Track Air Pollution on Your Cell Phone

Anya Kamenetz — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:55:04 -0500

Image: Tiny air quality sensors from Seacoast Science.

For-Profit Colleges and the Student-Loan-Default Gap

Anya Kamenetz — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:00:00 -0500

In the late 1980s, for-profit colleges, then better known as "trade schools," were a nationwide scandal. Newspaper reports, hidden cameras, and a Senate investigation found that some did their recruiting outside welfare offices and homeless shelters, collected tuition money from the federal government, and offered useless courses or folded overnight. Student-loan defaults peaked in 1992 at 22%; for-profit schools accounted for just a fifth of all loans yet nearly half of all defaulters.

For-Profit Universities Want Some Respect

Anya Kamenetz — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:00:00 -0500

Michael Clifford never went to college. He was a trumpet player "strung out on sex, drugs, and rock and roll," he says, until he started a new life as a born-again Christian and successful tech investor. Then Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, gave him a life-changing piece of advice: "He knew I loved business and did a lot of charity work," says Clifford. "He told me education is the one business where you can help people live better lives and make a lot of money for your investors."

Clorox to Phase Out Deadly Chlorine Gas

Anya Kamenetz — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:04:01 -0500

MIT, Volkswagen's In-Car Personal Robot Thinks You're Driving Like a Maniac

Anya Kamenetz — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:50:01 -0400

An MIT Media Lab robot (not AIDA) via glemak on Flickr

My parents already treat the GPS on their car like it's a person: "Shh! She's talking!" Now researchers at the MIT Media Lab, in partnership with Audi, want to take that relationship one step further with AIDA, the "Affective Intelligent Driving Agent."

$3.4 Billion Smart Grid Upgrade is the Biggest Clean-Energy Piece of Obama's Stimulus

Anya Kamenetz — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:15:35 -0400

Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. was awarded $200 million.

The Case of the Dumb Smart Meters

Anya Kamenetz — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:17:51 -0400

Should Green Tech be Open Source?

Anya Kamenetz — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:15:09 -0400

Obama is hoping for some big climate handshakes in separate talks with China and India next month--including the announcement of India's first cap-and-trade scheme. While the big talking point will be setting CO2 limits at levels developing countries can swallow, India's raised an interesting side issue. They want a global fund to buy out the patents for green technologies and distribute them for free.

How Web-Savvy Edupunks Are Transforming American Higher Education

Anya Kamenetz — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:00:00 -0400

Is a college education really like a string quartet? Back in 1966, that was the assertion of economists William Bowen, later president of Princeton, and William Baumol. In a seminal study, Bowen and Baumol used the analogy to show why universities can't easily improve efficiency.

Head in the Tar Sands? The New York Times Runs Anti-Peak Oil Op-Ed

Anya Kamenetz — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:19:51 -0400

Oil-Coated Ruddy Duck in the San Francisco Bay, by wolfpix, on Flickr