aids

Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., better known as the maker of Subaru automobiles, announced that it has completed the development of a new driver aid system called "New EyeSight." The New EyeSight setup is based on Subaru's current old EyeSight system, which debuted in May 2008 and has been available since then in Japanese Subaru vehicles; it features dual forward-facing cameras to give the vehicle stereoscopic vision for pedestrian detection. The new rig integrates with the other driver assist systems to improve overall vehicle safety. How come we never see this sort of tech in Subaru's North … Read more

A solar-charged light might seem like just another green gadget to the average American, but for families in rural Africa, it could prove revolutionary.

Product design consultancy Plus Minus Design is vying to replace unsustainable and potentially dangerous lanterns in the homes of off-grid Africans with the Solar Pebble. Engineered with the economic constraints of developing-world citizens in mind, the Solar Pebble will provide one hour of LED light for every two hours of charge, and will cost only $2.70 to manufacture.

Plus Minus Design, based in Leeds, U.K., was founded by three undergraduate students at the University of Leeds. While studying product design and engineering, Adam Robinson, Henry James, and Tom Eales were given the opportunity to work with SolarAid, a charity in the U.K.

SolarAid, which works to fight poverty and climate change, worked with the students to develop a solar-powered alternative to kerosene lanterns. Those lanterns, commonly used in rural Africa, draw 20 percent of an average Malawian family's income, SolarAid said, and pose respiratory health problems, as well as create fire hazards. … Read more

Very few kitchen appliances operate in the "on" position all day, every day. The refrigerator is definitely one appliance you leave on 24-7. While they may not make refrigerators with an "off" switch, they do make them to be energy-efficient and user-friendly. When it comes to a substantial purchase that is always in use, it's the little things that matter.

The new KitchenAid French Door Bottom Freezer Refrigerator is a model update that provides more user-friendly features. Interior space is increased from 25-cubic-feet to 27-cubic-feet, allowing for greater ease in both storing and selecting food … Read more

If you take a look at the new KitchenAid French Door bottom freezer fridge, you might think that the only changes are the chrome details and full color LCD screen on the newly contoured doors. You might, but you'd be wrong.

Open those lovely doors, and you'll find a larger fridge capacity (2 cubic feet more than previous models), shelves that extend an additional three quarters of an inch, and advanced LED lighting so that you can see everything you cram inside. The fridge also features an in-door water and ice system and a convenient tilt-out ice door. … Read more

SEATTLE--Bill Gates thought that coming up with vaccines would be the hard part and that delivering vaccines would be the easy part.

It turns out they are both hard.

That's one of the lessons that Gates tells CNET he has learned in his new role as full-time philanthropist. In travels to Africa, he saw firsthand the challenges of delivering vaccines, many of which have to be kept cold to be effective and are needed in places with no refrigeration.

"We were a bit naive about that, particularly getting new vaccines adopted by countries," Gates said in an interview with CNET's Ina Fried last week. "It had been so long since they had done it, I just assumed they would look at the numbers, it would be a very straightforward process. Well, the process doesn't even exist."

Plus, he said, "The cold chain is more messed up than I expected."

In the interview, which was done in conjunction with the release of the annual letter (PDF) from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates talked about other surprises he encountered in his travels, including the fact that one of the ways to reduce the spread of AIDS in Africa is to promote adult circumcision--something that he wasn't sure would be feasible.

"Male circumcision--which I thought wouldn't be a big effect because I didn't think adults would be that interested in it--it looks like that's really going to help slow the disease," Gates said.

Gates also talked about his recent foray into Twitter and the launch of his Gates Notes Web site.

"The Internet is tailor-made for the kind of activities I'm involved in," Gates said. "When I take a trip, we have all these photos. And there were things that were fun and exciting, and people want to see that. It's very easy to put it up there...I think it's going to be a lot of fun to be sharing on an ongoing basis, and people who are interested in a particular topic can just find that piece and go after that." … Read more

Studies suggest that anywhere from 2 to 13 percent of patients in emergency rooms are HIV positive, according to Charlotte Gaydos, a clinical microbiologist at Johns Hopkins University. So the emergency room seemed like a logical place to test whether an untrained person is able to self-administer his or her own HIV test, and then accurately read the results (one line means negative, two lines mean positive).

In an urban hospital, researchers from Johns Hopkins offered people in the emergency room the option to test themselves for HIV while they waited. More than 90 percent of the people they asked … Read more

Physicist Tanmoy Bhattacharya and HIV researcher Bette Korber are creating an evolutionary genetic family tree based on samples taken by the international Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology consortium, in order to compare the evolutionary history of more than 10,000 sequences from more than 400 people with HIV.

If they can identify common features of the virus as it is transmitted, researchers might be able to create a vaccine that recognizes the virus before the body's immune system reacts to--and mutates--it.

What already sounds like a lot of data, however, could balloon further, hence the importance of Roadrunner. &… Read more

StudentAid.com is far from the first Web site to help parents or would-be college students learn about how much schools cost. But at the end of the day, it's not just the price-tag that matters, it's what you actually have to pay out of your own pocket after factoring in available financial aid.

The new site, according to Craig Carroll, CEO of parent company Rezolve Group, provides more depth and specificity than other sites by having parents or students fill out a detailed questionnaire that helps determine what colleges they can actually afford after considering all available … Read more

At some point for every kitchen gadget fan, it comes time to put away the kiddie tools. As we outfit our kitchens over time, we graduate from poorly made novelty devices to more usable constructs of higher quality. But then, sometimes these examples can fail us (or at least not provide us with all the power we need). While it might be nice to opt for the shiny ice cream milkshake blender, eventually the home chef needs to sacrifice nostalgia for quality.

The KitchenAid Pro Line Chef's Blender is a powerful machine designed to withstand everyday use. Featuring a … Read more