So, does His Holiness the Dalai Lama use WhatsApp?

His Holiness the Dalai Lama participates in a video conference
with three Chinese intellectuals on Jan 4, 2011.
Photo by Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
I could not find a photo of His Holiness with a cell phone ...

Sourav Roy of TRT World, Turkey's national public broadcaster interviewed His Holiness the Karmapa while His Holinss the Karmapa was in Paris this past June.

A few hours after watching His Holiness the Karmapa's remarks I stumbled upon these remarks from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in an interview he gave at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN this past February.



So there's the answer to Sourav Roy's question:)

I don't want my cell phone to fuel a war.

I want peace in Congo.



Back story:



Want to get involved? Check out the Enough Project's take action page. Find out how a list of tech companies rate on conflict mineral use. If you're a college student then check out the Conflict-Free Campus Initiative. It's a movement to encourage students to pressure universities to support the conflict-free movement.

Enough is a project of the Center for American Progress to end genocide and crimes against humanity. Founded in 2007, Enough focuses primarily on crises in Sudan, South Sudan, eastern Congo, and areas of Africa affected by the LRA.

Reuniting Refugee Families with SMS Technology

I began receiving the Asylum Access e-newsletter while a friend was volunteering for the San Francisco-based nonprofit in Thailand and Tanzania. Asylum Access' Volunteer Legal Advocates provide legal counsel, advice and advocacy on behalf of refugees seeking asylum, resettlement or the assertion of other legal rights.

When I opened the winter issue of Asylum Access' e-newsletter I saw that not only did it include this great photo of Eric in Tanzania ...



... but also this intriguing note: Asylum Access Tanzania will be partnering with Refugees United to reconnect refugees with their families.

I looked into it and discovered that Refugees United is a nonpolitical, nonprofit organization - often referred to as simply Refunite. It was born in 2006 in Copenhagen, Denmark after the founders, David and Christopher Mikkelsen met Mansour, a young Afghan refugee in 2005. Mansour was desperately seeking his siblings and parents, who he had been separated from at the age of 12. With the Mikkelsen brothers' help, Mansour was reunited with his brother. (Here's the story - make sure you have a box of tissues handy.)


photo: David Mikkelsen, Christopher Mikkelsen, and Mansou

The Mikkelsens created a free user-driven tracing system that allows family members who have been separated from each other due to conflict or natural disasters to find each other. Refugees create anonymous profiles on the Refunite website, identifying themselves using nicknames, scars, birthplace, home village/town, location of last meeting, number of siblings, and other markers only recognizable by family and close friends. These profiles are searchable, allowing people to find each other via the service. There is no third party involved - this is people to people aid.

The profiles can be created and searched via personal computers connected to the internet. Or, thanks to a partnership between the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, mobile phone manufacturer Ericsson, service provider MTN, and Refunite, people can make use of the service with basic cell phones.

Why cell phones? Refunite and the Refugee Consortium of Kenya surveyed 879 refugees and found that 48% had access to the internet, but 78% had access to a mobile phone.

This BBC article has the details on how the platform works with cell phones:

Tomas Krag, Refunite's technical director, explained how by using a simple question and answer format, users can be quickly registered from an "old school" mobile handset.

"There's a series of keywords, so if you send 'REG' to the number, it assumes you're registering and it sends you back a request that starts off by asking your name. Then it asks your age and your gender and so forth.

"By the end of it the refugee will have registered. Then there's a simple menu system that allows you to choose different options afterwards so you can search for people on the system, and if you find someone you think might be family you can send a message as well."



The challenge is to register and service as many refugees as possible. To do this, Refunite and Ericsson are providing UNHCR and other organizations with cell phones. The org is also sending Refunite reps, equipped with cell phones to remote locations so that refugees can take turns using the phones to register themselves. This field effort piloted in Uganda but will be expanded to Sudan and Kenya, and then globally.

Since people from 80+ nationalities/speaking 19+ languages are in the database, the org wants to make their system available on every SMS and WAP-enabled cell phone in use by people living in Refunite's countries of operation, to avoid exorbitant international SMS rates for their users. Even better - from the website's FAQ's: The use of the Refugees United search tools is free of charge both for NGOs and refugees alike. In selected countries, refugees and organizations can even utilize the mobile tools of Refugees United, SMS and WAP, free of charge, through our partnerships with mobile network operators (field trials of our mobile tools are in progress).

