Le dieci idee più pazze dell'anno su come salvare il mondo
C'è poco spazio sulla terra e le coltivazioni occupano tutto? La serra grattacielo risolve il problema vertivalizzando le coltivazioni. Oppure, Il bestiame mette troppo metano? Se serviamo una bistecca siamo colpevoli quanto un automobilista che si fa 40 miglia emettendo anidiride carbonica. La soluzione è l'aglio!!! da introdurre nelle mucche... La classifica di Wired

Le foto dell'anno dell'Unicef
L'Unicef ha reso noti i vincitori del suo annuale concorso fotografico. A vincere il primo premio è stata Stephanie Sinclair con una foto di una coppia afgana: lui 40 anni, lei 11.
Ci sono le foto anche in buona risoluzione in un zip

Push-button home in a converted shipping container -- Boing Boing Gadgets

Quando i film insegnano la storia
Summarizing Saudi history: "The Kingdom" opening credits
The opening credits were the best part of The Kingdom. It summarizes the 20th century history of Saudi Arabia's oil industry in a few minutes

Study unwraps hormone, generosity connection
The spirit of giving may be the hormone of giving, according to recent research.

Circumventing Censorship
As Internet censorship continues in countries such as China and Burma, efforts to circumvent it are growing more sophisticated. (See "Burma's Internet Crackdown.") Researchers at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto are adding new capabilities to one such project, called Psiphon, in hopes of expanding its reach in censored countries.

Ancient trees found using 200 year old maps
Maps more than 200 years old are being used to help find and protect Britain's natural treasure house of ancient trees.

Property bust? Lunar land prices are rocketing
Property investors smarting from this year's housing
bust in the United States might do well to look
farther afield -- even out of this world.

Accident-prone driver caught again at 100
A 100-year-old Japanese man who was arrested after his
car hit an umbrella held by a child said driving was
his ticket to avoiding senility.

UN warns on soaring food prices
The soaring cost of food is threatening millions of
people in poor countries, the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned.

County jail in Ohio getting painted pink
TROY, Ohio - Jail administrator Dee Sandy thought the sheriff was joking when he mentioned painting cellblocks pink. He wasn't

Culture Puts the Brakes on Women's Mobility
CAPE TOWN, Dec 16 (IPS/IFEJ) - The bicycle has been hailed as having done "more than anything else in the world…to emancipate women" -- the words of 19th century American feminist Susan B. Anthony. But for many women in South Africa, culture and tradition make it difficult to take advantage of the increased mobility and access to social and economic opportunities, not to mention the reduced carbon footprint, offered by bicycles.

Brazil Announces Voluntary Fund to Protect Amazon
In the context of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Bali, Indonesia, Brazil has announced the creation of a voluntary fund to protect the Amazon jungle region, and its decision to adopt national targets to curb deforestation.ù

What do you get when you take a product of our fear of terrorism, cut a bit off and tumble it around in a cement mixer with some sand, and then add some creative magic? Stuart Haygarth tried it and ended up with a striking chandelier. He collected 1800 confiscated plastic water bottles from Stansted Airport, and transformed them into a drop shaped chandelier which he exhibited at Design Miami 2007.

Britons drink more than we thought, says minister
Britons are typically drinking a third more than earlier surveys suggested, it was revealed yesterday, as the government took the unusual step of revising the way it calculates alcohol consumption to reflect stronger wine and the trend towards drinking from bigger glasses. Women's estimated intake increases by 45% to 9.4 units a week as they drink more wine than men, the ONS said in a new report.


Bamboo PC is eco-friendly and looks nice, too
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Back in 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built the Apple I, an early personal computer that consisted of a circuit board in a simple wooden box.

Wii emits a frequency that attracts cockroaches
So far this is just a theory, but it's something that's beginning to come under investigation. Apparently, Japanese entertainment magazine BARKS has alleged that a powered-on Wii emits a sound frequency which falls right into the range to which cockroaches are attracted

Japan scientists develop fearless mice
'Cat and mouse may never be the same. Japanese
scientists say they've used genetic engineering to
create mice that show no fear of felines, a
development that may shed new light on mammal behavior
and the nature of fear itself.

Teen caller tricks White House
A teen-ager says he convinced the White House he was
Iceland's president and managed to schedule a call
with George W. Bush but was found out before he got to
talk to the U.S. president.

Maradona wants tattoo of Chavez
Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona wants to add an
image of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to his
well-known collection of tattoos of leftist leaders.

