These women can't read ... and they are solar engineers - Video

(Courtesy: Avaaz)
These women come from the poorest communities in the world, they can't read, and often have no schooling. So how have they become solar engineers in six months? Meet the Solar Mamas of Barefoot College. For more than 30 years the Barefoot College has been working to improve the quality of life of the rural poor. They've found that trained men often leave their villages with their newfound skills, looking for better opportunities, but women stick around and improve life for their families, neighbours and the entire community.

U.S. Businessman Russ George Conducts Massive and ‘Illegal’ Ocean Fertilization Experiment Off Canada’s West Coast

U.S. Businessman Conducts Massive and ‘Illegal’ Ocean Fertilization Experiment Off Canada’s West Coast (via Planetsave)

[UPDATED: Oct. 18, 2012; see below] Geoengineering theories and  experiments have received much attention in recent years, with one recent experiment in “ocean (iron) fertilization” successfully conducted off the coast of Antarctica by a German scientific research team. Past experiments of this…

Sweden to Import Garbage as Trash Supplies Run Dry

Source: Stephen Messenger @ treehugger.com

As other nations throughout the world struggle to cut the amount of waste piling up in their landfills and marring the landscape, Sweden is facing an entirely different sort of challenge -- they've run out of trash. Now they're forced to import some more.

Swedes, you see, are among the planet's least wasteful people, on average recycling around 96 percent of the garbage they produce. And with what's left, they've found a way to use, having implemented a world-class waste-to-energy incineration program capable of providing electricity sufficient to power hundreds of thousands of homes.

But their hyper-efficiency has led to a unique problem: a trash shortage that could threaten the energy production capacity.

So, what is Sweden to do? Well, according to Swedish officials, the notoriously tidy nation will begin importing garbage from their neighbor Norway -- about 800,000 tons of it annually, in fact, to fulfill their energy needs.

Perhaps the best part of all is that, in solving their problem, Swedes actually stand to profit from this endeavor; the Norwegians are going to pay them to take their waste, proving quite succinctly that one nation's trash can truly be another's treasure trove.

http://www.treehugger.com/energy-efficiency/sweden-import-garbage-trash-supply-runs-dry.html

Mansa Musa I of Mali - the richest human being in all history

When we think of the world’s all-time richest people, names like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and John D Rockefeller immediately come to mind. But few would have thought, or even heard of, Mansa Musa I of Mali – the obscure 14th century African king who was today named the richest person in all history. With an inflation adjusted fortune of $400 billion, Mansa Musa I would have been considerably richer than the world’s current richest man, Carlos Slim, who ranks in 22nd place with a relatively paltry $68 billion. More...
Mansa Musa I of Mali – the richest human being in all history - World news, News - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Lithopanspermia, Microorganisms From Distant Planets May Have Seeded Life On Earth, Study Says

Lithopanspermia, Microorganisms From Distant Planets May Have Seeded Life On Earth, Study Says (via Planetsave)

Life on this planet may have been seeded by microorganisms embedded in the fragments of distant planets that have crashed to Earth, according to new research from Princeton University, the University of Arizona and the Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) in Spain. The new research, just published in the…

What is this thing called love? Mere chemical trickery

In the past two decades social neuroscientists have been diligently working to unravel the mysteries of love - including the phenomena of attraction, monogamy and the parent-child bond - using techniques such as brain imaging, genome-wide association studies and transgenic animal models. In The Chemistry Between Us, Larry Young, the director of Emory University's Center for Translational Social Neuroscience, and journalist Brian Alexander offer a novel take on many of those findings. More..
CultureLab: What is this thing called love? Mere chemical trickery

New Zealand Grants Rights of Personhood to Whanganui River

New Zealand made history only days ago by giving the rights of a person to the Whanganui River. Under the preliminary agreement, that means the river will be considered a legal entity and have a legal voice. While the river can’t exactly celebrate the win, we’re sure the Whanganui River iwi, an indigenous community who fought for the rights of the river and who will now have a legal say on its behalf, are ecstatic. More..
New Zealand Grants Rights of Personhood to Whanganui River

'Video Painting Europe': Breathtaking Projection-Mapped Video Graffiti Transforms European Cities

Part interactive installation, part urban performance art, Video Painting Europe documents a kind of glow-in-the-dark graffiti that leaves no trace. Art collective Sweatshoppe uses ingenious infrared tracking to smear digital video over concrete surfaces with paint rollers. In this Vimeo Award-winning video, they travel to European cities like Paris, Belgrade, London, and more to paste their "video collages" on different architectural structures including the Berlin Wall. The duo behind the collective are Blake Shaw and Bruno Levy.