Lay Your Own Extraordinary Hardwood Floor
It's hard to beat the natural beauty, warmth and durability of a hardwood floor. A well-laid floor will last for a century or more and can be rejuvenated by resanding and finishing to look brand new. A real wood floor isn't cheap, but neither is ... [... more]
Reader's Digest |
Home, Smart Home
Any architect, builder or scientist can speculate about what the house of the future might be like. But Grace can tell you. Grace is a talking house. Her high-tech gadgets and innovative uses of everyday objects, along with advances in design and ... [... more]
Reader's Digest |
Great tips that will help you save water and money.
From Householder's Survival Manual Water is a precious resource in many parts of the country, worth treating with care. In many regions, it is also increasingly expensive. These measures can help cut your water consumption. Check your faucets ... [... more]
Reader's Digest |
Quick Study: Alternative Energy
Enough of the sun's energy reaches the earth's surface to satisfy all our energy needs. The trick is harnessing it in usable form. Solar cells made of silicon convert sunlight into electricity, which is then wired to the power grid. For decades, ... [... more]
Reader's Digest |
Ease on Down the Road: Fuel-Efficient Drivers
On a summer Saturday in a Madison, Wisconsin, parking lot, about a dozen people stand around a red Honda Insight. They're watching Wayne Gerdes prepare for his run in the inaugural Hybridfest MPG Challenge, a 20-mile race through the streets of ... [... more]
Reader's Digest |
The Green Armada
On the fishing pier alongside Tampa Bay's stunning, golden Sunshine Skyway Bridge, pelicans, sea gulls and egrets hover close to the people dangling their fishing lines in the water, hoping somebody will toss a mouthful their way. Near the north ... [... more]
Reader's Digest |
Big Idea, Small Detail: Energy, Money and Environment
Electricity: ho! The next energy frontier may be the ocean. Companies like SeaGen Tidal Energy are building what are essentially upside-down windmills (as well as buoys and turbines) in the sea to take advantage of tides, waves, and currents, ... [... more]
Reader's Digest |
Earth-Friendly Eating
What's good for your body also turns out to be good for the environment. Substitute chicken, fish, or vegetables for red meat and dairy just one day a week, and your family of four will eliminate the greenhouse gases produced by a 760-mile car ... [... more]
Reader's Digest |
Kivalina, Alaska: A Melting Village
The village of Kivalina has never been very secure. A ramshackle settlement of 100 buildings, it includes a school, a post office, a health clinic, a grocery store, a laundry, two churches, and a bingo parlor, all perched on a thin strip of ... [... more]
Reader's Digest |
Healing the Planet with Earth-Friendly Bamboo Products
Jackie Heinricher's love affair with bamboo started in her backyard. "As a child, I remember playing among the golden bamboo my dad had planted, and when there was a breeze, the bamboos sounded incredibly musical. It was my magic fort area." A . [... more]
Reader's Digest |
Hello Layaway, Goodbye CDs and DVDs
NASA engineer Adrian Stoica has developed a technique that may one day help intelligence agencies identify people by the distinctive gait of their shadows. Developed at a cost of more than $1 million, the "more dynamic and more alive" soft- [... more]
Reader's Digest |
The Manager Who Couldn't Write
What launched Amy Tan's career was not a big break, but a kick in the butt. Before the million-copy sales of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife and The Hundred Secret Senses, Amy Tan was a writer. A business writer. She and a partner ran a ... [... more]
Reader's Digest |
