Sunday 16 December 2007

Color Changing Illuminated Shower Head

This replacement shower head illuminates the water according to water temperature. I guess this might be useful; it's a curious effect at least. The illuminating LEDs are powered by the water flow and don't require batteries.

Shenzhen Kezhilai Electronics Technology Co., Ltd.
[via Gadgets News]

Sunday 4 November 2007

A silly little YouTube movie

This clip says something about the nature of humour. People seem to find this type of slapstick incredibly funny or are not moved at all. I'm one of the former...
.

Saturday 3 November 2007

Novel dish drainer saves water while watering your plants

With the current state of drought in Melbourne, there's a lot of interest in ways of saving water around the house.

Here's a novel design for a dish drainer by a young Turkish designer Erdem Selek that would look great in the kitchen and save at least a few drops of water.

Erdem is doing a thesis at the ESAD de Reims in France on sustainable design approaches of medium sized manufacturing companies in Turkey from the economical perspective.

[via MAKE: Blog]

Top Gear review of the P50 - a 60's design for the car of the future?

Absolutely classic Top Gear humour!

Jeremy Clarkson reviews the tiny P50 - a 40 year old car that makes a Prius look like a petrol guzzling tank.
..
[via Gadget Lab]

Sunday 14 October 2007

Free Email Address Verifier


This free Email Address Verification Tool lets you check whether an email address actually exists before you send an email. It connects to the mail server and reports whether the server is valid and that the username is recognised. It actually just saves you waiting on those Postmaster error messages.

Of course the address may be legitimate but still never read by the user. In this case the email will end up in the ether with no reply from user or Postmaster.

[via LifeHacker]

Saturday 13 October 2007

The Ford Nucleon - a transport solution for peak oil and carbon emissions?


The Ford Nucleon was a nuclear powered concept car developed by the Ford Motor Company in 1958. The rear mounted reactor provided a 8000 km range and could be exchanged at charging stations, which were anticipated to replace petrol stations. The forward position of the cabin provided a degree of protection to the occupants from the reactor.

Thankfully, no operational models were built, but it's a wonder Howard hasn't picked this one up - it's American, nuclear powered and dates from the Menzies era!

[Wikipedia via EcoGeek]

Wednesday 10 October 2007

What a Wonderful World - amazing shadow puppet performance

The Helpmann Awards recognise artistic achievement in Australian musical theatre, contemporary music, comedy, opera, classical music, dance and physical theatre.

An absolute highlight of the 2007 event was the shadow puppetry of Raymond Crowe shown in this YouTube video...

..

Thursday 4 October 2007

Save Water Save Energy Expo, 19-21 October, Melbourne

Friday 19 - Sunday 21 October, 10am to 7pm
Melbourne Exhibition Centre
Adults $15, Student/Concession $13, children under 14 free
NOTE: Online tickets are only $10.00 (until 5pm Thursday 18 October)!

This expo focuses on ways to save water and energy and reduce the impact of climate change. A “one stop shop” for environmental solutions for homes, schools and business. Practical free seminars on topics ranging from low-energy lighting solutions to installing solar hot water systems and water tanks will run continuously over the three days. The ABC’s popular Carbon Cops will also be on hand show how to give homes and lifestyles an energy makeover and ways to reduce carbon emissions and energy bills by 24% in 24 hours. With close to 100 exhibitors the Expo showcases products and services which save water, save energy, reduce waste, improve recycling and provide cleaner energy for use in the home or business. Visitors will be able to save money by comparing and buying hundreds of amazing products to cut water and energy use and bills. The best eco technologies on the market will be demonstrated and experts available to answer questions.

In partnership with Sustainability Victoria.

More info and online tickets at Expo homepage

[Alternative Technology Association blog]

Saturday 29 September 2007

New Zealand to be 90% Renewable by 2025

An interesting contrast...

A. In New Zealand, Janet Clarke commits to 90% powered by renewable energy by 2025.

B. In Australia, John Howard commits to a 15% renewable energy target by 2020, which the Government admits is simply the sum total of existing and planned targets under the Commonwealth and states' energy target schemes.

It should be noted that note that NZ is already 70% powered by renewables - mainly from hydroelectric dams, with geothermal a secondary source. Clarke also hopes New Zealand will someday be completely carbon neutral - I'm sure they also have lots of wind. Further NZ goals are a 2040 target for reducing by half per capita emissions from transport, widely introducing electric vehicles and achieving a net increase in forest area of 250,000 hectares (617,000 acres) by 2020.

