When a disputed Kenyan election turned violent in 2007, an organization called Ushahidi emerged to map the destruction and killings that broke out across the country. Ushahidi, which means ''testimony'' in Swahili, used text messages from eyewitnesses to create an easily understood graphic depiction of the violence taking place. Their software was later used in the Congo and by Al Jazeera to depict the war in Gaza that took place at the end of 2008.

Ushahidi is just one of many nonprofits, governmental agencies, and human rights lobbying agencies using maps for humanitarian work. Unfortunately, these organizations are notoriously bad at sharing data, according to Patrick Meier. To solve this problem, Meier recently started the International Network of Crisis Mappers (INCM), which aims to connect people and organizations using maps for good.

When a natural disaster strikes or violence breaks out in a country, a map can change the nature of that crisis. The simple act of getting people in front of a map and asking for input can build consensus between warring parties. Maps can also ensure that humanitarian resources are used more effectively and get to the people who need them more quickly.

Crisis mapping is more than simply mapping crises, according to Meier. New technology—including text messages, Twitter, and satellite imagery—is changing the way that data for maps are being collected. Anyone with a cell phone can now help update aid workers on natural disasters or violent altercations in real time. Designers are constantly coming up with new and interesting ways to create visualizations of that data to make it look more appealing. Researchers are then using the data from maps to look for patterns. The information and maps are then pushed out into the field to give support tools to the activists and the nonprofits trying to help the people caught in a crisis.

Organizations don't always want to spend time and resources sharing data in the midst of a crisis, but more collaboration is often needed. Meier’s INCM makes it easier and less time-consuming for organizations to collaborate with each other, so that everyone can start helping people more effectively. When typhoons recently rocked the Philippines, for example, INCM connected a half dozen groups, including Open Street Map, to share information that may have helped deploy humanitarian aid more effectively. Meier hopes this burgeoning movement will continue to connect different mapping projects and humanitarian agencies to make collaboration happen more quickly and easily.

Source: International Network of Crisis Mappers

Image from  Ushahidi .

To view examples of crisis maps, watch the slideshow below:

Prosthetics engineer and Utne visionary Jonathan Kuniholm was interviewed on NPR this week. Fresh Air sit-in host Dave Davies spoke to Kuniholm about his work with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics Program. If you missed the episode live, you can still catch Kuniholm talking about open-source prostheses and his hopes for the future of the industry, or check out the previous coverage we’ve done on him, including this online exclusive, “The Hype and Hope of Prosthetics.”

Source: NPR

Just because people are intelligent doesn’t mean they’re smart. Though IQ tests do pretty well measuring intelligence, they don’t test for rational thought, according to the New Scientist. The magazine quotes cognitive psychologist Jonathan Evans saying, “IQ is only part of what it means to be smart.” 

Relying on IQ tests can be especially problematic in education. A new documentary from American RadioWorks details the way that the use of IQ tests reinforced racial inequalities in the United States during the 1950s. According to the show, preschools were developed to close that gap and raise IQ scores for young African Americans. People used the tests again to discredit preschools, after it was shown that the schools didn’t really help people’s IQs  in the long-term. Recent studies, however, have found that preschool has a long-term beneficial effect on people’s lives, even if it doesn’t raise their test scores.

For now, there’s no standard test for measuring people’s capacity for rational thought. The New Scientist highlights the work Keith Stanovich, author of the book What Intelligence Tests Miss, who believes that a test measuring “rationality-quotient (RQ)” could be helpful in measuring how smart people are. The magazine includes a few counter-intuitive questions that measure how smart you are, beyond your intelligence. Here’s an example:

If it takes five machines 5 minutes to make five widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?

Think about it… the answer might not be obvious.

Sources: New Scientist, American RadioWorks 

Image by  GIHE , licensed under  Creative Commons . 

Will the world end on 2012? NASA says no. In fact, the NASA website has a page specifically dedicated to debunking the myths surrounding 2012 and the end of the Mayan calendar. The website states unequivocally, “credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012.” Anyone who says otherwise is propagating “an Internet hoax,” a “bait-and-shift,” or just bad information. NASA takes a shot at an upcoming film called 2012 stating: “Impressive movie special effects aside, Dec. 21, 2012, won't be the end of the world as we know.”

The story makes for a great trailer, though:

(Thanks, Marginal Revolution.)

Site: NASA 

People aren’t all straight, gay, or bisexual. Scientists have begun taking notice of a significant number of people who identify as asexual. Writing for the Scientific American, Jesse Bering descries asexuality as, “the absence of desire and no sexual interest in males or females, only a complete and lifelong lacuna of sexual attraction toward any human being (or non-human being).”

An estimated 1 percent of British residents describe themselves as “never having a sexual attraction to anymore,” according to a 2004 study cited by Bering. That’s just slightly lower than the 3 percent of people who identified themselves as attracted to the same sex. An aversion to sex can stem from childhood trauma or chemical imbalances, but some research points to asexuality as being a true fourth sexual orientation that’s “due neither to genetic anomaly or environmental assault.”

One 18-year-old asexual described her feelings to the University of Michigan saying:

I just don’t feel sexual attraction to people. I love the human form and can regard individuals as works of art and find people aesthetically pleasing, but I don’t ever want to come into sexual contact with even the most beautiful of people.

Source: The Scientific American