Climate Technology
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How to make your e-book reader solar-powered
If you're willing to pry apart your e-book reader — maybe you got it for cheap, or maybe you're just a super-hacker — you can tweak it so it runs on solar power. If you can't even pronounce "solder," or if you don't know what the following things are: Schottky diode MAX1551 or MAX1555 IC […]
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Wind could provide at least 25 percent of electricity for most states
At least 32 states could get 25 percent or more of their electricity from wind power generated within their own borders. This is an updated version of a map included in the report “Energy Self-Reliant States” from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Click on the map to see a larger version. State wind power potential […]
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Walmart by the numbers: Green vs. growth
Walmart’s six-year-old sustainability campaign has helped improve its public image, enabling the company to grow bigger and faster. That growth, ironically, has dramatically increased the retailer’s environmental footprint, and hurt local economies and the U.S. job market along the way.
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Is post-Jobs Apple going to stop poisoning China?
While Steve Jobs was head of Apple, the company was one of "America's least philanthropic companies," lacking even a basic corporate charitable arm. Apple also often seemed reluctant to green its operations. But under new CEO Tim Cook, that might be about to change. In the meantime, many of Apple's suppliers are still poisoning the […]
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Keystone XL would be right on top of latest Oklahoma earthquakes
Red: proposed route for Keystone XL Orange star: epicenter of Saturday's magnitude 5.6 earthquake in Oklahoma, which buckled a highway and cracked a building. The state is currently recovering from the quake and bracing for storms. A decade hence, if Keystone XL were running straight through the state, would they also be dealing with a […]
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One-wheeled electric motorcycle is like a Segway, but cool
Sure, the RYNO looks like the hideous progeny of a motorcycle and a unicycle (nobody likes to talk about that night behind the circus tents), but it could be your new means of urban transportation. It runs off a lithium-ion battery that recharges in 90 minutes, has a smaller footprint than a Vespa, and is […]
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A declaration of independence from Wall Street
Photo: Helga Tawil Souri This piece originally appeared in Salon. After three years of political nonsense, we can hold one truth to be self-evident about our government: It is broken. A financial crisis that should have inspired a grand new set of rules for Wall Street instead delivered a hopelessly compromised reform package — and […]
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Solyndra birtherism: GOP demands Obama’s BlackBerry, gives Big Oil CEOs a pass
Watch out — they’re coming for your BlackBerry.Photo: White HouseFor two months, Republicans have been searching for some evidence that political favoritism played a role in the Obama administration’s loan guarantee to Solyndra. They have failed. After a half-dozen hearings, testimony from virtually everyone involved, and the release of thousands of pages of emails and […]
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China bulb ban will eliminate 1 billion incandescents annually
Joining the U.S. and just about every other country with an economy, China will ban import and sale of incandescent bulbs beginning in 2014, reports the AP. State-run Xinhua News Agency quoted Xie Ji, deputy director of the NDRC's environmental protection department, as saying China is the world's largest producer of both energy-saving and incandescent […]
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The GOP brain explained: Why Cliff Stearns wants to subsidize successful companies
Your brain on conservatism.Yesterday I sketched the sort of personality type most likely to identify as conservative: those who prefer stability to change, order to complexity, familiarity to novelty, and conformity to creativity. This sort of personality type is drawn to clear lines separating in-groups from out-groups, highly aware of social hierarchies, suspicious of change, […]