Microsoft Plagiarizing? Microblogger Plurk Calls Rip-Off

Uh oh. Looks like another case of a corporate behemoth ripping off the little guy. It's mean and nasty Microsoft again, seemingly victimising microblogger service Plurk. The murky bit is that it's happening in China, where respect for ...READ»

Rentech Offering Up Jet Fuel Made From Coal Waste

Your next flight might be powered by coke--coal and petroleum coke, that is. Airlines including American, Delta, Lufthansa, and US Airways have signed a deal with alternative energy company Rentech to buy 500,000 barrels of jet fuel ...READ»

Are Your Interns Saving the World? IBM's Are

Let's play word association: intern + texting = ____. Setting up a date? Skipping out on work? Sexting? At IBM, how about saving millions of lives? A new initiative called SMS for Life, born from the minds of a group of IBM's Extreme ...READ»

Cisco, NASA Reveal Planetary Skin Institute

Earlier this year, NASA and Cisco announced the launch of Planetary Skin, an ambitious global monitoring system of environmental conditions that uses a worldwide network of sensors to analyze, well, everything happening on the ...READ»

Infographic of the Day: Ditch the Resume; Make a Chart Instead

Could infographics aid your job search?READ»

The Problem Is Not Packaging Design, It's Systems Design

This dirty world of waste is part of a bigger problem and an unlikely source may be the solution. Eco-practitioner Wendy Jedlicka cracks the whip on designers and packaging.READ»

• Designers Accord Case Studies

Architecture and Design's New Hot Spots: Hong Kong and Shenzhen

If some of architecture and design's biggest names seemed conspicuously absent from this month’s Art Basel Miami Beach--that annual, must-attend conclave for the glitzy-arty set--it was because they were halfway around the world in the adjacent Chinese cities of Hong Kong and Shenzhen.READ»

iMo Controller Turns the iPhone Into a Portable Console

Himanshu Baweja Cofounder, iMo Controller DelHi, India Himanshu Baweja, 25, created the iMo Controller with cofounder Pankaj Meena. The app, which won best demo at the TechCrunch50 conference this fall, lets users play ...READ»

Ashton Kutcher's Live Webvids: Genius New Format or Celeb Desperation?

Ashton Kutcher was our surprising business story/eyecandy magazine cover subject for December, and here he is in the news again. This time it's for a new type of live Web-cast "TV" show, premiering today. It might be genius. Just ...READ»

Fwix Adds Video to Hyperlocal, Bringing Exposure-–and Revenue–-to Vloggers

In a year that wasn't particularly kind to traditional media outlets, hyperlocal news aggregator Fwix hasn't missed a step. In September, the San Francisco-based startup released an API allowing online publishers to add local news ...READ»

Crunchy Zoo Aviary Looks Like a Geodesic Hackysack

Who says architectural nuttiness is going out of style?READ»

Copenhagen Breakdown: Climate REDI Offers $350M Green Tech Boost to Developing Nations

One of the big issues being hashed out in this week's UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen is how to pay for climate change-mitigating technologies in countries that don't have enough cash.READ»

Zaha Hadid's Award-Winning Snack-itecture Inspired by Doodles, Chips, Funyuns

A new profile describes Hadid's affinity for potato chips, and we can't help but see the similarity in her work.READ»

Reasons to Be Charitable in a Tough Season of Giving

Amid all those candles and evergreens, baked goods, freely pouring cocktails (and the promise of sneaking in a tax deduction) we humans are inclined to give to those less fortunate this time of year. But there isn't much incentive ...READ»

Smart Wheelchair Uses Lasers to Navigate, Stave Off Enemies

It may not be mind-controlled, but the smart wheelchair designed by Lehigh University researchers is still pretty impressive. The wheelchair, built with money from a $480,000 National Science Foundation grant, harnesses a light ...READ»