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Keurig is making a long-overdue move away from the plastic K-Cup, introducing a new compostable pod with its Alta brewer that contains no plastic and no aluminum. It's a meaningful step toward addressing one of single-serve coffee's most persistent environmental criticisms, though early reports suggest the price point may give budget-conscious caffeine seekers pause.
On a quieter but genuinely useful note, a developer has released Nightwatch, a small Mac menu-bar app that does exactly one thing well — it tells you whether tonight's sky will be clear. No subscription, no clutter, just a practical tool for amateur astronomers or anyone who simply wants to know if it's worth stepping outside after dark.
And in a story about transparency and its limits, an improperly redacted document has revealed details about Google's data center in Lincoln, Nebraska, including its water and electricity consumption figures the company had apparently preferred to keep private. As data centers multiply and their resource demands grow, that kind of accidental disclosure raises real questions about what communities hosting these facilities deserve to know.
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