Apps Permissions In The Google Play Store

Meet the architect who wants to return Mexico City to its ancient lakes

“The pre-Hispanic civilizations built a system of dams, in order to control the salt water and to bring clean water. But then the Spaniards, in order to conquer the city, broke the dams … They started to follow a European scheme, which didn’t match the geography. And we have followed that inherited inertia for the last 500 years.” || Read more in The Guardian

I always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job because he will find an easy way to do it.

Bill Gates

“We have an opportunity to re-think how we regulate city activities for the public interest. I think the big opportunity is to harness the data streaming out of all of these activities and use it to enable a more permissive, but more accountable, “2.0” regulatory regime.”

- Nick Grossman

By focusing on peer-to-peer urbanism, we would be able to create more functional and enjoyable communities while using less resources through sharing — both on and offline. By working collaboratively, there’s an opportunity to create solutions for the masses at a lower cost for the government, and therefore for tax payers. It’s problem solving by community.

Check out the interesting examples of user-generated urbanism, agile urbanism, and today’s peer-to-peer urbanism movement in Nick’s post. 

(via loyalcx)

The Fracking Science Compendium by Physicians for Social Responsibility shows overwhelming harms. Learn more below: 

http://concernedhealthny.org/compendium/ http://www.psr.org/resources/fracking-compendium.html

The UK’s first new nuclear power station for a generation will cost electricity customers at least £4.4bn and the subsidy bill could reach £20bn, the government has revealed. 

 The charges, which will be passed on to nearly 30 million customers, are a result of ministers’ decision to guarantee the new Hinkley Point C operators £92.50 for every unit of electricity – more than double the current market price. 

 It comes less than a week after the government admitted the £24bn plant in Somerset will be subsidised – something it denied throughout the last parliament. 

Details of the costs – an average of about £150 to £660 per customer over the 35 years of the deal – are exposed in a document quietly put before parliament last week and which has only just come to light.

(via Hinkley Point C will cost customers at least £4.4bn | Environment | The Guardian)

Walmart heirs' net worth exceeds that of population of a city the size of Phoenix #1yrago

It’s grown 6,700% since 1983, to $144.7B in 2013 – greater than the net worth of 1,782,020 average Americans.

Read the rest

Watch: A haircut may not solve homelessness — but it can make all the difference for these women.

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Every year, 4.3 million lives are lost to diseases caused by indoor smoke from cooking, heating, oil lamps and candles. That’s one person every eight minutes - mostly women and children.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

The Sustainable Energy for All initiative is working to ensure universal access to modern energy services by 2030 - while also ramping up renewable energy and efficient energy use to help fight climate change.

Find out more here: http://www.cleanenergyislife.org/

Watch: eSight could be exactly what people with vision problems need.

Texas teenager creates $20 water purifier to tackle toxic e-waste pollution

18-year-old Perry Alagappan recognised at World Water Week 2015 for his renewable heavy metal filter made from graphene that he’s keeping open source

Now a new filtering device, invented by a US teenager, could provide a cheap and easy way to purify water.

The renewable heavy metal filter, designed by 18-year-old Perry Alagappan, removes 99% of heavy metals from water that passes through it. The filter, built from graphene nanotubes, can be rinsed with a vinegar concentrate and reused. The highly concentrated waste can then be evaporated, leaving a deposit of pure metal that can be used in many different applications.

Alagappan, who was awarded the Stockholm Junior Water Prize at this year’sWorld Water Week, said the filter cost just $20 (£13) to make, up to five times less than existing reverse osmosis technology.

“I became interested in water purification when I visited my grandparents in India, and saw with my own eyes how electronic waste severely contaminated the environment,” said the recent high school graduate from Houston, Texas, on winning the prize.