Archive for January, 2012
Over Half of Germany’s Renewable Energy Owned By Citizens & Farmers, Not Utility Companies
January 10th, 2012Via: Treehugger: Germany’s promotion of renewable energy rightly gets singled out for its effectiveness, most often by me as an example of how to do things well versus the fits and starts method of promotion common in the US. Over at Wind-Works, Paul Gipe points out another interesting facet of the German renewable energy saga: […]
McDonald’s Restaurants in Australia Will Spray Synthetic DNA on Robbers
January 9th, 2012Via: news.com.au: McDONALD’S restaurants are fighting back against thieves by blasting suspected robbers with an invisible DNA spray as they attempt to flee. The spray, which remains on the suspect’s skin for two weeks and on clothes for up to six months, has been introduced in some of the chain’s busiest NSW stores, including those […]
Arnold Gundersen: Fukushima Update
January 9th, 2012This is Dr. Helen Caldicott interviewing Arnold Gundersen. The audio is from Fairwinds Associates on December 26, 2011. Hint: This is very grim. Related: Dr. Helen Caldicott
Polish Prosecutor Shoots Himself After News Conference
January 9th, 2012[???] Update: Comments from Przybyl Via: Reuters: Speaking to state news agency PAP from his hospital bed on Tuesday, Przybyl said he had wanted to protect the honour and the future of military prosecutors. He said he had faced many threats related to past investigations aimed at intimidating him, and was finally driven to attempt […]
U.S. Soldiers Confined to Base Over Missing Equipment
January 9th, 2012Via: Reuters: About 100 U.S. soldiers have been confined to their barracks at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington, as Army officials investigate the apparent theft of sensitive military equipment, base spokesmen said on Sunday. The infantry unit was placed on “lockdown” on Wednesday after the weapons accessories were reported missing from a supply area, […]
West Readies Oil Plan in Case of Iran Crisis
January 9th, 2012Via: Reuters: Western powers this week readied a contingency plan to tap a record volume from emergency stockpiles to replace nearly all the Gulf oil that would be lost if Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz, industry sources and diplomats told Reuters. They said senior executives of the International Energy Agency (IEA), which advises 28 […]
Google Backing Original Shows for YouTube — Lots of Them
January 8th, 2012Plug in and be lit up by the American Hologram. This great loom of media images, and images of images, is so many layers deep that it has replaced reality. No one can remember the original imprint. If there was one. The hologram is a hermetic snow globe, a self-referential circuitry of images, and a […]
Paypal Founder Backs Blueseed, ‘Googleplex of the Sea’
January 7th, 2012Will there be… Plasmids? BioShock is set during 1960, in Rapture, a fictional underwater dystopian city; its history is revealed to the player through in-game audio recordings scattered throughout the game. Rapture was envisioned by the Objectivist business magnate, Andrew Ryan, as a laissez-faire utopia for society’s cultural and scientific elite to avoid the oppression […]
Japan ‘Dream Project’: 600 Acre Farm with Autonomous Robot Workers
January 7th, 2012Does anyone understand how LEDs are supposed to replace pesticides? Under an agriculture ministry plan, unmanned tractors will work fields where pesticides will have been replaced by LEDs keeping rice, wheat, soybeans, fruit and vegetables safe until robots can put them in boxes. Anyway, this sounds like it could have been lifted right out of […]
Microsoft Gets Patent for ‘Avoid Ghetto’ Technology
January 7th, 2012Via: CBS: Microsoft has been granted a patent for its “avoid ghetto” feature for GPS devices. A GPS device is used to find shortcuts and avoid traffic, but Microsoft’s patent states that a route can be plotted for pedestrians to avoid an “unsafe neighborhood or being in an open area that is subject to harsh […]
