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 September 1, 2010 and has No Comments
Ahead of its upcoming report Fossil Foolishness: Utah's Pursuit of Tar Sands and Oil Shale Western Resource Advocates has produced the above short video detailing, as you might imagine from the title, why even though it may be ... Read the full story on TreeHugger Read the rest here: Exploiting Utah's Oil Shale Deposits is Fossil Foolishness (Video)
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Photo: Flickr , CC Should Access for Regular Hybrids be Phased Out? In California, vehicles that meet certain fuel economy and tailpipe emission criteria are granted special access to the high occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV, aka the carpool lane). In car-centric places like Los Angeles, it's a huge advantage. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill (SB 535) into ...
Read more...published August 31, 2010 and has No Comments
Nissan LEAF batteries. Photo: Michael Graham Richard Copper and Aluminium Actually Worse than Lithium Speaking of lithium-ion batteries , a recent life-cycle analysis (a type of study that aims to find the complete environmental impact of something, taking into account manufacturing, usage, and disposal) of the lithium-ion batteries used in electric cars had some very interesting findings. It turns ...
Read more...published August 31, 2010 and has No Comments
Photo: GM A Significant Drop Predicted It's all about supply and demand: According to Hideo Takeshita, an analyst at the Institute of Information Technology Ltd. in Tokyo, the price of lithium-ion batteries could drop by about 19% in 2010, while another analyst, Shiro Mikoshiba of Nomura Holdings, said that the worsening oversupply may push prices down as much as ...
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Image credit: lydurs /Flickr The heat in the upper six miles of the earth's crust contains 50,000 times as much energy as found in all the world's oil and gas reserves combined. Despite this abundance, only 10,700 megawatts of geothermal electricity generating capacity have been harnessed worldwide.... Read the full story on TreeHugger Here is the original post: Tapping the ...
Read more...published August 31, 2010 and has No Comments
Image via UCSD What happens inside a whale's head when it encounters sound? The mammals have highly developed capabilities of detecting and processing sound waves, something that helps them communicate over long distances, but which also spell their demise in an ocean filled with intense, loud human-generated noise. We've seen research that shows scientists looking into how too-loud noise ...
Read more...published August 30, 2010 and has No Comments
Image credit: psyberartist /Flickr In the northern hemisphere, the winter of 2010 was notable for its unpredictability and extreme conditions. From East Coast blizzards to a devastating cold snap in Florida , cities struggled to to keep pace and entire ecosystems hovered on the brink of collapse. Now, as winter wears on in the Southern Hemisphere, Bolivia is reeling ...
Read more...published August 30, 2010 and has No Comments
Image: Google Maps 276 Extra Miles Per Year on Average According to a study by British insurer Sheilas' Wheels (watch out for the bright pink website), men waste about £2,000 in fuel over their lifetime because they won't ask for directions when they are lost, leading to an average of 276 extra miles being driven per year. Definitely not ...
Read more...published August 30, 2010 and has No Comments
image: IPCC Though the Nobel Peace Prize-winning IPCC has done good work in its past assessments of climate change science , an independent review of the way the organization operates says "fundamental reforms" are needed-- among those are shorter terms for the organization's chair and establishing an executive director to oversee operations and act as spokesperson. ... Read the ...
Read more...published August 30, 2010 and has No Comments
Photo via Designboom Japanese artist Akira Nakayasu's specialty is robotic plants. He creates things like sunflowers that react to human movement, making the flower seem to communicate with the people around it. His latest work is called "Plant," an interactive piece that was inspired by grass blowing in the wind. With 169 artificial leaves that react independently to the ...
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photo: Graham Racher via flickr Go chimps, go! An interesting new paper in the journal Primates documents how a group of chimpanzees in Bossou, Guinea have been successfully deactivating snares set by human bushmeat hunters. Though not always successful, ...
Image credit: MASONS via The Telegraph From police on Vectrix electric scooters to cycling proficiency courses for cops , the British police are clearly willing to think outside the box when it comes to more efficient, and effective, transportation. ...
