Tools for better living
New devices and ideas are remaking our world. Here are seven brilliant, practical inventions.
Waiting for rain
Waiting for rain
Problem: Drought relief can be fatally slow getting to stricken areas.

Solution: Weather insurance.

As an Ethiopian, Menghestab Haile knows what drought means. Farmers sell everything to buy food. When the rains return, they have no seeds and no tools. Relief doesn't show up until people are starving. The current system "doesn't respond fast enough," says Haile, a food security advisor for the United Nation's World Food Program.

To change that, WFP teamed up with French insurer AXA. If rainfall in northern Ethiopia had been below a certain level this year, a $930,000 premium, funded mostly by the U.S., would have yielded $7 million, payable immediately to the WFP. This year rainfall has been abundant, so there will be no payout. In Mexico and India, where the World Bank subsidizes insurance for small farmers, weather-related coverage has expanded to more than $150 million since programs began in 2002. --Stephan Faris

For more info go to wfp.org.
Building a cell phone for the masses High-end users love flashy gadgets, but most of the world just wants to make a call. That's why Motorola is reaching out to developing countries with a phone for under $50. (more)
This PC wants to save the world Nicholas Negroponte's much-hyped $100 laptop is going into production, but skeptics, including Intel, see weaknesses in his plan. (more)

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.