[EcoGeek blog and renewableenergyaccess.com]

Saturday 15 September 2007

Google Trends: useful tool for analysing Web topic trends

Google Trends is a rather useful tool that you may not be aware of. It lets you analyse trends in Web topics according to their search frequency and News coverage. Up to five topics can be compared with results listed by country and region. Major news topics are listed and tagged on the trend lines.

For example, this image shows trends in the use of the terms 'Peak Oil' and 'Climate Change' over the last 4 years (see live trends here). It shows how the UN Climate Change Report caused a major peak on Feb 2, 2007, but interest in Peak Oil appears to have tailored off. There seems to be far more interest in both topics from Australia and New Zealand that the US.

Selecting a particular country shows the corresponding search activity, but unfortunately not the News items (the product is under development).

For more info see About Google Trends

Friday 14 September 2007

Formation of the Bicycle Coalition

Four of the largest riding organisations in Australia have come together to form the Bicycle Coalition:
  • Bicycle NSW
  • Bicycle Queensland
  • Bicycle South Australia
  • Bicycle Victoria

The Coalition will significantly enhance the ability of each group to achieve its purpose through a combined membership of over 60 000 in contact with a quarter of a million bike riders across Australia.

It will establish agreement about bike riding issues; present common positions to government, community and business; develop shared intellectual property and develop shared ventures and initiatives.

  • National social marketing programs for National Ride to Work and National Ride2School.
  • The Light Up! campaign reduce the proportion of bike riders who ride at night without lights.
  • Getting more bicycle facilities built.
  • Improve the frequency, accuracy and comparability of bicycle trip data.
  • Shared internet services for riders including a Bike shop finder to help riders find independent bicycle dealers and help independent bike dealers serve riders
  • National Ride leader accreditation program.
  • Establish joint positions on Commonwealth and State legislation and policy: Commonwealth fiscal policy; Bicycle parking and other bicycle friendly planning guidelines; Road trauma reduction; Preventative health measures

Suggestions for issues the Coalition could address are invited!

Wednesday 5 September 2007

MyCuppa - colour matching mugs for tea or coffee

Available in Tea or Coffee styles, it's claimed these mugs will help you mix your favourite brew by matching the colour guide on the inside. Available end of September from SuckUK for £7.50

Alternative Energy Cuba: Four Wind Turbines for Guantanamo Bay

The U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay is demonstrating yet more global responsibility with the installation of four new wind turbines. They'll not only reduce oil imports, but show those "energy-starved communist neighbours what they are missing". No plans to share the technology with Cuba however.
[Alternative Energy Blog]

Tuesday 4 September 2007

The Viability of Domestic Wind Turbines for Urban Melbourne - ATA Report Launch

The Alternative Technology Association will launch a report prepared for Sustainability Victoria into the Viability of Domestic Wind Turbines for Urban Melbourne.

When: Thursday 13th September, 2007
Time: 6:15pm for a 6:30pm start
Where: Saint Michael’s Building, next to 120 Collins St. Disabled access. (click here for a map)
Costs: $10 for ATA members (ATA couples $15). Non-members welcome $15.
Refreshments provided
RSVP essential as seats are limited. Contact Wendy Clarke on ph:(03) 9631 5407 or email: wendy@ata.org.au

This report investigates the feasibility of small-scale, grid-connected wind turbines for urban Melbourne, outlines the findings of the research and highlights the issues which may face the emerging market.

Speakers include:

  • Geoff Mabbett, CEO of Sustainability Victoria will launch the report
  • Alicia Webb, a wind engineer, is the author of the report. She will overview the report, looking at the different types of micro turbines, what is available in Australia as well as the considerations around installing micro turbines in residential Melbourne.
  • Dominique La Fontaine, CEO of the Australian Wind Energy Association (Auswind) is one of Australia’s leading wind energy authorities, well renowned for her advocacy of wind energy, aiming to mainstream the use of wind energy worldwide. She will look at the potential of wind energy, innovation in the Australian wind industry and current incentives (VRET, emissions trading, NRET, MRET).
See also entry on Small Barrel Wind Turbine for residential rooftop use

Innovative Bicycle Product - the 'Tandem Rack'

It's claimed this pseudo-tandem rig is easy to use and works for both children and adults, but it looks pretty scary to me...

