Texas Wind Blows With Green Power
"Not many would think of oil-producing Texas as a center for green energy. But new state laws are sparking a wind-power movement that has made the state the second-largest wind producer in the country."

The Sky's the Limit
"Some 11,000 miles above the earth, 28 satellites beam down data that enables the targeting of locations with once-unthinkable precision. It's a lethal tool in war -- and a killer app for business. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is transforming everything from auto insurance to agriculture, from hauling freight to trading stocks. Is your business next?"

Pupils learn in wi-fi wood "School kids in southern England have been given PDAs and pocket radios to track down and record plants and wildlife, as part of the Ambient Wood Project which looks at how technology can best be used to teach schoolchildren about ecology. The feedback has been overwhelming positive."

To: Mom and Dad Re: Homesickness
"At summer camps, children and parents now stay in constant touch through technology. But when the kids want to come home, the new forms of communication are a double-edged sword."

Virtual PE class works out
"Lina Ceron's gym class is just like any other, except that it has no walls and no whistles. She and other Florida high schoolers are staying fit this summer, and earning needed physical education credits, without the watchful eye of a teacher to keep them on track. All they need is a connection to the Internet and a little self-discipline. Too busy, or just too shy, for traditional gym class, hundreds of students across the state have enrolled in online fitness courses. Taking tips from textbook readings and an online gym coach, they can create their own workouts and log their results in cyberspace, all on their own time and from the comfort of home."

A Young Writers' Round Table, via the Web
"Many young students struggle with writing. But online technology is helping students improve skills by offering them an audience of other students and adults for their work."

Good students go on-line
"A three-year, $1.5-million Michigan State University study of children from 90 low-income families has tentatively concluded that children introduced to the Internet at home improve their grades and perform better on standardized reading tests."

<http://www.forbes.com/technology/newswire/2003/07/24/rtr1037488.html> Youth spend more time on Web than TV-study
"Teenagers and young adults spend more time on the Internet than watching television, indicating a shift in media consumption for a demographic prized by advertisers ..."

American Women: A Gateway to Library of Congress Resources for the Study of Women's History and Culture in the United States
" Unlike most American Memory presentations, American Women is not a collection of digital items. It is a gateway--a first stop for Library of Congress researchers working in the field of American women's history. The site contains a slightly expanded and fully searchable version of the print publication American Women: A Library of Congress Guide for the Study of Women's History and Culture in the United States (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 2001). The guide has been redesigned for online use, with added illustrations and links to existing digitized material located throughout the Library of Congress Web site."

Hill Tribes Go High-Tech to Preserve Way of Life
"A village in northern Thailand is preparing to make the leap to cyberspace. Members of the Lahu tribe are designing a virtual museum to showcase the region's minority ethnic communities. The plan is to have an Internet link in a village building, dependent upon solar power until the village gets electricity. The museum will chronicle and preserve ceremonies, traditions, rituals, clothing and other aspects of minority culture that are being lost. Another objective is an online talking dictionary for the Akha tribe, which lacks a written script."

HURISEARCH:
"allows searching sites of non-governmental human rights organizations in 58 different languages. HURISEARCH is a pilot project, and at the moment over 600 sites of human rights NGOs are included."

Virtual Activism:
"is a nonprofit organization that aims to strengthen nongovernmental organizations' effectiveness and outreach through internet access and presence. The website offers a collection of resources related to activism and ICT as well as the information about current and future events. "

If you are looking for International Development Jobs in the area of Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICT for Development), then you may want to browse the website of DevNetJobs.org or join its mailing list by sending a blank email to developmentjobs-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

"The National Council on Disability has released a policy paperthat concludes that the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to commercial and other private websites. The ADA provides equal opportunity in employment, public accommodations, transportation, government services and telecommunications for individuals with disabilities. The law, which requires government websites to be accessible to people with disabilities, should be equally applicable to commercial and private websites, the report argues. The paper also recommends strategies for implementing website accessibility without disruption and with benefit to consumers and businesses alike." SOURCE: U.S. Newswire

How the big names tame e-mail
"Celebrities, CEOs and US Senators have developed various means of dealing with the hundreds of emails they receive each day. One method is simply not to read them. Bernie Ebbers, deposed CEO of WorldCom, refused to read or answer email."

White House E-Mail Becomes User-UN Friendly
"Those who want to send a message to Bush must now navigate as many as nine Web pages and fill out a detailed form that starts by asking whether the message sender supports White House policy or differs with it. [...] 'Over all, it's a very cumbersome process,' said Jakob Nielsen, an authority on Web design who helps run a consulting group, Nielsen Norman Group, in Fremont, Calif. 'It's probably designed deliberately to cut down on their e-mail.'"

Good Lord. Perhaps as many as 5,000 people have died in France's recent heat wave.

5,000 people. The 104+ temperatures that are so unusual for France are what we frequently experience here in Texas. Most summers we reach at least 110 at least once, with heat indexes making temperatures feels like they are somewhere around 112 or 113.

But we have air-conditioning. EVERYWHERE. Homes, offices, malls, grocery stores, gas stations, cars, etc. Those most at risk (the elderly) usually have a safe haven from the blistering heat. The risk of heat stroke is reduced. It would be unimaginable to live, especially in the big cities, here with out air-conditioning. Well, unimaginable at least to some.

Some idiot (from Austin!) wrote in a recent Newsweek magazine that he thought air-conditioning was destroying our sense of community. I.e., he thought that we weren't sitting out on the porches enough anymore and talking to passersby and that if we could all just forgo the air-conditioning we'd bring back community values.

I've got news for him. The community is still there. It's just ALL INSIDE WHERE IT'S COOL! Sheesh. I hope he's been following the news from France.