A creative person we call Edison or da Vinci. They're all paragons to which people of moderate genius (if such a thing is not an oxymoron) can aspire.

There's a new one now: Kamkwamba
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crjU5hu2fag

Wow! Just Wow!

now *there's* a link for all the weak-kneed Nellies to ignore!

Thank you, FF! I am recommending that this be played in my high school's late room. I think some might appreciate it. I certainly did. Thank you for sharing! I will also post it on FB and it will get picked up and spread around. :0)

On top of it being ingenious, it's so beautiful.

Quite a few of the TED talks are interesting I find the technology demos very lateral. Kamkwamba is da man. Reminds me of when dad and his mate strung some wire across a couple of coconut trees and started transmitting morse code (illegally albeit) from his house in the village.

Wow, indeed. Thank you for posting this.

Africans are very smart in the recycling field. (They make wonderful toys too.)
coca cola scooter
It has one negative side however. An African friend told me it was impossible to pave the road from Kinshasa to Matadi decently because what was put down the one day was gone the next. In the night people take off the material to recycle it for private purposes. So the road is a dirt road forever.

I can't figure out the diagrams in English. Let alone learn the words FROM the diagrams. An impressive young man.

It is really amazing that something as simple as a windmill
had not been seen in Malawi. Thanks, FF. Impressive.

I don't know whether any windmills have been seen in Malawi prior to Mr. Kamkwamba's. The salient points are that a young man found a passion and that against odds and economics he acquired the education for which he yearned. That education allowed him to understand the basic operating principles of windmills; his resourcefulness and creativity enabled him to find substitute and make-shift parts; his tenacity and courage triumphed as he built the thing(s) and figured out how to put them to practical use.

It's not a forgone conclusion that someone can build a thing they see in a book. Anyone who has done significant projects at home or work knows well that things seldom work as fluidly as the book makes them appear - there's often debugging, rethinking, reworking, etc. Many people can't do projects when provided with a kit with all the parts and telling them what they have to do at every step.

Every MS and HS student in the US should study this kid's example. I'm not sure what they do for education in other countries, but I have to believe it would be worthwhile for their students as well.

Truly, understanding the basic operations and doing for himself.
The initiative. Needs to be emulated, especially, as you say,
by MS and HS students in our country and others as well.