A telescoping tube fitted to a cantilever style bike rack attaches to a trailing bike. If either rider gets distracted, falls or the rear bike starts to pass, the linking bar automatically disconnects.

[Innovative Bicycle Products - Tandem Racks]

"My Grandma Owned a Car": Short Film from Future Melbourne backcast workshop

This documentary from a Future Melbourne 'backcasting' workshop showcases how leading transport and urban development thinkers envisage we might be living and working in a post- peak oil and climate change future.

It can be viewed online (21GB) but will also be shown on the Big Screen at Melbourne's Federation Square (map):
5pm and 6pm Friday September 7, 14, 21 and 28* (*5pm screening only)
12:30pm and 5:30pm Tuesday September 18 and 25, 2007
12:30pm and 4:30pm Sunday September 9, 16, 23* and 30, 2007 (*12:30 pm screening only)

* Where will we live when petrol is too expensive for average income earners to buy? Will the electric car mean business as usual? Will our nature strips be filled with vegetable patches?
* Will we just have to travel less? More working from home? Will we all be living in dense suburbs or apartments and relying on our feet, pedals and telecommuting to transport us?
* Will we our future grandchildren laugh at the absurdity of us having once owned a car?

Featuring...
Dr Patrick Moriarty, Monash University/GAMUT
Prof. Chris Ryan, Australian Centre for Science, Innovation and Society
Dr Jan Scheurer, RMIT University
Prof Bill Russel and Prof Nicholas Low, GAMUT
Mr Ray Kinnear, Department of Infrastructure
Prof Dimity Reed AM, Mr Daniel Khong and Mr Martin Williams, VicUrban
Mr David Teller, Committee for Melbourne
Mr William McDougal, Sinclair Knight Merz
Ms Jess Fritze, Victorian Council of Social Services
Mr Bernie Carolan, Metlink
Mr Chris Loader, Bus Association of Victoria
Mr Kevin Luten, UrbanTrans
Ms Kerry McConnell, VicRoads
Cr Janet Rice, Metropolitan Transport Forum, City of Maribyrnong

PS: note family contribution!

Wednesday 29 August 2007

Improvement to Workplace Relations advertisement

Here's an amusing improvement to the Workplace Relations media saturation campaign spotted on a Flinders St tramstop...

Despite the saturation campaign (27 TV, radio and press advertisements to date), I notice a recent Roy Morgan survey commissioned by GetUp! indicates the results are less than impressive:
  • 45% feel less positive towards the Government's laws as a result of the multi-million dollar campaign.
  • 23 per cent say it made them feel better about the laws.
  • 24 per cent say the ads made no difference
  • 8 per cent not sure.
Prepare for an onslaught when the election is announced!



Monday 27 August 2007

Sustainable House Day 2007 Sunday 9th September (Victoria)

Sustainable House Day is a national open house scheme organised by the Australian and New Zealand Solar Energy Society (ANZSES). It showcases sustainable design features to encourage adoption in new and existing homes and homes and to show how simple, easy and cost effective sustainable living can be.

Victorian open houses:
WestWyck 492 Victoria Street, Brunswick West VIC 3055
19 Murray Street,West Brunswick, Victoria, 3055
25 carron Vale Road, Mooroolbark, Victoria, 3138
103 Stewart Street, Brunswick, Victoria, 3056
3/924 Toorak Road, Camberwell, Victoria, 3124
39 Stanbridge Street, Daylesford, Victoria, 3460
13 Queensberry Street, Daylesford, Victoria, 3460
13A Queensberry Street, Daylesford, Victoria, 3460
7 Trafalgar Avenue, Altona Meadows, Victoria, 3028
6 Pritchard lane, Beechworth, Victoria, 3747
27 Rose Street, Sandringham, Victoria, 3191

Further info and details of other states: Sustainable House Day

Thursday 2 August 2007

Gapminder World 2006: Visualisation of World development data

Gapminder World 2006 is is an interesting free tool for visualising statistical data. It provides a very effective interface for dynamically representing relationships between variables showing trends over time. The Gapminder foundation believe that decision makers, politicians and educators need more accessible tools such as this to make use of existing global development statistics and to improve understanding about the complex society.

