191509
submission
BayaWeaver writes:
These days I try wherever possible to eat organic foods: bread, olive oil, tofu, veges but then there's this article in the LA Times USDA may relax standards for organic foods.
This looks like an attempt to water down the meaning of organic. Here's a quote from the article: "This proposal is blatant catering to powerful industry players who want the benefits of labeling their products 'USDA organic' without doing the work to source organic materials"
So I may not be free of pesticides and preservatives after all. If we can't trust the USDA to enforce accurate labelling of foods, who else can we turn to? Are there independent organizations that can be trusted?
191507
submission
Global Observer writes:
It can't be good that were trading a cooler earth for fewer birds. The folks at www.terrapass.com are offering what is effectively a bird killer luggage tag http://www.terrapass.com/flight/whatyouget.html if you purchase some carbon credits. With the fees they get from your purchase, they reduce green house gasses using windmills and other technologies. Modern windmills are a serious hazzard to birds http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-01-04-win dmills-usat_x.htm
Whats the average CO2 reduction per bird ?
191473
story
Teksty Piosenek writes
"Artists and record bosses believe that the best album is the loudest one. Sound levels are being artificially enhanced so that the music punches through when it competes against background noise in pubs or cars. 'Geoff Emerick, engineer on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album, said: "A lot of what is released today is basically a scrunched-up mess. Whole layers of sound are missing. It is because record companies don't trust the listener to decide themselves if they want to turn the volume up." Downloading has exacerbated the effect. Songs are compressed once again into digital files before being sold on iTunes and similar sites. The reduction in quality is so marked that EMI has introduced higher-quality digital tracks, albeit at a premium price, in response to consumer demand.'"
189063
story
Gary writes
"What do you get when you combine a robot and a chair? The Hubo FX-1 chairbot, of course. In what is perhaps my favorite robot design yet, this giant chair with legs looks like it came out of some ridiculous 80's sci-fi movie or something, but it's very, very real. HUBO FX-1 is two meters in height, and weighs 150 kg. The person sitting can control the robot easily using the built in joystick. Each ankle has a 3-axis force/torque sensor which measures the normal force and 2 moments. Each foot has an inclination sensor which measures the angle of the slope. Also, the rate gyro and the inclination sensor of the body allow the device to stabilize itself."
