LIFE

11 Travel Startups You Need to Know

We all know about the awesomeness of TripIt, Airbnb and Hipmunk and how they’ve revolutionized travel. But there’s a new crew of travel startups taking flight and shaking up the industry even more. These 12 startups help you book flights, find the right hotel room, assemble an itinerary and save money — they’ll help you land amazing vacations at better prices than ever.
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TECHNOLOGY

Google Pays For Free Wi-Fi in San Francisco Parks

Free Wi-Fi is coming to 31 San Francisco parks, thanks to local tech giant Google picking up the massive tab.

City supervisor Mark Farrell announced the news on Wednesday. All of the parks, plazas and open spaces are expected to be fully connected by spring 2014, with installation beginning this December.

While it will bring free Internet to thousands of San Francisco residents and visitors, the move doesn’t come cheap: Google is paying $600,000 to cover the necessary installation, hardware and maintenance costs.

Why? It’s a smooth PR move to be sure, but Google’s community affairs manager Veronica Bell said the company hopes it has larger implications than just a positive news splash.
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ENVIRONMENT

Bonus: Solar Panels Help Keep Buildings Cool, Reducing A/C Needs

Cooling effect equivalent to 5% discount on solar panel price
A great thing to do to improve the energy-efficiency and comfort of a building is to plant trees in strategic positions around it so that, when they are mature, they provide shade, keeping the place cooler than if it was fully exposed to the sun (and in northern latitudes, the trees lose their leaves during the winter, letting the sun through to heat things up).
But trees aren’t the only way to keep a building cooler. Solar panels, when mounted on a roof, also provide valuable shade on top of generating clean electricity. Researchers at the University of California San Diego decided to have a closer look at the panels’ cooling effect to see how big it is and what kind of panel orientation provides the biggest benefits: “Using thermal imaging, researchers determined that during the day, a building’s ceiling was 5 degrees Fahrenheit cooler under solar panels than under an exposed roof.”
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HEALTH

Healthier Comfort Foods

Fats, sugars and carbohydrates. These are things our bodies crave when we are seeking comfort in food. Fried, baked, simmered, sauteed, crunchy or melty, the form the foods take are also important to us depending on just what kind of “junk” food we crave. There is no getting away from craving comfort food — it’s just part of our psychology, part of our physiology. But there is a way to satisfy that craving while still sitting squarely in the realm of healthy. Or at least, healthier.

We have gathered up some of our favorite comfort food recipes — from fried goodies to baked sweets, from carb-rich soups to cheesy grilled sandwiches. These are your go-to recipes for when you want the comfort of food without the backslide into artery-clogging fast-food or processed and packaged portions. This is real food, made from scratch, that will hit the spot.
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