To suppress the flow of garbage and the additional use of energy for purification, New York City is promoting its tap water as a sustainable alternative to bottled drinking water.

New York’s water comes from a highly protected watershed upstate. The Environmental Protection Department oversees a daily supply of more than one billion gallons of this fresh water, which serves nine million people. “Our high-quality drinking water not only quenches New Yorkers’ thirst, but is the not-so-secret ingredient in the bagels, pizza, and thousands of other dishes that people come from around the world to get,” said Cas Holloway, the city’s environmental protection commissioner, in a statement announcing new products last week.

In partnership with Fishs Eddy, a New York-based purveyor of glassware, dinnerware and kitchen goods, the city has come up with merchandise bearing the NYC Water logo: a stylized tap with a drop of water, with the slogan “drink NYC water.” This merchandise available at the city’s online shop for everything New York, CityStore, range from glasses to T-shirts to even coasters, decanters and water bottles.

They hope that this will push for people to consume tap water instead of bottled water; the city can reduce the energy needed and the litter generated by its consumption. The city government is also set to provide other means to reduce bottled water consumption, including the provision of outdoor drinking stations connected to fire hydrants at parks, public plazas and other outdoor spaces. These stations come with six faucets for people, and even a water bowl for pets to drink from.

In the 1980’s it was unthinkable that people would want to actually buy their water in a bottle. I suppose fear of disease and harmful elements in water combined with the marketing efforts of brands like Fiji and Evian have made it part of popular culture to buy water from a bottle even when we can get it for free from the tap. Hopefully, New York can be the first to reverse that trend.

A recent survey by Harris Interactive showed that online coupon use has increased dramatically among an unexpected demographic. Oddly enough, according to the survey, it’s well-to-do families with household incomes over $100,000 who are using more coupons. Four out of 10 people from families within this income bracket say that use online coupons – nearly twice the number of respondents with an annual income of $35,000 or less.

They make use of sites like Coupons.com, which offers free coupons that can be printed out or used with a savings card, Foursquare, which offers specials to users who frequent a certain location, or Groupon.com, which lets users take advantage of group discounts of up to 90% on local products or services.

The users of these services are well-to-do and tech-savvy, and live in urban areas. It’s not just a matter of discounts for them. Groupon.com encourages users to go to places they’ve never been to before in order to take advantage of the excellent discounts. Foursquare provides an entire mobile online community where people can find out where their friends have been, and what they think about a particular place.

It makes sense that these products cater to the well-appointed who have the gadgets and services needed to best take advantage of them. Gowalla, for example, uses a Google Map-like application and works best if you’re constantly online while on the go.

“The holy grail is, ‘how can we make e-commerce social?’” says Andrew Mason, CEO of Groupon.com. “Usually, [a coupon] is a pretty solitary, one-to-one experience. But we’re helping consumers discover things.”

Services such as these constitute a new age in how we experience commercial settings. If social media sites help to foster social interaction among users, then services like these can help to push economic activity, as users are encouraged to try out new products and services offered by small, little-known, local businesses.

Instead of scrapping the design altogether, Ford has been thinking up ways to bring it back to the market. The new Ford Explorer won’t exactly measure up to fuel-efficient minivan standards, but it will become the most fuel efficient vehicle in its segment at 28mpg for highway driving.

Although Ford doesn’t expect the once-Goliath to reach its former glory in sales, the company has done research that suggests that a more fuel efficient version of the Explorer has a niche market. This is despite the fact that many former Explorer owners have been forced to realize that they don’t really need a four-wheel-drive sport utility vehicle (SUV) that seats eight.

The bold move might have been spurred by the fact that the Ford Explorer was once the top selling SUV for 10 consecutive years. Sales peaked even at almost 450,000 units in 1998. However, only 52,190 were sold in 2009.

In any case, the overhauled version will be a 2011 model. The Ford Motor Company is not releasing much more information on its specifications apart from the expected fuel consumption already mentioned.

Ford may be banking on sentimentality for the familiar Explorer name, but they should also consider all of the bad memories of those who owned the gas guzzling SUV when its resale value took a dive.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Clean Energy.