Unfortunately, using the tool with your own data is not yet possible, although Google recently acquired Gapminder's Trendalyzer software and development team so this may eventually be possible.

As it stands you can chart the following World Development Indicators on two axes and dynamically map changes over time - typically 1975 - 2006.
  • CO2 emissions
  • Child mortality
  • Fertility rate
  • Contraceptive use
  • Economic growth
  • Income per capita
  • Internet use
  • Life expectancy
  • Military budget
  • Number of girls c/f boys in school
  • Phone users
  • Physicians per head
  • Population
  • Urban population
  • Women in workforce
The easiest way to see how it works is to view the one minute demo.

You can create your own charts, e.g. I've used the tool here to compare per capita CO2 emissions of various countries with similar income levels.

Hans Rosling, one of the founders, demonstrates at TED 2007 how global trends issues and relationships can be powefully presented.

Solving Melbourne's Transport Crisis - Community Meeting 30 August

Thursday 30 August
5.30pm for 6.00-8.00pm
Swanston Room
Melbourne Town Hall

Speakers include:
Evidence based transport planning Dr Paul Mees, Senior lecturer in Transport and Land Use Planning, University of Melbourne and author of Melbourne’s Future Transport Options, (MCC, 2005)

Implications of global warming and peak oil for transport Cr Janet Rice, Chair, Metropolitan Transport Forum, Councillor and former Mayor, City of Maribyrnong

Transport funding – myth and reality Peter Fitzgerald, Infrastructure expert and author of Review of Partnerships Victoria Provided Infrastructure, (Vic Gov, 2004)

Where to from here? Cr Janet Rice, Metropolitan Transport Forum
Angela Munro, Citizens for a Liveable Melbourne

Organised by the Metropolitan Transport Forum with Citizens for a Liveable Melbourne in association with the Municipal Association of Victoria, Victorian Local Governance Association and the Blue Wedges, Friends of the Earth, Green Wedges Coalition, Institute for Sensible Transport, Koonung/Mullum Forestway Association, Protectors of Public Lands Victoria, Western Region Environment Centre and Environment Victoria.

RSVP:
Susie Strain, MTF mtf@mtf.org.au
Angela Munro, CALM Tel 0429 355 474

Wednesday 1 August 2007

Burnout Self-Test Tool

For those of you still with your nose to the grindstone...
Here's a Burnout Self-Test tool to help you look at the way you feel about your job and work experiences and identify burnout risk.
Retrospectively I scored 66!

Generic casserole recipe

Appealing to a non-cook like me now having to think about cooking, but I'm sure this will cause much mirth to others - hence 'humour' tag. The idea/hope is that you just need to memorize the one generic recipe and reuse it according to ingredients on hand, etc.

1 cup main ingredient
1 cup second ingredient
1-2 cups starchy ingredient
1 1/2 cups binder
1/4 cup “goodie”
seasoning
topping

Main ingredient: tuna, cubed chicken, turkey, ham, seafood, etc.
Second ingredient: thinly sliced celery, mushrooms, peas, chopped hard-boiled eggs, etc.
Starchy ingredient: thinly sliced potatoes, cooked noodles, cooked rice, etc.
Binder: cream sauce, sour cream, can of soup, etc.
“Goodie”: pimiento, olives, almonds, water chestnuts, etc.
Topping: cheese, bread crumbs, etc.

An example given is chicken + mushrooms + rice + cream of chicken soup + cheese combo (no goodie).

This post is calling out for comments & advice!

[from The Simple Dollar review of The Complete Tightwad Gazette (p625)]

Tuesday 17 July 2007

Can't wait for an iPhone? Build your own cut and fold paper model


For the truly desperate, here's a layout and instruction sheet to cut and fold your own iphone (pdf).

[sneakmove - they've also got a diy cut-and-fold ipod nano case!]

John Howard's YouTube climate change experiment

By unveiling his belated climate change measures on YouTube, John Howard is obviously trying to target youth culture (i.e. people under 55!) .
.
.
You do have to wonder at this venture into new media - this audience is unlikely to be impressed by the image and probably more interested in the multitude of parodies already there. More significantly, this medium is empowering individuals who are able to assess wider evidence and construct a critical commentary. An ABC Lateline interview during Al Gore's visit last to Australia less than a year ago, paints another picture of Howard's climate change credentials.

