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 July 13, 2009 and has No Comments
Michal Czerwonka Public Space as Alternative to Law Enforcement At night, urban parks can become hives for gang activity and violence. A program in Los Angeles, the American gang capital, seeks to combat that phenomenon simply by keeping the lights on until midnight, reports the New York Times . To both locals and police, it's a bright idea. Last ...
Read more...published July 13, 2009 and has No Comments
When it was announced, I thought it was a spoof . Alan did a great photoshop job of one of their papers under the arm of a newsie. But they were serious; it was going to be a printed-to-order dead tree version of a blog. But it didn't work. Founder Joshua Karp never found his market, noting “Despite a ...
Read more...published July 12, 2009 and has No Comments
Photo via www.airliners.nl The energy and climate moving through Congress has many corporate backers that are big polluters, including many big power utilities, such as Duke Energy . But you can add the airline industry to the list of those who support some form of climate action, but not the current bill under consideration. The Air Transport Association of ...
Read more...published July 12, 2009 and has No Comments
Image credit: Vbites Heather Mills' Animal-Free Cafe While Paul McCartney pushes Meatless Mondays , his ex-wife Heather Mills, who campaigned alongside Paul against seal clubbing - among other things - has opened a vegan cafe in Hove Lagoon in the UK. She may also be emulating the Linda McCartney food empire , launching a range of frozen vegan fake ...
Read more...published July 12, 2009 and has No Comments
The Tigris River winds its way through Diyarbak?r, irrigating a small area of green agricultural land in a largely arid region. In the height of summer, the "great river" Tigris looks more like a lazy stream as it passes beneath the 1,500-year-old black-basalt city walls of Diyarbak?r, in southeastern Turkey. It's almost hard to believe the river is one ...
Read more...published July 11, 2009 and has No Comments
Schematic drawing of hurricane mitigation concept. Image credit: patent filing Hurricanes are fed most of their energy from sun-heated ocean waters. When upper atmospheric air-flows are not too turbulent, hurricanes are able to add enough energy to send storm surges over breakwaters and levees of coastal cities. Could some entrepreneur figure out a way to make money off preventing ...
Read more...published July 11, 2009 and has No Comments
Photo via Flickr If you're in the anti-coal movement, then you've likely been a long-time admirer of the Sierra Club's efforts to stop new coal plant construction. Last week, Intermountain Power’s coal plant in Utah became the 100th new coal plant to be stopped or abandoned since 2001, a truly amazing feet. ... View original here: Sierra Club Stops 100th ...
Read more...published July 10, 2009 and has No Comments
A man sorts e-waste in Guiyu, China. Photo courtesy of Allison Cross. Ever wonder what happens to all your old PCs, broken keyboards and ink cartridges? If you take your electronics to recyclers , you probably have visions of workers in well-ventilated buildings wearing masks and gloves as they take apart the toxic components of your electronics ... But ...
Read more...published July 8, 2009 and has No Comments
Smart grid. Image credit: ZinePress Most of today's media coverage of the smart grid concept reminds me of that fable of the 6 blind men describing an elephant in which they each describe the whole of animal as whichever part of the creature they are individually touching. Finally, an accessible, circumspect explanation of the smart grid concept and all ...
Read more...published July 8, 2009 and has No Comments
Greenpeace has a live stream going right now on ... Original post: Greenpeace Drapes Poster Over Mount Rushmore to Call for Climate Action
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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 ...