The 918 Spyder combines high-tech racing features with electric-mobility to offer a wide range of innovative new qualities. For example, it comes with a fuel consumption rate of nearly 78 mpg, which is truly outstanding, even for an ultra compact city car. But the Spyder is intended to offer the performance of a super sports car with a top speed of 198 mph, and a lap time on the Nordschleife of Nurburgring in less than 7:30 minutes, faster than even the Porsche Carrera GT.

How does a supercar achieve such range? The Spyder is a parallel hybrid like the Prius. This means that two powertrains – both gas and electric – can operate together or separately to keep the wheels turning. There are four modes that configure the powertrains for anything from maximum efficiency to maximum performance and everything in between. The E-Drive mode means pure electric power, and the car can reportedly last up to 16 minutes on electrons alone. Next up is hybrid mode, which would be primarily be used for everyday driving. The Sports Hybrid mode uses both powertrains, but leans a little more toward performance with most of the power reaching the rear wheels. Finally, the Race Hybrid mode means all systems are go for the lowest lap times possible.

The Spyder is one of three Porsche models with hybrid drive making their debut at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. The trio – made up of Porsche’s new Cayenne S Hybrid SUV with parallel full-hybrid drive, the 911 GT3 R Hybrid race car with electric drive, and the two-seater high-performance 918 Spyder mid-engine sports car with plug-in hybrid technology – clearly demonstrates not only the great promise of this new drive technology, but also the innovative power of Porsche as a genuine pioneer in hybrid drive.

The highly-innovative 918 combines Porsche’s Intelligent Performance philosophy with the high-technology from motorsport, with classic but modern design to make what I believe is a truly convincing statement.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about innovative concept cars

The keynote speakers promise to maintain a future-oriented perspective, as each will explore a different aspect of next-generation displays. The keynote addresses will kick off on Tuesday, May 25. This year’s speakers will be:

• Dr. Sang-Soo Kim, executive VP, Samsung Mobile Display along with Samsung Fellow and SID Fellow
• Mike Sinnett, vice president/787 systems chief engineer, The Boeing Company
• Steve Bathiche, director of research, Applied Sciences Group, Entertainment and Devices Division, Microsoft Corp.

Another exciting event attendees won’t want to miss is the annual SID luncheon, being held on Wednesday, May 26. Terry Schmidt, chief scientist, Christie Digital Systems, Inc. will reveal what happened “Behind the Screens at the Beijing Summer Games.” Schmidt will walk attendees through the challenges of the high-tech setup in an outdoor venue of this immense scale, and explain how these displays contributed to the overall spectacle of this memorable event.

This is just a sampling of the exciting presentations attendees can expect at this year’s Display Week. More information on the program will be announced soon. You can visit www.sid2010.org for additional information, or follow SID’s Twitter at @DisplayWeek.

What makes Display Week so exciting to me is that it’s kind of like the electronics industry’s crystal ball, previewing display technologies that will enable the commercial products of the future.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Hi Technology

The term ‘contagion’ is accurate in the context of investment because it frequently leads to irrational or impudent behavior. Contagion prevents ‘healthy’ evaluations of investment opportunities, and gets in the way of sound judgment in decision making.

Contagion leads to the classic blunders associated with following the crowd – buying into the market when prices are high, and fleeing in panic when the prices drop. Contrarian behavior, generally the safest way to make money, is completely undermined by emotional contagion.

Emotional contagion is common because people tend to imitate those who seem to be successful. Envy and greed attract others into the same activities. The problem is that by the time contagion sets in when it comes to ordinary people investing, it is usually too late in the cycle to make money. Prices and the risks of a crash are too high at that stage.

So how do we overcome this contagion? The key is emotional neutrality – only invest for coldly rational reasons, and never because other people are buying and making money at the moment. Heated emotions, euphoria, and excitement are the enemy of prudent and profitable investing. Make sure you don’t get carried away with the crowd. In fact, it is almost always best to do just the opposite. When the crowd is cheering and buying, look to sell; when it is moaning, groaning, panicking and selling, it is generally time to make your move.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about emotional investing

According to Governor Phil Bredesen, the investment is the latest in a series of infusions of capital in the state’s solar industry and statewide growth in R&D. Confluence Solar will develop its PV facility on a 25 acre site in an industrial park, creating jobs for an estimated 200-400 employees.

