web pruned by monkeys

“…a familiar line spouted by Americans these days is, ‘Why should the US curb energy consumption, when India and China are guzzling petrol and polluting the whole globe?’…”
California consumes more petrol than India!
Amazing Stat: California Uses More Gas than China

Former Vice President of USA and an environmental activist, Al Gore, issued a challenge yesterday to all fellow Americans to achieve 100% energy from indigenously produced renewable sources within 10 years. This is not only a challenge for Americans, but a mission for all residents of the planet who ought to play their own part [...]

The brain consolidates learned experiences and harden up weak memories which otherwise might fade in time. “People complain about sleep deprivation, but now with the 24/7 society and information overload we need our sleep more than ever.”
Sleeping soundly ‘boosts memory’

Comprehensive lifestyle changes including a better diet and more exercise can lead not only to a better physique, but also to swift and dramatic changes at the genetic level, US researchers said.
Good lifestyle can transform genes

The Dynamic Tower design is made up of 80 pre-fabricated apartments which will spin independently of one another. According to the creators — this building never looks the same, not once in a lifetime; and would be energy self-sufficient and even feed extra power back into the grid!
Dubai plans ‘moving’ skyscraper

People who are bicultural and speak two languages may unconsciously change their personality when they switch languages, according to a U.S. study.
Switching languages can also switch personality: study

“When fully commissioned later this year, the £250m farm set on abandoned state-owned land will be twice the size of any other similar project in the world, covering an area nearly twice the size of London’s Hyde park. It is expected to supply 45MW of electricity each year, enough to power 30,000 homes.” - Guardian
EU [...]

Watch a 5 minute documentary on Net Neutrality, explaining the past, present and the possible future of the way the Internet functions and is controlled/regulated.
Related post: Internet, as we know, may end soon?

ipipi.com provides a low cost, reliable and easy-to-use service to send international text messages directly from the mobile phone unlike other services which provide a web interface to do so. The text message takes the following format - s <number> <message>, and the message gets relayed to the desired number via the online service almost [...]

“U.K. consumer confidence fell to the lowest level since at least 2004 (when the survey began) in May as increases in living costs added to gloom about the economy, Nationwide Building Society said.”
“‘Consumers are starting to feel the pinch’, Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide’s chief economist, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. ‘The housing market isn’t [...]

Paul Graham, co-founder of YCombinator, has written various thoughtful essays on topics such as ‘Why to not not start a startup’, ‘How to start a startup’, ‘A student’s guide to startup’ and ‘Good and bad procrastination’ among others. Of course, there’s no substitute to reading them, but if you want to take them around in [...]

Some companies want to become Internet’s gatekeepers and control what can be and can’t be accessed on the Internet for a given price. Below is a video which explains what this means and how the general public can prevent this from happening.
Such sentiments are echoed by Sir Tim Berners Lee (inventor of web) in his [...]

Randy Pausch is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and suffering with Pancreatic cancer. Below is a presentation he gave as if it were his ‘last lecture’. In this lecture, he talks about achieving his childhood dreams. I also liked his talk on time management.

Alltop.com is a refined collection of some of the best blogs on the web categorised under different sections like life, gossip, startups, programming, travel, India, China, etc. (82 categories at the time of writing).
If it adds any credibility, one of person behind Alltop is Guy Kawasaki, that was a good enough reason for [...]

An interesting article about perception and performance. “Contrary to conventional wisdom, a study suggests that people at the bottom of the workplace totem pole don’t end up there for lack of ability, but rather that being low and powerless in a hierarchy leads to more mistakes.”
Does power corrupt? Absolutely not

A single-woman’s and also a single-mother’s perspective of life. Interesting user comments follow, for example: There is always “better.” Ask instead, what’s “enough?”
Settle for less in love

A slightly lengthy but super-interesting read about the birth of SuperMemo, a software that will help you remember things. It exploits the spacing effect to decide which information to remind you of and when.
Want to Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn? Surrender to this algorithm

For example, here is a lesson in Physics.
Inspired talks by the world’s greatest thinkers and doers at TED

So cool! :-)
Super Mario in 14kB Javascript

Scientists are beginning to uncover evidence that meditation has a tangible effect on the brain — there is evidence that meditation changes brain structures.
Scientists probe meditation secrets

PicLens instantly transforms your browser into a full-screen, 3D experience for viewing images on the web. Supports Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, Facebook, MySpace, Google Images, Yahoo Images and more. Available as a Firefox add-on and IE Plug-in. Awesome tool for all photo enthusiasts.
PicLens

Often, even great new technology needs a partner to really change the world. Here are 10 marriages of technologies that have shaken the digital world over the last 25 years.
The 10 Most Disruptive Technology Combinations

“Visa Inc., the largest payment-card network, set a record for U.S. initial public offerings today by raising $17.9 billion, more than expected… It values the entire company at $42.5 billion.”
“The IPO eclipses AT&T Wireless Group’s $10.6 billion stock offering in 2000 and ranks second in the world after the $22 billion debut in 2006 of [...]

Google for Non-Profits offers “a one-stop shop for tools to help advance your organization’s mission in a smart, cost-efficient way.” This site includes ideas and tutorials on ways Google tools can be used to promote non-profits, raise money and operate more efficiently.
Features include standard Google services such as Gmail (including hosted email), YouTube, Blogger, Gadgets, [...]