The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage has fallen to its lowest level on record, dating back to 1971.
The rate on the most popular mortgage dipped to 4.15 percent from 4.32 percent a week ago, Freddie Mac said Thursday.
Rate on 30-year Mortgage Falls to Lowest on Record
Teen Uses Fibonacci Sequence to Make Solar Energy Breakthrough
Long Island resident Aidan Dwyer is just 13 years old and is already a patented inventor of solar panel arrangements.
On a winter hiking trip, he noticed a pattern in the tangled mess of branches above him, took photos of them and began to investigate “whether there is a secret formula in tree design and whether the purpose of the spiral pattern is to collect sunlight better.”
Detroit and Banks Team Up to Lure Police Officers Back to City With Low Cost Homes
The city of Detroit and Bank of America have teamed up to solve three problems at once: By enticing cops to live in urban neighborhoods, offering them refurbished homes and low cost loans, houses standing empty will be inhabited, rather than vandalized, communities will feel more secure with law enforcement nearby, and urban property values and the city’s tax base will be bolstered.
Apps for Good: Disadvantaged Youths Invited to Develop Mobile Applications
The group of altruistic technology professionals working under the name Apps for Good is now recruiting immigrants or unemployed youths from East and South London to develop phone programs relevant to their needs, and in the process teaching entrepreneurial skills and encouraging confidence.
One of the most successful apps developed through the program has been Stop and Search, related to the stopping and searching of young male teens by police.
A trio of young unemployed South Londoners created an app that lets users give feedback on police searches, providing data on whether or not their experience was positive or negative. The app also provides an overview of an individual’s rights, letting them know what is legal and illegal in searches.
Learn more about Apps for Good at the website, appsforgood.org.
(READ the story in the CS Monitor)
Honest Japanese Return Total of $78 Million in Cash Found in Quake Rubble
The earthquake and tsunami that walloped Japan left much of its coastline ravaged, but left one thing intact: the Japanese reputation for honesty.
In the five months since the disaster struck, people have turned in thousands of wallets found in the debris, containing $48 million in cash.
The “high level of ethical awareness” in the Japanese people is matched in their officials, who have spent countless hours tracking down people in shelters and elsewhere to return their valuables.
(READ the story from ABC News)
Thanks to Joel Arellano for submitting the story to our Facebook page!
Oil-le-lujah! Gas Prices Will Continue Falling in US
Great news for your wallet: Gas prices dropped this past month and are expected to continue their slide.
The drop in crude oil prices today to below $85 a barrel further lubricated the trend downward, echoing last week’s plunge below $76 a barrel.
Prices at the gas pump, meanwhile, slipped to a national average of $3.58 per gallon, according to AAA’s Fuel Gauge Report.
Oil-le-lujah! Gas Prices Will Continue Falling in US
Great news for your wallet: Gas prices dropped this past month and are expected to continue their slide.
The drop in crude oil prices today to below $85 a barrel further lubricated the trend downward, echoing last week’s plunge below $76 a barrel.
Prices at the gas pump, meanwhile, slipped to a national average of $3.58 per gallon, according to AAA’s Fuel Gauge Report.
Hero Who Saved 6-yo Girl From Kidnapper Flooded with Gifts, Donations
A heroic New Mexico man who alertly rescued a 6-year-old girl from the clutches of a kidnapper is proof no good deed goes unnoticed.
Cops and reporters are being bombarded with requests from people who want Antonio Diaz Chacon’s address so they can send him gift cards and cash.
Chacon, 24, who has two young daughters, is fielding requests from people who want to donate to a college savings fund for his girls.
(READ the story in the NY Daily News)
Thanks to John Hernandez for submitting the story to our Facebook page! – Photo from AP News video
Europe’s Largest Solar Station Powers Up — In Ukraine?
With solar panels spread over almost 400 acres (160 hectares), a solar power facility in Ukraine began producing power on Monday, aiming to power 20,000 houses with electricity.
