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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Work & Connect Dec 6 2010
Jumo is a social do-gooding website that helps connect people with projects working on the issues most near and dear to their heart, making online activism even easier. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Work & Connect Nov 23 2010
After Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth "ruined his life," retired jewelry designer John Hardy decided that he would devote the rest of his days to doing everything he could to improve the prospects of his childrens' future. He started with an incredibly impressive project -- building a green school in Bali that, among giving children a one-of-a-kind ecologically centered education, boasts world's largest freestanding bamboo building. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Nov 22 2010
Robots have been a fascination of kids and scientists alike for generations. But while we've grown used to the idea of robots in our lives, from the mechanical arms that manufacture our automobiles to the more whimsical robot housekeepers and servers coming out of Japan design labs, there are far more high-tech robots being created that put us on the edge of our seats. Here are five of those strange and fascinating new inventions that call into question everything from the need for our flesh-and-bone bodies to human consciousness. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Nov 16 2010
When it comes to finding solutions for flooding in towns during rainy seasons, the answers can be as simple as making use of the strategies Mother Nature has already employed. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Nov 15 2010
How is it we can hone in on a particular conversation in a crowded room? Or notice a particular noise in a loud environment. New research into the way bats filter and process sound is providing insights into the way humans also respond to sounds. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Oct 26 2010
Harassmap takes advantage of constant access to social media sites via cell phone to give women a way to monitor and avoid the worst areas. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Oct 25 2010
If ever there was a fun job -- and conversation starter -- it's figuring out how to collect tissue samples from live whales. On the surface it might not seem terribly interesting, but when you factor in remote control toy helicopters, whole new levels of neat open up. As do opportunities for winning Nobel Prizes. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Oct 20 2010
Nanotechnology is creating things at a molecular scale, and everything from microscopic robots to more efficient energy storage have come out of the new science. Check out a few of the inventions that have caught our interest: + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Oct 20 2010
What if, rather than get an audio or visual cue from your smart phone that your battery is low or that you've received a new message, the phone changes shape? In situations such as at movie theaters, you could still know what's going on with your phone without having to disturb everyone around you. This new shape shifting technology isn't so unrealistic; in fact, it's already underway. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Oct 19 2010
Oxfam and Nokia have partnered up to create an app that allows anyone with a Nokia cell phone to get updates on when donations are needed, make a quick donation, and follow the fundraising efforts of Oxfam in real time. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Oct 12 2010
Greening our gadgets comes down to just a handful of basic principles -- minimizing energy consumption, making them last as long as possible, and creating them to be hackable, fixable and upgradeable. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Oct 11 2010
Few things are likely more amazing than regaining the use of your legs if you're wheelchair bound. Berkeley Bionics has created an exoskeleton that allows a paraplegic person to stand up and walk. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Oct 5 2010
One important use of smart phones that is becoming more common is their use during disasters to keep people organized and savvy about what is going on.
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Oct 4 2010
A concept device by designer Noam Klopper could turn a blind person's hands into their new eyes. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Sep 28 2010
A new wheelchair created by researchers at Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne combines brain messages with artificial intelligence to give hope for independent mobility to paralyzed people. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Sep 27 2010
A new patent on self-organizing traffic lights could reduce delay times by 10-30% which means drivers save on time, fuel and carbon emissions. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Work & Connect Sep 23 2010
This Saturday, September 25th marks the 25th annual International Coastal Clean-Up Day. The 2010 report by Ocean Conservancy, the non-profit that organizes and hosts the annual event, shows shocking statistics about what was collected last year, and what is still out there endangering our water quality and wildlife. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Work & Connect Sep 21 2010
Kiva has made it possible to loan money to students in developing countries, allowing more people to get an education who might not otherwise be able to finish school. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Sep 20 2010
There's been a murmur in medical technology of devices powered by the human body, collecting energy from breath, muscle movement, or even the heartbeat itself. But now it seems that researchers have finally made an important breakthrough in creating a "glucose biofuel cell," or a device that is powered from the glucose and oxygen found in the body's fluids.
