The New York Times – Jan 2, 2010 – Self-adjustable spectacles, which let untrained wearers set the right focus themselves in less than a minute, greatly reduce the need for trained optometrists, who are rarely available in Africa and many parts of Asia. But the competition is sometimes palpable amongst the companies that want to be the first to distribute adjustable glasses in the millions...
Continue ReadingThe New York Times – Oct 2, 2003 – Most research has shown that people learn just as well when listening to speech recordings that are played back at two or even three times normal speed. "People who are listening at accelerated speeds learn just as much, and there's some evidence they may learn even a bit more''...
Continue ReadingThe New York Times – Oct 31, 2002 – Though it all sounds very Dr. Dolittle, the sounds that many animal species make can be analyzed and identified using many of the same techniques that have allowed human voice recognition to make the leap from high-tech novelty to valuable application.
Continue ReadingThe Economist – Dec 8, 2005 – New moving walkways have been given a speed boost. But will pedestrians in airports and shopping centres be able to cope?
Continue ReadingThe New York Times – Nov 20, 2009 – It had all the markings of a television detective show. Posing as patients, three undercover observers got themselves admitted as patients to a locked psychiatric ward to investigate conditions on the inside. And a remote team monitored the project via hidden cameras and microphones from a command center in a nearby hotel.
Continue ReadingThe New York Times – Jun 10, 2004 – When the technology first appeared, U.S.B. meant keyboards, joysticks and the like. But manufacturers began cottoning to U.S.B.'s ability to provide a power source, leading to a host of gizmos that have nothing to do with computers: radios, reading lights, even massage balls and air purifiers.
Continue ReadingThe Economist – Dec 30, 2009 – A Dutch engineer has invented a collapsible plastic shipping container which, he hopes, will replace the steel ones. Because it is made of a fibreglass composite, it weighs only three-quarters as much as a standard container but—more importantly— when it is empty, it can be folded down to a quarter of its size.
Continue ReadingThe New York Times – Jan 27, 2005 – Virtual volunteers at an aid network known as Nabuur give people in the developing world advice on projects like how to start a youth computer-training center, improve local water quality, or better integrate the village's disabled people. The assumption is that small communities can carry out many public-works projects by themselves if provided with the right information.
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The New York Times – Jan 2, 2010 – Self-adjustable spectacles, which let untrained wearers set the right focus themselves in less than a minute, greatly reduce the need for trained optometrists, who are rarely available in Africa and many parts of Asia. But the competition is sometimes palpable amongst the companies that want to be the first to distribute adjustable glasses in the millions...
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The Economist – Dec 30, 2009 – A Dutch engineer has invented a collapsible plastic shipping container which, he hopes, will replace the steel ones. Because it is made of a fibreglass composite, it weighs only three-quarters as much as a standard container but—more importantly— when it is empty, it can be folded down to a quarter of its size.
Continue Reading
The New York Times – Nov 20, 2009 – It had all the markings of a television detective show. Posing as patients, three undercover observers got themselves admitted as patients to a locked psychiatric ward to investigate conditions on the inside. And a remote team monitored the project via hidden cameras and microphones from a command center in a nearby hotel.
Continue Reading
The New York Times – Oct 30, 2009 – Art traded from 1951 to 2007 appreciated just a little more than 4 percent annually, much less than the Standard & Poor’s 500 average of 8.90 percent over the same period. The figure is also significantly less than figures from previous studies that pegged art’s annual returns at 8 percent or even 13 percent.
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