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Total number of posts: 23665
Home loans in India help families excluded from formal banking system escape poverty
Informal workers make up more than four fifth of India’s labor force. Many struggle to make ends meet. For them, poverty typically perpetuates since banks don’t invest in poor people living off an informal income. Exclusion from home loans means being forever at the mercy of landowners in the Read More...
If flying is greener than driving, what does that say about our daily commute?
Unless you’re driving an electric car powered by renewable electricity sources, or are carpooling to work, chances are your driving habits produce more greenhouse gas emissions per mile than air travel. This is the conclusion reached by Michael Sivak of the University of Michigan Transportation Read More...
Plan for a family financial retreat and ease money-related stress
Money is consistently among the top sources of stress for Americans year over year, according to the American Psychological Association’s 2014 Stress in America survey. Simultaneously, just 37 percent said they often talk with their family members about the subject. Communication is a key Read More...
America’s #1 poultry producer renounces antibiotics
Superbugs have become a major public health hazard in America. Scientific research has conclusively shown that they are caused by the routine sub-therapeutic use of antibiotics by the meat industry. Early March, food giant McDonald’s, one of the largest buyers of chicken in America, announced it Read More...
Turning off the lights in New York to save migrating birds
It is estimated that one billion migrating birds crash into buildings in the U.S. every year due to disorientation caused by electric lights. Since New York State is a heavy bird migration route, the state authorities have decided to turn off bright outdoor lights at all public buildings between Read More...
3D printing startup bioengineers rhino horn to save wildlife
Illegal wildlife trade is a $20 billion global market. Killed for its horn, the rhinoceros is a primary target. The Western Black Rhinoceros was hunted to extinction and only five known Northern White Rhinoceros remain. San Francisco startup Pembient recently demonstrated it can use keratin to 3D Read More...
Cities are growing smarter, greener, more human-friendly
Pollution, congestion, noise, unfriendly public space… is this what awaits humanity as 70% of the global population lives in cities by 2050? Most likely, the answer is no—judging by recent developments in various European cities and by the visionary work of urban planners, urban designers and Read More...
5 strategies to turn your labor of love into a full-time job
Whether you’re burned out on your daily job or on a business dream gone bad, or just curious to contemplate a possibility you had never truly envisioned before, we hope you enjoy these pieces of advice. We found them thoughtful and cleanly laid out. Potentially even truly useful. What would the Read More...
Developers work to make Egypt’s government accountable
Three years after Egypt's Arab Spring toppled the corrupt regime of Hosni Mubarak, Egyptians are still struggling to make their government accountable. In fact, Egypt ranked 91 out of 102 countries on the recently released Open Government Index. Thankfully a new web platform was recently launched Read More...
MIT develops cheap, portable, solar-powered desalination system
Solar-powered desalination plants have been a promising technology for a while, but their prohibitive cost has prevented them from being considered a solution in water-deprived, typically poorer parts of the world. Using the electrodialysis process, a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Read More...