FYI

Tree seeds could provide low-cost water purification for developing nations

“In the developing world, more than 1 billion people cannot get clean drinking water…
The United Nations says that dirty water causes 80 percent of diseases in the developing world, and kills 10 million people annually.” Those sobering lines are from the United Nations’ website, and underscore just how urgently needed water [...]

Tags: clean drinking water, drought, moringa oleifera, Moringa seeds, tree seeds, water crisis
Posted in Consider This, FYI, Innovation Needed, Need to Know, Shape of Things to Come?, climate change, environment, learning | 1 Comment »

China’s Cyberposse

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The short video made its way around China’s Web in early 2006, passed on through file sharing and recommended in chat rooms. It opens with a middle-aged Asian woman dressed in a leopard-print blouse, knee-length black skirt, stockings and silver stilettos standing next to a riverbank. She smiles, holding [...]

Tags: chinese internet, detective work, human flesh, human flesh search engine, internet citizens, internet forums, netizen
Posted in Communications, Consider This, Democracy, FYI, Innovation in Society, NY Times, Need to Know, Shape of Things to Come?, Worth Repeating | No Comments »

Internet Ideology War: Google’s Spat with China Could Reshape Traditional Online Freedoms

Image via CrunchBase

How the Internet giant could use its might in closed societies
Late last year a series of sophisticated Internet attacks emanating from China burrowed deep into the computer systems of some two dozen U.S. corporations, among them Northrop Grumman, Dow Chemical and Yahoo. One fought back. After revealing that the attacks [...]

Tags: chinese human rights, human rights activists, information technology policy, interactive journalism, internet attacks, rebecca mackinnon
Posted in Communications, Consider This, FYI, Internet War, Scientific American | No Comments »

Mobiles offer new view of reality

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Virtual Reality has been a mainstay of sci-fi for decades but 2010 could see a pared-down version become mainstream.
Augmented reality (AR) has had a quiet launch on mobile handsets but it set to explode next year, experts say.
AR is a technology that allows data from the web to be overlaid on a view [...]

Tags: Add new tag, augmented reality, Facebook, IPhone OS, Juniper Research, Mobile network operator, mobile phone, social network, virtual reality
Posted in BBC, Computers & Humans, Consider This, FYI, Innovation, Innovation in Society, Job Changes, Shape of Things to Come? | 1 Comment »

Science news highlights of 2009

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It was the year we learned of a spectacular smash-up in space, and scientists working on the world’s biggest physics experiment delighted at collisions of an entirely different sort.
There were shockwaves, too, in Copenhagen, as the summit failed to reach a consensus on tackling climate change, instead merely noting a deal struck by [...]

Tags: Activism, Add new tag, china, climate change, copenhagen, environment, Impacts and Indicators
Posted in BBC, FYI, Help Wanted, Innovation Needed | No Comments »