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Earth

Minnesota Introduces World's First Carbon Tariff 303

hollywoodb writes "The first carbon tax to reduce the greenhouse gases from imports comes not between two nations, but between two states. Minnesota has passed a measure to stop carbon at its border with North Dakota. To encourage the switch to clean, renewable energy, Minnesota plans to add a carbon fee of between $4 and $34 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions to the cost of coal-fired electricity, to begin in 2012 ... Minnesota has been generally pushing for cleaner power within its borders, but the utility companies that operate in MN have, over the past decades, sited a lot of coal power plants on the relatively cheap and open land of North Dakota, which is preparing a legal battle against Minnesota over the tariff."
Space

Super-Earths Discovered Orbiting Nearby, Sun-Like Star 242

likuidkewl writes "Two super-earths, 5 and 7.5 times the size of our home, were found to be orbiting 61 Virginis a mere 28 light years away. 'These detections indicate that low-mass planets are quite common around nearby stars. The discovery of potentially habitable nearby worlds may be just a few years away,' said Steven Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC. Among hundreds of our nearest stellar neighbors, 61 Vir stands out as being the most nearly similar to the Sun in terms of age, mass, and other essential properties."

Comment Re:Science is emotionless. (Score 1) 899

Reality shows are for those who don't have something useful to do with their time. America is perfectly welcome to be the religious "heartland" that we all hear it is. To draw a parallel... the nations of Islam were the most learned in ancient times and a true wonder among the educated peoples of the ancient world. They went off the rails at some stage and this seems to be linked to their religion. They despise science, give no heed to the rights of women and generally seem to be regressing to primitive times. I will probably be killed (legally) by followers of their religion for merely suggesting such a thing! So I see the spirituality that revealed its splendor in the middle of last century is being replaced by religion because people lack the ability to question why... and then follow it up with scientific reasoning, deduction and explanation. They seem happier to simply answer, "Why that is the work of god", when confronted with something that cannot be simply explained. So if we remain happy to say, "That is the work of the creator" every time something comes along we can't explain without scientific testing then no doubt we will have to give up our houses, labour saving devices (including cars etc) because science is the single reason we have those things. We can all be warm and fuzzy in the knowlege that, as we climb back into the trees, god is really rooting for us!

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Life would be so much easier if we could just look at the source code. -- Dave Olson

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