Came across this site a while ago, and I really think this can be a vital resource:

A picture is worth a thousand words. SkyTruth uses pictures taken from orbiting satellites and aircraft to show people the impacts of our activities on the planet.

At SkyTruth, we specialize in designing and conducting projects that use images to study and communicate environmental impacts. Our technical staff uses advanced image processing techniques to turn raw image data into a wide range of useful products, including large-format maps and posters, page-sized brochures and flyers, virtual globes (Google Earth) and Web-friendly digital graphics. We also provide custom-processed images in digital formats compatible with the most widely used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software.

Fascinating- and very needed- stuff.

Having fucked up the ecosystem by creating super weeds…just like everyone except paid off chemists and Congressmen said they would, Monsanto is ready to really get serious about weeds now:

Farmers accustomed to drenching their fields with Roundup are now battling a monster breed of pigweed that, the New York Times reports, “can grow three inches a day and reach seven feet or more…so sturdy that it can damage harvesting equipment.”

Nature has issued quite a challenge to our ‘weed solution.’ The chemical industry has decided to respond in turn with Agent Orange. To be precise, Dow Chemical is working on seeds that are resistant to 24-D, a component of Agent Orange… presumably because it intends on spraying farmland with wartime defoliant.

Um, no. Monsanto has the world literally by the stomach- they have crafted a monopoly on large amounts of seeds that only flower once and can’t be saved, forcing marginal farmers into bankruptcy by having to buy seed again and again. Then they ruin the land by filling it with these toxic chemicals…that lead to super weeds…that can only be killed by yet more toxic chemicals…

Kilgore: I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn’t find one of ‘em, not one stinkin’ dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like…victory.

Or greed.

But now, for reasons that still elude me, the government has allowed BP to try to shut down the well at the top, allowing the pressure in the whole casing to rise precipitously, and it appears the inevitable has happened: the oil and gas is pushing out the breaches in the casing, and is likely expanding the openings, too, making the breach worse than before.

Trying to shut things off at the top was a fool’s errand, and can only have been driven by a BP and White House PR effort to show that something is being done. However, some things shouldn’t be done, and this is one of those things. The idea that the government and BP knew that shutting down the top of the well could lead to disaster, and that they went ahead and did it, knowing that it would only provide temporary relief at best anyhow, is insanity.

Anyone who thinks BP, and by extension, we are out of the woods yet on the leak…not so fast.

So ponder this scenario. You’re an organ donor, right? Checked the box when you got your drivers license, whatever. So on your way home today, a bus plows into your car, and you end up hooked to a machine about to expire. Initial testing shows you might be a donor candidate for Dick Cheney.

So here’s the question.

Does Dick Cheney live or die?

He’s currently fitted with a LVAD, which is a device meant for people in the end stages of heart disease, a mechanical means to keep them technically alive until a new heart can be found. (It also means he doesn’t have a pulse…creepy.) Even with a new ticker he’s not got long to live, most likely…but what if your soon to be useless to you heart could keep him alive, after you’re gone.

Tough question, ain’t it? On the one hand, it is apparent that Cheney will never face judgment for what he’s done. He’s sent thousands to their deaths over lies, he’s committed treason, fuck, he shot a dude in the face and walked away laughing about it. Next time you’re hammered with a 12 gauge, you try it and see if you can keep the sheriff cooling his heels overnight while you sober up. His secret energy commission green-lighted the abuse of nature that is BP and the Gulf spill, under his leadership Halliburton traded with Iran in violation of US law, and he continued to profit from his warmongering ways even after become VP. He is, without a doubt, one of the sleaziest operators in a town where moral deprivation is a resume tool.

Would you let him die?

The golden rule tells us to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, so despite his complete indifference to the suffering of others, his grotesque sense of American Exceptionalism, and his sneering, mocking contempt for all human life but his own, you’re supposed to turn the other cheek and give him life. Now I’ve worked hard to find peace with the world, truly I have, but in this case, it would be mighty difficult to ignore the appeal of being the person who finally passed judgment on an evil man.

What say you? Would you be the one to give this odious creature even another day of breath? In doing so, you’d be a far better person than he, certainly.

Or would the lure of judgment move you to say no?

Wind turbine maker plans to hire 1,000 in Colorado

Vestas Wind Systems said Tuesday it will hire more than 1,000 people at three Colorado plants that manufacture wind turbine components after receiving a surge of orders for the electricity generators in the U.S. and Canada.

An additional 167 new jobs will be created at a Pueblo plant that makes towers for the turbines.

Excellent. Can we get one at the Rockin’ Frog, please?

