You probably owe your life to Haber:

Despite the fact that 78.1% of the air we breathe is nitrogen, the gas is relatively unavailable because it is so unreactive: nitrogen molecules are held together by strong triple bonds. It was not until the early 20th century that the Haber process was developed to harness the atmospheric abundance of nitrogen to create ammonia, which can then be oxidized to make the nitrates and nitrites essential for the production of nitrate fertilizer and explosives. Prior to the discovery of the Haber process, ammonia had been difficult to produce on an industrial scale.

The Haber process is important today because the fertilizer generated from ammonia is responsible for sustaining one-third of the Earth's population. It is estimated that half of the protein within human beings is made of nitrogen that was originally fixed by this process, the remainder was produced by nitrogen fixing bacteria and archaea.

Interesting perspectives regarding using data and mobile interfaces in emerging economies, from the http://ushahidi.com folks. Conventions that are commonplace in the west may not be so intuitive elsewhere.

NYT feature on International Justice Mission.

Open source farming wiki!

It's like an industrial lego set: interchangable parts that create 50 machines -- one of everything you need to build a self-sufficient farming community.

FrontlineSMS has created an extension to their open source software that allows for mobile payments via Laptop/Modem and mobile phones.

An overview of the Kenyan Mobile banking system and who offers what.

"M-PESA (M for mobile, pesa is Swahili for money) is the product name of a mobile-phone based money transfer service that was developed by Sagentia".

A compliment to microfinance, "microsavings" is starting to emerge as a beneficial product both for the poor consumer and the bank. At the tail end of the financial crises, many microfinance institutions have found they have an uncomfortable dependence on outside funding. Microsavings evens things out. Since it revolves around many small deposits, creative ways of reducing transaction costs are being invented, many involving deposit-by-cellphone.

Open-source one-to-many, two-way SMS platform that connects a laptop and phone, turning the pair into a mobile communication center. "FrontlinesSMS allows you to text message with large groups of people anywhere there is a mobile signal." No internet connection required.

The Guardian.

A collection of essays on Mobile devices (cellphones) used in relief and development/activism situations in Africa. I firmly believe that the wildcard of social change in our lifetime will be mobile platforms and the web.

"Poor people are not victims awaiting rescue." Relief and development done the right way: kickstarting businesses. They also have a line of farm industry-related equipment that can be purchased by third-world entrepreneurs.

"Speaking of Faith" from American Public Media. An MP3 and other interesting articles on the topic.

The source code for spot.us, citizen-funded reporting. Other possibilities: community-funded relief and development projects, community-funded church projects, community-funded charities, community-funded city development, community-funded ____. Puts public service in the hands of the public and keeps it accountable.

Causes, effects, small steps