apple juice

Up a bit earlier than normal this morning… here’s a collection of stuff I was reading…

Eurostar, the high-speed rail link between Paris, London and Brussels, said last week it was raising its target to cut emissions because it had already reached its original goals — three years early.

Seems to me that its time to end the moratorium on new nuclear plants. From: French Nuclear Power Cleans Up Eurostar

More on the environment:

The worst case scenario, ES&T found, would be irrigated sorghum grown in Nebraska and turned into ethanol. This would use up to 115 gallons per mile. Corn grown there would require 50 gallons of water per mile. Say good-bye to “food vs. fuel,” say hello to “Drink or drive.”

Ethanol from corn is an environmental disaster. Obama’s administration should stop the madness when it comes to subsidies for corn ethanol. From: The Water Cost of Corn-Based Ethanol

The new Wolfram Alpha “fact engine” looks like it will be pretty amazing. Here’s a series of screenshots showing examples of different types of searches.

Our friend (and Emilia’s godmother) Diane is working on a photo-a-day project. I’ve wanted to start doing this, since there are times where I’ll go weeks without taking any pictures. One of my disappointments from our recent trip to Seattle was that I didn’t take more pictures. I did grab this picture, which I’m quite fond of:

The Kindest Cut on Slate is filled with mind-boggling statistics about food production, for example:

35 pounds of manure incurred per pound of saleable beef.

and

The poultry-broiler industry consumed some 240 billion megajoules of energy in 2005, or the equivalent of 42 million barrels of crude oil. That’s more than the entire country of Sri Lanka consumed the same year—all to keep us well-stocked with wings and drumsticks.

and

The livestock industry as a whole consumes a whopping share of the world’s crops—at least 80 percent of all soybeans and more than half of all corn.

and

food writer Michael Pollan recently suggested that if Americans went meatless one night a week, it would be equivalent to taking “30 to 40 million cars off the road for a year.”

I do like eating meat, but we’ve tried to cut back a bit. Maybe we should look in to raising some chickens in the back 40.

I’m laughing on the outside and crying on the inside:

Instant messaging. Twittering. Facebook updates. These 21st-century literary genres are defining a new “Lost Generation” of minimalists who would much rather watch Lost on their iPhones than toil over long-winded articles and short stories. Students will acquire the tools needed to make their tweets glimmer with a complete lack of forethought, their Facebook updates ring with self-importance, and their blog entries shimmer with literary pithiness.

from Writing for Nonreaders in the Postprint Era in McSweeneys via kottke.org

I’m catching up on some back posts from 43 folders and I came across a great quote:

“Marketing is the tax you pay for being unremarkable”

Try applying that quote to yourself. I don’t know if I’m doing a good job of just letting my actions speak for myself, but I’d like to do better. If you’re really doing a good job, people know. Conversely, if you’re doing a really poor job, everyone knows. But the languishing in the middle, it’s just kind of boring.

Raising chickens in the city is growing in popularity among those interested in sustainability and keeping chickens as pets. But the venture often proves more difficult than expected.

via MinnPost – Urban chicken farming on the rise.

I joke about this quite often… I didn’t realize that people actually did it in the city.

To sell his vision of a high-speed train network to the American public, President Barack Obama this week cited Spain, a country most people dont associate with futuristic bullet trains.

via Spains Bullet Train Changes Nation — and Fast – WSJ.com.

Great article about the progress Spain has made with regards to rail travel. This is exactly the type of transformation we could experience here in America.

after reading inbox zero over at 43 folders i decided to take some decisive action on my work inbox.

i deleted or archived over 1000 messages today.

my inbox now stands at 10.

in flipping through the pages of emails, it’s amazing how much hits my inbox. i have a few more of the tips from the inbox zero articles to implement, but there is a satisfying calm now in at least one area of my life.