundraise in order to complete the project. You can see architectural plans of the building at http://www.l00k.org/lulinglandlab/luling-land-lab.

We’re proud to be part of Chris Jordan’s charity and Craig Howat’s vision, and look forward to their participation at Pop!Tech this October.

For this July 4th release, we have selected three amazing Pop!Casts that are celebrations of the human spirit, and feats of exploration, independence and civil rights.

First up, Ben Saunders will amaze you with tales and images of his expedition in the Arctic. He was the first person in the world to cross, solo and unsupported, the Arctic Ocean - that’s a 1,240 mile journey across one of the most challenging climates on the earth. After crossing areas of unprecedented thinning ice and open water - experiencing the effects of global climate change first hand - Ben has begun to raise international awareness on the changes. How does he do it? His answer is an inspiring one: “don’t underestimate what ‘man’ is capable of when we have a strong belief system about our goals and destiny.”

Next, political activist Ivan Marovic was one of the founders of the Serb student-resistance group Otpor, which helped remove former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic from power. Ivan continues to champion political and human rights with a video game he helped to create that teaches users the tactics of nonviolent resistance. Players control characters, groups and movements - building them into coalitions, sending them to carry out tactics, and dealing with government responses. Ivan walks us through a graffiti campaign, street rallies and a benefit rock concert that finally brings down the game government.

We finish this week’s Pop!Casts with a stirring presentation by orator Eloma Simpson Barnes. Eloma delivers a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. in what seems like a direct channeling of the great civil rights leader. Her transcendent performance will move you.

This weekend, our “host with the most,” Andrew Zolli was featured on NPR’s Here and Now program where he spoke about what the world’s demography will look like in the next 100 years.

For those of you who didn’t know, Andrew, when not at Pop!Tech, does a bit of moonlighting as one of the country’s leading futurist researchers.

You can hear the program by going to the WBUR website.

From their site:

Futurist Andrew Zolli uses demographic data to predict what the world will look like over the next 100 years. Among Andrew’s predictions: the largest city of the 21st century will be in China and it hasn’t even been built yet; one-third of the world will run out of potable water; and a large group of Baby Boomers will end up moving in with their kids. We’ll find out how companies and governments are using these predictions to plan their cities and develop new technologies.

Last weekend, new media artist and Pop!Tech 2006 speaker Hasan Elahi was interviewed on NPR’s Studio 360 hosted by Kurt Andersen about Hasan’s website art project, Tracking Transcience.

The website has tracked Hasan’s life in all its mundane glory, in real time, for more than 5 years now. He began the project in response to his experience in an airport where he was wrongly identified and detained as a terrorist and was constrained to report on all of his whereabouts and movements on the days around 9/11 to the FBI. After he was freed of all charges, he decided to voluntarily track his movements online.

Pop!Tech Host and Curator, Andrew Zolli is also on the program to discuss the impact of Hasan’s work and its context in a world with a changing view of privacy.

Listen to it here on iTunes, or visit the Studio 360 website and listen to the episode online.

AND stay tuned for Hasan’s upcoming Pop!Tech Pop!Cast of his 2006 presentation. Check Pop!Tech Pop!Casts for more information.

Earlier this year, Pop!Tech 2005 speaker Cameron Sinclair of Architecture for Humanity (AFH) met up with Natalie Chanin, founder of “Alabama Chanin” - a line of limited-edition jewelry, clothing, home furnishings and textiles that are rendered by hand using recycled materials and local talent. The two discussed AFH’s work to help displaced families and individuals who lost their homes after Katrina.

Chanin was inspired by Cameron’s work on the Gulf coast and decided to support AFH’s rebuilding projects by designing a reverse applique (a
traditional quilting technique) shirt called “Alabama Builds“.

This very special organic couture t-shirt is $75 from Alabama Chanin and 100% of the proceeds are go to benefit AFH’s Gulf Coast Project .

As Cameron said himself, these shirts are for “Eco-warriors, hipsters and all round nice folk”. Check ‘em out.

Peter Diamandis on the bottom right

On April 26th 2007, famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking experienced complete weightlessness making him the first person with a disability to have the experience. The historic trip also brings one of the most influential thinkers on the cosmos closer to the stars.

Zero-G the privately held “space entertainment and tourism” company was founded by Peter Diamandis (Pop!Tech 2005 Speaker). Zero-G and The Sharper Image sponsored Hawking’s trip embarked from the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Flights take place in a modified Boeing 727-200 aircraft.

When asked about the experience, Hawking said, “It was amazing. I could have gone on and on–space here I come!”

The Hawking flight was organized to benefit several charities.

Easter Seals
Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation
The X Prize Foundation
Augie’s Quest

Two seats aboard the flight were donated by Zero-G to each charity for them to auction off. All together the charities raised $144,000 dollars.

This trip on the Zero-G shuttle is in preparation for a hopeful space launch for Hawking on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic which launches in 2009.

And if you have $3,500 to spare, you can reserve a seat in one of Zero-G’s upcoming flights.

It’s been about over a week since we have made our very first batch of Pop!Tech Pop!Casts available online and we’ve had some great movement since then.

We are featured on the homepage of iTunes, we’ve been linked around the web (Thanks to everyone who have been moved to write about the release of the Pop!Casts). All in all - not a bad start. And that was only with our first 22 podcasts.

We have two more to share with you today:

Brian Eno - Musician, producer and artist Brian Eno shows how simple things can give rise to complex things—in art and life. See how he uses Darwin’s ecological model of the world as a roadmap for human culture now and in the future.

(I still admire him for his lovely purple velvet jacket)

Rodrigo y Gabriela - The Mexican acoustic guitar duo sensation Rodrigo y Gabriela put fast fingers to strings for a performance that will put you on your feet and keep you moving. There’s no better way to say it: they rock!

(They inspired me to pick up my guitar again, but I quickly realized that my playing compared to theirs is like those of a monkey with socks on its hands)

There are also some new features on the Pop!Casts page to make it easier to share these amazing talks and performances with your friends. Now you can send an email, share a permalink or embed the Yahoo! Video player on your website or blog.

Enjoy! And there is PLENTY more to come.

Last month, at the Design Indaba conference in Cape Town, South Africa, there seemed to be a veritable Pop!Tech reunion. Brian Eno was one of the speakers at the design conference and had personally invited Reggie Watts to perform at the closing of the conference.

Watch Reggie try his hand at some traditional African dancing and some “not-so-traditional” moves.

Brian Eno Enjoys South Africa on Vimeo

Reggie recently sent over a video clip of his gallivanting about town with Eno (who is holding up a video camera and in yet another sharp suit) and in the background you can see Alex Steffen and Cameron Sinclair, other Pop!Tech alums.

Watching this clip never fails to make me smile.

And don’t forget to check out Reggie’s Pop!Cast of his amazing performance at Pop!Tech 2006 and a bevy of other Pop!Tech presentations from 2006 and 2005..

AND don’t for get to check out the recording, ANTIBABEL, that Reggie Watts and Yungchen Lhamo made exclusively for Pop!Tech and to promote sustainability in rural Tibet via the Machik organization. You can purchase the CD HERE.

Mark your calendar and set your Tivo to watch Chef Homaro Cantu on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, at 3:00 p.m. CST this coming Tuesday, April 10. This will be an incredible pairing of one of the world’s most creative chefs and one of Hollywood’s most creative comic personalities.

For more information and air times, visit Ellen’s website: http://ellen.warnerbros.com/

(and that’s a picture of Chef Cantu when cooking with Class V Lasers were but a sparkle in his eye. It was too tempting to post that picture from his website - it had to be done.)