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- 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. - Underneath Paris
There's a secret society underneath Paris. Two thousand years worth of tunnels and passageways ready to explore.
- Clean energy will unfortunately be political
Twitterfeed
- Incredible photo essay on the Athabasca Tar Sands operations: businessinsider.com/canadian-oil-s… 5 minutes ago
- At a great talk about individual cities as the right scale for renewable energy systems innovation at #wref2012 3 days ago
- Heard rural Wyoming folk talking local Chinese coal/gas investments, hacking of their SCADA water system. I live in a @GreatDismal future. 3 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
Tag Archives: non-linear
How inevitable is synthetic biology?
I love watching talks and seminars online. It is in so many ways superior to watching them in person. You can pause the talk to discuss it with your friends out loud, or to look something up online. You can … Continue reading
Shared Links for May 5th
How David Beats Goliath – When the rules are stacked against you, the intelligent thing to do is break them. (tagged: strategy law war insurgency guerilla gametheory basketball lawrenceofarabia ) Continuous bankruptcy – Bankruptcy as it stands now is a … Continue reading
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Tagged archive, bailout, bankruptcy, banks, basketball, climate, coal, continuous, data, directaction, discrete, economics, energy, environment, finance, gametheory, geoengineering, green, guerilla, information, insurgency, kingsnorth, law, lawrenceofarabia, moon, nasa, non-linear, policy, privacy, protest, scalia, scotus, space, strategy, technology, war
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Shared Links for Feb 28th
Short Term Investing – A gleeful satire of what really, truly ails Wall Street, and capitalism in general: grotesquely short term thinking. (tagged: investing finance money bailout satire ) MBARI finds fish with a transparent head – This thing is … Continue reading
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Tagged alien, bailout, biology, darpa, economics, evolution, film, finance, fish, imapcts, investing, kessler, mars, military, money, movie, non-linear, ocean, politics, religion, research, robot, satire, science, space, sustainability, technology, video, war, weird, youtube, zeitgeist
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The Edge’s Annual Question for 2009
From the Edge, and their annual “World Question Center” for 2009. What will change everything? What game changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see? Many thoughtful answers, including a particularly good one about climate, likening … Continue reading
Wall Street’s Game of Risk
A relatively thoughtful piece from The New York Times Magazine on the risk metrics used by Wall Street, especially the now notorious Value at Risk (VaR). However, it still seems like neither the author nor the risk managers they interviewed … Continue reading
We need more Dionysian Science
Michelle and I just finished reading The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan. It was good. He can get a little rambling at times, but overall it was entertaining and enjoyable. The book follows the relationships between people and four … Continue reading
Posted in journal
Tagged apollo, apple, caltech, cider, climate, colorado, dionysus, garden, genetic engineering, light, money, non-linear, public, review, science, wilderness
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The Two Mile Time Machine by Richard B. Alley
It’s as if we are pointing a revolver to our collective head, and in order to figure out whether there are any bullets in the gun, we’ve decided to pull the trigger. It’s worse than Russian roulette, because we don’t even know how many rounds the gun holds. We also just keep pulling the trigger. Every additional 100ppm of CO2 we put into the atmosphere is another gentle squeeze with our finger. Continue reading
Freeman Dyson on Climate
The futurist and physicist Freeman Dyson wrote a piece for the New York Review of Books on Climate Change. He’s a very (very) bright guy, but I think he is wrong. Actually, I think that the whole framing of the … Continue reading
Posted in journal
Tagged climate, green, non-linear, policy, public, randomness, review, science
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