This line of thought was taken up by Universal, the largest of four major record companies. They believe that perhaps there is room in the Western audiences’ auditory palate for more of the spice of South Asian music. Teaming with Desi Hits!, a New York-based company promoting South Asian entertainment on its website DesiHits.com, Universal plans to create a label for musicians with South Asian roots. Through this label, the record company’s ultimate goal is to give South Asian music and its artists global exposure.

“It’s far from a vanity project for us,” said David Joseph, chief executive of Universal Music U.K. For him, South Asian pop music holds great potential as a relatively untapped art, presenting a huge amount of opportunity.

The new label, called Desi Hits! Universal, would give the music genre a “home,” a way for the music to be shared with Western audiences. According to Anjula Acharia-Bath, chief executive of Desi Hits!, after the success of the 2008 hit, “everyone saw that with some resources some of these songs really popped.”

Although mainstream western acts and Indian music have shown some mingling, the success of Desi Hits! Universal could be an excellent untapped resource for those looking for the next new sound. And, modernizing some of the more traditional South Asian music with elements from pop music can bring it to a wider audience, even within its country of origin. “Jai Ho” showed the ability of good music to transcend cultural affinities. I look forward to more endeavors that get the music of a rich culture reach out to more of the world.

The solution that these two have presented is a modified everyday salad spinner that has been turned into an easy-to-use transport centrifuge. This ingenuity makes it possible for blood to be successfully separated for the diagnosis of anemia without the need for electricity. Dubbed the “Sally Centrifuge” by its creators, what had begun as an assignment for their Introduction to Bioengineering and World Health class has become a possible great help to the aid of people living in rural areas without electricity.

The Sally Centrifuge is currently undergoing a series of field tests this summer in places needing medical aid where resources are lacking. This is all part of Rice University’s initiative for global health, with a focus on developing countries. Kerr and Theis are traveling along with their invention to places like Ecuador, Swaziland and Malawi, where real-world testing of this tool will be done at rural clinics.

Simple ideas that don’t necessarily involve reinventing the wheel are what I believe to be the innovations that truly deserve attention. With a way to make diagnosis quicker, especially in areas too far for urban laboratories to deliver reports in a timely manner, simple works like the centrifuge by Kerr and Theis which is portable, convenient and can run without power, will help global health a great deal. Perhaps as well, this can inspire others to create similar inventions to help the world.

Among these efforts is the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Biennial Awards Exhibition, which runs from August 1 at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, where local artists will be given a platform to showcase their works.

The local government has also planned other projects to encourage the blossoming of Hong Kong art culture, such as the creation of a projected $2 billion West Kowloon Cultural District and the development of an empty police station into “a self-sustaining, non-profit site that will be home to designers, art studios and exhibition spaces,” according to a government press release.

Perhaps as a result, though underrepresentation of Hong Kong art seems like common knowledge among influential names in the art scene, some acknowledge that, slowly but surely, Hong Kong’s own local talents have begun to rise up. “Arguably, it is this freedom from market pressure that has seen the emergence of a group of artists in Hong Kong whose works are conceptually very strong. You won’t find any grinning faces staring back at you,” says Claire Hsu, founder of the Hong Kong-based Asia Art Archive.

Hong Kong style art is strikingly different from Mainland Chinese art but with the global art community already flocking to Hong Kong for its art galleries, the gap won’t be very hard to bridge. Hong Kong culture may rise in the wake of China’s recent cultural success and attention gained in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

This is a marked improvement on the H-1B visa, which allows firms to temporarily employ foreign workers for three years with the possibility of a renewal. The H-1B visa has a 65,000 yearly numerical cap that prevents too many foreign workers from being able to work in the country at the same time. It has also been criticized for allowing foreigners to fill job positions that may otherwise be granted to US citizens.

Far from the H-1B visa, the startup visa actually shows promise in the creation of jobs for Americans, while helping to support the economy with foreign innovations and talent. Venture firms looking for the next big idea no longer have to invest outside the country in order to capitalize on great ideas.
Other Silicon Valley natives that support the visa are Eric Ries, Dave McClure, Shervin Pishevar, Brad Feld, Paul Kedrosky, Manu Kumar, & Fred Wilson. The Startup Visa Act was introduced in late February of this year.

While this works out for the founders of startup companies and for the US, one has to wonder how foreign governments will react to having their human resources courted away. Developing countries are already at a disadvantage without having their best talent pirated so easily.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Innovation.

The accident happened on April 20, 2010, and is said to have been caused by a deadly combination of faulty equipment, sub-par safety and maintenance practices, and simple bad luck. Since then, the well has been estimated to be pumping out close to 5,000 barrels (approximately 200,000 gallons) of crude oil a day into the ocean, posing a major threat to the hundreds of species of marine life in the Gulf of Mexico, the Florida Everglades, and other areas along the Gulf Coast.

BP has been trying different strategies in order to cap the well, but has not had much success so far. Their first plan was to have remote-controlled submersible robots cap the well, but this proved impossible due to the high volume of the oil leak. The company then attempted to surround the area with a containment boom. However, rough weather caused damage to the boom, allowing the oil to escape.

Their most extreme idea to date is to lower a hastily made dome – or more accurately, an inverted box – over the well site to contain most of the oil. If it had been successful, the four-story-tall, 98,000-pound dome should have been able to contain about 85 percent of the oil leak. The oil inside the box would then have been pumped through a pipe to a waiting drill ship, which would bring it to special treatment facilities.

However, BP engineers did not count on the effects of the formation of ice-like crystals called hydrates inside the dome. These hydrates prevented the dome from creating a water-tight seal against the sea floor, disrupting the flow of the oil that workers were trying to pump onto the drill ship.

