This is a pretty interesting advanced method showing how things were calculated when doing trade during ancient times in Ethiopia.... I always wonder where we would have been as a civilization today, if the ancient Library of Alexandria never burned down... thanks Julius Caesar.

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The latest images by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) showing the Apollo 17 landing site are freaking awesome! Check out the detailed tracks of our presence. 

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This is hilarious, found it on TechCocktail.  Perhaps one of the most creative start-up marketing strategies to date, this rap song was created by the team over at Cardinal, a start-up with a mobile app to aggregate all the music you share from services such as Shazaam or Spotify. 

The song's title is "Takin’ VC Money (Money Cash IPO's)." 

VC_Money.mp3 Listen on Posterous

Here are the lyrics:

To all the startups out there
Staying caffeinated
Pulling all nighters
And trying to launch something amazing
This song, is dedicated to you!

Maybe we can meet up with Ashton Kutcher
n see if we agree on some plans for the future
Have a drink with Fred Wilson
Get our lawyer to sign a deal
Or do you think Seqouia’s gonna find another 40 mil?

It’d be great to secure some investment ends
Straight from seeds to 10x dividends
Never complacent, you say exit? we say yes
Now we’re in the basement
Working with Node.js

Half these other rappers
Chase broads
And sip on Hennesey
We’re tailing our logs
And drinking 5 Hour Energy!

Three a.m. whiteboards and lightbulb moments
This is our time
Right now so we should own it
I long for delivering
And its prod we get it in
we have no problem with the thought of pivoting

We know what our vision is
And we don’t wanna waste it
We remain driven so we
Continue to chase it.. yeah!

Heyo we’re taking VC Money
All we’re tryin’ to do is get some new seed funding yeah
Money Cash and IPO’s
Thats how this action goes

Heyo we’re taking VC Money
All we’re tryin’ to do is get some new seed funding yeah
Money Cash and IPO’s
Thats how this action goes

Might as well send a little note over to TechCrunch
See if we can get a feature posted by the next launch

Time to get the word out
We’re ready for beta
Maybe limited at first
so our servers don’t crater

Yeah we’ve got swag
But its the bad stuff from conferences
You better skip the bag
I’ll just carry my accomplishments

Hooked up with Dealmaker
And now we’re live at GROW Conf
Prepping for a great night
And hanging at the GROW launch

Tonight you know we’ll brush shoulders with angels
Not the Charlie’s kind
But the ones with the bankrolls
That believe in our team

And also see our market fit
Excited by our dream
And they need to be a part of it
If you haven’t heard of us yet
We can flip you our deck
We’ll trade a check for convertible debt

I said…if you haven’t heard of us yet
We’ll trade a check for convertible debt... yeah!

Heyo we’re taking VC Money
All we’re tryin’ to do is get some new seed funding yeah
Money Cash and IPO’s
Thats how this action goes

Heyo we’re taking VC Money
All we’re tryin’ to do is get some new seed funding yeah
Money Cash and IPO’s
That’s how this action goes.

Ok. now you can watch the actual performance at the GROW conference, here's the youtube link (trust me, this audio/text version of the post is much better than the performance, that's why I put the youtube link last :-) ...nevertheless, hats off to Cardinal!!!

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Interesting post on The Economist about an alternative indicator for world economic growth. About 8% of the world's international trade passes through the Suez Canal, so the amount of cargo on the ships can be a good early indicator of global economic activity.

From all the things passing through there, the highest gain in tonnage was liquified natural gas, or LNG, with a gain of 38.1 million tons, or a whopping 72.1% increase from 2009. It seems like the natural gas story is right at our front door.

The same report also has an interesting chart on the evolution of the number of ships and the net tonnage starting from 1975.

Seems like economic activity flattened in the early 1980s, and less and less vessels were needed to move the same weight of cargo. The latter could indicate advances in ship technology, or if cargo size was the limiting factor, the world started using lighter materials, or it could indicate a combination of both. Then everything ripped higher starting in 2000, thanks to the global growth story.

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Having a great time at Carolyn Malachi's Beautiful Dreamer video screening! She is amazing as always! To all my dreamers and dream chasers, watch this video, listen to the vocals on this track, get inspired, rise up, execute.

...back to chasing my dream.

P.S. - the extended jazz version is hot too!

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This is one of the coolest space-related DIY projects ever! He's raising funds on KickStarter. The data for the fly-by comes from the Heavens-Above site (sweet and not so sweet memories of ENAE404, ENAE441, and ENAE601 at UMCP.

#NASA #approved (at least on twitter they gave it some RT love)

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Where to next?

While waiting at an office today I came across a nice infographic form the latest Time magazine, showing the allocation of funds after the Space Shuttle program. Couldn't get the picture online (no subscription), but thought I'd share a couple of other cool ones. The one below shows the entire NASA Shuttle Program from 1972 to 2011.

