'I'm Sentencing You To Life'.... "And I was just numb."

President Obama has commuted the sentences of hundreds of drug offenders. This is the story of one woman, reported over the course of several months.

After having her sentence commuted by President Obama, Sharanda Jones was transferred to a halfway house before her release date.

The Trial

Sharanda Jones says she was never told she could be facing life in prison after being indicted for seven counts of conspiracy to traffic cocaine. It was her first criminal offense. During her week-long trial, prosecutors were unable to produce any physical evidence that Jones actually ever possessed, bought, or sold cocaine and according to courtroom testimony, relied mostly on the word of admitted drug dealers and users who received leniency in exchange for their testimony. When the judge read the verdicts -- "not guilty" for six counts and "guilty" of one -- Jones felt somewhat relieved. 

That feeling wouldn't last very long.

Making a Living Out of Living (Off-Grid in the Wilderness)

A glimpse into two households living off the grid in the American wilderness.

When the sun sets on Charlie Larson’s cabin, he does not flip a light switch- his cabin doesn’t have electricity. It takes several moments longer to reach for his kerosene lamp, strike a match, and adjust the burning mantle to shed a dull light on the walls of the single-room cabin. A curl of smoke rolls inside the chimney of the lamp before the heat makes the fuel burn clean.

This New Neighborhood Will Grow Its Own Food, Power Itself, And Handle Its Own Waste

If you live inside one of the houses in a new neighborhood being built in an Amsterdam suburb, your dining room might be next to an indoor vegetable garden. Outside, you'll have another seasonal garden. And down the street, almost everything you eat will be grown in high-tech vertical farms.

The neighborhood will be the first ReGen Village, a new type of community designed to be fully self-sufficient, growing its own food, making its own energy, and handling its own waste in a closed loop.

Any household waste that can be composted will feed livestock or soldier flies. The soldier flies will feed fish, and fish waste will fertilize an aquaculture system that produces fruit and vegetables for the homes. Seasonal gardens will be fertilized by waste from the livestock.

Dubai Rolling Out High Speed Intenet (Li-Fi)

Internet users in Dubai will soon switch to next gen technology for data transfer aka Li-Fi, dubbed as the next generation of high-speed internet.

Dubai will be the first city in the world to get the Li-Fi service. What is even more interesting is that Li-Fi service will be transmitted through the city’s streetlights. Each of these high-end design lamps would cost around $1000.

The first phase, planned for Dubai smart city will be rolled out by the end of this year.

Superlative Achievements At IOI Earned Unschooled Student Admission/Scholarship At MIT

17 year old Malvika Raj Joshi doesn’t have any formal class X or XII qualifications, and she’s going to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on scholarship. The Mumbai girl is set to pursue Bachelor of Science degree, after IIT ignored the three-time medal winner (two silver and a bronze) at International Olympiad of Informatics.

Unlike the IITs, which rely on a ruthlessly tough entrance examination, MIT invites real geniuses - medal winners at various Olympiads (Maths, Physics or Computer).

Sustainable Living: 100% Off Grid Netherlands Town

The idea that our body is a temple, that we only have one and should use it wisely, serves a microcosmic example of the larger truth of our planet.

Yes, we have ONE planet, so why would we do so much damage to it? Ignorance is bliss they say, and so while we use up Earth’s resources, damage it with our litter, create a suffocating amount of pollution, and so on, we indirectly harm the very body we call our temple.

And like our body, harsh treatment of the planet’s resources will eventually wear it out, unless we make big changes. But where to start?