Kucinich Pushes To End Tax Subsidies For Junk Food Advertising

As First Lady Michelle Obama spoke to the NAACP convention in Kansas City about childhood obesity Monday, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) continued his work behind the scenes to stem junk food advertising to kids. A new bill introduced by Kucinich could raise billions of dollars in revenue to fund child nutrition and anti-obesity initiatives by preventing companies from writing off advertising of junk food targeted at kids.

As much as 50 percent of all television advertising during children’s programs is dedicated to food and the vast majority of these advertisements are for junk food, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The data showed that of over 8,000 ads aired during children’s shows, zero advertised fresh fruits or vegetables.

This should be a no-brainer. The fast/junk food industry is immensely profitable, which begs the question, why would we subsidize it at all? Free market my HFCS filled ass.

In the end, truth will out. Won’t it?

Maybe not. Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.

I keep coming up against this daily. All of us have friends that are the personification of the adage “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion; no one is entitled to their own facts”. They are the true believers, so invested in whatever they “believe” that rational thought never enters the picture. I have one friend, known him for over 25 years, who is now so rabidly conservative that his mind is like a dark cave where no light ever enters, who is dedicated to the notion that Obama and the democrats are “Progressives!” -which means “progressing toward socialism uh huh uh huh….”, and who actually believes that tax cuts raise revenue. Any attempt at correcting these notions causes him to hork up his go-to answer to everything, that somehow, Obama is a Marxist. I no longer attempt to discuss more than guitars and British rock with him anymore, nor with anyone, really, so I guess I have him to thank for saving me endless amounts of my last nerve.

But without the ability and desire to learn, evolve, adapt, isn’t life stagnant? Boring? It is to me, but I can understand how others might crave the comfort of their illusions to help them cope with a changing world. Mythology is filled with those who believed that gods lived in trees and talked to people, today these same people listen to Glenn Beck and see a world overtaken by minorities hell-bent on upsetting their way of life. Even when “drill baby drill” becomes “spill baby spill” in their own frontyard, its not the fault of a greedy, cost-cutting unregulated corporate polluter, but rather the “whackjob greens” who dared attempt to put the natural world before a corporations balance sheet. To accept any blame or responsibility for things such as the spill, or the economic collapse would mean questioning their entire world view, and they aren’t strong enough to risk it.

Again, I can’t imagine spending life nestled in my preconceptions, unwilling to grow beyond what I am today. As an example, I for many years fancied myself a libertarian. And why not? It sounds good, this notion of limited government, the free market self-regulating, etc etc…except it has never, and will never work. So why waste my time defending or believing in a system that ignores human nature? The free market, left unchecked, gives us the Gulf oil spill. I really don’t need any further evidence of the fallacy of my previous beliefs, thanks.

My “belief” at this point in my life revolves around a simple concept, that the purest state of being is that which you see in nature. Looking out my window I see birds, squirrels and chipmunks feeding. I don’t see any of them digging oil wells, or creating a derivative ponzi scheme. I can’t see any evidence of muslim birds ganging up on christian squirrels, and I can’t tell if the blue jay on the bird bath is gay or not.

Why would anyone want to live in anything less?

Now this is a nifty app, Visible Vote:

Your vote now counts past Election Day! Visible Vote lets you advise congress on how to vote on the major upcoming legislation, follow current events, understand your legislators’ voting records and compare your voting preference to your legislators’ voting history.

* Vote and Advise Congress on the Bills your Legislators are debating.
* Add any bill in Congress to your profile to track and then update your Legislators on how you feel.
* Easily know how your legislators are voting on issues you care about.
* Call your legislator’s office with one click.
* Follow your legislators twitter accounts easily.
* Send a FAX to your Legislators through Facebook.
* View State Vote tallies on each issue to see where everyone in your state stands.
* Look at each issue your legislator agrees or disagrees with you on.
* Submit a Job Approval Rating for All Legislators.
* Leave personal comments to Facebook Friends or the Visible Vote community on Legislators and Bills.

I have it, and not surprisingly, I don’t match up with my “representatives” at all! Download it and keep up with your local flavor of elected crooks…

Government Stopping Charities From Feeding The Homeless

The National Coalition for the Homeless has issued a report detailing laws and ordinances in a couple of dozen localities across the nation that prohibit charities – churches, civic organizations, charities, etc. – from feeding the homeless. Or, at least, inhibit their ability to do so with burdensome regulation.

But I think another motivation may well be that the government hates competition. Rather than allowing private charities like churches, etc. do their own part to feed the homeless I think the government would much rather homeless get help through government-sanctioned, government-funded, government-administered social programs.

Solar plane takes off for 24-hour test flight

GENEVA — An experimental solar-powered plane whose makers hope to one day circle the globe using only energy collected from the sun took off for its first 24-hour test flight Wednesday.

The team had hoped to make their 24-hour test flight last week when days in the northern hemisphere were even longer, allowing the plane’s 12,000 solar cells to collect even more energy before attempting to coast through the night.