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Bar Code Window Shopping

By Avishay Artsy on Tuesday, April 1, 2008.

NPR's Day to Day had an interesting segment today about bar code technology being used by more than 500 San Francisco restaurants, shops and businesses to entice passers-by. Here's how it works:

A customer walks up to a restaurant that displays the bar code, takes a picture of it with a cell phone and then instantly downloads reviews, a menu and a wine list. Likewise, scanning bar codes on a bus stop could produce maps, and scanning a building could elicit fun facts.

Square Trees Grow in New Hampshire

By Amy Quinton on Tuesday, April 1, 2008.

The Society For the Protection of New Hampshire Forests unveiled a new development today that may revolutionize the timber industry.

Forest research scientists say they’ve created a new type of tree that is ideal for harvesting and beneficial for the environment.

But as NHPR’s Amy Quinton reports, the new tree has already sparked a huge outcry from some businesses and environmental groups.

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Water Rights

By Laura Knoy on Tuesday, April 1, 2008.

Close to two billion people worldwide now live in water-stressed regions and that number is growing fast, especially true in areas like the Middle East, Australia, large parts of Asia and the midwestern United States. We’ll talk about the state of fresh water in the world and what’s being done so that we’ll all have drinking water in our future.

Guest

  • Maude Barlow, head of the Council of Canadians, Canada’s largest public advocacy organization, founder of the Blue Planet Project and author of Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water
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