change

Saving the planet cheaper than you think

Opponents of climate change have said that the effort could reduce the U.S. gross domestic product by $1 trillion, cost 3.4 million jobs, and result in price hikes of trillions of dollars for American consumers. But a new study from McKinsey & Co. puts the price tag way below earlier predictions and indicates that 40 percent of the reductions may bring actual savings to the economy, not costs.

Read the full story at Businessweek.com..

Report: Billions of jellyfish wipe out salmon farm

A 10-square-mile pack of jellyfish wiped out a 100,000-fish salmon farm in Northern Ireland, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

The billions of jellyfish, piled densely in a 35-foot-deep layer, did in the fish through stings and stress, according to John Russell, managing director of Northern Salmon.

The Pelagia nocticula species, or "mauve stinger," ordinarily is found in warmer waters such as the Mediterranean Sea. Scientists pointed to the presence of the jellyfish, rarely seen that far north, as evidence of global warming.

All of the fish, worth $2 million, are dead or dying and, absent government aid, … Read more

Change as a feature: designing for consumers in a state of permanent crisis

Can you call a concept a cultural phenomenon if different people conceive of it at the same time? Within the past few months, three publications have come to similar conclusions. The digital media agency Avenue A | Razorfish released a study called "Fast Forward: Designing for Constant Change." It consists of thirteen essays as well as research exploring how consumers' digital media habits are changing, and how this affects the design of user experiences and brands. The key take-away is: Today's online users are forced to adjust to constant change in increasingly volatile rich media environments, and they … Read more

Does Al Gore deserve the Nobel Prize?

For someone who has a reputation for being boring and wooden, Al Gore certainly is polarizing.

Supporters assert that he has been one of the principal actors in bringing awareness to global warming and prompting governments and industry to take action against greenhouse emissions. While a lot of people became familiar with his work through the recent film "An Inconvenient Truth," Gore has been writing on the issue since the '80s.

Detractors, however, say he's an opportunist who exaggerates the scientific evidence and doesn't even follow his own advice. Witness the furor over reports that his … Read more

Fiorina touts change as key to success

OAKLAND, Calif.--Former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina, in a long-scheduled presentation Tuesday night as part of a Bay Area lecture series, made no specific mention of her political aspirations.

For me, however, the indicator she's considering a future run for office was the way she kept qualifying her assertions with "this isn't a political statement," even if they were arguably political in nature.

Fiorina's speech, which took place the same day News Corp. announced she'd be an on-air commentator for its upcoming Fox Business Network, focused on the importance of change as it … Read more

Suit exposes flaws in Creative Commons

When Creative Commons first surfaced, it was heralded as a means to share media without being ensnared by the complications accompanying traditional copyright.

With six different licenses available, media creators were provided the opportunity to dial in the exact rights they wanted. Or at least that was the plan.

In reality, this bevy of choices has led to significant confusion and as CNN reports, 16 year-old Alison Chang recently learned her picture is being used for a Virgin Mobile ad campaign in Australia. She didn't give her permission, and it appears that the ads exploit confusion around Creative Commons.

… Read more

Words, actions speak different shades of green

Reporters on the front lines of climate change ate locally grown food from biodegradable tableware at the annual Society of Environmental Journalists conference held at Stanford University last week .

Yet, they also boarded gas-guzzling, air-conditioned buses to tour Google's solar headquarters, green buildings in San Francisco and area ecosystems. The nonprofit Environmental Defense handed out folders about safeguarding the oceans. These came inside vinyl shoulder bags that stank of the same toxic chemicals that poison waterways. Most of some 900 attendees flew to the event in petroleum-powered planes to discuss how to report about imperiled ecosystems, from the big … Read more

McCain woos techies at AlwaysOn Conference

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Republican presidential candidate John McCain asked the technology sector for help fighting "Islamic extremism" and global warming at a conference here on Wednesday.

McCain said extremists are "taking advantage of cyberspace" in new ways that will require U.S. technologists to help find better tools to thwart their efforts.

The senator from Arizona also said he's convinced global warming is real. He thanked the gathering at the AlwaysOn Stanford Summit for their efforts in developing green technologies.

"We can have debate about how serious (climate change) is," McCain said, "… Read more

Nanochip promises cheaper, denser flash memory replacement

PALO ALTO, Calif.--A number of companies have been toiling away for years on a replacement for flash memory.

Nanochip, a relatively small company that has received VC funds from Intel, among others, says it will come out with a device in 2010 that will hold eight times as much data as flash. Additionally, the device's cost per gigabyte will be two to four times less, says Nanochip CEO Gordon Knight.

Many solutions have been proposed for replacing flash--phase change memory, spintronics, silicon nanocrystals--and so far no clear winner has emerged. Phase change memory, which involves heating microscopic points … Read more