for inspiration on how to naturally cool the site. The termites would otherwise die in the stifling desert heat.
A series of weather instruments on the roof are linked to a computer, which trigger the roof vents to open
Dollens has developed a biomimetic architecture iphone app called Biodesign which explores in a comic-book like fashion the engineering and modeling of the buildings of the future.
Dollens app explores the structural properties of trees and leaves, such as how they take stress from a disaster like an earthquake
or materials that are tossed into waste sites and landfills and oceans. We're looking for resins to replace plastics,
which recruits other minerals to the site and essentially can potentially grow an artificial skin. As the shell grows it could help better insulate
the way people are looking to biology for changing a transistor or a chip, Dollens said.
Prefabricated cores enable builder to churn out houses in less than 2 months Video: Modern, net-zero energy homes made more affordable with modular design
With the increasing adoption of tablets as the consumption tool of choice publishers are bracing for perhaps the biggest wave of change
Like most industries disrupted by the Web, publishing is grappling with new pricing models for survival.
Book publishers creating these highly asset-intense apps are really fish out of water. It not what they do.
That why they ll probably be buying more of these types of startups that are doing animated apps, and video.
So they go to the app company, the app company creates a great app, then the publisher says okay we ll establish the brand here so let also put out the book,
and the book may today get more exposure than the app in many cases. But that going away.
So why would anyone need a book publisher in five or ten years from now?
and on the Internet. It's called the e-cigarette. It's a battery-powered tube that mixes a nicotine cartridge with propylene glycol,
Makers of the e-cigs, like Cilini, claim in Internet ads the product has social advantages.
So why have they also been made in flavors like cookies-and-cream, strawberry and banana?
The Google has 12.9 million links to e-cigarettes, and the first of those links that's negative,
The iphone 5 could have changed everythingprotestors dressed up to represent Foxconn workers outside an Apple retail outlet in Hong Hong on May 7th, 2011..
Is the release of a new iphone the perfect time to mobilize around fair labor practices?
The sheer number of iphone upgraders and users is astonishing. On the day the iphone 5 is being released for pre-order,
articles about Apple abound over the virtual waves. Few mention questionable labor practices. Imagine if today was a day of action?
If the people on hold at Verizon and AT&T were waiting to condemn support of unfair labor?
Scouring the Internet for signs of protest in the United states and Europe has yielded not much.
Boxes of the iphone 6 (or even more iconically, the iphone as Apple drops the numbering system),
Via: Kansas city Star) Photo: stock. xchng user Marijnvb Related: Cree: We've cut the cost of LED streetlights in half LEDS turn towering sow's ear into silk purse in Paris
and rail upgrades without being sure of the demand for those facilities. This is precisely the sort of project where state and federal leadership could make all the difference,
Junk food to artificial chickenthe Morning Briefing is Smartplanet's daily roundup of must-reads from the web.
Nanotechnologythe Morning Briefing is Smartplanet's daily roundup of must-reads from the web. This morning we're reading about nanotechnology. 1.)From pomegranate peel to nanoparticles.
Dressed to kill, one atom at a time Nanotubes development could double battery life Nano-advances behind new architectural products Scientists create functioning transistor from a single atom
laptops, monitors and desktop computers. Jackpot. The burglary could have ended there--until Sutter, a network of doctors and hospitals in northern California, realized that one of the purloined computers contained the electronic medical data for more than four million patients.
Some of it dated back to 1995. Worse, the data were encrypted not. The only thing standing between someone interested in accessing
and selling that information was a computer password. Today, Sutter still doesn't know what happened to the data.
the health records of 20,000 Stanford Hospital patients made their way onto a public website after the data were used accidentally as part of a job skills test.
Today, many of these records are stored in databases called health information exchanges or HIES, which are linked together online--making a treasure trove of data accessible to myriad hospital workers, insurance companies and government employees.
Yet the number of patient records contained in electronic databases is fueled ballooning by billions of federal stimulus dollars.
