Month: October 2014

According to a new study recently released by Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies, the slow recovery of the home remodeling industry is expected to continue, but that the recovery process could take a while. After the housing market was hit by the recession in 2008, secondary industries (like the home remodeling business) were also impacted quite severely. However, unlike the housing market, which has regained health quite suddenly in the past couple of years, the remodeling business is expected to continue its slow trajectory of recovery throughout 2015. The Harvard study used an algorithm called the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) which calculated the numbers of remodeling projects, along with homeowner spending habits on remodeling projects, in order ...

The results of a recent survey show that a majority of people would be interested in purchasing semi-autonomous vehicles. The study, by Boston Consulting Group, revealed that 55% of people would be likely to buy a car that had partial self-driving abilities, such as taking over the wheel on the highway or during traffic jams, while 44% said they'd be interested in a car that was fully autonomous. Apparently people are willing to pay a good chunk of change for these vehicles, as well. More than 20% of those surveyed said they would pay $4,000 extra for a car that was able to entirely drive itself. As the hype builds over these new autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles, the reality of putting self-driving cars on the market is closer than ever before. Just last month, California issued 2...

Since 1880, according to research from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, global median temperatures have increased by 1.5°F. While that might not seem like much, the shift in temperature is having a staggering effect on oceanic water levels, crop development, and weather patterns. It's also a driving factor behind a huge increase in the number of people across the world using air conditioning.Hoping to stem demand and do its part to fight off the forces of climate change, the University of California-Berkeley has developed a new technology that effectively air conditions structures without using a single watt of energy. SABER, as the tech is known, emulates skin to regulate air and light flow into buildings. The skin automatically senses changes in light and temperature, openin...