Sadako Sasaki and a Thousand Cranes (1)

(image credit)

I saw this image in a small photo album from a friend on Google+, and I immediately thought about the following lovely piece:

Innovation Nation: Liter of Light

The greatest form of helping people is to make yourself obsolete... You have to teach them how to solve things themselves.

~Illac Diaz
 

Innovation Nation: Hollow Flashlight

I believe that thermoelectricity is a great source of untapped, lost energy and I am researching methods of capturing it and using it for the human good. I believe it holds the hope of replacing batteries in certain low power applications, as well as powering flashlights. This will eventually have a significant effect on the pollution caused by used batteries in our landfills and water tables.

Currently, the major obstacle to the wide use of human heat energy, is the efficiency of the capturing and conversion technology. My own thermoelectric flashlight is currently under development to improve efficiencies and provide a brighter light. That is not an easy task and I am pitted against limits of current technology. We have made a small production run of the flashlights which are being tested and considered for mass production by a major manufacturer.

 ~Ann Makosinski
  

Innovation Nation: Cloth Electricity

Power Felt is a fabric, and it generates power from your body's heat and your body's motion... Now I don't see power as only what comes from that plug. I see power as mobile, power as dynamic, power as you, your emotion, the heat that you generate.

~David Carroll, Director of the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at Wake Forest University
 

The Aspen Institute: Social Impact Bonds

How and Why Philanthropy is Catalyzing the Development of a New Market

The Aspen Institute Program on Philanthropy and Social Innovation and Social Finance US are co-hosting an event to celebrate the launch of Social Finance's latest white paper, "Foundations for Social Impact Bonds: How and Why Philanthropy is Catalyzing the Development of a New Market."

Social Finance US will present the research findings followed by a panel discussion that explores the catalytic role foundations have played in the market and what role they may play as the market matures.

Speakers:

Tracy Palandjian, CEO and Co-Founder, Social Finance US
Surya Kolluri, Managing Director, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Bill Pinakiewicz, Vice President, Nonprofit Finance Fund
Jane Hughes, Director of Knowledge Management, Social Finance US
Kippy Joseph, Associate Director, Innovation, Rockefeller Foundation (moderator)

The Aspen Institute: Social Justice

Generously underwritten by the Hurst Family Foundation, the Hurst Lecture Series features conversations with renowned and inspiring leaders for public audiences in Aspen.

Featuring Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation; interviewed by Jane Wales, Vice President of the Aspen Institute and Executive Director of the Institute's Program on Philanthropy and Social Innovation. The Ford Foundation is the second largest philanthropy in the United States with over $11 billion in assets and $500 million in annual giving. The foundation is based in the United States and operates worldwide, with ten offices in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Central and South America.

The Aspen Institute: Women Philanthropists

The original definition of philanthropy is "the love of humankind." Going back to the roots of this word, how are leading women philanthropists approaching giving with a humanitarian lens? What does it mean to be [women philanthropists] today, how did they create their philanthropic agenda, and how might these women influence a younger and broader generation of philanthropists?