Technology companies large and small, from IT industry heavyweights such as Google, IBM, General electric and Dell to startups, operate in the market.
and sends a text message to their shepherd. Then the shepherd can chase away any unwanted visitors.
which a text message to the shepherd may be warranted. The second phase of testing, which includes a collar outfitted with wolf repellent,
from aerospace to telecommunications, showing an increase from 2009. That's according to Thomson Reuters'2010 Innovation Report,
Computers & Peripherals: 212,622 patents in 2010; down 6%from 2009. Automotive: 88,867 patents in 2010;
Telecommunications: 87,920 patents in 2010; down 3%from 2009. Semiconductors: 86,479 patents in 2010; down 9%from 2009.
it's still the computers, automotive, telecommunications and semiconductor industries that lead industry in terms of sheer number of patents.
Leading this sector were Japan's Sharp and Korea's LG and Samsung. Agrochemicals and Agriculture Agrochemicals led the industry in growth,
overall patent volume for the automotive industry actually surpassed the telecommunications and semiconductors industries in 2010.
Computers & Peripherals Despite a drop from 2009, computers remains the most innovative technology area in 2010.
However, traditional computers retain the lion's share of the industry's patent volume, with 71 percent.
LG, Matsushita and Bosch & Siemens. Food, Tobacco and Fermentation Fermentation is the hot ticket in this sector,
Big in organics are Seiko Epson, Hoffman Laroche and the University of California. Semiconductors The industry's year-over-year drop in patents is due to double-digit decreases in three sub-sectors:
integrated circuits; discrete devices; and memories, film and hybrid circuits. On the other hand, materials and processes showed gains, thanks to Korea's Samsung and Hynix Semiconductor and Japan s Toshiba.
Telecommunications As you may expect, mobile is hot, hot, hot, and remains the largest group among all patents filed for this industry.
But look to the stuff that connects such devices for the surge--data transmission networks --and you'll find a 20 percent boost over 2009
Terrapass is a great website which allows you to calculate your carbon footprint and purchase carbon offsets,
and posted it to my Facebook page and website. My thinking: I have over 1, 000 Facebook friends and another thousand on Twitter.
If everyone reading this article right now remembers to unplug their phone chargers from the wall
instead build on the site of an existing public swimming pool. This meant the company had to first build a new pool elsewhere, at a cost of $77 million.
fortified with'tripod'units for additional stability. It also recreates a'five-story'traditional pagoda (a design in
In addition, the official website states that the tower is expected to function as a'disaster prevention'facility,
acting as an information relay network in case of emergencies, as well as relaying radio and television signals.
Tickets can be bought on the tower's website and day tickets will be available from July this year.
Much more data will be forthcoming over the next several years as the company start gathering data through automated systems on a more real-time basis
An infographic (below) created by Float Mobile Learning suggests that a growing number of North american farmers are now using smartphones
or mobile devices to help manage their operations --while farmers in developing nations have relied on these technologies for a longer period of time,
in the absence of other management tools or wired-line access to the Internet. So-called precision agriculture of the type being embraced by Pepsico could help reduce water usage by up to 50 percent
The Okanagan website acknowledges the controversy around products like theirs on their website, while at the same time attempting to rewrite the narrative around the controversy.
coordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, tells Co. Exist's Ariel Schwartz that's not true.
They also plan to introduce pitting-resistant cherries in the near future. via Co. Exist Photos:
This mobile biofuel processor looks promisingpurdue University researchers developed a new biofuel processing center that can be built on a mobile platform.
valuing the company as more than Google and Microsoft combined. Intense trading on Thursday February 9 came after an Allthingsd report that the ipad 3 is likely to be introduced in March.
While technology pundits and consumers eagerly await the latest in elegant Apple computing, now is as good a time as ever to take a look at the design history behind Apple's freshest--and forthcoming--products.
Handily a new video (edited by Boing Boing's managing editor, Rob Beschizza), provides a super-fast cram session on how Apple products have evolved.
Flashing before your eyes are a wooden prototype for a desktop computer; clunky Apple printers; early black-and-white on-screen interfaces;
cuddly ipod cases that look like ribbed socks; the ubiquitous iphone and ipad. Given that Apple's design achievements have distinguished its products and services in the marketplace over the years,
the video is worth watching to get a sense of how the company's designers, engineers,
and marketers alike have built so carefully upon their aesthetic legacy to create a consistent brand experience.
via Boing Boing
Three designs that will transform the National Mallthe National Mall in Washington, D c.:it's the ultimate public space.
