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 May 4, 2011 and has No Comments
Photo: Mike Baird via Flickr /CC BY I reported yesterday that there's a major push from the GOP to vastly expand offshore drilling and to loosen regulations to boot -- they have, evidently learned zilch from last year's catastrophic disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. But they're persisting -- they falsely claim that rising gas prices could be alleviated ...
Read more...published April 17, 2011 and has No Comments
Photo by Jeremy Noble The Nature Conservancy is encouraging folks to Picnic for the Planet this Earth Day , April 22. Sounds better than what we did last year, as in watch the beginning of the BP oil spill . So if you're looking for something to do, step outside and break bread with some friends. ... Read the ...
Read more...published April 8, 2011 and has No Comments
Many Gulf Coast residents' lives have been changed by the BP spill -- whether through lost jobs, health woes, marred property values, or otherwise. And while a cumbersome system has been put in place to pay out claims made by impacted residents, it by no means will right all the wrongs imparted upon the region over the course of the ...
Read more...published March 17, 2011 and has No Comments
Photo: jetalone , Flickr, Creative Commons 2.0 In an apparent attempt to secure the title of 'world's most despised oil company', BP has announced that its contracts with the Gaddafi-controlled state oil company are "still valid", according to Reuters. I suppose causing the largest environmental disaster in US history, lobbying governments to release terrorists , and rushing to drill ...
Read more...published February 1, 2011 and has No Comments
Photo: Chicago Press Release Perhaps one of the most controversial elements of the BP spill saga was the oil giant's use of large quantities of chemical dispersent Corexit to attempt to break down the oil both spewing from the wellhead and on the slick on the ocean surface. The EPA told BP to stop the practice, but the company ...
Read more...published January 7, 2011 and has No Comments
Image via Freshness In light of the presidential report on the Gulf oil spill that's due to be released next week, speculation is running rampant that the companies involved -- BP, Halliburton, and Transocean -- could soon be facing criminal charges. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger See the rest here: BP, Halliburton Likely to Face Criminal Charges Over ...
Read more...published January 5, 2011 and has No Comments
Photo: mikebaird , Flickr, CC If there was anything that Obama impressed upon the American public in the wake of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig , it was that if offshore drilling was to continue, it must be safer and better scrutinized. A few months ago, the administration said that it would require every oil company ...
Read more...published January 4, 2011 and has No Comments
Image: NASA Earth Observatory There was plenty of anger and eye-rolling when the Obama administration announced that its team had determined that over half of the oil from the BP spill was "gone" . Today, the federal government sticks by that number (it now says a proper peer review has been completed). But even if half the oil is ...
Read more...published December 17, 2010 and has No Comments
Photo by me, Brian Merchant When I was down in the Gulf, one of the first things I reported on was Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal's plan to construct giant islands to protect the barrier islands from the incoming oil slick. The plan sounded highly dubious from the get-go, and I couldn't find a scientist or oil spill expert who ...
Read more...published December 15, 2010 and has No Comments
photo: US Coast Guard / Creative Commons Saying that "violations of safety and operational regulations" led to the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon and the subsequent largest oil spill in US history , the US Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency have filed suit against BP and eight other firms, asking that they be held liable for all ...
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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 ...
"The technology that we have here gives us a first-ever look at the Amazon in its full three-dimensional detail, over very large regions," says the study's lead researcher. Here is the original post: Lasers Used to Generate Remarkably Detailed 3D ...
