Solar-Powered Trash Compactors

“These new landfill-crunching compacting bins are entirely powered by
the sun and are able to accept close to eight times as much waste as a
regular trash can. Pretty cool, we thought – especially once we found
out that they are calling the new bins Big Bellys and that they stand to save the city close to 12 [...]

Wolfram Alpha: A Radical New Formula for Web Search ?

‘The product of four years of development, Alpha is an engine for answers. Its ambition is to delve into “all the knowledge in the world,” Wolfram says, to find and calculate information.
Though Alpha’s interface evokes Google ― whose co-founder Sergey Brin once spent a summer interning for Wolfram ― it’s more like the anti-Google.Type [...]

Give a Laptop Get A Laptop

I found the concept really interesting when it originated and to see Amazon bring to the mainstream in time for Christmas is laudable <Amazon.com’s Changing The World>
Technical Details

Dual mode sunlight-readable display screen, 1200×900 resolution
Video and still camera
Rugged water resistant low power laptop, no hard drive
Open Source, Linux OS, encourages community involvement and self-exploration
Standard WiFi as [...]

MIT researchers boost the power of solar energ

“Sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world’s energy problems, Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT, said in an earlier interview. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet’s energy needs for one year, he added.
The problem, however, is how best [...]

Good for You, Good for the Planet

“Good for You, Good for the Planet’s Jorge Alonso Garcia says that nearly “100%” of electronic devices remain on standby mode after they’ve been turned off. “This is so that they can be quickly turned on again,” he explains.So What Does the Device Do?
100%Off, the device designed by Good for You, is a microprocessor which [...]

The Green Revolution 2.0

The WSJ’s Continuing the Green Revolution by NORMAN E. BORLAUG, the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize:
“Today, with the tools of biotechnology, such as molecular and marker-assisted selection, the ends are reached in a more organized and accelerated way. The result has been the advent of a “Gene” Revolution that stands to equal, if not exceed, the [...]

A Modern, Green House for $100,000!

GreenByDesign had an interesting post on a company called PostGreen who is attempting to build a house for $100,000 called the 100K house it is a little on the small side and not strictly a prefab. Also, the 100k budget covers “the hard construction budget only. The price of the land and all soft costs [...]

Bringing Broadband to Africa Via Satellite

“What caught our attention was a map with a bunch of red lines representing the fiber that runs around the world,” says Mike Fries, chief executive of Liberty Global, the broadband and cable company partly owned by media mogul John Malone. The map showed large areas, primarily in and around Africa, with little or no [...]

Africa’s ‘Cocoon’ Phase: Can Private Investors and Entrepreneurs Transform the Continent?

“Business as the Engine of African Economic Development,” was moderated by Wharton finance professor Richard Herring, who noted that “Five years ago, the title of this session would have been thought to be a lot more hopeful than true, but in fact some very interesting things have been happening.”…. <More>
africa, economics,

Notorious Crimes: Leopold and Loeb

“They drove the dead Bobby Franks (14 years old) to a nearby preserve, and, after Leopold poured hydrochloric acid over the boy’s face and genitals (he had heard that a body could be identified by its genitals), they stuffed their victim into a drainage pipe. But for Leopold’s glasses falling out of his pocket and [...]

Employee Motivation: A Powerful New Model

“Motivating employees begins with recognizing that to do their best work, people must be in an environment that meets their basic emotional drives to acquire, bond, comprehend, and defend. So say Nohria and Groysberg, of Harvard Business School, and Lee, of the Center for Research on Corporate Performance. Using the results of surveys they conducted [...]

17 Social Shopping Sites Compared

“Take a look at 17 social shopping sites and look at the type of traffic and audience they attract.
Users of social shopping sites share information about products, deals and prices. Some allow you to create shopping lists that you can share with your friends. Recent data from Hitwise suggests that while social shopping only accounts [...]

Google & Your Brain

“The human brain is almost infinitely malleable. People used to think that our mental meshwork, the dense connections formed among the 100 billion or so neurons inside our skulls, was largely fixed by the time we reached adulthood. But brain researchers have discovered that that’s not the case. James Olds, a professor of neuroscience who [...]

MIT Discovery Could Unleash Solar Revolution

“In a revolutionary discovery that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn’t shine.
Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later [...]

Two New Drugs Promise Long Longer Healthier Living

“The new drugs are called sirtuin activators, meaning that they activate an enzyme called sirtuin. The basic theory is that all or most species have an ancient strategy for riding out famines: switch resources from reproduction to tissue maintenance. A healthy diet but with 30 percent fewer calories than usual triggers this reaction in mice [...]

Sharp TV Gets 100% of Its Power From the Sun

“The TV uses about one-fourth the power and has about one-third the annual energy consumption of a conventional CRT TV with the same screen size. Compared to today´s LCD TVs, the low-power prototype uses about one-third the power, and about one-half the annual energy consumption. This extremely low power consumption allows the TV to be [...]

DIY Water Wall For Your Home-Video

Save on your energy bill with this Video from  Michelle Kaufmann Designs

Speak Your Mind-Controlling The Machine Voicelessly

“The video above shows the system placing the first public voiceless phone call on stage at a recent conference held by microchip manufacturer Texas Instruments.
“Michael Callahan, co-founder of Ambient Corporation, which developed the neckband, demonstrates the device, called the Audeo,” says New Scientist”…. <Article-More>
From The Devloper’s Website “
The Audeo is being [...]

Prefab: PreFab Home Kits Sometimes Aren’t So Fabulous

“Among the least-expensive choices are kits sold by Rocio Romero, a home designer in Perryville, Mo. Her $36,000 kit provides a shell and blueprints for a boxy, 1,150-square-foot dwelling clad in galvanized steel — but homeowners have to supply windows, doors, roofing and interior finishes. Ms. Romero has sold 154 houses since launching the line [...]

The Emerging Brain Fitness Software Market: Building Better Brains

Scientific, technological and demographic trends have converged to create an exciting new market in brain fitness, where software and online applications can assess and train cognitive abilities. That equates to a sharper mind and better memory retention contributing to healthier aging.  There is currently a $400m worldwide market with high growth ahead predicted.
This video is [...]