Archive | June, 2011

A Richer Shade of Green: The Wisdom of Sustainable Investment Funds | The Nation

24 Jun

The need to put a premium on sustainability is not widely acknowledged in the investment community and certainly not among our elected officials, policy-makers and advisers. This presents an opportunity for astute companies and investors. In the long term, companies will benefit from aggressive action to dematerialize, substitute renewable energy for fossil fuel–based sources, increase energy efficiency, reduce water use and promote reuse, and tighten up sourcing and distribution channels. Investors with an eye on long-term gains will seek companies that are addressing these issues.

via A Richer Shade of Green: The Wisdom of Sustainable Investment Funds | The Nation.

New York Times Reporter Alleges Obama Government Harassment, Surveillance

24 Jun

A New York Times reporter who helped uncover the Bush administration’s secret domestic spying program says he continues to face government surveillance and harassment under President Obama. In a new affidavit, James Risen says government monitoring of his incoming and outgoing phone calls has carried over from the Bush years. Risen has been subpoenaed twice to reveal his sources for a 2006 book on the CIA, in which he detailed the CIA’s role in disrupting Iran’s nuclear program. Risen writes: “I believe that the efforts to target me have continued under the Obama administration, which has been aggressively investigating whistleblowers and reporters in a way that will have a chilling effect on freedom of the press in the United States.”

via New York Times Reporter Alleges Obama Government Harassment, Surveillance.

Life Inc. – Good Graph Friday: You’re working harder, they’re making money

24 Jun

The land of the free and the home of the brave have become a money machine for the rich:

A new graphic from Mother Jones shows what many of us suspect: We’ve gotten a lot more productive in recent years, but our wages haven’t reflected that.

The richest Americans, on the other hand, appear to be doing a better job reaping the rewards of everyone’s hard work.

The graphic, which uses data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Congressional Budget Office, Census Bureau and the Economic Policy Institute, shows that productivity has risen steadily over the past three decades, while overall wages have barely changed.

Meanwhile, the nation’s wealthiest have seen their income surge.

via Life Inc. – Good Graph Friday: You’re working harder, they’re making money.

JOURNAL: The Mt.Gox Flash Crash – Global Guerrillas

24 Jun

BTW: BitCoin may be just the start of good things to come. The infrastructure that is being built around can pave the way for hundreds of different currencies, each with different characteristics and features. If so, the fragmentation of money has finally begun. Nice.

via JOURNAL: The Mt.Gox Flash Crash – Global Guerrillas.

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Women Impact Collective Intelligence

23 Jun

A recent article in the Harvard Business Review gave highlights from an interview with Professors Woolley and Malone regarding their study. The Professors explained that they gave subjects aged 18-60 standard intelligence tests, then randomly assigned each person to a team. Each of the 192 teams they studied was given a complex problem to solve that required brainstorming, visual puzzles and decision-making. Once finished, each team was given an intelligence score based on the group’s performance.

Results confirmed that the groups having more members with higher IQ’s didn’t get the highest group score, the ones that had more women did.

via Women Impact Collective Intelligence – Technorati Technorati Women.

Electric Cars in Israel — Marginal Revolution

23 Jun

In 2009 Shai Agassi made a splash at TED with his plans for electic cars. Agassi’s innovative idea was to make the batteries swappable; swappable batteries and swap-station infrastructure mean that electric cars are as mobile as gas. Even more importantly, it makes possible a pure electric car which is much cheaper to make than a hybrid. The news out of Israel is that Agassi’s company BetterPlace is within months of rolling this out in Israel and in Denmark just months after that. Indeed, you can see charge stations like this around Jerusalem.

via Electric Cars in Israel — Marginal Revolution.

Diane Ravitch, the Anti-Michelle-Rhee

23 Jun

The best way to improve American education, the post-epiphany Ravitch argues, is to fight child poverty with health care, jobs, child care, and affordable housing.

via Diane Ravitch, the Anti-Michelle-Rhee – Washington City Paper.

Bill Clinton’s Legacy of Denial

23 Jun

Does Bill Clinton still not grasp that the current economic crisis is in large measure his legacy? Obviously that’s the case, or he wouldn’t have had the temerity to write a fourteen-point memo for Newsweek on how to fix the economy that never once refers to the home mortgage collapse and other manifestations of Wall Street greed that he enabled as president.

via Bill Clinton’s Legacy of Denial | The Nation.

Corrosion causing leaks at most US nuclear sites

22 Jun

Radioactive tritium has leaked from three-quarters of United States commercial nuclear power sites, often into groundwater from corroded, buried piping, an Associated Press investigation shows.

via Corrosion causing leaks at most US nuclear sites – Environment – NZ Herald News.

US: 75 Percent Of Nuclear Plants Have Leaked Radioactive Tritium (AP)

22 Jun

Radioactive tritium has leaked from three-quarters of U.S. commercial nuclear power sites, often into groundwater from corroded, buried piping, an Associated Press investigation shows.

The number and severity of the leaks has been escalating, even as federal regulators extend the licenses of more and more reactors across the nation.

via US: 75 Percent Of Nuclear Plants Have Leaked Radioactive Tritium (AP).

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