Latest Articles
-
The sharing economy doesn’t always work: Luxury car theft edition
Peer to peer sharing of everything from apartments to cars is taking off, except when it comes to luxury cars, because they are valuable and people will steal them.
-
Operators fined $140k for surfing web instead of running nuke plant
Nine operators of the River Bend nuclear power plant near Baton Rouge, La., just landed their employer a $140,000 fine for surfing the web from the plant's control room, reports Mark Halper at SmartPlanet.
-
Weird new all-electric cars debut at Detroit Auto Show
Volkswagen E-Bugster
Hitting the "on" button on this car (because in the future, all cars will be started the same way you start up a laptop) makes the interior flash blue like you've just stepped into a light cycle from TRON. Check the video, below, for the full effect.
-
The next generation of GMOs could be especially dangerous
The next wave of genetic engineering uses microRNA to control pests on industrial farms. But new research out of China shows it could have adverse health effects for human digestion.
-
A traffic light that knows the difference between bikes and cars
No matter how strong a cyclist's legs are, a bike cannot go as fast as a car. Duh, right? But traffic lights are not as smart as humans, and they do not instinctively understand that. So they’re programmed to assume leg-powered vehicles can make it safely through lights in the time allotted to things with engines. Luckily, some human was smart enough to invent the Intersector -- a traffic light that respects the difference between bikes and cars.
-
This electrical socket spits out your power-sucking plugs
The PumPing Tap does not like wasted power. It's an electrical socket with a spring-loaded ejector seat, which pops plugs right out if they're slowly sucking energy when not in active use.
The idea is to combat vampire power, the massive amount of energy slowly sapped by idling gizmos, like microwaves that aren’t cooking or chargers that aren’t charging anything. The PumPing Tap (which is still in the design stage, sadly) monitors the flow of energy, and if you don't use a device for 10 minutes -- ptooie! -- it's unplugged.
-
Campaign dreams: A GOP primary race where climate matters
On the final day of New Hampshire campaigning, can an anonymous donor get GOP candidates to care about the climate with cold, hard cash? Find out.
-
Trimming astroturf from the American Petroleum Institute’s Vote 4 Energy ad
It’s not surprising that the American Petroleum Institute — Big Oil’s premium lobbying entity — is using a synthetic media strategy. Their Vote 4 Energy astroturf campaign spews misinformation like a two-stroke engine belching greenhouse gasses. It attempts to portray ‘real (cough cough) Americans’ who are ‘energy voters,’ which translates to voting for whichever politicians […]
-
Chief of Staff Bill Daley resigns, environment rejoices
Greens have been singing "won't you go home, Bill Daley" for a while (turn-of-the-century music jokes, anyone? No?). The now-former chief of staff was the guy responsible for kneecapping EPA smog regulations, and he was generally considered to be in the administration merely as a sop to Big Business. So now he's resigning, and probably the next guy will be an improvement? We hope?
-
Critical List: Canadian minister hates tar-sands opposition; airlines charge for free carbon permits
Canada's natural resources minister is not happy that all of you with your "radical ideological agenda" think Canada's turning into a creepy petrostate.
Japan is releasing those three whaling activists who boarded a Japanese whaling vessel.
Carbon emissions are delaying the next ice age.
