I hear the average person in Latin America consumes one coke per day. Not a particularly scholarly source, but I asked a friend who had just gotten back from a long stint in the region why he felt this was the case.... he said that in Brazil at least he had met several women who bought liters of coca-cola every week even if they could ill afford it because as he quoted them, "my husband should be able to have a coke with every dinner. I can afford that." In other words he felt that for many, being able to drink a coke with every meal was a sign of status. I was thinking about this at a team meeting for New Ventures today when I distributed a few examples of possible newsletters for us to produce (I'll announce when the first one is published). The layouts and content worked, but my titles all got more or less trashed... for the record I still think "Rising Ties: Exploring the hidden connections that will lift all boats" is a cool heading for a report on global development trends. But I digress.

If you think George Bush’s solar powered spa is hot, hot, hot, then wait to you hear about Fabio Rosa and his electrifying projects south of the border. Who is this man, you might wonder? Well, Fabio Rosa is a social entrepreneur—a businessman with both social and economic motivations—who has spent the last twenty years bringing electricity to rural areas in Rio Grande do Sur, Brazil’s southern most state. In the early 1980s Rosa achieved the status of a cult hero after he introduced a technology that reduced energy prices by 90%, making electricity affordable to thousands of low-income residents.

Most of the news about the One Hundred Dollar Laptop has been positive – and for good reason. It’s a great design project being done by some great designers (my father’s an MIT alum; I am required by birth to promo the place). There have, however, always been some lingering questions about the project and its business model – or lack thereof. Now, according to Business Week’s Bruce Nussbaum, there are some questions about its namesake price (quoted from SciTechToday via NussbaumOnDesign):