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Submission + - U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Fall 10% Since 2005, but HFC's still a problem (reuters.com)

Submitted by SpankiMonki
SpankiMonki writes: U.S. greenhouse gas emissions fell nearly 10 percent from 2005 to 2012, more than halfway toward the U.S.'s 2020 target pledged at United Nations climate talks, according to the latest national emissions inventory.

Meanwhile, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) saw a dramatic rise of over 309 percent during the reporting period. Although the US and China recently agreed to reduce HFC production, the two countries accounted for the bulk of the increase in HFC emissions over the reporting period.

HFC use and emissions are rapidly increasing as a result of the phaseout of ozone-depleting substances (ODS) and growing global demand for air conditioning. Although safe for the ozone layer, the continued emissions of HFCs – primarily as alternatives to ODS and also from the continued production of HCFC-22 – will have an immediate and significant effect on the Earth’s climate system. Without further controls, it is predicted that HFC emissions could negate the entire climate benefits achieved under the Montreal Protocol.

Submission + - Troubled Bitcoin Exchange Mt. Gox Files For Liquidation (pctechtalk.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Once the worlds largest Bitcoin Exchange the now plagued Mt. Gox has filed for liquidation in a Tokyo court it has emerged.

Sources close to Mt. Gox said the application for liquidation comes as there are no feasible options for the company to exit bankruptcy. The source also said that arranging and holding meetings with the various creditors around the globe was very difficult.

The court will now have to decide whether or not it will approve the liquidation application. If approved, a trustee would be appointed to take over the remaining assets.

In February 750,000 Bitcoins were stolen from Mt. Gox. 200,000 of these have now been recovered.

Submission + - Google Glass gets a makeover before reintroducing itself to the public (networkworld.com)

Submitted by smaxp
smaxp writes: If yesterday's public sale of Google Glass was news to you, you're probably not the droids Google is looking for.

There is a subculture of wearable technology enthusiasts and developers that has been buying Glass, following Glass, chasing invitations to buy Glass, and tracking Glass’s developments on RSS feeds and Google Plus. This group has been abuzz with the news of the public sale of Glass for more than a month.

So if you just learned of today’s public sale of Glass and plan to buy one, you fit into one of two categories: you are either a wearable technology enthusiast/software developer who has been cut off from the world without an internet connection for the last month, or you’re rich enough that you don’t have to think twice about a $1,500 impulse buy to something that you don’t know much about. Both are pretty small groups. Google’s announcement of the public sale of Glass and last night’s release of new Glass features and an upgrade to Android KitKat is big news for the wearable community.

Submission + - Chinese Pollution Could Be Driving Freak Weather in US

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Jonathan Kaiman reports at The Guardian that China's air pollution could be intensifying storms over the Pacific Ocean and altering weather patterns in North America leading to more intense cyclones, increased precipitation and more warm air in the mid-Pacific moving towards the north pole. "Mid-latitude storms develop off Asia and they track across the Pacific, coming in to the west coast of the US," says Ellie Highwood, a climate physicist at the University of Reading. "The particles in this model are affecting how strong those storms are, how dense the clouds are, and how much rainfall comes out of those storms." Fossil fuel burning and petrochemical processing in Asia's rapidly developing economies lead to a build-up of aerosols, fine particles suspended in the air. Typically, aerosol formation is thought of as the antithesis to global warming: it cools our Earth's climate. But researchers say, too much of any one thing is never good. "Aerosols provide seeds for cloud formation. If you provide too many seeds, then you fundamentally change cloud patterns and storm patterns," says co-author Renyi Zhang. China's top leaders are aware of the extent of the problem and Beijing will soon revise an important piece of legislation and give environmental protection authorities the power to shut polluting factories, punish officials and restrict industrial development in some areas. The changes to the China's environmental protection law, the first since 1989, will legally enshrine oft-repeated government promises to prioritise environmental protection over economic growth. "The provisions on transparency are probably the most positive step forward," says Alex Wang, expert in Chinese environmental law at UCLA. "These include the requirement that key polluters disclose real-time pollution data."

Submission + - Bullied Student Records Bullies, Gets Hit With Felony Charges For Violation (techdirt.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Here comes another story highlighting the danger of schools "outsourcing" their disciplinary problems to law enforcement. As we've stated before, this does nothing more than turn routine misconduct into criminal behavior, which is a great way to derail a student's future.

A Pennsylvania teen, who claimed to have been bullied constantly (and ignored by school administration), made an audio recording of his tormentors using a school-supplied iPad. He brought this to the school's attention, which duly responded by calling the cops to have him arrested for violating Pennsylvania's wiretapping law. (h/t to Techdirt reader btr1701)

Maybe the future holds better outcomes, but for right now, everyone involved had a chance to stop this from reaching this illogical conclusion, but no one — from the administrators to their legal team to local law enforcement to the presiding judge — was interested in reining this in. In the end, it looks as though an innate desire to punish someone was satisfied every step of the way.

Comment Re:If you make this a proof of God... (Score 1) 612

That's something I'd never really thought about. Especially since you're supposed to be compassionate to get into heaven. I guess for someone who doesn't believe, they're spending eternity without God anyway, since they never thought he existed in the first place. Maybe they get what they think will happen anyway and they just die and stop existing. Those who do believe always had God and always will. Maybe those who don't believe are taken to heaven, but since they won't open their hearts to see they don't think they're really there. You've definitely sparked some deep thought for me, at least.

Comment Re:If you make this a proof of God... (Score 1) 612

I've always seen it as just a different way of addressing the same problem. How can you really know what exists outside the universe? It could be God, it could be a programmer, it could be that the universe is an elementary particle in a larger universe. We really have no way to know, and it's doubtful that we'll ever know.

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