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Sep 14 2010
Many types of plastics can be recycled, but not into food-grade containers. So what can be done with them? Well, plenty! Taiwan is using it's mountains of plastic trash to form everything from building bricks for exhibition halls, to wigs, to clothes. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Sep 13 2010
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have made a breakthrough in creating a touch-sensitive "skin" for robots. It makes it possible for the same robotic hand to gently grasp something fragile in one instance, and keep a hold of something heavy in the next. But the e-skin also has important implications for people with prosthetic limbs -- it could restore the sense of touch. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Sep 7 2010
We're fans of IBM's World Community Grid, a project that uses your idling computer to work on some huge problems, from curing cancer to finding clean energy sources. And now added to that list, is finding solutions for clean water. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Aug 31 2010
Most everyone is familiar with Doctors Without Boarders, a humanitarian organization saving lives of people who lack access to healthcare. But what about people whose lives are threatened by a lack of access to technology and the information that technology provides? Geeks Without Borders hopes to be that solution. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Food & Health Aug 30 2010
Marks believes that quality of life is measurable, and he and his team at Centre for Well-Being have created the Happy Planet Index. During this wonderful TED Talk, he unveils how it tracks national well-being against resource use, showing that the happiest places are not necessarily those with the most stuff. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Aug 24 2010
The inventiveness within the medical community for shrinking the size and price of supplies is important and inspiring work. Especially when it comes to the basics, like microscopes. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Aug 23 2010
It's commonly thought that if we're happy, we make those around us happier too; conversely, if those around us are happy, we feel happier along with them. So what if you could stake out where the happiest places are located and go there? UK researchers are hoping to uncover environmental factors in what makes people happy, and are using one of the most handy tools available -- iPhones. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Work & Connect Aug 17 2010
For deaf people, using a telephone can be a cumbersome ordeal that includes special equipment and services that connect callers through translators. Cell phones have become incredibly useful tools for the deaf community, but it's their texting capabilities that are so valuable. Yet students at University of Washington are helping to make cell phones convenient for deaf and hard-of-hearing people to communicate face to face. Making a quick call is soon to be a whole lot easier. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Aug 16 2010
Not only is the idea of bringing Kindles into classrooms growing in the states, but also in developing nations. Worldreader, a non-profit co-founded by ex-Amazon.com VP David Risher, is hoping to boost literacy rates by handing out Kindles. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Work & Connect Aug 10 2010
There are thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of projects in the works across the world that help alleviate poverty, but finding them so they can be utilized can be problematic. A new project called iuMAP, however, is fixing the issue by tracking and mapping all the market-based solutions projects around the globe. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Aug 9 2010
Scientists have developed ways to harness body heat to power medical tools for hospitals with unsteady power supplies. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Travel & Outdoors Aug 5 2010
From working to provide clean water for everyone on the planet to encouraging kids to become stewards of the earth, Machado is an inspiration. He took a few minutes to talk with us about his projects, including digging wells and greening up elementary schools. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Work & Connect Aug 2 2010
What if we could set up a system of high definition cameras and sensors to constantly monitor the areas and send us a steady stream of information? That's the goal of oceanographer John Delaney, who is heading up a team installing sensor arrays to explore how our ocean functions. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Travel & Outdoors Jul 27 2010
As coral reefs are killed off by climate change, tough decisions have to be made, including shutting them off to human access entirely. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Work & Connect Jul 26 2010
The Blind Project, a collective of volunteers that empower survivors of the sex trade industry in Southeast Asia, has created Be A Biographer, a project that allows you to take part in giving new lives to women and children who are escaping enslavement in sex trafficking.
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Jul 20 2010
Researchers from MIT have developed the next generation of fabric that offers practically limitless possibilities for taking in acoustic data from the surrounding environment. Woven fibers that can "hear" and "sing" could change the way we use fabrics to interact with our environment. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Work & Connect Jul 19 2010
No matter where we live, our connection to the ocean is surprisingly direct. The planet's marine systems are intricately linked with our daily activities, even when those activities seem trivial. Here are five ways small choices add up to big problems for the ocean's health. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Work & Connect Jul 19 2010
How might boosting living standards (and thus life expectancy) slow population? Through a brightly colored and highly logical demonstration, the answer appears. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Jul 13 2010
Driving a car can afford a person a great sense of freedom. While it isn't an environmentally friendly option, it can sometimes be a practical and necessary mode of transportation for many people living in areas that lack public transit or rural areas. But it is also a freedom afforded only to those with functioning eyes. Until now. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Jul 12 2010
Last year, Plank, the European Space Agency's "time machine," was launched into space to scan the sky and record images for astronomers to study, potentially revealing the secrets to how the universe formed. Now, the first all-sky image has been delivered. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Travel & Outdoors Jul 12 2010
Shark finning is a brutal practice, and it's also essentially pointless -- shark fins have no nutritional or medicinal value, and they're practically flavorless. Yet, finning continues, to the point that these animals so vital to the ecological balance of our oceans are about to be wiped out completely. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Travel & Outdoors Jul 9 2010
You'll also hear it called the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," the "Pacific Trash Gyre," the "Pacific Trash Vortex," and the "Oh My...What Have We Done!?" among other names. We explain what it is, what it's doing to our ocean ecology, and what we can do about it. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Jul 7 2010
A quicker, cheaper way to determine a person's prescription for eyeglasses to correct nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism can come with a cell phone and simple attachment device. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Tech & Transport Jul 6 2010
Groundwater is a very important source of water for civilizations worldwide, making up about 20% of the world's fresh water supply. Many cities have gotten used to mining groundwater to sustain its residents. However, as we overuse the resource, pull water faster than aquifers can naturally refill, and continue to pollute groundwater supplies, we're beginning to face a whole new set of serious problems with this vital resource. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Work & Connect Jul 6 2010
It seems like such a simple connection: knowing that your company supports you helping your community makes you more dedicated to your job while you're in the office, both out of appreciation for the company as well as simply feeling more joyful in your own life. + READ MORE
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By Jaymi Heimbuch IN Travel & Outdoors Jun 29 2010
If you think that overfishing and plastic pollution is the only thing we need to worry about when it comes to the ocean's health, you'll be surprised to know that ocean acidification is a far more worrisome issue. + READ MORE
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