A new kind of battery that is expected to last 25 years (called a betavoltaic battery) is currently being developed by Widetronix. The battery harvests energy from the nuclear decay of isotopes. Read More
Apparently architects with children on the Autism spectrum have been reporting to Google that the software is a hit with their kids. Newsweek
It turns out that SketchUp, which was acquired by Google from a small Colorado-based startup in 2006, allows people with autism to express their ideas in a visual way—a welcome release for kids who have trouble communicating through speech or writing.
What gives is that many people with autism excel at visual thinking. Studies show they perform exceptionally well on the Block Design Task, part of a standard IQ test, which assesses an individual's ability to recreate a complicated red and white pattern using a set of red and white blocks. "They're able to mentally segment the design into its component parts so they can see where each block would go," says Ellen Winner, a professor of psychology at Boston College, something non-autistic kids have trouble doing. Geraldine Dawson, chief scientific officer for Autism Speaks, a leading autism advocacy group, found that the parents of children with autism have superior spatial abilities on the Block test, too—a gift they may be passing on to their kids. Environment likely plays a role as well, says Dawson. Because children with autism have trouble communicating with people, they tend to spend their time interacting with objects. The end result: the visual portion of their brain becomes highly developed.
A photographer and an architect plan to freeze one Detroit's thousands of abandoned homes this winter, encasing it in ice to draw attention to foreclosures that have battered the region. AP
Everybody knows New York City is an expensive place to live. But the United Nations wants to know if affordable housing is so tough to come by that it actually violates human rights. NYT
Pieces of the Berlin Wall arrived to LA's Wilshire Blvd last night, all part of a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. Curbed LA
Apparently the Fins now guarantee the right to connect. Starting next July, every person in Finland will have the right to a one-megabit broadband connection, says the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
Finland is the world's first country to create laws guaranteeing broadband access. Read
Sustainable mobility #1: think more, move less. John Thackara explains what's in store for the future of individual mobility?
We need to build systems that take advantage of the power of networks – but that do so in ways that optimise local-ness. This design principle – “the less the space, the more the room” – is nowhere better demonstrated than in the human brain. The brain, in Edward O. Wilson’s words, is “like one hundred billion squids linked together...”
Obama yesterday expressed concern at the sorry state of the news industry and said that he will look at a news paper bailout, because otherwise, blogs will take over the world... businessinsider.com
Jon Mooallem profiles the self-storage industry and explores what the explosive growth and current downturn can teach us about America's evolving consumer culture. Amazingly we learn that; After a monumental building boom, the United States now has 2.3 billion square feet of self-storage space. (The Self Storage Association notes that, with more than seven square feet for every man, woman and child, it’s now “physically possible that every American could stand — all at the same time — under the total canopy of self-storage roofing.”)NYT
No one thinks India is facing the type of famines that struck it decades ago; government grain stocks can replenish any shortfalls. But the drought has focused attention, again, on the problems facing Indian agriculture as the population continues to expand at the same time that water resources come under greater pressure. NYT
