Not specifically tech-related, but since I’m a closet hippy and love to report on all things green…well, I couldn’t not post it.  Besides, maybe this will reduce my ultimate carbon footprint.  As a techie, I know my carbon footprint is the size of an SUV at this point.

A movement toward “green” burials has begun to hit cemeteries nation-wide.  A green burial typically means you are not embalmed, you are placed in a bio-degradable box, and placed in a grave with no concrete lining.  You are allowed to naturally decompose, your remains nourshing the ground around you.  Gives true meaning to the phrase “pushing daisies.”

Different cemeteries handle the details differently.  Some allow headstones and more traditional displays of modern burial.  Others completely eschew the modern, allowing only natural stone for a headstone, and no plastic flowers or other non-bio-degradable displays on gravetops.  Some cemeteries go even further and allow no headstone at all, and wildflowers and prairie are allowed to return to the area of the “green” graves, ultimately obliterating any reminder of your presence as skin and bones and instead nourishing flora and fauna alike.  It doesn’t get more green than that.

The nearest cemetery to me that does green burials is in Lawrence, Kansas, about five hours away.  Maybe by the time I kick the bucket, there will be something a little closer by.  Heck, by then, green burials may be the norm, instead of the fringe.  You never know!

This week should see the launch of a newer, bigger-screened Amazon Kindle device.  The naysayers are all awash in predictions of doom, mostly surrounding the theory that throwing a life-line to traditional newspapers by letting them format properly on a bigger Kindle is just a waste of energy and money, that newspapers will be failing anyway.

I’m not so quick to discount the value of a larger Kindle, myself, and it has nothing to do with newspapers.  One of the bigger downfalls of the Kindle is the inability for it to properly display larger formats, like magazines, newspapers, and textbooks.  And since I work on a college campus, that last one interests me the most.  Wouldn’t it be great to carry one book on campus, instead of a backpack full of books?  Especially since some of these books are huge, 10-pound monstrosities.  And for the visually impaired, who just need enlarged text, the larger Kindle could be the tool they need to be successful in class, without having to carry around enlarged text, and without having to be hooked up to a computer to use a screen-enlarging device.

I see a lot of advantages to a larger Kindle, for certain audiences.  Despite the issues still be worked out regarding text-to-audio functionality in the Kindle, I’m still seeing a product that will server a broader market, in ways Amazon never thought of when they were making the Kindle in the first place.  I’m looking forward to Thursdays announcement of the new Kindle, and hoping to see specs listed soon so I can confirm my suspicions about the usefulness of the device for the visually impaired.