They're building a computer model that unlike other AI projects does not mimic the brains of human, monkeys or mice.
The University of Sheffield is teaming with the University of Sussex to use graphics cards, rather than expensive supercomputers,
After traveling 30 miles from their home in Orinda, California, Mr. Fuzzy, Cookie, Mable, Alice, and nearly 400 other goats spent two weeks in June cutting away a 20-foot firebreak on the west side of the airport.
That's the takeaway from a new survey of 1, 021 Internet experts, researchers, observers,
as people are able to manage consumption of resources (electricity, water, food, even bandwidth) in ways that place less of a burden on the environment while saving households money.
One study participant, Jerry Michalski, president of Sociate and consultant for the Institute for the Future, puts things in perspective, noting that software-driven systems tend to be rife with errors and potential for abuse:
Those are smart German companies that one assumes have a lot of control over their components and their software...
which could take down the Internet we now have. It also opens the door to hacking scenarios we seem to not want to contemplate.
Transmedia goes transatlanticparis The University of Southern California s Annenberg Innovation Lab is working with French telecommunications giant Orange to explore new projects in transmedia.
The yearlong partnership will allow American students hands-on experimentation with a major international telecommunications giant.
French telecommunications giant Orange launched its own research institute across the Atlantic, the Transmedia Lab, in 2009,
and otherwise take advantage of screens and their unique capabilities and of the interactivity of Orange s networks,
Å Orange has been one of the first major telecoms interested in new forms of media and storytelling
Both she and Taplin also cited major work in the realm of second screen prototypes.
like a smartphone or tablet application. Microsoft just introduced its own version, the Smartglass, on June 4th, showing a market shift towards more innovative media experiences.
Å Students are already working on creating second screen prototypes that might be of interest to Orange.
We have seen their approach to the second screen and would love to work with their platforms,
 he said. Consumers will have to wait until October 2012 to see the fruits of the partnership between the two labs. Photo:
Wi-fi radiation to blamethe trees in the city of Alphen aan den Rijn weren't doing so well,
The unlikely culprit turned out to be Wi-fi. Researchers at Wageningen University discovered that when trees are exposed to Wi-fi radiation,
they don't grow correctly, the bark bleed, and the leaves die. Dutch researchers discovered that 70 percent of trees in The netherlands are affected by Wi-fi radiation.
Five years ago only 10 percent were. The scientists studied 20 ash trees and gave them a dose of Wi-fi radiation for three months.
The trees away from the radiation remained healthy, but the trees exposed to the Wi-fi radiation were sick.
According to the news release, initial observations suggest a negative effect on the health of the ash...
Ok so if Wi-fi can make trees bleed, what does it do to us? The debate over Wi-fi radiation continues.
The Health Protection Agency states there is no consistent evidence to date that exposure to FR signals from Wi-fi
and WLANS adversely affect the health of the general population. Wageningen University via CNET and Popular Science
Via Science Image: Erling Jirle, Department of biology, Lund University, Sweden
U s. used less water in 2005 than in 1975, despite 30%more populationthe United states is using less water now than during the peak years of 1975 and 1980,
Ashok Khosla, head of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world's oldest environmental network.
However, because of high population density and a vast public transportation network, it's able to keep its annual CO2 emissions per capital down to 7. 1 tonnes.
Chang'r/Flickr Via Grist
Urban beekeeping keeps cities healthywe need bees for the future of our cities and urban living,
which is unique to each site, with less actual food miles. Å By placing hives on the roof spaces of cafes, restaurants, hotels and individual gardens in and around Melbourne,
and create a network of people interacting and connecting with each other. Å Our vision for the future is to be able to provide the honey bees
The duo has been testing food production in the tunnel sites --which are being leased from Transport for London--for the last 18 months, according to BBC.
Due to the site depth 100ft below street level, the tunnels enjoy a stable temperature of 16ã °C all year round,
what would become an early Apple computer mouse, they cobbled together a roller ball (from a bottle of Ban deodorant) and a butter dish.
and the prototypes drew eager, smartphone-photo-snapping crowds. Some of the prototypes, such as a setup that converts a public staircase into a musical slide, were focused on fun over function.
is comprised of off-the-shelf roadway sensors linked to software that tracks the speed and volume of vehicles oe either cars or bikes oe moving over the sensors.
the developers created a smartphone app that lets citizens select desired locations on an online map.
