This article by The Economist highlights the shortcomings of Facebook and MySpace etc, but its real real mesage is to highlight the advantages of Open Source software. I just had another positive experience with Linux, this time at the lower end of the power spectrum. I installed distros on old 386 machines at a charity …
Continue reading Open-source software has won the argument.
Author:astraea
Carbon risks and opportunities in the S&P 500
Carbon risks and opportunities in the S&P 500 a report by TruCost, commissioned by IRRCi, finds the carbon intensity of companies varies widely even within sectors. This has important implications for investors: * Companies that are less carbon intensive than their sector peers stand to gain competitive advantage from proposed ‘polluter pays’ cap-and-trade regulation. * …
Continue reading Carbon risks and opportunities in the S&P 500
More evidence: females outperform.
Another study, now from the UK, shows that women outperform men at university level. A Higher Education Policy Institute report shows that women are more likely to get places in the top universities and go on to get better grades. This should not be surprising after all females have more DNA than males and are …
Continue reading More evidence: females outperform.
Hexayurt – a great design for low impact building.
The Hexayurt is a prize-winning shelter you can build yourself for about $200 (backup link). Suitable raw materials include common building materials ( fire safe insulation boards,) hexacomb cardboard and plastic. You cut six 4′ x 8′ panels in half diagonally to make the roof, and use six more whole panels to form the walls. …
Continue reading Hexayurt – a great design for low impact building.
UK’s NHS formally backs complimentary medicine.
The NHS will in future offer acupuncture to patients suffering back pain as part of new guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). This is the first time NICE has formally backed the use of complementary therapies. NICE believes that using active therapies – such as acupuncture and spinal manipulation – …
Continue reading UK’s NHS formally backs complimentary medicine.
The destruction of the Amazon is real (in pictures).
We are destroying the Amazon rain forest so that we can have cheap burgers. The slide show linked here shows the rapid decimation of the ancient forest. It takes centuries to regrow. Without it our biosphere is made vulnerable to climate volatility. It sounds like a foolish, short sighted trade-off doesn’t it? (The solution? Fewer …
Continue reading The destruction of the Amazon is real (in pictures).
20 years on, the ozone hole lingers
The global recognition of CFCs’ destructive potential led to the 1989 Montreal Protocol banning the production of ozone-depleting chemicals. Scientists estimate that about 80% of the chlorine (and bromine, which has a similar ozone-depleting effect) in the stratosphere over Antarctica today is from human, not natural, sources. Models suggest that the concentration of chlorine and …
Continue reading 20 years on, the ozone hole lingers
The Copenhagen Call
Business leaders issued “The Copenhagen Call” at the close of the World Business Summit on Climate Change. In their introduction they state: We call upon our political leaders to agree an ambitious and effective global climate treaty at COP15 in Copenhagen. Sustainable economic progress requires stabilizing and then reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Success at COP15 …
Continue reading The Copenhagen Call
Rebuilding Banks
A Special Report on Banking from The Economist offers insight in to the changes we might expect from the world of finance. I like the first few paragraphs (below) which put the scale of the problem in to perspective. The report shows that the industry will be ruled by attention to liabilities (and risks) rather …
Continue reading Rebuilding Banks
The blind people and the elephant … I mean weather.
If you tried to judge whether the 2008-2009 winter in the Northern Hemisphere was colder or milder than usual based on the conditions where you lived, it would be something like the ancient Indian story of the blind men and the elephant. If you couldn’t see the whole elephant, and you could only touch its …
Continue reading The blind people and the elephant … I mean weather.