Pregnant? Backache? Thank evolution
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pregnant women may stand out a mile away with their characteristic backward-leaning stance, but that clumsy-looking position is a unique adaptation that evolved over millennia, anthropologists said on Wednesday.

Banning samurai swords
LONDON (Reuters) - The government said Wednesday it would ban the sale of samurai swords because the weapons had been used in a number of serious, high-profile attacks.

McDonald's fines UK drive-thru eaters £125 for staying more than 45 min
McDonald's restaurants in the UK have put license-plate cameras in their drive-through parking lots. The cameras watch how long you eat for; if you go over 45 minutes, a fine is sent to your house automatically, charging you £125, and if you don't pay, the fine goes up and up and up.

Eco-Tourism Index for Latin America
As more hotels and tourism outfits realize the marketing potential of the eco brand, it's become harder to know what really constitutes bonafide eco-tourism. Fortunately the Rainforest Alliance has launched an Eco-Index Sustainable Tourism, which features businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean that have been deemed environmentally and socially friendly by reputable environmental organizations and/or ecotourism certification programs.

How would the world look like without gasoline?
(For this post. I'd like to describe the situation of the past three days
in Italy, with the transports' strike, and use it as a portrait of what the
world would be without gasoline)
Italian truck drivers agreed Wednesday to call off a protest that has
blocked highways for three days, causing shortages of gasoline, medicines
and perishable foods throughout Italy, government officials said.The strike
by thousands of drivers idled factories and left many gasoline pumps dry.
Many supermarket shelves emptied as perishable goods ran out and new stocks
went undelivered.

Nigeria: Bringing Power to the People
"If we had power," he says, "business would be moving." The new council
chairman in Kuje, Nigeria, has promised to bring his district power. Joseph
Uko, an electrician in the business of fixing generators, has found
business has improved even as more people have connected to the national
power grid.

Study: Young adults now find porn more acceptable
College students, including young women, are far more accepting of pornography than their parents, a shift that might be related to easy access to porn on the Internet, a study reports today.

NY school opens lab for serious games
A new research lab at the prestigious Parsons design school aims to develop video games with a conscience — called "serious games" — and study whether playing them can be a force for social good

Satirical or Strangely True? The Secret and Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal


The Last Empire: China's Pollution Problem Goes Global
Al Gore tells the U.S. and China to end the stalemate spurring global warming. But is the environment the inevitable casualty of China's headlong rush to emulate the American way of life?

PHNOM PENH - Cambodia is considering laying on hunting safaris for well-heeled foreign tourists in its remote jungle-clad northeast, to the consternation of green groups who say it could be a recipe for disaster

Unsilent night in 26 cities this year

Top Ten Scientific Discoveries of 2007
Time Magazine has a piece about the top 10 scientific discoveries of 2007.
Also included in the top 10 editorial are pieces on the top 10 medical breakthroughs, the top 10 man made disasters and the top 10 green 'ideas'.

Man freed after 100 hours trapped in a lavatory
A retired Scottish school teacher was recovering on
Monday after spending nearly four days trapped inside
a men's toilet with no food or mobile phone.

A new hot-spot for the tourism industry
After 27 years of total stagnation, tourism is
starting to flourish in Colombia again.

Supermarkets admit milk price fix
Supermarket firms Sainsbury's and Asda have admitted
that they were part of a dairy price-fixing group that
earned about £270m extra from shoppers.

'Intelligent bra' battles bounce
A bra with sensors built into the fabric could help
scientists make exercise a more comfortable experience
for women.

Vibrating Bluetooth bracelet helps you get the phone
The Bluetooth vibrating bracelet solves the problem of having your phone buried in a pocket or bag by giving your wrist a buzz when your phone rings. About half the people I call regularly miss most of their calls because they don't hear or feel the ringer. Short of wellying up the vibrator, this is the kind of thing that will solve the problem. Link (via OhGizmo)

LATIN AMERICA: Prizes for Communities Fighting Exclusion
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, Dec 10 (IPS) - They work in the deep heartland of Brazil, or in urban slums. They all seek social inclusion, and their starting point is the bottom of the social ladder, with people who have a wide experience of life, contrasting with their short years.

BRAZIL: Modelling Change in the Favelas
RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 6 (IPS) - When police in Brazil discovered an enormous detailed scale model of the Pereirão favela, they were going to destroy it because they thought it was part of a drug trafficking gang’s plan to invade a nearby neighbourhood. Ten years later, portions of the miniature reproduction built by children have travelled around the world to art exhibits and festivals.