Poised to become Europe’s largest solar station by the end of the year, the Crimea facility substitutes clean power for the traditional coal-fired plants, with their high carbon-emissions, as part of the government’s new green energy plan.
Poor Schools Revamp Cafeterias Joining Trend Toward Fresh Cooking
The idea of making school lunches better and healthier has not taken hold for many poor and struggling districts, but a city in Colorado is bucking the trend.
In the midsize city of Greeley, where 60 percent of its 19,500 students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, the district will make a great leap forward – and at the same time back to the way it was done a generation ago – in cooking meals from scratch.
A weeklong culinary boot camp is teaching cafeteria workers to relearn their cooking skills to prepare for mega-fresh delivery of, let’s say, 300 pans of lasagna when school starts next week.
Rags 2 Riches Lifts Women from Filipino Landfill into High Fashion Trade
Four years ago, in one of the Philippines’ largest dumpsites and home to 12,000 families, women searched through garbage for fabric scraps to weave into rugs.
Today, thanks to Reese Fernandez-Ruiz and other young Filipino professionals, the women of Payatas are now weaving fashionable handbags for top designers, using fabric remnants delivered directly from factories.
The local craftswomen no longer live in poverty and the Rags 2 Riches label, sewn into each item as RIIR, now has cachet and respect, which has changed how the women see themselves.
Rags 2 Riches Lifts Women from Filipino Landfill into High Fashion Trade
Four years ago, in one of the Philippines’ largest dumpsites and home to 12,000 families, women searched through garbage for fabric scraps to weave into rugs.
Today, thanks to Reese Fernandez-Ruiz and other young Filipino professionals, the women of Payatas are now weaving fashionable handbags for top designers, using fabric remnants delivered directly from factories.
The local craftswomen no longer live in poverty and the Rags 2 Riches label, sewn into each item as RIIR, now has cachet and respect, which has changed how the women see themselves.
Bringing Solar Light Bulbs to the World and Prosperity Too?
Inventor Steve Katsaros perfected his solar design in June 2010, a simple bulb that charges up during the day and lights up the room at night.
He dubbed his company Nokero — short for “No Kerosene” and adopted a “social entrepreneurship,” model to get the bulb into the hands of people in the developing world.
MIT Bringing Learning to Anyone With a Cell Phone
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has taken its revolutionary OpenCourseWare initiative, launched 10 years ago, to another level. Moving beyond the web, the new initiative extends higher education to anyone with a mobile phone.
The MIT Media Lab yesterday announced the creation of the MIT Center for Mobile Learning, with initial funding from Google, dedicated to transforming education and learning.
The Center, housed at the Media Lab, will focus on the design and study of specific mobile technologies and applications, that enable people to learn anywhere anytime with anyone. Research projects will explore location-aware learning applications, mobile sensing and data collection, augmented reality gaming, and other educational uses of mobile technologies.
The Center’s first activity will focus on the free (and soon-to-be open sourced) App Inventor for Android, a programming system that makes it easy for learners to create mobile apps for Android smart phones by visually fitting together puzzle piece-shaped “programming blocks” in a web browser.
“The Media Lab has always been about creativity – not only developing new technologies, but getting them out to the world in ways that positively impact people’s lives,” said Joichi Ito, who will take over as the Media Lab’s director next month. “Our new Center for Mobile Learning continues this tradition, empowering people everywhere to create, invent, and learn with their mobile devices.”
Three MIT professors will serve as co-directors of the Center: Hal Abelson, Class of 1922 Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Eric Klopfer, Associate Professor of Science Education; and Mitchel Resnick, LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research.
The Center’s three directors have a long history of collaboration on educational technology. Resnick, who heads the Media Lab’s academic Program in Media Arts and Sciences, is famous for his work on LEGO Mindstorms and Scratch, two of the world’s best known and most influential platforms for introducing young learners to programming. Klopfer is director of MIT’s Scheller Teacher Education Program, which trains MIT students to be secondary school science and math teachers. He is an expert on educational games and simulations and author of Augmented Learning: Research and Design of Mobile Educational Games. (MIT Press; 2008).
