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- Canadian Oil Sands Flyover
An aerial/telephoto exploration of the Canadian Oil Sands operations. Two trillion barrels of oil in the ground. Pyramids of sulfur and coke. Lakes of oil stretching to the horizon. At $200k/yr, it's easy to understand how one might get roped in, gold rush style. - Clean energy will unfortunately be political
Conservative thinktanks step up attacks against Obama's clean energy strategy, as revealed by ALEC bills and other PR documents. This morning at the World Renewable Energy Forum, in response to a (long winded) question about how we might re-frame the energy discussion in light of the unfortunate hay which was made from Solyndra's failure, US Energy Secretary Stephen Chu re-iterated that clean energy should not be a political issue -- that it's just common sense. That may be true, but it doesn't mean it will remain apolitical. As Pericles once said... "Just because you do not take an interest in - The Dangerous World of Underground Chemistry
A look at the increasingly outsourced world of underground pharma. Domestic black-market chemists handle R&D and distribution, and the actual manufacturing is done in China. Seems that way with everything. - Google Street View for building energy efficiency
Essess is doing drive-by thermal imaging in high density urban areas across the US, hoping to target possible building energy efficiency opportunities. Another company is using urban satellite imagery to choose the best rooftops for solar energy siting. Big Brother may be watching you... but at least occasionally he's got the right idea. - The Neapolitan Mob’s Most Dangerous Family
A character sketch of Paolo di Lauro, one of the Neapolitan Camorra's former leaders. Southern Italy it seems, like some parts of Mexico, operates with more than one quasi-state organization governing in parallel. A tacit negotiation between the official and unofficial systems, which sometimes erupts into violence -- ironically, at those times when the so-called "criminal" organizations have become weak.
- Canadian Oil Sands Flyover
Twitterfeed
- Incredible photo essay on the Athabasca Tar Sands operations: businessinsider.com/canadian-oil-s… 2 days ago
- At a great talk about individual cities as the right scale for renewable energy systems innovation at #wref2012 5 days ago
- Heard rural Wyoming folk talking local Chinese coal/gas investments, hacking of their SCADA water system. I live in a @GreatDismal future. 6 days ago
- The tar sands have to stay in the ground. Stop the pipeline… again. And again. And again, if necessary. act.350.org/sign/kxl/ 3 months ago
- Roughly 2/3 of all the humans who have ever reached the age of 65 are alive today. 3 months ago
Incoming Memes
Monthly Archives: April 2009
Shared Links for Apr 30th
Transparency means nothing without justice – Government transparency is necessary, but not sufficient. If police violence is recorded and publicized, and nobody cares, it doesn't matter. This is in come sense emblematic of the coup in western propaganda. You don't … Continue reading
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Tagged aids, biology, electricity, energy, engineering, fulbright, genetic, green, hiv, internet, israel, law, medicine, palestine, peace, plos, police, politics, propaganda, research, science, solar, statistics, sustainability, technology, transparency, twitter, war, water
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Microwire Photovoltaics at Caltech
I went to this year’s second Everhart Lecture yesterday by Josh Spurgeon, who is working with Harry Atwater and Nate Lewis, trying to develop cheap, scalable solar cells. As with most of the Everhart Lectures, it was a very well … Continue reading
Shared Links for Apr 28th
Google Maps Mashup Tracks Swine Flu – When the pandemic comes, we can rest assured that we'll be able to watch its spread in real time via Google maps. I guess that's comforting. Right? (tagged: map flu health pandemic ) … Continue reading
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Tagged academia, architecture, bacteria, climate, coal, desert, design, dune, education, electricity, energy, flu, gradschool, green, health, law, map, nuclear, pandemic, power, research, sand, science, solar, sustainability, wind
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Shared Links for Apr 17th
Health Reform Without a Public Plan – A short outline of how healthcare works in Germany: with pooled risks, and income-based premiums, but without a government administered healthcare system. There are more models for "socialized" healthcare out there than Americans … Continue reading
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Tagged bicycle, bogle, capitalism, cities, culture, cycling, design, finance, health, insurance, investing, law, linux, math, medicne, police, policy, politics, privacy, programming, python, research, science, security, socialism, sphere, technology, transportation, vanguard
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Shared Links for Apr 14th
National Marijuana Forum at CU Boulder – I'm proud of my other alma mater for organizing and hosting this event. Hopefully there won't be any riot police involved on Farrand Field. 15,000 people would be quite a sight. Looks like … Continue reading
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Tagged art, cannabis, cities, colorado, culture, drugs, environment, experiment, green, human, law, marijuana, meat, photoshop, robot, society, sustainability, water
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When the Rivers Run Dry by Fred Pearce
When the Rivers Run Dry is a kind of modern, global Cadillac Desert, looking at present and future water issues around the world. I think in the end it was too ambitious, looking at too many individual situations superficially, without … Continue reading
Tagged agriculture, books, climate, green, policy, politics, reviews, sustainability, water
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Shared Links for Apr 10th
Losing $63 Billion to Gray Market – P&G sells the same bleach and diapers to distributors in the US and Honduras, at wildly different prices. Enterprising Central American businessmen then re-ship goods to US making a tidy profit. This is … Continue reading
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Tagged bailout, banking, economics, finance, internet, media, moyers, police, policy, politics, probability, regulation, security, surveillance, taleb, technology, terrorism, trade, transparency
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Shared Links for Apr 8th
The secret, social lives of bacteria – Cooperative behavior between bacteria, both inter and intra species, coordinated via chemical messages. Behavior like "should we make light?" and "should we kill the host now?". Scary, awesome, and a beautiful system to … Continue reading
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Tagged antarctica, bacteria, bailout, banks, biology, climate, cooperation, economics, enron, finance, gametheory, government, ice, law, math, policy, politics, ppip, prediction, science, shelf, technology, transparency
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Shared Links for Apr 6th
Sing a dirge for the unused adipic acid – An essay on the unpleasantries of being lab safety officer, and the sentimental attachment that scientists have to their expired reagents. (tagged: science chemistry lab safety ) Does carbon-eating cement deserve … Continue reading
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Tagged academia, antarctica, breastfeeding, carbon, cement, chemistry, children, cities, climate, education, environment, food, gardening, health, ice, lab, safety, science, society, sustainability, technology
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Dijkstra, the Buxton Index, and the Prisoner’s Dilemma
EW Dijkstra, the computer scientist, was fond of using a metric called the “Buxton Index“, which conveys the timescale on which an individual or institution makes its plans. He thought that a lot of failures to cooperate, and other kinds … Continue reading
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Tagged blogging, dijkstra, economics, public, science, sustainability
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