One of the best parts of this gathering at Microsoft is not the cool new toys coming from Microsoft research, but the ideas presented by nine design schools who’ve been invited to the event. In a two-hour session this afternoon, the teams present their work for critique by a group of MS and other design experts.

Ennea, a project from students at the Eindhoven University of Technology is one of the cooler...
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We've written a lot about China and the future of the planet. If you want to better understand the role China will play in the future, you might...
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This is the second feature in a weekly, three-part series on green jobs in various sectors of the global economy. Read Part 1 here.

It was Jochen Seifert's job to adjust a conveyor belt under Germany's largest coal mine one day in 1959. As the 24-year-old locksmith worked, a crack split the rocks along the mine shaft. Walls caved in, and Seifert was trapped below.

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Smart metering is coming. Within a decade, you’ll know exactly how much every flip of a switch or turn of a knob costs in monthly utility charges.

By Adam Stein

The Times profiles two British seaside towns on the forefront of the Read more...

In the spirit of attending OPCs - “other people’s conferences”, conferences where you’re invited, but not part of the...
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How to hand out allowance money.

By Eric de Place for the Sightline Institute's Daily Score blog.

This is the second in a short series of posts that explain some important but often overlooked policy issues in the Western Climate Initiative. We've written extensively on "Read more...

Born 20 years ago, ISEA, the International Symposium on Electronic Art has the objective of discussing and showcasing creative productions that apply new technologies in interactive and digital media. While i'm spending my last hours in quiet and sweaty Turin, Brisbane-based artist Priscilla Bracks is in Singapore because that's where ISEA takes place this year.

She kindly...
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What's in, what's out, and what's wrong.

By Eric de Place for Sightline's Daily Score.

Last week when the Western Climate Initiative's latest draft appeared it mystified most folks who aren't insiders to the process. That's a shame because WCI is hugely...
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The neighborhood is a powerful--but often overlooked--tool for social improvement.

By Jay Walljasper

Tuesday August 5 is National Night Out, a red-letter day in thousands of towns and cities around the country. Up to 30 million people will take to the streets and parks, with no one calling the cops. Indeed, local police departments organize these block parties, cook-outs, and music events as a...
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Put eighty artists in a room and you’re going to get some overlapping ideas. One of the ideas to emerge in the last few presentations at the Creative Capital summer retreat is the power of the superhero.

Kenseth Armstead has multimedia ambitions for his superhero, Spook ™. Spook is Read more...