Uncategorized

Umbra on the impacts of biking

Dear Umbra, A couple of your recent columns have been about this novel idea of biking as the end-all in green transportation, but how green is biking, especially when you go out to buy a new one? If you switch to biking as the main source of transportation, you will be rewarded with the fantastic […]

Friday music blogging: My Morning Jacket

The first few albums from My Morning Jacket were haunting, twangy gems that sprang from their Kentucky roots. The Tennessee Fire and At Dawn were so reverby and echo-laden they sounded like they were recorded in an abandoned grain silo … because they were. I had the band tucked away in my mental CD shelf […]

Snippets from the news

• Canada launches its first emissions-trading market. • Hybrid drivers worry about replacing the battery. • Nano-towel can soak up oil spills. • World Bank stepping up efforts to address food crisis. • Is water becoming the new oil?

E.U. will cut fishing quotas

The European Commission will make deep cuts in fishing quotas in 2009, it announced Friday. Eighty-eight percent of E.U. fish stocks are overexploited, the commission says, as compared to 80 percent a year ago. Total allowable catches for some species will be sliced by more than 25 percent. Scientists have advised that fishing for some […]

Ocean seeding banned at U.N. biodiversity conference

A 12-day United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity ended Friday with just a wee bit of progress toward salvaging the world’s rapidly disappearing flora and fauna. Perhaps most encouraging: The 191 countries present agreed to ban the controversial practice of seeding the ocean with nutrients to encourage growth of carbon-sucking algae. In addition, Germany, which […]

Snippets from the news

• Critics bemoan diminished role of science in U.S. policy. • Ecosystem damage costs us trillions each year. • Solar plane takes off. • Railroads play up their green image. • Germany will cut solar-power subsidies. • Guerrilla gardeners attack!

Childhood lead exposure linked to criminal behavior, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: For on the Floor Beyond the Palin Pb & Jail Now Taking Reservations Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: The Drop Heard ‘Round the World Ounce For Ounce He’s Got the Remedy

Snippets from the news

• E.U. releases eco-driving tips as protests over fuel costs rumble. • States sue EPA over ozone rules. • Massachusetts creates offshore management plan. • Obama and Clinton talk guns, energy, and federal land use in Montana. &bull Cellulosic ethanol demo plant opened in Louisiana. • General Electric aims to cut water use.

Umbra on biking in a skirt

Dear Umbra, I was really energized by your column on cargo bicycles. I still own a car, but I drive it less and less, mostly to haul stuff and to travel when I want to wear a nice dress. So, a cargo bike solves the hauling problem. The other problem is that my skirt gets […]

Childhood lead exposure linked to criminal behavior, violence

Childhood exposure to high lead levels leads to smaller brain mass and is linked to criminal behavior and violence, according to two new comprehensive studies. Researchers tracked kids from Cincinnati, Ohio, from before birth through adulthood and found that early exposure to lead resulted in a loss of brain matter of over 1 percent on […]