Here's What's Awesome: Crime-solving Bees, Walkable Neighborhoods

Word of Mouth is on the air Monday through Thursday, so on Fridays we take to the blog, to bring you "Here's What's Awesome." The name is tongue-in-cheek, but the links are, well... awesome.

Saving Lives, One Bottle At A Time?

Bill Gates may head the largest charitable foundation ever created, but he's convinced business – or, more accurately, a kind of business-meets-philanthropy he calls “creative capitalism” -- is better-equipped to solve the world's biggest problems than charitable groups could ever be. As he told Time this week: “Governments and nonprofit groups have an irreplaceable role in helping [the world's neediest people], but it will take too long if they try to do it alone. It is mainly corporations that have the skills to make technological innovations work for the poor." (Not everyone is convinced; the blog Creative Capitalism features pro and con views on Gates' ideas.) We're not sure if Gates is aware of it, but a campaign proposed by a man named Simon Berry seems to fit the ethos of "creative capitalism" - he suggests using Coca-Cola's commercial distribution network to distribute anti-diarrhea medicine in developing countries. If you can get a Coke in East Africa, the idea goes, you'd be able to get life-saving medicine just as easily. At this point it's not much more than an idea, but it's an idea that's picked up a following on Facebook and has gotten Berry in to meet with Coke officials in Europe. [Inhabitat]

Viruses: Going Mobile

At some point a new kind of communication tech finds its audience and gets its footing, and that moment acts like a green light for spammers and virus writers. Wireless devices appear to be next on the hit list, and that brings up an interesting conundrum for Apple, whose fans have touted the Mac's apparent resistance to viruses. The working theory has been that nobody bothered to write viruses for Macs because the PC's market share was so much higher – write a PC virus and you can make more of the computer world burn. But in the mobile world, the iPhone is a big dog. [ReadWriteWeb]

To the Beemobile!

When bees leave home base, they travel and forage in a way that makes it harder for predators to find their nest. Interestingly enough, so do serial killers. Researchers in the UK have been studying bees' “buffer zones” to refine a computer model that predicts where a criminal suspect might call home. [NewScientist]

Well, blow me down

With the financial and environmental costs of energy on so many minds, the wind power industry seems poised for growth. But first they need some technicians to run the turbines. This article says wind companies are recruiting techs who are still in school. [MSNBC]

Walk, Don't Run

WalkScore ranks major American cities by "walkability" and gives you a chance to see how walkable your own neighborhood is. Word of Mouth HQ is ranked Very Walkable, with many amenities within a quarter mile, though we should note that some of these "walks" would require some hiking down highways. [WalkScore.com]

(Photo by Vitor Sá - Virgu)