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where business connects with big ideas. Technology. Creativity. Innovation. Building not just the world’s favorite playground, but a hotbed for technology and business. Throw in a skilled workforce, enviable climate and bustling economy, and you can see why Orlando’s turning so many heads. C A L L 8 8 8 .T O P. C I T Y O R V I S I T O R L A N D O E D C . C O M Contents 7 People and Organizations Index A guide to what’s in this issue. 10 From the Editor On Jared Diamond’s Collapse. 12 Letters Our February cover story on Aubrey de Grey and antiaging science lives on. R EADM E Read before operating this magazine 16 Let the World Innovate American technologists shouldn’t fret about the globalization of innovation. 17 Mean Media Blogs are unmediated opinion— not journalism. 17 Static Electricity From California to New York’s Long Island, power-grid innovation is stuck. 18 Be Wary of Mixing Race and Medicine Race-specific drugs are tricky. Volume 108, Number 4 Global Perspectives From biomining in Chile to open-source software in South Africa to SARS diagnosis in China, countries are focusing their best technological minds on solving indigenous problems. Inventive people everywhere are devising technologies that address their nations’ most urgent needs—and that could serve the rest of the world. Technology Review reports on some two dozen innovations from seven countries. 42 DATA M I N E M EGAPHON E A story best told with numbers Something worth shouting about 28 Web Services Take Hold From buzzword to essential tools. By Maryann Jones Thompson 39 Political Networking Political choices define the structure of new media. By Paul Starr FI NANCIAL I N DICES The TR Larg