Leave it as it is. You cannot improve it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it….
President Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt commenting on seeing the Grand Canyon
Read more about the US National Parks and President Teddy Roosevelt at http://www.nps.gov and http://blogs.nashualibrary.org/reference/2009/09/leave_it_as_it_is_1.html
Mint.com (now owned by Intuit) has put an interesting set of easy to understand visual comparisons of India vs. USA. Here are the charts / graphs
Just found out that TED is organizing a TED India conference (November 4-7, 2009) in Mysore at the Infosys campus. Check it out here
Turn any water into drinking water… $20 billion can provide safe drinking water for the entire world… this would an ideal stimulus plan…. healthier people can improve their own lives and contribute to their and society’s development
The traction beam cannot lift your car or boat but it can move really really small objects. Here is the blurb from the article in ScienceDaily:
A team of Yale University researchers has discovered a “repulsive” light force that can be used to control components on silicon microchips, meaning future nanodevices could be controlled by light rather than electricity. The team previously discovered an “attractive” force of light and showed how it could be manipulated to move components in semiconducting micro- and nano-electrical systems—tiny mechanical switches on a chip. The scientists have now uncovered a complementary repulsive force.
The NewScientist has an article titled Rainforests may pump winds worldwide, which may shake up the climate and environmental skeptics. It seems large forests are the heart, lungs and kidneys of our living planet. Large forests may be responsible for pumping moisture laden air across continents helping rainfall far inland…
Cool factoid of the day from the article: “More moisture typically evaporates from rainforests than from the ocean. The Amazon rainforest, for example, releases 20 trillion litres of moisture every day.”
How can forests create wind? Water vapour from coastal forests and oceans quickly condenses to form droplets and clouds. The Russians point out that the gas takes up less space as it turns to liquid, lowering local air pressure. Because evaporation is stronger over the forest than over the ocean, the pressure is lower over coastal forests, which suck in moist air from the ocean. This generates wind that drives moisture further inland. The process repeats itself as the moisture is recycled in stages, moving towards the continent’s heart (see diagram). As a result, giant winds transport moisture thousands of kilometres into the interior of a continent.
Treehugger has a great article on the hybrid car technology turning 100. Actually about a 100 years ago there were more electric or hybrid cars than pure gasoline / petrol driven cars.
Google just announced a new service for pushing Gmail contacts and Google Calendar updates to mobile devices. This is neat!
Cleantechnica has a post on Forward Osmosis. It is better explained here. The authors description in a gist:
…conventional desalination and reuse technologies use substantial energy. “forward osmosis,” exploits the natural diffusion of water through a semi-permeable membrane. Their process “draws” pure water from its contaminants to a solution of concentrated salts, which can easily be removed with low heat treatment — effectively desalinating or removing contaminants from water with little energy input.
The concentrated salt solution is probably a mixture of ammonia and/or carbon dioxide dissolved in water. The ammonia and CO
CNN reports that scientists after over 10 years of research have successfully developed a new strain of flood-tolerant rice through precision breeding. Read the article to know more about the inspiring work being done to positively impact the lives of hundreds of millions.
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| By N2H | ||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Oct | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | 31 | ||||