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 February 25, 2011 and has No Comments
Photo Credit: Lee Coursey , via Flickr Creative Commons Attribution License . So you say you don't have a green thumb. You kill every plant you try to grow, including the so-called "unkillable" plants that everyone else on the planet seems to have no problem with. Or you're really busy, and you don't think you have the time to ...
Read more...published February 25, 2011 and has No Comments
photo: mitwa17 / Creative Commons When money gets tight and voters feel especially uncertain about the future, legislators, wanting to look like they are doing something to help, may be tempted to halt the normal environmental rule-making steps. Here's a remarkable example from Wisconsin: Republican lawmakers have stepped in to 'help' their constituents by forbidding the big bad Department ...
Read more...published February 25, 2011 and has No Comments
Soybean field in Kentucky, photo: Brian Bennett / Creative Commons I'll say it bluntly and blanketedly: I can't stand Monsanto, even separate from my disdain for GM crops --they are a perfect example of the worst excesses of opaque corporate shenanigans that, alongside outright political dictatorship and oppression, are direct threats to true democracy. Here's t... Read the full ...
Read more...published February 18, 2011 and has No Comments
Photo: Kelly Rossiter One of my favourite flavour combinations is olive and lemon . There is something about the mixture of salty and tart that I find endlessly appealing. We have had record high temperatures in Toronto for the past two days and the snow has almost all melted. With the bright sunshine I could almost envision myself sitting ...
Read more...published February 17, 2011 and has No Comments
Photo: ibm4381 / Creative Commons We know that "seasonal produce" seems like a distant fantasy when your neighborhood is covered in 30-plus inches of snow -- but East Coasters, listen up: Vegetables native to your region and season do exist. And not only that, they're often as sweet, textural, rich, and delicious as the veggies you find throughout the ...
Read more...published February 15, 2011 and has No Comments
I don't know what I was thinking last week when I bought all those avocados . I chose them all at the same level of ripeness, and suddenly I was having to think about adding avocados to everything, just so they wouldn't go bad. So I did what I usually do, I made a fridge cleaning salad , with ...
Read more...published February 13, 2011 and has No Comments
Image: VirtKitty The question of animal welfare shot straight into consumer awareness with the recent massive dioxin-contaminated egg scandal in Germany. Now, Germany's Agricultural Minister, Ilse Aigner (CSU), has put the question squarely on the political table with the observation to Die Welt : "We must discuss what consumers expect and what best serves nature and the welfare... Read ...
Read more...published February 13, 2011 and has No Comments
Photo: Derbyshire/Staffordshire Lately, the USDA is progressively siding with biotechnology instead of the organic food movement. Organic farming had a few wins including the decision from US District Court Judge Jeffrey White who ruled that the GMO crops be destroyed because the risk of gene contamination in Oregon's Willamette Valley was so great. But last week a ruling made ...
Read more...published February 12, 2011 and has No Comments
Photo: Clean Metrics In the past it's been difficult to dig to the bottom of your diet's carbon footprint. It's difficult to include all the data behind food production and transport in one calculator. While various carbon footprint calculators can give you a vague idea of your diet's footprint, finding very specific information becomes more difficult. Until now. Clean ...
Read more...published February 10, 2011 and has No Comments
Photo Credit: Colleen Vanderlinden I always laugh when people say that gardeners have to be patient. I'm a completely obsessed gardener, and I'm easily the most impatient person I know. So there goes that theory. The good news is that while I grow many plants that are worth the wait (tomatoes, pumpkins, corn...) there are plenty of things I ...
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This hand operated gramophone is as simple as it gets. Original post: Minimalist Gramophone Makes Playing Music Super Simple
Contrary to previously held notions of how whale songs are shared between neighboring populations, a surprising study finds that whales living the same ocean basin are singing different songs. Read the original post: Study: Humpback Whales Living in Same Ocean ...
