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A Green, Dry Thumb: Sacramento Homeowners Get Paid By City For Drought Tolerant Landscape Design

4May

By rocitoutNo Comments

Local

A Green, Dry Thumb: Sacramento Homeowners Get Paid By City For Drought Tolerant Landscape Design

Thanks to California's historic -- and worrisome -- drought, it's no longer about who has the nicest or priciest home on the block, it's about who has the most sustainable setup. That's right, the Jones' have gone green. Sustainable and eco-friendly landscape designs are all the rage nowadays, but what if you actually got paid for creating one for your home? That's exactly what's happening to Sacramento homeowners who are incorporating water conservation into their home's landscaping. The city hopes the cash incentive will encourage homeowners to conserve water. Thanks to Sacramento's new River Friendly Landscape program, homeowners can receive a 50 cent per square foot rebate from the city if they replace their existing yards with drought resistant landscaping. Homeowners are also eligi...

How 3D Printing and Home Improvement are Finally Merging

4May

By rocitoutNo Comments

Business

How 3D Printing and Home Improvement are Finally Merging

3D printing is gradually spreading to a number of different industries and sectors. These days, 3D printing is used to "print" medical and dental equipment, smartphone cases, fashion accessories and much more. And soon, you might even be able to perform a home improvement project with parts entirely produced by a 3D printer. Home improvement retailer Lowe's recently announced that it will begin offering 3D printing and scanning services in its stores. The service will allow homeowners to easily design and produce parts for their various projects, along with truly one-of-a-kind decorations for patio designs and the like. According to an April 29 Wall Street Journal article, homeowners will be able to fully customize virtually any object that they install in their home, from cabinet knobs...

Pesticide Residues on Produce Could Negatively Impact Male Fertility, Harvard Scientists Find

4May

By rocitoutNo Comments

Lifestyle

Pesticide Residues on Produce Could Negatively Impact Male Fertility, Harvard Scientists Find

A newly published study out of Harvard University suggests that consuming fruits and vegetables containing pesticide residues can lead to a reduction in semen quality. Researchers found that men who ate the most fruits and vegetables with high pesticide residue levels had, on average, a 49% lower sperm count and 32% fewer normally formed sperm than men who ate less produce tainted with pesticides. The team has made clear, however, that not all fruits and vegetables pose a risk to male fertility. “These findings should not discourage the consumption of fruit and vegetables in general,” Jorge Chavarro, an assistant professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in a press release. “In fact, we found that total intake of fruit and vegetables w...

Scientists Create Hybrid Supercapacitor — Here’s What That Could Mean for Cars

4May

By rocitoutNo Comments

World

Scientists Create Hybrid Supercapacitor — Here’s What That Could Mean for Cars

Technology is always advancing, but one of the hurdles that hybrid and electric car technology faces is creating a longer-lasting, quickly charging battery -- without sacrificing range. A new development from researchers at UCLA's California NanoSystems Institute might have the answer. According to Gizmag.com, scientists have created a battery that combines both the energy of a lead-acid battery (think of the traditional battery in a car) and the quick charge and discharge rates of a supercapacitor. Batteries in hybrid cars paved the way for electric cars, but the hybrid supercapacitor could mark a huge development in making them more accessible and better-performing. Professor Richard Kaner and Dr. Maher El-Kady of the Institute say that their new battery can quickly charge and dischar...

Chicago Couple Awarded $325,000 in Settlement After Basement Flood Destroys Their Vinyl Collection

4May

By rocitoutNo Comments

Local

Chicago Couple Awarded $325,000 in Settlement After Basement Flood Destroys Their Vinyl Collection

A Chicago couple recently received a $325,000 settlement from the City Council after sewage water flooded their basement and destroyed their vintage vinyl collection in July 2012. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Joseph and Debbie Bruce's basement flooded during a city water main break, the result of city negligence. Joseph Bruce, an avid music lover and record store owner, lost more than 30,000 items from his collection of music-related items, including rare vintage vinyl records, posters, CDs, tapes and more during the flooding. When asked why the Bruces received so much money to recover from the damage of their basement water leaks, Corporation Counsel Stephen Patton called Bruce's record collection "unbelievable," appraising it at a value of more than $500,000. "Although we do no...

