Walk on pavement to create electricity to safely light your way

One of their example uses is placing their pavement in the street so it would light up the crosswalk as you walk across it. How cool & safe would that be?

From an article at Inhabitat:

Every time a rubber Pavegen stone is stepped on it bends, producing kinetic energy that is either stored within lithium polymer batteries or distributed to nearby lights, information displays, and much more. Just five slabs spread over a lively sidewalk has the ability to generate enough energy to illuminate a bus stop throughout the night. But applications are not limited to the street.

Check out PaveGen Systems.

Funky reflection

Plastic that dissolves in water

Years ago I found corn starch "Styrofoam" packaging pellets that dissolved in any temperature water - as in - completely gone. Unfortunately I've had -0- luck finding it again.

This is a plastic bag that disappears in boiling water.

Check out the explanation about the dissolving plastic packaging at Creative Review.

The company behind the packaging and their blog.

So banning plastic bags near water like the Chesapeake Bay really isn't that much of a hassle with solutions like this eh?

AG Cuomo forces insurance companies into more transparency

From NYTimes:

The announcement is part of a settlement reached over the last year with more than a dozen insurance companies concerning one of the industry’s most controversial practices: the payment of out-of-network claims.

Using a database run by the UnitedHealth Group, the insurance giant, the industry was accused of systematically understating the doctors’ fees for more than a decade and shortchanging consumers by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Why I never answer quizzes in Facebook

They can't guarantee your private info is safe.

From NPR.org's 2nd part of their 4 part series:

What people often don't realize, Conley says, is that these quizzes are applications. Just like games and other entertainment, they're programs that run in a user's Web browser.

"You think that all you're doing is answering a few innocent questions," Conley says. "But in fact, you're opening up your entire profile and almost all your personal information to whoever wrote the quiz."

Free music at Amazon made easy by downloading their, well, downloader

Check out the Philip Glass Sampler album for free.
Amazon has a bunch of other albums for free too. Over 100.

Soros funds Institute for New Economic Thinking with $50M donation

The hope is it'll be matched up to about $200M.

In case you aren't aware, "traditional" economics and it's models as it's taught in virtually all renowned universities completely failed in the last several years culminating in the economy blowing up in Fall of 2008.

Many believe, including me, that the entire global banking system needs completely overhauled asap. But:

... it's all happening very slowly. And with no rules of the road, we have entered a Mad Max world of economics in which even the most eminent of our top regulators and central bankers can't seem to agree on the fundamental nature of financial markets.

Soros with his resources is looking to speed up the massive shift that must take place to bring reality to economics, it's philosophies, models, etc.

Watch an interview explaining the Institute for New Economic Thinking at FT.com.

"The dogma has lost touch with reality."

Grants will be available from the new Institute.
More about Mr. Soros.

National Geographic Traveler Magazine ranks the Chesapeake Bay a 42

From National Geographic Traveler:

One of America's iconic landscapes, but the bay is dying, both as a natural ecosystem and as a cultural landscape. Almost all indicators of the Bay's health are negative. Is it any wonder, given the rampant sprawl, agricultural runoff, and booming population growth in the watershed?

Sad. Very sad. When will people decide to stop wasting time and start working on protecting this treasure for their great-great-grandchildren?

What did you do for 350 day?

According to 350.org:

What does the number 350 mean?

350 is the most important number in the world--it's what scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Amendment to exempt used car lots from proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency

This is funny. As in, how could this Congressman not know all of the info is public.


Go to Change-Congress.org.