Steve Jobs released a statement today (A Greener Apple) that thoughtfully and simply summarizes progress Apple has made in improving the environmental footprint of its products. The letter covers everything from plans to phase out toxic chemicals to electronic waste recycling, and each step sounds more reasonable than the last.
I would post excerpts here, but I don’t think they would do the piece justice. The entire statement is worth a read. It made me happy to be an Apple customer.
This makes me happy. There’s a whole blog, Paleo-Future.Com, that focuses on images of the future that people in the past have held. Lots of Disney stuff, of course, but other very fascinating pictures, videos, and other resources.
THE ALGORITHM CONSTANTLY FINDS JESUS
THE ALGORITHM IS BANNED IN CHINA
This is rich; hope you don’t mind Chris! Explanation here.
Oh, can we please order about a dozen of these?
A French high-speed train, with a souped-up engine and wheels, breaks the world speed record near Grigny, eastern France, Tuesday, April 3, 2007, reaching 574.8 kph (357.2 mph). The black and chrome train with three double-decker cars, named the V150, bettered the previous record of 515.3 (320.2 mph), set in 1990 by the French fast train. However, it fell short of the ultimate record set by Japan’s non-conventional magnetically levitated train, which sped to 581 kph (361 mph) in 2003.
More at the Houston Chronicle. To save you the math, 350 mph gets one from San Diego to San Francisco in an hour and a half, an order of magnitude faster than Amtrak currently manages. And that’s not just wishful thinking, either:
Hours before the run, Transport Minister Dominique Perben received a delegation from California, which is studying prospects for a high-speed line from Sacramento to San Diego, via San Francisco and Los Angeles.
There’s still a long way to go, but perhaps by the time Ben wants to explore California on his own, he’ll be able to go by (really fast) train.
So you may have wondered why I’m so busy at work these days. Well, here’s the deal:
Eventful, Inc., the leading global events service, announced today that it would cease the operation of its popular Web site Eventful.com on May 1st in favor of next-generation interface Twitter, provided by Obvious Corporation of San Francisco. Twitter is a service which allows users to get instant update messages (“tweets”) from friends via SMS, instant messenger, Web, or by way of a number of custom desktop clients.
Once the commitment was made, it was surprisingly quick work to adapt the Eventful API to the new platform. Development of the Twitter-based service, dubbed Eventful Chicken, took just over a week to reach the public beta stage, including event search, recommendations, watchlists, reminders, and Eventful Demand (renamed “I wish they’d come here”). The service can be previewed currently at http://twitter.com/echicken.
There’s more, but you get the idea. Take a look and let me know what you think. I’m too tired to comment intelligently.