In addition to the investment, Tennessee has announced several other solar developments and partnerships:

• Construction of polysilicon manufacturing facilities near Cleveland by German chemical giant Wacker Chemie, and in Clarksville by Hemlock Semiconductor.

• Investment by the state of $62.5 million for research and energy production, including creation of the Tennessee Solar Institute, a partnership of ORNL and the University of Tennessee.

• The mid-March announcement by the Department of Energy of the Tennessee Valley Energy Enterprise, a concept to reuse federal sites at ORNL and elsewhere in the Southeast for energy-related research in solar/photovoltaic, electrical grid enhancements, cleaner coal, and work on hybrid vehicles.

I think Tennessee’s Solar initiative program represents a new economic engine for the state. There should be no doubt in the business world that this region has the high-tech workforce, the cutting-edge research, and affordable business costs to make it a solar economy leader.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about solar power

Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi founded Better Place in 2007, and within a year Israel became the first country to embrace the Better Place model of building open network infrastructures to enable mass adoption of electric vehicles and deliver transportation as a sustainable service.

The cars will be manufactured by Renault-Nissan, and the prototype was unveiled at the United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen last month. According to the company, Denmark, Australia, California, Hawaii, and Ontario have also joined the initiative.

‘This could work for the IDF,” a senior officer from the Logistics Corps explained. “There are many bases where officers come in the morning and leave in the evening and during the day their cars just sit there. Instead, they could be hooked up to a Better Place charger.”

The IDF is also looking into additional technologies that would relive the military of its dependence on gasoline, such as biodiesel and animal or plant-based diesel fuel.

Defense officials said the partnership with Better Place was still under initial review by Deputy Defense Minister Director General Bezalel Treiber.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Israel

When the New Compact Coupe’s gasoline engine isn’t needed, it shuts off and is disengaged from the transmission to cut down on drag, including at highway speeds. The braking system can recover energy by storing it in the battery, a Volkswagen spokesperson said at the concept car’s unveiling at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

The electric motor, mounted between the engine and a 7-speed automatic gearbox, can be used for pure electric driving, the company said. The 1.4-liter gasoline engine generates 150 horsepower, and the electric motor produces 27 horsepower.

The New Compact Coupe’s 8-inch touch screen can control the radio and navigation system. Climate controls are separate, located immediately below the screen. The interior seats four comfortably.

With a sharper, more sculpted front fascia than its Golf and Jetta siblings, and a deep line running the length of the sides, the Compact Copue comes across as an affordable version of the Audi A5.

Although VW claims the Coupe is only a concept at this stage, the level of detail and Volkswagen’s lack of an existing credible coupe offering indicates that a production version should be on the way shortly. I think if VW is smart, they’ll abandon the slow-selling Eos and offer a retractable soft-top version a few years after the Coupe hits the market.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about concept cars

To that end, start-up Redbeacon.com took the top prize for its innovative model that allows users to search for services among rated providers and connect directly with them to set up appointments and receive quotes. Search results are organized based on a variety of user feedback that includes reviews, ratings, and proximity.

As Redbeacon’s press release explains:

“Consumers describe what they need done and specify when and where their job should take place. Using patent-pending machine learning and semantic technology, Redbeacon determines the best local service providers for the job. If matched, service providers get notified by email and text message and are given the opportunity to submit a price quote. Consumers can then select and book appointments with their top choice service provider based on a comparison of business profiles, price quotes, and ratings and reviews from past Redbeacon consumers.”

Picking up on this trend, the Atlantic Monthly reports last month on sites that have similar models to Redbeacon, pointing to the new wave of .coms seeking to satisfy this demand for consumer opinions online. These ratings sites allow users to offer up their personal spin on virtually anything, but I feel Redbeacon sets itself apart by providing utility for a wide variety of services and situations with a great search.

[image via Chanaye J. Thomas]