Archive: Apr 2012
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Trade in the 20th century electric grid. Don’t trade off local energy
The future of U.S. energy policy is not about trade-offs, but rather a chance to trade in an obsolete paradigm for a local clean energy future.
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Blown away: Wind power growing faster than other top electricity sources
Electricity generation from coal and nuclear fell in the last few years, while wind power generation skyrocketed. But policies like the production tax credit are still needed to help wind compete.
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FDA to GMO labeling campaign: What million signatures?
Last week, the Just Label It campaign says they turned in 1 million signatures asking the FDA to label genetically engineered foods. The agency says it received a little under 400. What's going on here?
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Four cars, built by teenagers, that get over 1,000 miles per gallon
The Shell Eco-Marathon is sort of a weird contradiction: It's all about challenging students to make hyper-fuel-efficient cars, i.e. kind of the opposite of Shell's goals.
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Monster hailstone will eat your family
Man alive, check out the hailstone that fell in sunny Hawaii earlier this month. It’s four inches long and it has TEETH. I’m not actually convinced it’s not an embryonic yeti.
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Flame retardants can turn a burning room into a gas chamber
You know brominated and chlorinated flame retardants are bad when when even Walmart bans them from its products. Unfortunately, some fire codes require them.
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Half-bike, half-car Velomobile goes 80 miles on 6 cents of electricity
The only thing better than a Velomobile is an electric Velomobile, which is the exact same thing, but with the addition of a kit to electrify the bike.
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A cookbook you can eat
A German design firm has created a cookbook made of fresh pasta. The pasta is printed with a lasagna recipe, so that the pages of the cookbook actually become the layers of the dish.
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Fungi can eat pollution right out of the soil
Fungi are freaking amazing: Give them enough time and they will eat anything, even the toxins spread over polluted sites around the world. Mohamed Hijri, a professor at the University of Montreal, figured — why wait for nature to take its time neutralizing the damage we’ve done to the planet? Why not urge it along? […]