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TreeHugger ‘s Lloyd Alter been writing over on MNN about technology, the smart house, wearables and boomer stuff. Here are some recent posts that might interest TreeHuggers:

What’s strange in this picture? The cyclists are actually stopped at a red light

When you go to Copenhagen, it’s easy to get blown away by the sexy bike bridges and cycling superhighways, but the really important things that make cycling so successful are far more subtle. One of the key findings from my recent trip was that when a city respects cyclists, they respect the city back. This is a T intersection and the cyclists are actually stopped at a red light, which just doesn’t happen very often in other places.

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Coworking is disrupting the traditional office

Rainmaking loft in Copenhagen/ Lloyd Alter/CC BY 2.0

A new British study finds that co-working is beginning to have “a major disruptive effect on commercial property markets worldwide.” It’s not just about getting out of pyjamas anymore. In London, there are now over 1,000 coworking spaces, totalling almost 5 percent of the market. In Workplace Insight, the author of the study notes that “the world of work is changing and flexibility is no longer sought by the tech, creative and media sectors alone.” I checked out an interesting one in Copenhagen.

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People are outraged to see refugees with smartphones. They shouldn’t be.

© How can you be a refugee and afford that phone? (Photo: Carsten Koall/Getty Images)

There is a lot of outrage on the Internet about seeing refugees taking selfies and using expensive smart phones. Yet some say they are more important than food. Personally, I think the first thing I would do if I got off an inflatable dinghy after a long dangerous trip is take a selfie of myself and my kid to prove that I’d made it.

More: People are outraged to see refugees with smartphones. They shouldn’t be.

Should laptops and phones be banned in lecture halls?

Lloyd Alter/CC BY 2.0

It’s that time of year when students go back to school and the question comes up: Should students be allowed to use laptop computers in class? I say yes to my students for a number of reasons, but more and more professors are saying no.

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Allure of connectivity boosts public transit

© Michael Dodge/ Getty Images

It’s been a trend for years: young people are driving less. It’s been blamed on the economy, on higher insurance costs, on congestion, but some think that it is because of the smart phone, and the desire to be connected. A new study from Chicago appears to confirm that.

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Today’s big computer news is this Raspberry Pi

© Raspberry Pi

While Apple was making its big announcement of a big new tablet at a big new price, that other fruity computer company introduced a touchscreen for sixty bucks. You can build an entire computer system for less than the price of the new Apple Pencil. That’s big news.

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Boomer alert: Smartphones keep your brain young

Lloyd Alter/CC BY 2.0

Baby boomers know that exercise keeps your brain young; many will be pleased to learn that so does using your phone or a computer. A new study suggests that using computers and smartphones might be making a real difference in the rate of cognitive decline.

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