This next one traces a 50 year history of the human space program.

There. You got a pretty comprehensive depiction of space in 2 images.

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After a brief exploration, I also learned that Mark Zukerberg's profile says "I make things," and Larry's and Sergey's profiles show how these guys are simply living it up kiteboarding in Alaska and treking the Egyptian desert under a sunset and pyramids.

A more interesting point is the fact that Google+ may be a great attempt by Google to bypass Facebook's walled garden of information. If Facebook gave them access to its ecosystem, Google may have never allocated a dime to Google+. It's almost as if Google is saying "look, we want to organize ALL the world's information, but Facebook won't let us, so please help us out and tell us which of your buddies go where, thank you!"

Given the beta stage of the project, I'm sure there will be plenty of great refinements. I really hope it gains enough traction to stay here permanently.

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"NASA managers look on from Firing Room Four of the Launch Control Center as space shuttle Atlantis lifts off from Launch Pad 39A on Friday, July 8, 2011, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The launch of Atlantis is the final flight of the Space Shuttle Program."

This is one of the saddest NASA images of the day. Perhaps one of many to come. And the launch was flawless with no delays! 

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Now that I graduated from the program, I'm pretty glad I went through it, and here's why:

Application Process

The initial personality-test type application process was very interesting and kinda disappointing because I never found out what my results where. If I had to make a guess, I'm sure they ended up somewhere in this TechCrunch post by Adeo Ressi. After that initial application was approved, a more formal process and tuition payment was required. I was ok with paying a small fee for the initial application test, but the larger tuition fee of several hundred dollars may be cumbersome for some.

After initially being placed on a wait list, I was glad to see my acceptance into the program.

The Semester

We had a weekly evening session (about 12 total), and a session facilitator was in charge of running the class for the entire semester. Our weekly evening sessions were held at a nice conference room facility (provided by Holland & Knight LLP) and there was always plenty of food and refreshments available. Most importantly, our session facilitator Jill Stelfox was awesome!!! She was very upfront with us from the very beginning, and she was clear about all her expectations. She encouraged us to bring our A-game every single time. We also had a great co-facilitator, Naresh, and he handled all the logistics smoothly.. Both Jill and Naresh were always available to help us out with our business questions and our pitch deck.

The entire semester is broken down into 12 main topics, with homework assignments due at each session. Here's the best part: our sessions were taught by some wonderful mentors!  These mentors were people that started and sold several start-ups, some took VC money, some kept it lean, but all did it successfully. Each session had at least 3 mentors show up to teach us on a specifc topic. Networking with these folks and getting their feedback on our start-ups was very constructive. These guys are simply well-connected, and they have made all the mistakes, so learning from them and getting new connections was very effective.

During each session we had a hotseat where we were required to pitch our business to these mentors, and they would rate us on our pitch and give us plenty of constructive criticizm. Listen to their feedback, and take it in, regardless of whether you think they're right or wrong. The goal of the class is to constantly challenge you and make sure you have all the right skills and the right timing to develop your business. Sometimes your timing may be off (you may have too much work, family obligations, etc.), or your business may not be compelling enough or not clear enough. Whatever the reason, you may not complete the entire semester. About two thirds of the initial class did not make it to graduation. But that's fine, because you always have the option to come back next semester (or any semester) without paying anything additional. This helps you re-evaluate your business or your timeline to ensure you have the right things in place when you are ready.

The Founder Institute also has several partnerships and agreements in place with service providers for all types of start-up needs. The list of tools includes legal support, product planning, product development, product management, product testing, business infrastructure tools, recruiting and collaboration tools, branding, public relations, marketing, sales, accounting, fulfillment, modeling, and fundraising. That's a lot of great tools with discounts or free agreements!

The Takeaway

If you already have a start-up with a live offering (alpha, beta, MVP, doesn't matter!) you will greatly benefit from the program, because each session and assignment forces you to look at your business with plenty of scrutiny. You will have a well-proofed and polished business at the end of the program.

If you simply have a business idea (like me) and you need help developing it into an incorporated start-up you will also benefit from the program. However, you will have to move fast and do your best to keep up with the assignments, because the people that already have something up and running have probably covered some of the assignment questions when they developed their business. At the end of it all, you will have validated and accomplished so much in just three months! It's a lot easier to do this through the program than to do it solo.

