Sales of Organic Beers Start to Hop – Forbes.com
Organic beer is made the same way as any beer, but under U.S. Department of Agriculture standards at least 95 percent of its ingredients – usually barley and hops – are grown without the use of chemicals and pesticides.
Organic beer sales increased 40 percent in 2005, tying it with organic coffee as the fastest-growing organic beverage, the Organic Trade Association says. By comparison, overall U.S. beer sales fell slightly last year.
Wilk4: Breaking the Sound Barrier
Here are some fascinating (for some people anyway) photos and a video of interesting condensation clouds that form around jets as they fly at or near the speed of sound, (often called “going through the sound barrier” or “accelerating past the speed of sound”). Under the right conditions, they sometimes cause a vapor cone effect.
Scorpions, worms and ants on the menu at club on Yahoo! News
North American Cricket served with pear cactus jelly are displayed on a plate at the Explorers’ Club ‘Off the Eaton Path’ event in New York, in this June 28, 2006 file photo. Founded in 1904, the exclusive international club has some 3,000 members around the world including Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mount Everest, astronaut John Glenn and paleontologist Richard Leakey. On the menu at a reception for some lesser mortals this month were worms, crickets, scorpions, ants and pigeon pate. (Scott Schumaker/Reuters)
Washington Wire » Wal-Mart Warms to Al Gore
Former Vice President and environmental activist Al Gore is planning to address Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executives next week at the retailer’s quarterly conference on sustainability.
it outfitted its trucks with an alternative power unit that uses 90% less fuel than its engines do while idling. The company created 14 internal networks to explore and implement more environmentally sound business practices. The 14 groups, made up of both Wal-Mart executives and outside experts, focus on different business areas, including operations and logistics, food and agriculture, textiles, global greenhouse gas and jewelry and mining. Called the sustainable value network, the groups meet individually throughout the year. They also hold their own conferences. Last month, for instance, Wal-Mart held a two-day conference on sustainability and textiles. It brought together Wal-Mart executives, environmental consultants and members of nonprofit groups to discuss issues surrounding organic textiles, including certification and standards. Next week’s meeting, held at the company’s home office in Bentonville, Ark., is one of four where all the company’s internal groups working on sustainability issues get together to discuss progress, stumbling blocks and other issues.
National Commission on Energy Policy | Energy Independence: A Dry Hole?
The U.S. may be addicted to oil, but many of its politicians are addicted to “energy independence” — which may be among the least realistic political slogans in American history. The term “energy independence” should be dropped. He wants policy makers to focus on curbing oil consumption — specifically the amount to produce each $1,000 of gross domestic product.
The truth is, our consumption per thousand dollars of GDP has declined dramatically over the past 30 years, making oil far less crucial to our economy. In 1973 it stood at roughly 1.4 barrels/1kGDP. Now it stands at roughly 0.7 barrels, or a decline of roughly 50 percent. Not bad for “oil addicted” America, whose only true sin is growing our economy so dramatically since 1973.But even there our total oil consumption has risen only from about 17 million barrels a day in 1973 to about 21 today. Again, not bad.
The problem is tha imports made up 35% of the nation’s petroleum supplies in 1973 and 59% in the first four months of 2006, according to the Department of Energy. Moreover, 66% of the oil consumed in the U.S. is used in the transportation sector.
I find China as clueless about the future as most emerging countries. That’s why they plan so much. People really confident about the future don’t have to plan. They simply know what to do. I believe this is a naturally accruing capability with age, and in that regard, China is “young” despite the age of its civilization. Again, we need to think of them more like the U.S. at the start of the 20th century: getting brash but essentially uncertain and nervous about how to behave in the world. The more the bluster, the more the fear–I always say.
Forget trying to figure out today’s China through its own history, which consists of a seemingly endless cycle of disintegrating peace and integrating war. Instead, simply stipulate that China’s last extended civil war, which did not spin to a complete stop until the murderous Mao Zedong departed and eventual successor Deng Xiaoping opened the country back up for business in the early 1980s, deposited China somewhere in the vicinity of rising America of the late 1800s – absent democracy, of course. Continue reading “China’s U.S.-like time machine”
Namnlös Normal sidaThe Toaster is a large picture, 5 meter wide and 4.5 meter high, totally made from slices of bread toasted in different lengths of time to reach the nuances between black and white, ochre and rust. It took several days of work and several friends and their toasters to prepare the 2.500 pieces of toast necessary to build the gigantic mosaic, which reproduce a photograph of a toaster.
Where are all the birds?
12 percent of existing species — about 1,250 — are threatened with extinction by 2100.
Up until now, scientists had documented the extinction of about 130 bird species since the year 1500. But the study’s authors — from Stanford University, Duke University and the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis — say the more accurate estimate is about 500 extinctions out of more than 10,000 known bird species. That would be about one extinction per year over the last 500 years.
Corvette Still Bright Spot Amid GM Woes – Forbes.com
For an extra cost of about $500, new Corvette owners can pick up their “baby” at the National Corvette Museum’s designated “nursery” and get a personal guided tour of the assembly plant and hands-on training about the new car’s controls.
