clean

If you're not careful, Firefox's built-in download manager can leave a long trail of evidence about your Internet activities. Whether you've been downloading cheesy songs or snagging photos and videos of a more adult nature, sometimes it's a good idea to cover your tracks. Fortunately, Firefox has this capability built into its download manager in the form a button labeled "Clear List," which does reliably clear the contents of the download list. Clean And Close is an add-on for Firefox that does more or less the same thing, with one extra step built in.… Read more

The G-20 nations have the most power and the largest impact on the future of clean energy because together they account for 90 percent of the world's investment in clean energy. In addition, China leads the G-20 and the world in investment and almost every other category when it comes to clean-energy development, and it may do so for the next 10 years.

That's according to a report released today by The Pew Charitable Trusts, in conjunction with Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The report, called "Global clean power: A $2.3 trillion opportunity," offers predictions for … Read more

Nobody likes hoovering. It's an enormous chore, but sadly, until they invent non-crumbling cookies we're stuck with it. If running a vacuum cleaner 'round the place is doing your back and head in, you'll like the Foki shoe--a concept product that lets you "shoe-ver" your house.

Foki is a vacuum cleaner concept developed by Indonesian industrial designer Adika Titut Triyugo that definitely does not suck--even though it does. Don your housecoat and pinafore, put your hair up in rollers, and step into your Foki shoes to see what we mean.

Read more of "… Read more

This year's Cleantech Open 2010 Business Competition winner, announced last week, is Puralytics, a company developing photochemical water purification products.

Since 2006, the Cleantech Open has offered a venue for competition among green tech start-up companies looking for funding. Winning alumni of the contest include Cool Earth Solar, Green Volts, and Micromidas.

This year's winner, Puralytics, is an Oregon-based start-up that uses natural sunlight or LED lighting as the catalysts to remove pathogens, petrochemicals, and pharmaceuticals from waste water. Its processes under development have applications for both industrial manufacturing facilities and small rural communities. Puralytics will receive $250,… Read more

analysis Republicans in the new Congress will pose a greater threat to the Obama administration's strategy to regulate greenhouse gas polluters than a plethora of industry lawsuits.

The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, is marching ahead with rules requiring big polluters like coal-fired power plants, oil refiners, and cement manufacturers to get permits starting January 2 to emit gases blamed for warming the planet.

President Barack Obama has always said the EPA would regulate carbon emitters if lawmakers failed to pass a climate bill.

Republicans, who will control the House of Representatives in January after winning some 60 seats … Read more

The freeware CCleaner hasn't seen many major revisions since Piriform launched it in 2004, so when you do see a major update, you can be assured that it's going to come with impressive new tools. CCleaner 3 doesn't disappoint on that front, introducing two major new features that make it worth the upgrade.

One is a drive wiping tool that can wipe all the data from your hard drive, but can also scrub only the available free space. As with many of the tools in CCleaner, it's fairly nuanced and allows for a simple one-pass overwrite, … Read more

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Rather than close the blinds on a sunny day, perhaps you'll pull down the solar panel.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology here today presented early results of research projects funded by Italian oil company Eni, including paper-thin solar cells, which could be used as window covers, and a paper-based material to collect oil spilled in water.

MIT showed prototypes of paper solar cells able to generate enough current to light a small LED display. A commercial solar paper device could be available in five years, said chemical engineering professor Karen Gleason, whose lab is doing the work. … Read more

IBM is tapping into its own network of PC owners to help figure out how to clean up drinking water.

Big Blue announced Monday a series of high-tech projects related to creating safer drinking water, which IBM notes is a rare resource for at least 1.2 billion people worldwide.

To drive the initiatives, the company is calling on its World Community Grid, a network of PC owners who pitch in computing time to help scientists tackle global problems. People who volunteer for the Grid allow their idle computers to be used by IBM to collectively run simulations and other … Read more

The U.S. Energy Department on Thursday awarded $1 billion for the FutureGen clean-coal power program and carbon dioxide storage network in Illinois, aiming to cut emissions of greenhouse gases from coal-fired electric generating plants.

"This investment in the world's first, commercial-scale, oxy-combustion power plant will help to open up the over $300 billion market for coal unit repowering and position the country as a leader in an important part of the global clean energy economy," said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

Oxy-combustion burns coal with a mixture of oxygen and carbon dioxide (CO2) instead of … Read more