Study calls for special business model for solar power in remote areas
A new study calls for special business model for developing low-cost, off-grid solar energy in some remote areas where costs and remote terrain often make it impractical or even impossible to extend the electric grid. Around the world, more than 1.2 billion people lack access to basic electricity Read More...
This social enterprise is creating a 'new generation of readers' in Brazil
Literacy in Brazil is a major problem. Of the 28 million students enrolled, 50 percent scored below the basic proficiency level in the 2012 PISA international assessment tests. According to the Instituto Paulo Montenegro, 27 percent of Brazilian adults are functionally illiterate. Text Read More...
Why the Dutch raise the world’s happiest children
Unicef has rated Dutch children the happiest in the world. According to researchers, Dutch kids are ahead of their peers in childhood well-being when compared with 29 of the world’s richest industrialized countries. Two American moms living in the Netherlands have been finding out why and wrote a Read More...
Uber data give detailed, very useful insight in travel times
The Uber app generates a wealth of very useful data that the car sharing company is now making available to city planners, and in the next few months to the public as well. Uber data provide detailed information about travel times at various hours of the day. The new tool is called Movement and it Read More...
Men with low levels of vitamin D more frequently suffer headaches
Men with low levels of vitamin D are at increased risk for frequent headaches, according to a new Finnish study. The study analyzed information from about 2,600 Finnish men ages 42 to 60 who gave blood samples and answered questions about the frequency of their headaches. Nearly 70 percent of the Read More...
There are still tolerant and progressive countries; here’s the top-25
A wave of intolerant politics is gathering strength throughout the western world. That is a reason for expat website Movehub to create a guide for those wanting to move to a more socially liberal country. The Scandinavian countries, as the usual “suspects”, lead the list, but what about Read More...
5 habits that break routines and boost creativity when you need it
Routines are not helpful when you need to solve a problem. You have to break out habitual patterns to find new answers. So what do you do? Here are five habits to improve your creative chops, backed by scientific research, that don't require committing to a specific daily practice: From taking a Read More...
Google just made a big move to bring down the cost of self-driving cars
Google parent company Alphabet just made a big move to bring its self-driving car tech to market cheaper and faster. Alphabet-owned company Waymo has slashed the price of lidar, a key component of self-driving cars that helps them see the world, by 90%, Waymo CEO John Krafcik said during a keynote Read More...
A robotics expert predicts that kids born in 2017 will never drive a car
Henrik Christensen, director of the University of California San Diego’s Contextual Robotics Institute, has issued a jarring prophecy for the next generation: “My own prediction is that kids born today will never get to drive a car.” His forecast, which he shared in a December Read More...
Three ways to cultivate a sense of hope, even when times seem hopeless
All Souls Unitarian, a liberal church two miles north of the White House in Washington, has seen record attendance in the weeks after the election of Donald Trump. Congregants have filled the pews, bringing fears and disillusionment about what the next four years could mean for them and for Read More...