The Agenda “Science” of Big Ag & Food

The scene was the annual conference of The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. One speaker staunchly defended GMOs while mocking those who care about organics and sustainability. This presentation replaced a much-anticipated point-counterpoint debate planned by the Academy that was supposed to touch on the issue of partnerships between the private and public sectors. The … Read more

The Unfaithful Stewards

As Sir Edmond Burke once observed, this country’s founders were always ready to “snuff out the approach of tyranny with every tainted brief.” And yet, it seems we are now resigned to live subject to the vast, multi-layered, and robust surveillance infrastructure that is the envy of every totalitarian regime? We can no longer trust … Read more

Clean Air from Dirty Fuel

When the exhaust from a typical engine is expelled, it contains a lot of unburned fuels. Besides being wasteful, the exhaust is so hot that in Oklahoma, (USA), firetrucks can not have a catalytic convertor or they may start more fires than the crews are trying to extinguish. GEET (Global Environmental Energy Technology) offers a … Read more

Student Thesis Project Turns Bus Into Tiny House

Like many architecture students, Hank Butitta was frustrated. Frustrated that the projects he and his fellow classmates were painstakingly, time-consumingly crafting at architecture school resulted—almost always—in nothing. But Hank Butitta, unlike many architecture students, decided that, for his thesis, he would buy an old school bus and turn it into a flexible living space. The … Read more

Tiny House Can’t Be Moved

A downsizing dream has been stalled for one Anderson County man who spent his entire life savings building a tiny home that the state says is not certified to move into a mobilehome park. Bob Pritts built the 208-square-foot home himself. It’s only 8-feet wide and 26-feet long, but is equipped with a bathroom, kitchen, … Read more

Less Than Half in USA Look at Restaurant Nutrition Facts

Even as more U.S. restaurants list nutritional information on their menus, less than half of Americans, 43%, say they pay a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of attention to it. Americans are much more likely to take note of nutritional labels on food packages, with 68% saying they pay at least a fair amount … Read more

Open-Source, Software-Defined Radio Platform

Nuand has employed Lime Microsystems’ programmable RF silicon for its bladeRF, which – the two companies say – takes open-source RF hardware into the mainstream Lime’s field programmable RF chip, the LMS6002D, has been adopted for Nuand’s bladeRF, a Kickstarter-funded open source software defined radio. Following Myriad RF and Fairwaves, this is the third open … Read more

A 3D Printer in Every Home?

Before 3D printers become as ubiquitous as cellphones, they could form the basis of small-scale manufacturing concerns and have huge potential both here and for developing countries, where access to many products is limited. Associate Professor Joshua Pearce, a Michigan Technological University researcher posits the following: “Say you are in the camping supply business and … Read more

And the Winning Horse, Open Source!

This year, for the first time, respondents to the annual Future of Open Source Survey chose “better software quality” as the No. 1 reason for adopting open source. Is innovation in enterprise software happening anywhere else other than in open source land? Hadoop is at the center of the big data trend. OpenStack has the … Read more