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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… 3 days ago
- At a great talk about individual cities as the right scale for renewable energy systems innovation at #wref2012 6 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. 4 months ago
Incoming Memes
Tag Archives: books
Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air
Sustainable Energy, without the Hot Air by David MacKay, is a book (available in its entirety online) looking at the sources of energy available, and the ways in which we use it today. There are lots of options, but any … Continue reading
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Tagged books, climate, energy, nuclear, solar, sustainability, technology, wind
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Toward a Zero Energy Home by David Johnston and Scott Gibson
I’ve been looking, apparently in vain, for a good book (that’s not in German!) detailing Passive House building and modeling techniques. The best I’ve been able to do so far is Toward a Zero Energy Home, and it must have … Continue reading
Posted in journal
Tagged architecture, books, design, energy, passive, passivhaus, reviews, sustainability, zero
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Links for the week of June 4th, 2010
If you want to follow my shared links in real time instead of as a weekly digest, head over to Delicious. You can search them there easily too.
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Tagged activism, africa, architecture, art, bicycle, biology, biotech, books, boulder, bp, business, caltech, capitalism, cities, colorado, computational, cu, culture, delta, documentary, drugs, eaglerock, electricity, environment, film, folk, glasses, government, iran, jobs, journalism, kickstarter, law, local, losangeles, marijuana, media, niger, nigeria, non-linear, nonprofit, oil, policy, politics, pollution, posters, research, review, satire, science, sharing, shell, shopping, society, sustainability, system:filetype:pdf, system:media:document, technology, tools, vonnegut, waste, wind, yesmen
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Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by David Montgomery
David Montgomery‘s Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations reminded me a lot of When the Rivers Run Dry by Fred Pearce, except that instead of looking at how we have allocated our water resources globally, it focuses on the way humanity … Continue reading
Energy at the Crossroads by Vaclav Smil (Part 2 of 2)
Fossil Fuel Futures Smil’s take on the future of fossil fuels seems very similar to that of Steve Koonin (and thus BP), namely that there’s plenty of all of them in the ground for us to damn ourselves to a … Continue reading
Energy at the Crossroads by Vaclav Smil (Part 1 of 2)
Where does our energy come from today, and how do we use it? How much does it take to live the Good Life, and what, really, should that energy be used on? Where might it plausibly come from in the … Continue reading
Tagged books, change, climate, coal, economics, energy, environment, nuclear, oil, reviews, science, sustainability
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Nuclear Energy by David Bodansky
I just finished David Bodansky’s 600+ page tome Nuclear Energy. It’s almost a textbook, but not quite. I don’t know who the intended audience is really. Other than me. Similar genre, broadly, as The High Cost of Free Parking. A … Continue reading
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Tagged books, climate, energy, engineering, green, nuclear, policy, politics, public, reviews, sustainability
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The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
I finished reading Taleb’s second book, The Black Swan. He openly admits that it’s not really a new book, but a re-writing of his first book, Fooled by Randomness, which I loved. He’s gotten really incredibly lucky with the timing … Continue reading
Tagged books, economics, finance, non-linear, philosophy, probability, reviews, science
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Reading Afghanistan
I’ve been doing some reading on Afghanistan. I am so glad I wasn’t born there. I’m going to read more, but ugh, I need a break. The first book I read was A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaleed Hosseini, who … Continue reading
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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