Hal Abelson, who proposed an idea that prompted the development of App Inventor during his sabbatical at Google in 2008 said, “For me, it’s a terrific experience of starting with an idea, finding visionary industry leaders willing to make it a reality, then bringing it back home to MIT so I can work on projects I love together with colleagues I admire.”
(Contact MIT for more info)
Students and Post-it Notes Help Schools Cut Their Energy Bills
Simple yellow Post-it notes with the message “When not in use, turn off the juice,” pointedly left on classroom computers, printers and air-conditioners, have helped one public school district in New York save $350,000 annually on utility bills.
Energy consumption across New York City’s 1,245 school buildings is down roughly 11 percent since 2008, as motion detectors have been installed on classroom lights and unused refrigerators and freezers have been unplugged for the summer.
The money saved on energy is also being used to buy energy-efficient windows and boilers in one school district.
Architects Launch Rebuilding Effort After UK Riots
In the aftermath of the riots, a couple of noble London are injecting some guerrilla design into the cleanup process, and helping those who can’t rebuild.
Instead of allowing storefronts and homeowners to suffer, architecture school graduates Lee Wilshire and Nick Varney decided to launch Riot Rebuild, as a “post-riot urban intervention” to harness the power of volunteer construction workers, architects, interior designers, and other qualified builders to help those in need.
Program Helps High School Students Overcome Depression and Avoid Suicide
With suicide ranking third as the leading cause of death in American youth aged 15-24, a new prevention program tested in Ohio schools has proven it can help teens overcome depression and thoughts of killing themselves.
A just-released study shows that the 6000 students who have gone through the program are significantly less likely to report that they are considering suicide, planning suicide or have attempted suicide than before participating in the program.
Racing Team Helps Boy Fulfill Dream: A New Bionic Hand
A 14-year-old British boy born without a hand is getting his wish after writing to the boss of his favorite Formula One racing team, Ross Brawn, who had previously been a student at the boy’s school.
The high-tech bionic hand costs £30,000, and the boy’s family had nowhere near the money to purchase the advanced equipment. His “plucky letter” moved Mr. Brawn to action.
(READ the story, and watch video, from the BBC)
Hundreds Rush to Help Victims After Stage Collapse: “A Hero Every Ten Feet”
Gov. Mitch Daniels joined with officials to publicly grieve at a memorial service today on the site of the tragic Indiana State Fair stage collapse that killed five on Saturday. They also praised the reactions of hundreds of ordinary citizens and off-duty rescue workers who rushed to help the victims.
“We come today with hearts that are broken, but hearts that are full,” Daniels told the few hundred people gathered, his voice cracking.
“My heart is full for those who acted in courageous ways. … There was a hero every 10 feet on Saturday night. I cannot tell you how proud I am to be the employee of six-and-a-half million people like that.”
State Police Sgt. Dave Bursten said, “You had law enforcement, you had citizens, you had people jumping in to lift pieces of equipment off the injured.”
(READ more at ABC News)
Photo by John Stone, Eyeclectic.net
Hundreds Rush to Help Victims After Stage Collapse: “A Hero Every Ten Feet”
Gov. Mitch Daniels joined with officials to publicly grieve at a memorial service today on the site of the tragic Indiana State Fair stage collapse that killed five on Saturday. They also praised the reactions of hundreds of ordinary citizens and off-duty rescue workers who rushed to help the victims.
“We come today with hearts that are broken, but hearts that are full,” Daniels told the few hundred people gathered, his voice cracking.
“My heart is full for those who acted in courageous ways. … There was a hero every 10 feet on Saturday night. I cannot tell you how proud I am to be the employee of six-and-a-half million people like that.”