American Workers Without College Degrees Faring Increasingly Worse on Job Market, Study Finds

30Apr

By rocitoutNo Comments

Business

American Workers Without College Degrees Faring Increasingly Worse on Job Market, Study Finds

Much recent discussion has questioned whether high-priced college educations are showing a good return on investment. But as a report released April 20 by the Hamilton Project shows, one thing is clear: Americans without much education are doing substantially worse than their college-educated peers. “[N]on-college educated workers are substantially more likely to work in lower-paying service occupations than in the recent past,” the report’s authors write. “In contrast, individuals with a bachelor’s degree or more are just as likely to be employed today as they were in 1990, in similar occupations, and with steadily rising earnings.” For the study, the researchers examined government data to compare how American workers have fared between 1990 and 2013. Workers were split into eight cate...

Healthcare Professionals Increasingly Prone to Workplace Injury, Study Finds

30Apr

By rocitoutNo Comments

Business

Healthcare Professionals Increasingly Prone to Workplace Injury, Study Finds

Many people pursue careers in the healthcare industry as a way to help others recover from their injuries and illnesses. However, in doing so, healthcare workers themselves are increasingly becoming injured. New data from the Occupational Health Safety Network (OHSN) reveals that injury rates for healthcare workers rose from 2012 to 2014 -- with violent injuries in particular becoming more frequent. Between January 1, 2012 and September 30, 2014, the 112 U.S. healthcare facilities studied reported 10,680 injuries to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Patient handling and movement-related injuries represented 4,674 of these injuries. There were 3,972 slips, trips and falls, and 2,034 instances of workplace violence that led to injury. The healthcare and social ass...

Why Car Manufacturers Use Camouflage Vehicle Wraps During Pre-Production Test Drives

29Apr

By rocitoutNo Comments

Business

Why Car Manufacturers Use Camouflage Vehicle Wraps During Pre-Production Test Drives

You may have seen them before while driving around -- cars wrapped with a vivid, black-and-white swirling pattern. According to The News Wheel, car manufacturers apply these vinyl wraps to a pre-production vehicle that is being tested, in order to camouflage the vehicle's design and protect it from being ripped off by a competitor. While many people may think these wraps, with their ostentatious designs, do the opposite of camouflaging a prototype car. However, the patterns aren't meant to prevent the car itself from being seen out on the road -- rather, they conceal the specific details of the model's exterior. And why the black and white? That's because black absorbs infrared light from a camera's auto-focus, making it nearly impossible to capture a clear image of the vehicle -- an ef...

Study Aims to Figure Out Whether Science Fairs Support STEM Learning Goals

28Apr

By rocitoutNo Comments

Lifestyle

Study Aims to Figure Out Whether Science Fairs Support STEM Learning Goals

Everyone agrees that children learning science is crucial, especially in the face of economic and environmental challenges that will require science, technology, engineering and math-heavy solutions in the years to come. But does one of the best-known processes in science education -- the science fair -- meaningfully support that goal? That’s what a new study is aiming to figure out, backed by a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Science fairs have “never been really rigorously researched,” Abigail Jurist Levy, the leader of the research team, told Education Week April 24. “As valued as they are by some, and as criticized as they are by others, we really don't know what they offer students in terms of learning experiences and engendering enthusiasm in science.” Over t...

Investors Have Sunny Outlook on Remodeling Market Despite Mixed Indicators

28Apr

By rocitoutNo Comments

Business

Investors Have Sunny Outlook on Remodeling Market Despite Mixed Indicators

Two major indicators of home remodeling activity are pointing to a decelerating market throughout 2015, but investors seem to be confident that remodeling companies and supporting retailers will continue to be profitable nonetheless. The National Association of Home Builders released its Remodeling Market Index for the first quarter of 2015 on April 23. It was set at 57. Any RMI figure above 50 indicates that more remodelers say they have more activity than they did in the past quarter than say they have less activity; the current figure is above that key point, but lower than the 60 set in the last quarter of 2014. That means that the market is growing but at a slower rate. The latest Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity, set by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for...