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In which I finally come around to this whole video pod idea

I've mostly resisted the siren call of viewer-created video content. (One of the most-watched files on YouTube this month was of a guy sledgehammering a PS3 in front of a Best Buy. Really, America? Really?)

And then Thursday night I went to the Seeds of Tolerance Awards in Los Angeles, co-sponsored by the Third Millennium Foundation and Current TV.

Current TV is Al Gore's just-over-a-year-old cable channel, and a third of its programming is viewer-created content. Now, way back in 2005, everyone seemed to be talking about how crazy Al was for letting the public and its digital video cameras run amok on cable television. Then You-know-who-Tube exploded into pop culture in all its OK Go-breaking, PS3-smashing glory.

Who's crazy now, suckas?

The Great White Hopeless

Chinese white dolphin is likely extinct The baiji, a white dolphin found only in China’s Yangtze River, appears to have gone extinct. Lipotes vexillifer has been swimming China’s longest river for some 20 million years, but in the end it was no match for China’s surging economy. In the last few decades, the Yangtze’s shallows […]

He shoulda been MotY

Congrats, you guys, for being named Person of the Year.

Personally, I think it's ridiculous Time didn't give that particular encomium to Al Gore. Has any individual ever before so fundamentally changed public debate on so technical a subject in such a short period of time? Not to mention the personal drama of his redemption, etc. Guess the folks at Time didn't want to get political ... oh, wait.

On a related note, Mr. Gore would like you to send a postcard.

People power takes on a whole new meaning

He had a broad face and a round little belly that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly. He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, and I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.

Whale blubber once provided the fuel for the nation's lanterns. Could the human equivalent soon become the fuel of your future?

I'm inspired for my first post by Kate Sheppard's "You Want Me to Put What in My Tank?", in which she documents the growing interest in making biodiesel from unconventional sources.

One of those sources is human fat obtained from suction lipeptomy, commonly known as "liposuction." The trend was started by New Zealand biodiesel enthusiast Peter Bethune, who recently contributed some of his own fat toward his quest to break the round-the-world speed record in a powerboat fueled entirely by biodiesel. Now, it seems, a Norwegian company is close to signing an agreement with Miami, Florida's Jackson Memorial Hospital to produce biodiesel from blubber extracted during the hospital's liposuction operations (see "Fortune in Fat").

Readers talk back about biofuels

  Re: Fill ‘er Up Dear Editor: With all the talk about biofuels, the single most efficient and productive plant is always left out of the equation: hemp! Henry Ford built and fueled a car with it, one acre of it equals four of timber, and you harvest it every year. Before its demonization during […]

Native perennials shown to produce more fuel than industrial monocrops

This is a welcome study: "University of Minnesota research shows mixed grasses produce 238% more bioenergy than single plant species, including switchgrass."

Growing perennial native plants on average or poor soils, which wouldn't require annual plowing, fertilization, or herbicides, could change the whole debate on whether humans should be growing crops for fuel.

Turns out vegetarians are smart

Vegetarians are smarter than the average person.

But vegans are dumber.

[Ducks]

What?! I’ve Always Been a Fan of Wilderness!

Bush protects wildlands in New Mexico, New England Back in 2004, the Bush administration tried to clear the way for energy drilling next to the nation’s largest Boy Scout camp in Valle Vidal, N.M. The drilling never commenced, in large part thanks to resistance from ranchers, hunters, environmentalists, 17 local governments, three chambers of commerce, […]

Cough up a little dough for a cute cause

The birth of an organic calf on Dec. 12 wouldn't be news, except for the fact that it was the first organic calf born on the nation's first organic dairy research farm at the University of New Hampshire.

Now, for a price, you can name the cute little heifer -- a worthwhile expense, if you follow the research money in organic ag.

Oceana nails down the tell-tale symptoms

10. Your family all got sea turtle cookie cutters as stocking stuffers.
9. You know all the words to Joe Vasconcellos's ""Fish Don't Cry."
8. You're willing to cross state lines to shop at a green list grocery store.
7. Your ringtone is a dolphin "clicking."
6. Your baby shower presents are accompanied with the FDA mercury warning.
5. You think Happy Feet has got Oscar written all over it.
4. You've got more fish guides [PDF] in your wallet than credit cards.
3. You think Ted Danson is famous because of his ocean advocacy.
2. You changed your pin code to 2048.
1. Your bumper sticker says "I Heart Krill."

Don't fit the bill? Become an ocean advocate now.