P-Planter developer Brent Bucknum wrote to tell me the urinal does, in fact, meet ADA dimension requirements and that he is working with community groups in SF
or these signals can be sent to community members via text message. The idea is that people who live in the neighborhood
a $10 billion real estate developer that we can thank for erecting strip malls across the country, but that more recently has been focused on a plethora of mixed-use redevelopments in rusty urban corridors.
and St petersburg State university have partnered to create a new website that offers geographic distributions of 100 crops,
The idea behind the Internet-based, bilingual maps, collectively called Agroatlas, is to promote world food security--with specific attention to nations who were a part of the former Soviet union.
the project also aims to help students learn how to use geographic information system, or GIS, resources.
Interestingly, Agroatlas maps of climate, environment and other data can be integrated with computer models to assess the potential impact of climate change on the future distribution of crops
Stefano Boeri Architetti Via:
Video: Clothes made from cow's milkwhen milk goes bad, the standard protocol is simply to throw it out.
is bright for solar-powered smartphones, tablets
Video: Lockheed martin debuts maple seed-inspired dronemaple seeds. Most people admire them for being pretty and delicate
and a camera and can be controlled remotely or with an app on a tablet computer. It will be one of many new unmanned vehicles on display this week at the convention of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International in Washington
via i09) Images: Living root bridges Related stories: Video: China unveils world s longest sea bridge,
During the soba-making session, Kotani works with quiet confidence, looking up on occasion to smile shyly at the awed onlookers who are crowded around the table--two are filming the spectacle with their smartphone cameras.
According to Serious Eats, a community food blog, the ramen craze hit New york in 2004 when Korean-American chef David Chang opened up his restaurant Momofuku.
which integrates weather forecasts, via a computer or a free Apple iphone application. Cyber-Rain claims that the system investment might be covered in certain places by water utility rebate programs.
and managers a graphical tool that lets them manage watering from any Internet-connected computer in the world...
and even through an iphone app. Users can create efficient watering schedules that are customized to their landscape through an intuitive interface that is easy to use.
considering the investments that parent company Earth Networks is making in its predictive technologies. GNOME helps adjust for the following:
I wouldn't be surprised to see more water utilities consider layering such applications into their web sites
Via Reuters. Image: weed by tobym via Flickr
Weighing what trash is worth at Mexico city'Bartering Market'MEXICO CITY oe Sunday morning brings swarms of people to Chapultepec Park to walk, run, bike or just meander among the trees and the vendors of snacks
and workers on site at landfills to separate out the recyclables. Pablo Saldaã Â a a city worker, brought his two daughters
such moves could be good for an entire local economy s bottom line, reports The next Web.
The next Web reports: A staggering 71 million customers visited Apple s retail stores between January and March, an increase of 28 million from a year earlier.
The next Web Image: Peter Alfred Hess/Flickr
When biodegradable products are eco-unfriendlywe might not be reaping the full environmental benefits of biodegradable products, according to new research.
That blog was called Minimize packaging, don't minimize product protection.)My story had a happy ending in the form of a product exchange,
While bamboo might work as a cushion for some of its lighter products like netbooks,
it can't handle heavier things like hardware servers. Get everyone's input. Make sure the packaging experts talk to stakeholders throughout the entire supply chain.
agribusiness unit and an information technology services unit (the aforementioned ITC Infotech. From the company's sustainability report:
The list of companies that have collaborated with d. school on projects include Visa, Motorola, Google and Pepsico. And recruiters at companies such as Google,
Why Groupon is now selling onionsgroupon, the online deals site, is better known for its travel
and beauty discounts than its grocery deals. But in India, sales of the onion, a staple in Indian cooking, are soaring.
But what's driving Indians to burn through Groupon's inventory of onions instead of just going to a local market?
The price of the Groupon's onion deal? Nine rupees per kilogram (approximately 14 U s. cents.
