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Searchable database of government expenditures to be created

The Obama-Coburn pork tracking bill, which will create an enormous, searchable database of government spending, passed in the Senate this evening. It was held up for a while by a single mysterious Senator, who finally gave up the ghost today. Now each and every Bridge to Nowhere can be surfed.

I wonder if it has an open API.

A new video about the product that’s sweeping the nation

An amusing new video from the Rainforest Action Network:

If the U.S. could get happier and poorer, would it?

Here's a quick question for you.

Assume for the sake of argument that we had some kind of reliable way of measuring happiness (defined however you like).

If we could cut our GDP in half but double the level of national happiness, should we do it?

Would we?

How a phony petition attacking global warming science gained a life of its own

The following is a guest essay by John Tirman, Executive Director of MIT's Center for International Studies.

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Recently I have encountered the counterattack on climate-change science, and it is a sobering experience.

When I was giving a talk at a book store on Manhattan's Upper West Side late last month, a young man began to pester me with hostile questions. My book, 100 Ways America is Screwing Up the World, has "Altering the Earth" listed at No. 1, a chapter that briefly tours the science and politics of climate change. The young man (among other obstreperous comments) upbraided me for saying there was scientific consensus on climate change, telling the audience that he had a petition signed by 17,000 scientists denying the threat of global warming.

It was the first I had heard of such a petition, but in the days to come I noticed emails from people I'd never heard of on this same topic. The book, I knew, was bound to stir some passions, and it has. I have a dozen ecological topics listed, so anti-green zealots were bound to find me. And the main way they have attacked the book is by wielding this Global Warming Petition.

Shady oil funds traced to Washington senate candidate

The FBI raided the offices of six Alaskan legislators last week, looking for evidence of illegal dealings with the oil firm VECO. The investigation has prompted beneficiaries further south to quickly stash evidence of their own shady dealings, including Washington State Republican Senate candidate Mike McGavick.

Wacky cult thought highly of the fear & environmentalism series

One of the troubles in discussing the issues of fear and violence is that any attempt to condemn them, or suggest alternatives, is inevitably cast as fuzzy-headed and idealistic. It doesn't help that such attempts tend to attract the genuinely fuzzy-headed and idealistic.

I hoped my F&E posts had done something to circumvent that.

Then yesterday, I got a letter in the mail that began thusly:

Meet the eco-model who’s changing the face of fashion

SUMMER SAYS GIVE Watch a video of Summer Rayne Oakes telling you to donate to Grist. It’s a strange scene: a sexy fashion model in skintight jeans, belly showing, telling a bunch of teenagers, “I studied sewage sludge and absolutely loved it!” Twenty-two-year-old Summer Rayne Oakes then confesses a fondness for bugs. From behind their […]

Green Is the New Camouflage

U.S. general in Iraq calls for renewable power The latest dirty hippie to issue an urgent call for renewable power is … U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer. The top U.S. commander in western Iraq recently sent the Pentagon a “Priority 1” request for solar panels and wind turbines to augment traditional diesel generators. […]

Fool Me Rice

Unapproved GM rice from China pops up in European stores A variety of genetically modified rice from China has made it into Asian specialty stores and Asian restaurants in the E.U. — and the Europeans ain’t too happy about it. A new report from Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth claims that some rice noodles […]

Ivory Cower

Ivory Coast government resigns after dumped toxic-waste sickens hundreds Fumes from toxic waste that was recently dumped around Abidjan, Ivory Coast, have killed three people and sickened more than 1,500. Under criticism that the government failed to act decisively, Ivorian Interim Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny took the unprecedented step of dissolving his cabinet, and […]