$2 a Day

This is a great article about MIT professors and students working in developing countries to make life better for people with simple and effective technologies:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/upgrade/4273680.html

One of their projects: teaching people to make charcoal out of locally available materials. Why?

"...800 million people worldwide ... use raw biomass—agricultural waste, dung, straw—for fuel. Globally, smoke from indoor fires makes respiratory infections the leading cause of death for children under the age of 5, claiming more than a million young lives a year. Charcoal burns much more cleanly."

Simple = good, doesn't it?