The search for ideas to head off what is said to be potentially the greatest oil spill since the Exxon Valdez incident continues. However, what this puts into light is the effect that man’s needs and greed can have on the world around us.

New laws are being drawn up by the Obama administration to severely clamp down on offshore drilling in the US. But will these laws be enough to prevent another Deepwater Horizon-type disaster? Only time will tell.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about the Environment.

Dyson – who is perhaps best known for his bagless vacuum cleaners – is calling for more investment and support for innovative engineering. Together with some of Britain’s most highly regarded industrial leaders, he has developed a number of policy recommendations which the next government should follow to make the UK more competitive and help the country leave the recession behind.

“We need to inspire and enlighten people: science and engineering can change lives, society and the economy,” said Dyson. “High tech exports create real wealth and jobs, and will help set us on a course for sustainable prosperity. If we don’t capitalize on our engineering expertise now there’ll be no turning back.”

The report suggests a stronger bond between universities and companies should be developed by changing the way education is structured. It says large scale projects must be put in place to prove the UK’s ability with high-tech infrastructure, claiming research and engineering has been ignored for decades in Britain.

I personally believe James Dyson is right. The UK has some inherent strengths. It’s the sixth largest manufacturing economy in the world, and has four of the top ten global universities. If they harness the best of both worlds, they can grow their high value add industries in a big way.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about innovation

BASF’s contributions to the concept car allow for far greater fuel efficiency, a lower environmental impact, freedom of design, as well as greater comfort and safety. The i-flow’s energy concept provides an impressive example of high tech, encapsulating a modern diesel engine with a rigid foam polyurethane insulation system that protects both the engine and the environment. A brilliant effect is provided by a new mirror-like paint from BASF Coatings – the liquid metal basecoat makes the i-flow look as though it is chrome-plated rather than painted. In addition, the innovative iGloss clearcoat makes the paint surface both scratch resistant and weather resistant.

“The i-flow is a milestone on the road to the car of the future. Because Hyundai was quick to involve us in the development process, we were able to offer our full strengths. We are very happy with the outstanding results of our cooperation,” said Dr. Wolfgang Hapke, head of BASF’s Performance Polymers division, at the presentation of the new concept car in Geneva on Wednesday. “BASF proved to be a true partner, with whom we jointly developed innovative solutions for design and engineering. For example, our new ‘fluidic sculpture’ body language is particular well expressed by the innovative coating technique used for the i-flow concept car,” explained Thomas Bürkle, head of Hyundai’s European design center.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Hi Tech

First, it could indicate a significant revival of the U.S. technological innovation that has largely slipped away into the hands of China, Germany, and other nations. China is currently excelling ahead in terms of solar power development.

A fuel cell the size of a loaf of bread providing power for home and businesses would also significantly reduce some of the heavy costs of producing and transmitting electricity, as well as drastically cut down on the use of some fossil fuel products. Additionally, such a device would improve air and water quality, and could lead to byproducts yet to be explored or even imagined.

Several major corporations – Wal-Mart, Google, FedEx, Coca Cola, Bank of America, and Cox Enterprises – have ordered the cell boxes, which have been in development for nearly a decade by Bloom Energy under the supervision of a space scientist.

Although the “box” won’t be available for use in homes for several years, care must be taken meanwhile to prevent this promising new product from being smothered in the marketplace by other energy producers fearful of competition.

I personally believe that Bloom’s “box” should be embraced for what it is – an industrial breakthrough whose benefits to society and industry can be adopted and shared, not dreaded.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about California Clean Energy

The UKIIF was announced by Brown last June and will target slow growing businesses, start-ups and spin-outs including those in the pre-profit and pre-revenue stages of development.

It was announced last month that a total of £125m from the UKIIF will be invested in clean tech and low carbon sectors.

The UKIIF has now completed first closing on the first £200m UK Future Technologies Fund with fund managers the European Investment Fund (EIF), who have in turn raised £100m.

Gordon Brown said: “This fund, seeded by the Government, is bringing private venture capital to growing enterprises. It is already providing £125 million of funding to high tech, low carbon businesses. From today, a further £200 million will be available for life sciences, digital and advanced manufacturing.”

I personally believe the leveraging of the UK government’s funds and expertise coupled with the European Investment Fund’s experience in the EU venture capital market will help the next generation of high growth, high-tech businesses.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about overseas markets

I-GATE was submitted to the state by the city of Livermore in partnership with Sandia National Laboratories/California (Program Lead), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and several others. Its mission is to maximize the economic impact of green transportation and clean energy technologies through expedited technology transfer, entrepreneurial assistance, collaboration opportunities, academic alliances, and a technology incubator for the development of high-growth green businesses.

The i-GATE initiative is designed to drive the Livermore Valley as the core of an energy resource cluster that would expand to benefit the regional economy and the state of California, create jobs, mitigate climate change, increase energy security, and form an interlocking innovation web.

The i-GATE hub will be leveraged by LVOC, a joint venture between Sandia and LLNL that will promote greater collaboration between the scientists at those laboratories and their partners in industry and academia. According to Energy Secretary Steven Chu in a press release last year, the LVOC will maximize the return on the nation’s investment in nuclear security. Chu stated, “By leveraging the groundbreaking research of our nuclear security labs through private sector collaborations, we will bring breakthroughs to the market faster and find new solutions to the energy problem.”

I think these developments represent an exciting opportunity to both advance technology in the transportation arena and to increase partnerships with the city of Livermore and local businesses.