Presentato il nuovo Rapporto UNICEF "Progressi per l'infanzia"
Lenti ma concreti i passi avanti verso gli Obiettivi di Sviluppo del Millennio

The Time Has Come for Complete Streets
Although some cities may act like it, streets aren't just for private vehicles. They are for pedestrians, bicyclists, skateboarders, public transportation vehicles, and so on and so forth. This idea is certainly not new news to most TH readers, but what is new is that now some localities are actually doing something about it.

Landmine activist/traceur tries to cross Central London without touching the ground
An anti-landmine activist/traceur (one who practices parkour) working with the Dangerous Ground Project tried to cross all 50,000 square metres of central London without touching the ground. The resulting video is part parkour excitement, part chilling reminder of the risks that people all over the world face from the landmines that surround their homes, schools and places of work

MIGRATION-GERMANY: Women in a New Country Draw Together
"Drawing gives you the freedom to say what you feel, what you have bottled up for such a long time…," she said in an interview with IPS.
Teresa is a participant in workshops organised by the Migrantas group, where women draw what emigration has meant to them, and share their experiences with each other.

If David lived in the USA today

RISORSE
Acqua potabile dal mare? ora è più facile
Una compagnia di chicago ha studiato il modo per rendere questo processo molto meno costoso. Simulando il ciclo di condensazione evaporazione e pioggia, che naturalmente depura l'acqua.

LAVORO
Il pericoloso e inesorabile aumento dei lavori notturni
Secondo la Association of Professional Sleep Societies i lavori notturni sono in sensibile aumento. Bbc intervista una serie di esperti sull'argomento ed elenca tutti i (gravi) danni che può portare l'interruzione del ritmo circadiano.

Flatulence ban for club pensioner
A social club in Devon has banned a 77-year-old man
from breaking wind while indoors.

Bodies in Juarez graves exhumed
Forensic teams in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez
are unearthing more than 4,000 bodies buried in common
graves.

Oil tensions for natives in Alaska
Each summer and autumn, the Inupiat, natives of the arid north coast of
Alaska, take their sealskin boats and gun-fired harpoons and go whale
hunting. Kills are celebrated throughout villages as whaling captains share
their catch with relatives and neighbors. Muktuk, or raw whale skin and
blubber, is a delicacy. But that traditional way of life is coming into
conflict with one of the modern world's most urgent priorities: finding
more oil. Royal Dutch Shell is determined to exploit vast reserves believed
to lie off the Alaskan coast. The Bush administration backs the idea and
has issued offshore leases in recent years.

Controlled Drinking: Controversial Alternative to AA
Can you fight the disease of alcohol addiction and still be a social drinker? Making such a stance was heretical only a generation ago. Yet controlled drinking, as it is called, has emerged as an accepted treatment option for those who find abstinence too daunting

Honey Works Better Than Cough Medicine
Honey is a better and safer treatment for children than over-the-counter cough syrup, a new study finds

Computer servers 'as bad' for climate as SUVs
Computer servers are at least as great a threat to the climate as SUVs or the global aviation industry, warns a new report.

The Real Costs of Saving the Planet
Critics say limiting carbon emissions could cost trillions. But a new study suggests the costs are much lower

Bulgarian nuclear plant on shaky ground
BULGARIA is poised to build the first Russian-designed nuclear power plant in the European Union. However, the site was rejected in the 1980s because it was prone to earthquakes

Reality-check or rip off? People spending millions on virtual gifts
You don't wrap these presents in a box. You can't wear them, play with them or show them off, at least not in the real world.

(Ispirati dal Dalai Lama nell'essere buoni
Secondo uno studio condotto dalla Società Edelman Strategy One il Dalai Lama è considerato dagli italiani e anche da altri europei la prima fonte di buone azioni e impegno sociale. Invece il Papa è considerato il massimo ispiratore in Giappone, nonostante la tradizione buddista. In Cina al primo posto si colloca la Bill Gates Foundation, in India Bono degli U2.
www.edelman.com)

Virtual world to host parallel climate conference
Two climate change conferences are taking place this week: the United Nations forum in Bali, Indonesia and a second meeting gathering animated creatures on an island in cyberspace.

Report: World food prices to rise
Food prices are set to rise around the globe after
years of decline, with climate change making it harder
for the world's poorest to get adequate food,
according to a report released Tuesday.

Climate cause fires ice cream guru
Ben and Jerry's likes to portray itself as an ethical
brand.

Mother Nature feels the pains of divorce
Divorce can be bad for the environment. In countries
around the world divorce rates have been rising, and
each time a family dissolves the result is two new
households.