The program really helped me test out my idea and find ways to validate it. Most importantly, it really tested me to see if I was ready to take on a new venture. That last statement is very important. When investors say they invest in the people and not their companies, that's really what they mean. It's not about the idea, it's about how capable you are with executing it. And quite frankly, if a program tests you rigourously to help you figure out if you are ready or not, then I would argue that it has already done 50% of the job. A lot of people (including myself) have spent months, and perhaps even years, dwelling on a business venture, or a product of some sort, and later found out several obstacles or obligations to make them re-evaluate their entire goal, after devoting plenty of time and money towards it. If a program helps you understand how not to do that, then it has also accomplished the remaining 50%. The Founder Institute helped me realize both.

A warning: you have to incorporate a business and get all the right legal documents in order to graduate. This requires some money. You may also have to spend some money for job postings, research, etc. The whole point is be prepared to spend whatever you think is right for your budget, or get creative and find other ways to do some of these things. I personally spent over $1,000 (not including the tuition/fees from earlier), but you don't have to spend that much. If you are simply developing an idea, this may make you feel rushed, but that's part of the process, so just get out there and build something!

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The recent cover story of The Economist is a bit absurd to me. I would argue that commercial space, and competition from other nations, are all reducing the cost of a trip to space drastically! A SpaceX launch is like at a quarter of the cost of its competitors if I'm not mistaken. Shouldn't a cheaper trip to geospace lead to more possibilities for interplanetary space?

Signed.Space Cadet.

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As the July temperature cools down and daylight battles night, I find myself at home with a simple dilemma. What's for dinner? On a whim I top off some bread with olive oil, diced tomatoes and herbs, throw it in the toaster oven, and pour myself a glass of chilled Pinot... all performed to the sounds of Lions, Fires & Squares accompanying me in the background. That's the title of the upcoming EP by the talented jazz vocalist, hip hop lyricist, spoken word extraordinaire, and smart chicks heavy hitter Carolyn Malachi.

Influences from her trip to South Africa can be heard with the upbeat track Textual, featuring the country's popular rapper HHP (Hip Hop Pantsula, aka Jabba), and by the words in her lyrics on the Dumela track. Textual is a versatile, funky, party track with a masterful lyrical delivery by HHP that brings it home. Carolyn teasingly drops a hint of jazz by morphing one of the hooks into a vocal piece and brings it back to the normal hook we're used to, thus covering peaks and throughs in this diverse musical wave. This track also has a more upbeat club remix version for the dance floor savvy.

The mood shifts in Dumela, a very powerful and uplifting piece. It starts slow with Carolyn singing to a little girl going through hardship, then the vocals rise with words of empowerment and wisdom, molding the girl into womanhood. This track also gave me the interpretation of South Africa's youth forging the country to a new direction, but that could just be due to such common themes in my older posts :).

Overall, this EP continues to be dynamic like her previous work. For those that are familiar with Carolyn's past, you'll notice that this production skillfully infuses jazz and electronic music. If asked about which track is my favorite, I'd have to go with Orion, but like any other Malachi production, this one leaves me anxious for more. 

A release party for the Lions, Fires & Squares EP will be held at the U St. Music Hall on July 30th at 7pm. Check Carolyn's homepage for tickets and other details, and I definitely hope to see you there.

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Ok, I got something to share. As I sat here, late on a Friday evening, partied out from the night before, listening to Herbie Hancock, looking through some geeky pictures from a trip for work, I felt compelled to write my feelings. I recently traveled to Houston, TX for work and I must say that it was a very humbling experience. 

So what does this have to do with my trip to Houston? I traveled to support the repairs of the Hubble Space Telescope. Every day I watched the astronauts get out of the space shuttle airlock and get to work using all types of tools to get the job done, surrounded by the dark gaping mouth of space, with the only signature of life coming from a huge, beautiful, round blue ball, directly below them. During my spare time, I visited the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory where the astronauts trained, inside a huge pool, for every single task that they will face during the repair job in space. I visited Rocket Park, where I saw the Saturn V, the biggest, most powerful rocket ever put into operational use, which launched several missions to the Moon and actually gave us a chance to place our feet in a world outside of ours. Right there, in the midst of all those experiences, I felt it yet again. Many of us know this is simple and true, but few of us dare to live it. A space telescope, a space shuttle, a rocket that can send people to the Moon. All these things were dreams at some point in our history. Today they are a reality, ONLY because someone, somewhere, at some point in time, decided to draw a line and say "NO! I refuse to give up my dreams! Because I believe they are possible! ...and I really don't care what you think!" Someone dared to not only say that, but to actually live it.

I write this as a way of pushing my own self to live my dreams. I am at a critical point in life, after working hard in school for a dream, and after being thrown into the "real world" for five years, and counting. I am at a point where I feel like there's a war going on, and my mind and heart are caught right in the middle of it. My hands are pulling hard, but not hard enough. My fingers are clinging on, but I feel the finger tips slowly giving away valuable millimeters of space. I can't let this happen. I must fight harder... and so should you. Let's keep the spirit alive.

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