..
Labor was obviously waiting to ambush the announcement by releasing a television ad on the same day featuring a bedridden Howard complete with Menzies eyebrows and bedside photo of Bush. TV news appeared more interested in the use of media than on the substance of the issue.

Sunday 15 July 2007

Furniture design and production as an artwork performance

FRONT Design, a Swedish design firm is bringing the technology Front2
to people’s bedrooms to create truly personalized furniture. The 3-person team “draws” directly into the air using the tip of a pen, captured by surrounding cameras connected to computers. The sketches are translated into 3D digital files and materialized through an innovative Rapid Prototyping technique - a plastic molding machine that uses a laser beam to solidify the liquid plastic layer-by-layer with the 'functional' piece of furniture emerging over a day.Front_motion_capture_sketchfurnit_3

The design team are doing “performances” of their work in Miami, Tokyo and other cities.



[From Wired Blogs: Gadget Lab]

Save water by using a "navy shower"

The "navy shower", or "sea shower", is a way conserving water (and energy) while taking a shower. The basic steps are:

1. turn on the water
2. immediately wet the body
3. turn off the water
4. soap up and scrub
5. turn the water back on and rinse off the soap

The total water flow time should under 2 minutes or so and beats standing in buckets like some people I know. I believe the girls at the MLC Marshmead camp developed even more extreme water management techniques someone may care to comment on!

Navy showers originated on naval ships, where supplies of fresh water were often scarce. [From Wikipedia]

Wednesday 4 July 2007

Small Barrel Wind Turbine for residential rooftop use

In Feb 2007, the Western Australian Sustainable Energy Development Office awarded Graeme Attey a $34,000 grant to develop a modular axis wind turbine system suitable for individual houses and other buildings in urban areas. It will involve the development to commercial stage if testing of an existing prototype proves successful.

Another grant to Dr Jonathan Whale of Murdoch University will examine best practice for placement of rooftop wind systems and establishing of best practice guidelines.

The unit is modular and stands about 1.5m high. Six connected to the grid would apparently power a household. At AU$700 each, it could be a lot cheaper than solar panels in a suitable location, clearly suiting Perth because of its daily sea breeze, the "Fremantle Doctor". The design takes advantage of roof profile to concentrate airflow .




See also:
EcoGeek.org

ABC News
WA Sustainable Energy Development Office 2007 Grants
Wind Roses for Selected Locations in Australia

Sunday 1 July 2007

Library Books - useful little Mac application to monitor your library subscriptions

Library Books is a small Mac OS X application that puts a listing of books you've currently borrowed or reserved up in the Menubar. You can subscribe to multiple libraries, receive notification of overdue books and access the online library catalogues.

It's thoughtfully designed and surprisingly easy to set up. Libraries in Australia, US, UK, Germany and other countries are listed, in addition to some generic catalogue systems. I haven't been able to get the Melbourne City Library going yet (any ideas?), but have connected to Boroondara and Melbourne University.

It's free and definitely worth trying - particularly by all those recently retired babyboomers catching up on reading!

Thursday 28 June 2007

Medieval Help Desk (movie)

New technologies have always presented challenges to users. Here's a YouTube sketch of medieval help desk support for one of those new fangled 'books'.

Wednesday 27 June 2007

iPhone keyboard operation - interesting Apple tutorial

The non-physical keys of the Apple iPhone offer fantastic advantages of standard phone keys, but some think this may be the greatest weak point of the device. The early reviews do suggest it will take users several days to adjust, but in the end this should not be an issue.

This Apple iPhone keyboard tutorial is worth looking at to get a feel of the iPhone and understand the different software mechanisms to make text entry accurate, e.g. anticipating specific mis-hit errors and changing the key target area according to predictive lookup of words.

Sunday 24 June 2007

Artist doodling (movie)

Intriguing YouTube movie of apparently aimless doodling on a wall.


Maybe it says something about the value of micro and macro level views. Watch it to the end (3 min)!

Friday 22 June 2007

Amazing Photosynth demo

This is an amazing TED Conference presentation of "Photosynth" technology that enables the user to fly through images and information on the Web. Quite breathtaking, but hard to describe so just watch it.



[thanks to David C. for this]

New (dog-related) Apple iPhone ad (video)


You've probably see the Apple iPhone ads - in a class of their own.
Here's a new one that shows how the iPhone can stream YouTube videos.

Sunday 17 June 2007

Billy Connolly on Retirement...