FILM-ARGENTINA: Local Characters Get All the Parts
BUENOS AIRES, Dec 3 (IPS) - "I’d like to be offered the role of a madwoman some day, or of a vicious person, just out of curiosity, because I’m really not like that at all," says Carmen Drive, a 56-year-old Argentine homemaker who has already acted in 18 movies without ever having set foot outside her home town, population 30,000.

SOUTH AMERICA: In Street Football, Playing Is Winning
ASUNCIÓN, Nov 28 (IPS) - Football can cause excitement and euphoria, or anger and even aggression, but the Second South American Street Football Championship taking place this week in the Paraguayan capital puts the emphasis on solidarity, fair play and social participation.

COLOMBIA: The Chibcha Culture - Forgotten, But Still Alive
BOGOTÁ, Nov 30 (IPS) - Use of the sacred coca leaf, respect for water and nature, and other practices of the pre-Columbian Chibcha or Muisca culture survive in Colombia in spite of five centuries under attack. The culture was as highly-developed as those of the better-known Inca, Maya and Aztec people, according to scholars.

Stay Married -- Divorce Is Bad For Environment
Irked spouses looking for a reason to stay married were offered a novel rationale by US researchers on Monday: divorce is bad for the environment.
http://www.enn.com/lifestyle/article/26422

Give Granny What She'd Really Like for the Holidays
If you have any elderly relative on your Christmas or Hanukkah list, you know how hard it is to choose something for them. Granny doesn't need any more stuff for her home and the handkerchief you gave her last year is probably still in the original box

Finding Geothermal Energy Just Got Easy
The ground beneath your feet contains energy, vast sums of energy. It has been estimated that in the U.S. alone the geothermal energy resources are enough to power the entire U.S. for 30,000 years

A Picture is Worth... Watch the Amazon Go Down in Paper Towels

Crazy As They Need To Be: Circumcised Women Who Support The Practice
This weekend, the American Anthropological Association will hold an annual meeting that ought to make quite a bit of noise for such a seemingly staid body. Interestingly, international groups which oppose "this procedure" will be debating anthropologists who support it. Among the dissenters? African anthropologists who have personally undergone, and defend, female circumsicion.

We are good friends![PICS]

Devout Cypriots Pray For Rain To End Drought
Devout Greek Cypriots converged on Orthodox churches on Sunday to pray for rain to end a crippling drought that threatens to empty the Mediterranean island's reservoirs by the end of the year.

BRUSSELS - Do you have a big carbon footprint? Get out your mobile phone and check.

Uganda: Breastfeeding Vs Alcohol
TO drink or not to drink alcohol, is a question that plagues many breastfeeding mothers. For some, it is a no-go area.

Court rules employee worked to death
A Toyota Motor Corp employee died of overwork after logging more than 106 hours of overtime in a month, a judge ruled Friday, reversing a ministry's earlier decision not to pay compensation to his widow

Australia ratifies the Kyoto protocol
Just hours after being sworn in as Australia's 26th prime minister on
Monday, Kevin Rudd ratified the protocol.
The ratification will come into force in 90 days. The move leaves the
United States out in the cold, as the only major economy to boycott the UN
climate pact.

Facebook Founder Finds He Wants Some Privacy
Social networking Web sites can seem dedicated to the idea that nobody’s
personal life is worth keeping private, but when it comes to Mark
Zuckerberg — the founder of Facebook, one of the largest networks —
Facebook disagrees. Facebook tried last week to force the magazine 02138 to
remove some unflattering documents about Mr. Zuckerberg from its Web site.
But a federal judge turned down the company’s request for a court order to
take down the material, according to the magazine’s lawyers.

Brain wiring link to paedophilia
Scans have shown that paedophilia may be the result of
faulty connections in the brain.

Brazil to dispense condoms in schools
Brazil - Brazil's government announced plans to put
condom-dispensing machines in public schools to help
teenagers reduce the spread of AIDS.

Italian shoots wife in hospital
A 77-year-old Italian man has been arrested after
shooting dead his wife as she lay in hospital.
The man told police he did it because he could not
stand to see her suffer.

Gli edifici più alti del mondo... nel 1884
Un blog di architettura ripropone un documento originale di fine 800 in cui vengono segnalati gli edifici più alti del mondo: al primo posto compare il monumento di Washington (l'obelisco) che fu ultimato proprio quell'anno, che soffia il posto alla cattedrale di Colonia. Molti i monumenti di Roma (san Pietro, Colosseo ecc) in classifica. C'è poi un paragone con gli edifici più alti al mondo nel 2007