Eighteen is a big birthday for kids in the United Kingdom. Most kids enjoy hitting the pubs legally for the first time. However for his eighteenth birthday on October 1 of this year, Charlie McDonnell decided to go for an upper instead of a downer and raise money for cancer research.

Charlie asked people to donate money to the charity, Cancer Research UK. It helped that Charlie is somewhat famous on YouTube. His channel has over 92,000 subscribers. On the eve of his birthday, Charlie hosted a live show on the live-video blog website BlogTV for his friends and loyal YouTube fans.   Read more...

When it rains, it pours, or so the saying goes. But, what about when it doesn't pour at all? These days most homes are equipped with sprinklers, though they can be quite the water guzzler. So to combat wasteful water use, HydroPoint Data Systems, a Petaluma, California-based startup, founded in 2002, makes sure you don't have to worry about it. As the world's first water monitoring sprinkler system, WeatherTRAK allows users to monitor their irrigation systems with real-time feedback on field conditions, reducing the number of required site visits.

The system, seemingly complex, takes in weather data from 40,000 independently operated stations in order to create a high-resolution map, which then informs WeatherTRAK of everything from rainfall to evaporation rate. After inputting the type of climate, plant species and other environmental factors, the plants end up being watered just the right amount after all this information is transmitted to the field via cellular networks.   Read more...

DreamBank believes that gifts are important...but only if they are something you really want...a dream! The site allows its users to sign up and post a dream. These range from global awareness causes, to people asking for funding for trips and vacations, to building their dream homes. Other users can contribute money via PayPal to make dreams come true.

Mostly, users donate for causes posted by people they know, but there is no rule against contributing to a dream you happen to stumble upon. You can contact the organization if you have a question about a particular dream. They also keep a blog to keep you updated on the most recent goings-on at DreamBank.   Read more...

Though affirmative action and other race integrative programs have received controversial opinions, a University of California at Berkeley study suggests that students making friends with someone from a different race or ethnicity can reduce anxiety in academic settings among both whites and minorities. The researchers began the study by pairing up students prone to racial biases, both white and Latino, and through an accelerated friendship process found that members of both groups benefited from getting to know one another. This "accelerated friendship" entailed three weekly one-hour meetings in a casual lab setting. This method was developed by psychologist Arthur Aron, of Stony Brook University in New York. During these sessions participants asked one another questions specifically designed to foster openness and friendship. And during the last session of the week participants played a game like "Jenga" to ease tensions.

How the researchers measure success rates is by measuring the participants' levels of Cortisol, a hormone triggered by stress and anxiety. After measuring levels throughout the three-time sessions students felt more comfortable and relaxed around peers of another ethnicity or race. Now the researchers want to see if these friendships last, and hopefully they will.   Read more...

So the summer's over, and you're not eight years old anymore. Big deal. You can still sign up for Social Innovation Camp, who's motto is "Another World is Possible." The camp is now taking submissions to answer the question: "What does that other world look like, and how can we use social tech to make it happen?" Social Innovation Camp is a vessel for helping to make those ideas happen. The first step is simply to gather a diverse group of software developers and designers along with people who know about the social need to build web-based tools that will change the world. The rules are off and all suggestions are valid. Imagine whatever you want, they say.   Read more...

Zeitgeist is a German word that literally translates: zeit = time, geist = spirit.

Zeitgeist, The Movie is a 2007 documentary film made by Peter Joseph about the events of September 11, 2001 and various conspiracy theories. Zeitgeist: Addendum was its 2008 followup. The films were created as not-for-profit expressions to communicate what the author felt were highly important social understandings, which most people are generally not aware of.   Read more...

“..education is failing its objective based on the Latin root of the word: educare, to nourish. [Those teaching] should challenge the natural creativity of children, inviting them to follow their inborn curiosity rather than pushing them through textbooks.” -Jurriaan Kamp, Ode magazine, October 2008

An education system with something missing. What is missing? We wonder We ponder and question, hypothesize and experiment; Congregating to share insight and new theory.   Read more...

Social networks crop up every day. From Facebook, Myspace, Hi5, Twitter, LinkedIn and loads more, it seems everyone has a place to feel welcome, no matter how cold it's getting outside. Even universities are getting involved. Through the City University of New York, the Women Writing Science project, a multi-faceted initiative to involve young women in science and to encourage them to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math, announced the launch of their new networking site: underthemicroscope.com, sponsored by IBM.

But the big difference between sites like Friendster and Under the Microscope is the career opportunities the group's organizers profess to have. The site now provides the option to post personal stories through blogging, science news updates, and links to other resources. Throughout 2009 the site plans to include more social networking opportunities to keep users attuned, while also adding careers tips, guides for parents, and a mentoring opportunity. Though the main purpose of the site is to inform users of internships and scholarships as well as serialized chapters of Women Writing Science publications that can be downloaded free of charge and an online book club.   Read more...

This election day, with online tools like Twitter and Google Voter Info, it is easier than ever to stay connected, stay informed, and voice your opinion.

Twitter
While TwitterElection has been going strong for months, TwitterVoteReport is designed to keep information flowing and give everyone the most up to the minute information on November 4th. By adding #VoteReport to the end of your "tweets," or updates on Twitter.com you can share your experience at the polls. Reports will be available to anyone who wants to read them via TwitterVoteReport.com or specific mobile programs and widgets.   Read more...

This Halloween brought more than tricks, for MIT planetary scientist Benjamin P. Weiss, October 31 marked the day his and five colleagues' work on the connection between meteorites and the records they hold regarding magnetic fields and the early history of planets. Talk about a treat!

Published in Science magazine, the study found that during the formation of the solar system, dust and rubble in a disk around the sun collided and stuck together to eventually form our planets, on the big scale. On the small-side, the tiny rocks which formed the larger planets first had the ability to melt, something past theorists did not believe. Weiss discovered that these mini planets could melt in such as way as to form those large chunks of rock, also known as planetesimals, and thereby force their constituents to spread out. This created lighter materials which formed a crust, while iron-rich materials entered the middle inside that crust, developing into a magnetic dynamo.   Read more...