You gotta love him...

What do retired people do all day?

Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days interesting. Well for example, the other day I went into town and went into a shop. I was only in there for about 5 minutes, when I came out there was a cop writing out a parking ticket. I went up to him and said, "Come on man, how about giving a senior citizen a f****** break?" He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. I called him a Nazi turd. He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn tires. So I called him a shithead. He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I abused him, the more tickets he wrote. Personally, I didn't care. I came into town by bus. I try to have a little fun each day now that I'm retired....... It's important at my age......

[thanks to Rose for this!]

Aiko fetching (movie) - a cat doing dog-type tricks

This is Aiko doing her best trick - playing fetch.
She'll do this quite a number of times before she gets tired.
The mice are her favorite playthings which require regular replacement as they become lost or fall apart (can be bought in '9-packs' from the Murphy Brothers)
.

Saturday 16 June 2007

MacMINI in the case of SE/30

Here's someone who's fitted a Mac Mini into an old SE30 case
using the original greyscale CRT monitor.


Aiko foot stamping trick (movie)

Here's Aiko up to her tricks again, stamping her little back feet for food

Tuesday 5 June 2007

Darebin Bridge campaign by Bicycle Victoria - ACTION REQUIRED!

Boroondara Council is stalling on approval for this critical bridge connecting between the Darebin Creek Trail (and La Trobe Uni) and the Main Yarra Trail over the Yarra River at Kew. It will complete a magnificent network of paths across Melbourne that includes the Darebin Creek trail, Metropolitan Ring Road Trail, Main Yarra trail, Outer Circle or Anniversary Trail, Koonung Creek Trail and Capital City Trail.

PLEASE help passing this on to others and by firing off some emails along the lines suggested by Bicycle Victoria.
darebinbridge.com.au

Monday 4 June 2007

1-click Award silly animation

With electronic devices getting smaller and smaller, here's an idea for a different scale of user interface
1-click Award (takes a few seconds to load)
[source David C.]

Fyxomatosis site - track bikes and photography

Lots of gratuitous pictures of track bikes* mainly for Julian.

This site is by Andy White who's a Melbourne bike courier and obviously loves track bikes and photography. Fyxomatosis is an infectious (and possible fatal) track bike disease that causes the sufferer to ride and take photos simultaneously.

*Track bikes are lean and mean with no gears or brakes, and for some reason are coming into vogue. I noticed them quite a bit in NY (that's my picture of one). Andy doesn't believe riding a track bike is any more dangerous than a standard bike - because "the rider is aware of their limitations, they avoid danderous situations" ... h'mm [Melbourne Weekly Magazine June 6-12, 2007]

Sunday 3 June 2007

Google Street View - Explore neighborhoods at street level–virtually

Google has just added a very interesting extension to Google Maps - 360 degree views of ground level streetscapes that you can pan and zoom. Only 5 cities in the US have been mapped at this stage. San Fransisco has the highest quality images. See introduction.

There are of course some interesting privacy issues arising from this. The Age gives quite a good review. Wired Magazine has a few a few odd sightings, but they're scratching a bit.
A broader view of current discussion can be obtained through Google News.

National "Do Not Call" register - get rid of those pesky telemarketers

The new Australian law banning telemarketers from ringing telephone numbers on the national "Do Not Call" register is now in force.

Registration at https://www.donotcall.gov.au/ This is fairly easy, but it takes a month or so to come into effect. Note that charities, religious organisations, political parties and candidates and social and market researchers are still permitted to ring telephone numbers listed on the register.

Note: Choice running a campaign to have these exemptions removed.


How to smile in Japanese - emoticon cultures :)

The emoticon for "smile" in most western cultures is this :). In Japan, however, emoticons tend to emphasize the eyes, such as the happy face (^_^) and the sad face (;_;).

You might think that's just because the traditions evolved separately, but emotion researcher Masaki Yuki doesn't buy it. He argues that the difference in Japanese emoticons is related to cultural differences. [Cognitive Daily]

Amish Are Ultimate Early Adopters of Solar Energy

What community has the highest per-capita use of solar energy in Ohio? None other than the Amish.

It might sound strange to people who think of the Amish as 19th century holdovers, but that's an oversimplification. Instead, after considering the impact to their values and way of life, Amish communities decide communally whether to adopt new technologies. [Wired]