Austin, Texas, approves plan to become zero waste by 2040

On December 15, 2011, the city council in Austin, Texas, voted unanimously to approve the Zero Waste by 2040 plan. And now the program is starting to take effect. Starting with the comprehensive master plan (pdf), the executive summary: Zero Waste is a design principle that goes beyond recycling to focus first on reducing wastes …

Child obesity and soda – science says it’s a problem, soda companies say it’s not

Here is the perfect example of the obesity debate in America. Last Friday, the New England Journal of Medicine published the following: The increase in consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages among both adults and children in the United States and other countries is considered a potential contributor to the obesity pandemic. Sugar intake from sugar-sweetened beverages alone, which …

Teaching class with Pinterest

A great idea to bring visuals into the classroom, from the Pinterest blog: Not only are these Pinners sharing their knowledge and talents with other people, but they’re also using Pinterest as part of their classes. The teachers will be using their boards for everything from lesson plans, organizing class inspiration, showing off the results …

WordPress upgrades to ‘intelligent proofreading’ for spelling, grammar, and style suggestions

I have to say this is pretty amazing. The WordPress blogging platform now offers artificial intelligence for proofreading, and we’re not talking any old spell checker. Here is what this “intelligent proofreading” covers: Bias language Clichés Complex phrases Diacritical marks Double negatives Hidden verbs Jargon phrases Passive voice Phrases to avoid Redundant phrases   I …

A set of podcasts is 21st-century equivalent of a textbook, not a teacher

An intelligent essay from Pamela Hieronymi, professor of philosophy at UCLA, discussing the impact of technology on education: A set of podcasts is the 21st-century equivalent of a textbook, not the 21st-century equivalent of a teacher. Every age has its autodidacts, gifted people able to teach themselves with only their books. Woe unto us if …

Our carbon sinks are absorbing twice as much carbon dioxide as they used to

The term ‘carbon sink’ is becoming more common as we all gain the scientific education needed to deal with climate change and global warming. According to Wikipedia, carbon sinks can be both natural and artificial. Both involve the process of absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which is called carbon sequestration. The main natural carbon …

Vertigo dethrones Citizen Kane as the best film of all time

If you’re looking for a quality list among all those top 10s, then this is the one. It occurs only once a decade and queries nearly 900 of the world’s top critics. The numbers are collated into the “Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time”. The results are in:   And the loser is – …

Crowdsource the launch of a nano-satellite into space – Kickstarter

We are developing a nano-satellite, and mobile apps to go with it, as the focus for a global education and public outreach campaign. The satellite, called SkyCube, is a 10x10x10 cm “1U” CubeSat intended for launch as a secondary payload on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2013. Orbiting more than 300 miles up, on a …

Prison inmates at San Quentin get contract to build satellite parts for NASA

The NASA Ames Research Center is known for establishing innovative partnerships and Pete Worden, the former Air Force general who serves as the Center’s director, is known as a maverick. Still, the latest joint venture to come to light has caught even some longtime NASA observers by surprise. Under supervision from NASA Ames, inmates working in the …

United States loans three satellites, worth $1 billion, to Mexico – MEXSAT

Did you know that America had an Export-Import Bank?   The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) approved a $922 million loan guarantee to support the export of three satellites and related equipment to the Mexican government for the MEXSAT regional mobile satellite system. Mexico’s Secretariat of Communications and Transportation will purchase the …