Over seven days, Groupon plans to put a limited number onions on sale (limited to one kilo per customer) and ship them for free to customers in 78 cities throughout India.
This latest move from Groupon might not win them political office in India but they might win over some new fans.
Groupon. co. in
Why the biodiversity crisis is worse than the global economic crisis: There's no bailout for this onebob Bloomfield will make you worry about the state of biodiversity
Why thousands of bees are flying around with sensors  Wireless data-collecting sensors are everywhere:
contact lenses, Â parking spaces, Â phones, Â clothes, trash, stores. The list could go on. So it's not surprising that they're now on honeybees to help solve a major problem.
 Using Radio frequency Identification sensors the researchers will be able to track the movement of the bees.
and connectivity or migratory linkages to other sites. We want to know more about these reptiles where they are unaffected relatively by people
The CBC s website has a list of simple but powerful actions we all can take,
It has spanned new websites, blogs, podcasts, and publications related to biodiversity. More information about partnering institutions
No, but we do ship big screen high definition TVS. Generally if you have an expensive product,
Of course, the newest rumors are brewing for its possible location on Gran Via (Spain's Broadway) instead.
calls to the Apple headquarters and searches of the Web site do not provide any insight.
it's on Ostrzenki's own website) despite there being no evidence that the G-spot itself even exists.
With new printers, classrooms will go 3-DA 3-D printer might be coming to your local elementary school.
moving from 2-D printers that yield items to be folded into 3-D objects to 3-D fabricators that create 3-D physical objects.
and the University of North Texas. Â Other pilot sites are being established in Indonesia, Egypt, Japan and China.
Two of its main collaborators, Hod Lipson, associate professor of computing and information science at Cornell University,
How do 3-D printers work? Lipson: The 3-D printer is a machine that makes physical objects on your desktop.
For example, if you have an ink jet-printer printer, it makes an image by spitting out droplets of ink onto a piece of paper.
Imagine an ink jet-printer printer that instead of droplets of ink spits out droplets of plastic. It basically creates a thin sheet of plastic.
It then goes up a tenth of a millimeter and prints out another sheet of plastic.
it's something you can pick up out of the printer, for example, a cup you could go drink some water with.
Who uses 3-D printers now and do you expect they'll become more mainstream?
It's very much like the mainframe in the'60s and'70s where the big companies knew how to make these computers,
but couldn't foresee what it would be useful for at home. Part of that is just a vicious cycle of large and very expensive machines that can only be afforded by big companies
I think it's implications to society are as profound as computers. The transition from mainframes to personal computers could be similar to the transition from these big fabricators to personal fabricators.
It just opens the door to personal fabrication. Why do you want to bring these 3-D printers to the classroom?
Lipson: When you look at what made computers transition into the homes, one of the things that historians identify as a turning point was the availability of kits that people could make, low-cost computers.
These machines became accessible. That's what we set out to do. Â We do research on printers that can print with multiple materials.
We also built an open-source kit that will allow people to build these at home for a very low cost, about $1, 000.
That's something we did awhile ago. It's called Fab@Home. That became very popular
How will the students use the 3-D printers in the classroom? Bull: Producing and creating customizable manipulatives like base 10 rods, fraction cubes,
when teachers use the Fab@School 3-D printer to make characters and objects in books that students use for story retellings,
What are the challenges of bringing 3-D printers into schools? Bull: While the technology is in emergent state
Hod Lipson, with Jeffrey Lipton (in black) and Jim Smith (blue), assemble the Fab@Home printer/Courtesy of Cornell University Image, bottom:
about some of the software the city is using to get a grip on its greenhouse gas emissions.
Chicago has begun just building a more intelligent system for collecting all these performance metrics using software from ENXSUITE (formerly Carbonetworks.
To date, Chicago has been measuring the information for all the city-owned buildings in a massive spreadsheet
Chicago's requirement to see the actions of multiple stakeholders across the city (not just those that are owned city) is well beyond the feature set of a more corporate-focused environmental performance software application,
The ENXSUITE software will allow Chicago to regularly survey other stakeholders all over the city (including, ultimately, home owners) for a more real-time view of the reduction picture.
The city is currently in the project exploration phase as it figures out how to best configure the ENXSUITE software,
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011