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Observed

PopTech! conference on a roll in Camden, Maine. New Science and Public Leadership Fellows program announced. Luis von Ahn uses 200 million daily CAPTCHAs to read books. A sweet suite of innovation: dirt-powered batteries, roots of mushrooms to replace styrofoam; charcoal made from natural waste products, and the Spatial Information Design Lab. And the most powerful presentation of the conference: Chris Jordon on the deaths of birds in the mid-Pacific Ocean due to plastics pollution (warning: disturbing images). [WD]