Friday Notes

AFRICA IS THE WORLD'S fastest growing cell phone market. One of every 11 Africans is now a cell phone subscriber. At this point "only about 60 percent of Africans are within reach of a signal, the lowest level of penetration in the world..." Still this is enough to leap-frog the need for wired technology and it has become a catalyst for small business innovation. Link

Once these things pick-up speed the rate of change will become mind-boggling. The Africa of 2030 will be so different from today that we will have forgotten just how left-behind they once were.

STAN HAS the whole Pat Robertson fiasco figured out. Link

ROLLING BLACK-OUTS YESTERDAY -- For the first time since 2001 there wasn't enough power to keep all of California going. Link

I AM TRAVELING TODAY -- taking Kirk back to UC San Diego.

COLLEGE STUDENTS on some campuses are now able to manage their laundry with eSuds -- an Internet based system that tracks the time left on their loads or availability of machines. Isn't technology dandy! Link

AN ARIZONA COLLEGE PROFESSOR went back to school for a year as an undergrad to research what makes this generation of students tick -- took a full load, lived in the dorm, ate cafeteria food -- then wrote a book. Link

THE OCEANS will be ice-free during the summer months -- if the current pattern continues. Ice free water absorbs more heat further raising temperatures -- to say nothing of the coastal flooding. No solution in sight. Link