The world built more renewables for far less money last year, report UN and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Stunning drops in the cost of wind and solar energy have turned the global power market upside down.
https://thinkprogress.org/renewables-cheapest-new-power-globally-74910c78bbbe/
Bibiana Steinhaus officiates at the league match between MSV Duisburg and FSV Zwickau last Saturday in Duisburg. Photograph: Joachim Sielski/Bongarts/Getty Images
The appointment of a woman as a top-flight referee in Germany has been hailed as a breakthrough for equality domestically and a milestone for football.
Bibiana Steinhaus has become an overnight celebrity since the announcement by the German football federation’s referee commission that she will take charge of games in the Bundesliga next season. The same organisation banned women from playing football as recently as the 1950s.
After losing his right forearm in a factory accident, Chang Hsien-Liang tried several artificial limbs but he was never satisfied.
The arms he could afford were too basic and the robotic hand he wanted was too expensive.
So the 46-year-old engineer from southwest Taiwan set out to design and build his own prosthetic arm using 3D printing technology.
“After getting my own bionic arm, my daily life improved. It became easier to do things like riding a bike and eating a meal,” Chang said in an interview.
https://widerimage.reuters.com/story/printing-prosthetics-in-taiwan
With all the controversy engulfing the global ride-hailing giant Uber, there is more attention on alternative platforms that meet people’s transportation needs and don’t have the company’s ethical baggage. One of the newest and most promising alternatives is LibreTaxi, founded by Roman Pushkin, a San Francisco-based developer and architect with a decade of experience in the technology sector.
LibreTaxi is a completely open-source project, meaning that developers can take the source code and adapt it for local uses. Since it was launched in Dec. 2016, the app, which can be used to find rides across the globe, has grown to 20,000 users. The highest use so far is in Taiwan, Iran, and Russia.
SANTA YSABEL, May 11, 2017 Kevin Muno, left, and Jarod Cauzza, founders of Land of Milk and Honey, walk through the cattle herd they manage. Muno and Cauzza are using regenerative agriculture to mimic nature and stimulate plant growth, which absorbs carbon dioxide. (Hayne Palmour IV)
The cattle herds at Santa Ysabel Ranch have provided meat and milk for centuries, and now they’re on the cutting edge of a new kind of agriculture: carbon farming.
Matt Yglesias has an interesting observation about The Jetsons:
George Jetson enjoyed a nine-hour workweek—thee hours a day, three days a week. Mike Konczal rightly connected this to JM Keynes’ essay on “The Economic Possibilities For Our Grandchildren” (PDF) highlighting the consequences of a super-abundance of material prosperity.
…
http://www.angrybureaucrat.com/2011/05/economics-of-jetsons-or-why-don-i-work.html
Tesla’s glass solar tiles look and act like ordinary shingles. These slate solar shingles will be available in 2018. Credit: Tesla
Elon Musk has built a formidable personal brand on futuristic visions of driverless cars and space travel. But the Silicon Valley entrepreneur and Tesla CEO could soon make a very real impact in a much-nearer future—and much closer to home—simply by helping U.S. homeowners harness the power of sunlight. This summer Tesla aims to begin installing solar cell roof tiles that look and act like ordinary shingles.
This image shows a wax worm chewing a hole through plastic. Polyethylene debris can be seen attached to the caterpillar.
Credit: Federica Bertocchini, Paolo Bombelli, and Chris Howe
Generally speaking, plastic is incredibly resistant to breaking down. That’s certainly true of the trillion polyethylene plastic bags that people use each and every year. But researchers reporting in Current Biology on April 24 may be on track to find a solution to plastic waste. The key is a caterpillar commonly known as a wax worm.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170424141338.htm