A former Facebook engineer who led the first designs of the social networking giant’s Open Compute Project recently launched a startup aimed at reducing the costs associated with operating data centers — using a method called “community-based analytics.” According to a February 25 PC World article, Coolan is a service that uses data collected from […]
Month: February 2015
How Is Facebook Addiction Leading to Fatalities? New Study Explains
About 50% of mobile phone owners use their devices as their primary Internet source, which is likely why there are some 1.9 billion mobile active Facebook users as of the end of January 2015, a 26% year-over-year increase. While that’s all perfectly fine, a new study suggests that such mobile device usage is getting out […]
How You Could Soon Be Staying Cool Without an Air Conditioner
Those living in hot, arid climates often have no choice but to rely on central air conditioning systems to maintain a comfortable temperature indoors. However, a new 3D “cool brick” could change all of that — removing the need for air conditioning in even the most unbearably hot of climates. According to a February 22 […]
Health IT Field Still Debating Best Approaches to Usability and Interoperability Fixes
Electronic health records have been promoted by both the private companies that create them and the federal government as being an integral part of improving care coordination, public health and overall efficiency (EHRs have been shown to improve efficiency by 6% annually, in fact). But in order to reach all those goals, EHRs must be […]
Plant Power: Scientists Develop Bionic Leaf That Uses Bacteria to Convert Solar Energy Into Liquid Fuel
The future of solar energy has just turned over a new leaf, literally. Solar power is considered an inexhaustible fuel source that is both pollution- and noise-free, and now its future is looking even brighter. A team of researchers from Harvard University and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have found a way to […]
Five Ozarks Communities Participate in LED Streetlight Pilot Program
Thanks to Empire District Electric Co., the streets of the Ozarks have gotten just a little bit brighter and a little more eco-friendly than before, after the company installed an LED streetlight “pilot program” to assess how beneficial the lights would be. Eight LED streetlights have been placed on Roark Valley Road, between Forsythe Blvd. […]
New York City Wants to Burn Human Brains
New York City is fighting a battle in court to allow its medical examiners to burn the brains of cadavers after removing them for examination. A ruling from a lower court, which the city hopes to overturn, requires medical examiners to let the families of deceased persons wait until the brains can be put back […]
Electric Toothbrush Company Begins Offering Automatic Refill Subscription Service for Brushes and Toothpaste
Starting at the end of February, American consumers will be able to buy a subscription to their electric toothbrush. It might sound ridiculous, but yes, the digital world is taking over toothbrushes, thanks to a startup company called Quip. According to tech site Engadget, Quip has created a new kind of toothbrush by combining two […]
Minnesota School District Gives Parents Current Bus Timetables With New App
If arrival tracking apps and digital timetables are available for public transit bus lines, why shouldn’t school bus systems implement the same kind of convenience for parents? This is the question that one transportation department in Minnesota started wondering, and the school district came to one conclusion: providing parents with constant bus arrival times wouldn’t […]
From the Ashes of Sapphire, $2 Billion Apple Data Center to Rise
On Monday, February 2, Apple announced its $2 billion plan to transform a facility from its failed partnership with sapphire manufacturer GT Advanced Technologies into a massive “global command” data center. According to AppleInsider, the Mesa, AZ building, which spans more than 1.3 million square feet, had been the keystone of Apple’s efforts to bring […]