Photo via the New Republic It's a widely held notion that politicians have long been in the pocket of Big Oil. And there's good reason for that perception: oil companies' huge campaign donations, vast lobbying power, and close ties to politicians have ensured that their taxes remain low , that hidden subsidies are around to provide extra funding, and that they receive preferential treatment in US energy policy. But there could be a new, ... View original post here: The Next Big Oil: Big Smart Grid?
So there really isn't anything that deep to this image. It's just a (more or less) life-sized blue whale eye. And on the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society site you can educate yourself/be mesmerized/ waste some time for a while staring at it while the entire life-sized animal scrolls across your browser window. Believe me, it's way cooler than you might think:... Read more from the original source: Ever See a Blue Whale Life-Sized on Your Computer? Now You Can
published August 20, 2010 and has No Comments
Cave Troll from Lord of the Rings via Wikipedia Dan Blankenhorn of Smart Planet was thinking of his commenters when he suggested that "trolls die young", based on a study researchers of the US National Institute on Aging . They looked at 5,614 Sardinians from four villages, and found that "those who scored high for antagonistic traits on a ...
Read more...published August 12, 2010 and has No Comments
Image credit: GardenBot Some commenters may have scoffed when Mike posted about high-tech green farming using soil sensors , but with over-taxed aquifers causing reduced yields worldwide , more intelligent monitoring and usage of water resources should be a top priority. But soil monitoring isn't just for professionals anymore. In fact, one hobbyist is working on an open-source garden ...
Read more...published August 9, 2010 and has No Comments
Downbeat Cafe, Echo Park, before the WIFI ban Some have suggested that the end of the office is nigh, and that the Coffee Shop is a good alternative if you need some social interaction and a jolt of caffeine, some shops are finding that it isn't necessarily good business and are unplugging the WiFi. According to the LA Times, ...
Read more...published August 4, 2010 and has No Comments
Mauricio Alejo in Wired Phil Daoust of the Guardian questions the traditional home-to-office commute, First there is the actual getting to work, with the unreliable bus or overcrowded train and the time it takes to get there. He asks: " Do you arrive stressed, exhausted, ripped off, degraded, suicidal, homicidal or all of the above?" Once you get there, ...
Read more...published August 2, 2010 and has No Comments
Image via Geek It's no surprise that we TreeHuggers love Google Earth and keeping tabs on weather across the globe. For anyone equally as fascinated with these things, or even just interested in finding out the forecast in a more interesting way than the green-screened views on the local news, Google Earth is now the place to go. The ...
Read more...published July 16, 2010 and has No Comments
Image of data center via neospire Recently Energy Star announced that it would be certifying not just data center equipment but data centers themselves , further encouraging IT companies to be strategic about the architecture, hardware and software of their centers. The first company to get certification was just announced -- NetApp, which scored a 99 out of 100 ...
Read more...published July 14, 2010 and has No Comments
California is leading the way with wireless water meters , but other locations aren't far behind. The latest to join in modernizing water metering is New York City. Starting this week, residents of the Bronx are going to see every detail of their water consumption habits in real time, thanks to a new $252 million city-wide upgrade of water ...
Read more...published July 9, 2010 and has No Comments
Photo by notsogoodphotography For fishermen, it can be a challenge to know just how much of your catch will have buyers when you haul it back to the docks. And for Italian fishermen, the problem is especially difficult in summer as vacationers make the market less predictable. To help fishermen bring in appropriate catches, Italy's University of Bari has ...
Read more...published July 4, 2010 and has No Comments
Image via the Daily Mail It's not a terribly long distance to travel for a rat that's been eaten by a snake, but a lot certainly happens in the 132 hours it takes to go from one end to the other. Up until recently, in order for researchers to study how snakes digested their meals, it had been necessary ...
Read more...published July 4, 2010 and has No Comments
Image via Intel Video Water Wars uses a gaming platform to conduct a study on how people respond to water shortages. Intel Labs developers have ventured into combining 3D gaming with scientific research. In Water Wars, they've modeled an area of the Rio Grande in New Mexico and have created a role playing game that allows residents of that ...
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Excerpt from: Today on Planet 100: Planet 100's Top 10 Most Outrageous Stories (Video)
Photo via Wired You may have heard of Simon Singh long before his name rose to the top of the list of those championing sound science: He'd written two bestselling books, Fermat's Enigma and the Big Bang . Despite ...
