Carnegie Mellon’s CREATE Lab has developed compact air and water pollution sensors that can help gather localized pollution data. The devices are affordable and portable pollution detectors that citizen scientists can use inside or outside and then have the devices automatically upload the data to the web to paint a bigger picture of air and water quality in the area.
Samsung is supplying solar powered internet schools, and the kids are excited, calling it “purely greatness, happily madness.” Samsung describes it as” exclusively solar-powered, mobile and completely independent classroom that is geared towards increasing accessibility to education and connectivity across Africa”. Designboom shows this one is in Phomolong, near Johannesburg. It was the “African solar project of the year” and supports 21 students.
Plug-in vehicle drivers being tracked by Ecotality in the EV Project are revealing some interesting tidbits about home and public charging habits. Ecotality is collecting data on the driving and charging patterns of about 6,000 US plug-in electric vehicle owners, and has found out that plug-in hybrid vehicle owners are more likely to use workplace and other public charging stations than those in battery electric vehicles. Yes, if you have a gas engine backup, you’re plugging more. It sounds counter-intuitive, but there is a logic at work here.
Looking every inch like something Margaret won’t let me put my baby on, the Assista mamachiri (Japanese for “Mama bike”, sorta) is a fully geared pedal-assist bicycle that – surely! – can be easily hacked to positively blitz through modern-day Chicago traffic at break-neck totally safe for babies speeds. It’s enough to make the great Nils Ferber (king of the bike-nutters) giggle.
If it weren’t for the fine print, you’d never know the two were connected. On the entire Dark Rye website, the Whole Foods logo is nowhere to be seen.
And yet, Vadan Less, whose team developed Dark Rye, says the online magazine does not mean to hide that it’s published by Whole Foods Market.
Dana Nachman was a producer at NBC when she wrote a story on how to make your home less toxic. “It was something I never gave an ounce of thought to before,” she says. In her research, she learned not only about the tens of thousands of chemicals lurking in everyday products, but that most of those chemicals have never been independently tested for their safety. Meanwhile, rates of tough-to-explain health problems like breast cancer, autism, and infertility — many of which have been linked to toxic exposure — are on the rise.
Imagine a day when steps from your door, or even from inside your home or office, you could enter a vital network or grid of New Mobility options, places that connect a whole range of transport amenities including buses, trains, parking, streetcars, clean fuel taxis, auto rickshaws and car share or bike share vehicles, and in some cases, day care, satellite offices, cafes, shops and entertainment.