“Scientists have long suspected that airplane condensation trails — the wispy, white tails found in the wake of high-flying jets — form larger cloud banks that substantially alter the atmosphere’s heat balance..... [T]he FAA grounded commercial flights nationwide for three days following the terrorist air attacks... and now it has emerged that the American climate was indeed noticeably different during those three days without air travel. This research provides one of the strongest indicators that air travel itself changes our climate.” Read the article on Wired.

“Bobby was created by [The Center for Applied Technology] to help Web page authors identify and repair significant barriers to access by individuals with disabilities.... CAST is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to expand opportunities for people with disabilities through innovative uses of computer technology.” Enter a URL and get detailed recommendations on how to make your site more accessible. Note, being “Bobby Approved” does not necessarily mean your site is accessible.

“In London’s bus-stops, some of the finest information graphics I have ever seen are gradually being introduced. Here are some hastily taken photos to record the before and after of London’s bus maps, and the improvements I think are great innovations... The previous map design was ‘one size fits all’ — customised to the locale by the addition of a ‘you are here’ arrow sticker applied to it... The new map design’s first advance is that they are tailored to the specific locale. So they only show the traveller information appropriate to where they are and where they can get to from that point.”

Found on xBlog.

“Poor transport contributes to social exclusion in two ways. First, it restricts access to activities that enhance people’s life chances, such as work, learning, health care, food shopping, and other key activities. Second, deprived communities suffer disproportionately from pedestrian deaths, pollution and the isolation which can result from living near busy roads.” Why does it happen? What can be done? Read the report from the Social Exculsion Unit, a Cabinet Office. Read coverage of the report in the Guardian.

Found on also not found in nature.

“In the US, in the 1880s, Herman Hollerith had designed and patented an electronic tabulating machine using punch cards to carry out calculations. Using this technology the Hollerith machine, in a pre computer age, was able to carry out complex accounting functions in a fraction of the time previously needed. Hollerith’s invention laid the basis for the foundation of IBM, which was to become one of the most profitable multinational corporations of the 20th Century. By the 1930s, IBM had become a leading US corporation under its Chief Executive, Thomas J. Watson, who was an open sympathizer of both Hitler and Mussolini. After Hitler came to power in 1933, Watson strove to build a strong commercial relationship between IBM and Nazi Germany. Through Dehomag, (IBM’s German subsidiary) IBM equipped Nazi Germany with Hollerith machines for numerous financial and statistical purposes. One use of the Hollerith machine was to compile data on German Jews - who they were and where they lived.” From a review of IBM and the Holocaust on getethical.com.

March 22 is World Water Day. Safe drinking water, basic health, hygiene education and sanitation facilities are nonexistent for impoverished people throughout the world. WHO/UNICEF estimates that the combination of theses conditions results in the death of 6,000 people every day, most of them children. Western NGOs that are working to build sustainable water supplies, provide access to clean water, develop sanitation, and promote hygiene, include: WaterAid, UK; Water For People, USA; WaterCan/EauVive, Canada; and Water for Survival, New Zealand.

Quoth the Christian Science Monitor:

“They are among the most intriguing pieces of beachfront architecture in Art Deco Miami Beach, and certainly among the smallest. They are eight lifeguard stations that stretch over nine blocks of beach lining the commercial part of Ocean Drive. The stations... [were] rebuilt three years ago to replace the ones that hurricane Andrew destroyed. But the stations between Sixth and Eighth Streets are not the generic, weathered shacks of yore. To local architect William Lane, who designed them for free, they tell the world about Miami Beach. ‘They’re a response to the kind of energy that’s here in Miami,’ Mr. Lane says. The pastel structures blend 1920s Art Deco with 1960s pop-culture themes.”

What struck me when I saw them, though, was not how their whimsical style suited South Beach, but how much they stood out — and how this served their function. Sometimes it’s important for structures to call attention to themselves.

Instigated by Dr. Dave Irvine-Halliday, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Calgary, Canada, the Light Up the World Foundation “introduces a safe, simple, healthy, reliable and affordable form of home lighting, using white light emitting diodes. This rugged home lighting system will allow people in some of the poorest and least developed rural communities to light up their homes and raise their quality of living.... The lights are powered by a relatively cheap, belt driven pedal system and rechargable battery. It takes less than half an hour to put enough charge into it to run a set of 8 WLEDs for an entire evening.”

Found via slashdot.

“Within three years, Americans will discard about 130 million cellular telephones a year, and that means 65,000 tons of trash, including toxic metals and other health hazards.... Cell phones, along with other "wireless waste" from increasingly popular pagers, pocket PCs and music players, pose special problems at landfills or when they’re burned in municipal waste incinerators because they have toxic chemicals in batteries and other components, said the report [from Inform, an environmental research organization]. These include persistent toxins that accumulate in the environment... [and] have been associated with cancer and neurological disorders, especially in children. The report urges the industry to take measures to reduce the amount of cell phones that are thrown away by developing "take-back" programs so phones and batteries can be recycled and adopt industrywide technical and design standards so phones are not thrown away after a user switches services. The report said a number of states including California, Massachusetts and Minnesota are considering legislation that would make manufacturers pay the cost of managing the waste from electronic products, including cell phones. Internationally, Australia has implemented a nationwide cellphone recycling program and the European Union is considering actions to make manufacturers responsible for electronic product wastes.” From Associated Press.

Sometimes it’s not enough to just add Braille to your signage.

“Coco Raynes Associates, Inc. developed The Raynes Rail to provide the missing link between the entrance of a building and the desired location. Continuous Braille messages and audio devices positioned at strategic locations provide the impaired traveler with a degree of independence previously unattainable in unknown surroundings.”

The concept is simple: a handrail that incorporates Braille messages. It has been installed in hospitals, hotels, and museums, both indoors and outdoors. The system is modular, so the Braille messages can easily be changed. The audio messages are activated by photosensors and permit multilingual applications.