The pilot has received financial support from Omidyar Network, which made a grant of up to $2.6M over three years to Refunite. The grant will be used to augment the org's technology platforms, recruit developers, and develop new partnerships with international refugee agencies.

You can help. Of course you can donate money, but you can also help by spreading the word about the org, so that more people can utilize it. If you represent an org that wants to help, then go here. If you are a refugee ... the platform can be accessed via Facebook now, too.

< $10 microscopes for cell phones

This product was created by Aydogan Ozcan, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at UCLA, with assistance from members of the Ozcan Research Group. They have won so many prizes and have received so much press - it's all listed here:)

The product's underlying technology has a long name - "L"ensless, "U"ltra wide-field, "C"ell monitoring "A"rray platform based on "S"hadow imaging. You can also call it by its acronym - LUCAS:)

LUCAS from SecondMuse on Vimeo.

I love that it can be used to test water samples, as well as blood samples. Affordable water quality testing method, anyone? :)

Do YOU answer your phone?

Thought this was an interesting story - the August 8, 2010 Wash Post article "Texting generation doesn't share boomers' taste for talk."

Check out the article for the good stuff, but here's a sample:

* Boomers in their mid-50s and early 60s are the only ones still yakking as they did when Ma Bell was America's communications queen. But 18- to 34-year-olds' average monthly voice minutes have plunged from about 1,200 to 900 in the past two years, according to research by Nielsen.

* Kevin Loker, 20, a rising junior at George Mason University, said he and his school friends rarely just call someone, for fear of being seen as rude or intrusive. First, they text to make an appointment to talk. "They'll write, 'Can I call you at such-and-such time?' " said Loker, executive editor of Connect2Mason.com, a student media site. "People want to be polite. I feel like, in general, people my age are not as quick on their feet to just talk on the phone."

* Ethan Seidel, rabbi of Tifereth Israel synagogue in the District, can't get many of his congregants younger than 35 on the telephone. Seidel, 52, often invites young, new members to his family's home for welcome dinners, but his gesture too often doesn't even merit return calls. "One member seemed only slightly apologetic for not returning the call," Seidel said. "I was floored by that. They say, 'I never answer the phone anymore.' "

Bee decline linked to ... Cell Phones?

I need to stop holding my cell phone up to my ear ... need to start using my hands-free device.

The Connection between Cell Phones & Cancer :: Texting is better than Talking

The Environmental Working Group recently released the results of a 10-month study that the organization undertook, so that they could better understand the risks of cell phone use. Turns out, cell phones do emit radiation -- enough so that scientists are concerned about potential cancer risks.

In order to get the word out and help people make smarter cell phone purchasing and use decisions, EWG created the most comprehensive online consumer guide to cell phone radiation, rating more than 1,000 cell phones marketed in the United States.

In EWG's Cell Phone Radiation Guide you can:

* Look up your phone;
* Read and download tips to reduce your exposure;
* See the top 10 best phones;
* Read the full Cell Phone Radiation Science Review;
* Take action and tell the government that it's time to modernize their radiation standards.

This story has received a lot of coverage - check out this one example. When I tried to open the EWG website on the day that the report was released, the website was crashing due to an unbelievable amount of people trying to access the site!

T-Mobile's 2009 Green Cell Phone

This leaked photo has been circulating the tech world - T-Mobile and Motorola have teamed up to create this cell phone - the Motorola Renew - part of T-Mobile's 2009 line.

“Exclusively from T-Mobile, the environmentally responsible MOTO W233 Renew is uniquely designed to reduce environmental impact by using sustainable materials in its design and packaging while at the same time delivering performance and quality customers rely on.”

I was surprised to read a lot of negative comments about the phone, here.

Most the complaints have been about the apperance of the handset, which is rumored to include an MP3 player and FM radio.

According to reports, T-Mobile will release the phone in early February.


source: Sustainable Life Media: Motorola, T-Mobile to Launch Cellphone Made from Green Materials, January 9, 2009.