Science & Technology

Wind rose plot. Image credit:Wikipedia

All manner of wonderful graphics are being created from the newly-available 2010 US Census data. A new sort of nuclear family, for example, is portrayed with this mouse-over map showing the population density inside 10 and 50 mile evacuation radii around the US' 65 nuclear power plants (containing a total of 104 reactors).

The upshot: One in every three Americans currently resides less than 50 miles from an operating nuclear reactor. MSNBC mapped the details in Nuclear neighbors: Population rises near US reactors .

Design & Architecture

Prototypes for foldable iPad holder by Stands for Change. Photo courtesy of William Tang

At a Sustainability Summit in Los Angeles this week, I listened to a report about a Multifamily Rooftop Solar Project and took notes. (I'll report further on it and the conference this weekend). The social equity of the solar project impressed me but so did a simple little gizmo the guy next to me had attached to his iPad, angled easily for viewing in his lap. He typed notes, too, and I felt pretty old-school with my recycled notepad. At the break, he folded the gizmo with a snap and an explanation.

Business & Politics

Photo courtesy of Powershift.org

Powershift 2011 begins this weekend in Washington DC. The biggest of its kind, the annual event will foster leadership amongst the next generation of clean energy activists -- along with keynote talks from the likes of Al Gore, Van Jones, Bill McKibben, and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, there are a number of training events and workshops held over the course of the weekend. I'm in DC to cover the goings-on, and will be reporting back with dispatches on how the next wave of the green movement is shaping up. For the uninitiated, the following video breaks down what Powershift is all about:

Science & Technology

Image via PARC

A new manufacturing process developed by Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) will increase the energy a lithium-ion battery can store by 40%. The technology is similar to that of printed solar cells.

Business & Politics

Photo: jm3, Flickr, CC

From $18 to $27 in a Day
Zipcar, the North-American car-sharing company, has just raised $174.3 million by selling shares in the company in an initial public offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ (ticker symbol: ZIP). They initially intended to sell 8.3 million shares at around $14-16 each, but interest was high and they ended up selling ±9.7 million shares at $18 each. The bad news for Zipcar is that they could probably have raised even more, since only a day later the shares are already trading around $27 on the secondary market, but this injection of cash should still be enough to help the product-service-system company keep expanding in new markets.

Food & Health

Photo: Kelly Rossiter

I made a soup the other day which I had intended to write about, but both my husband and I thought there was something missing, although we couldn't quite put our finger on what that ingredient was. It sounded really good on paper, but it just didn't work. In the end, I decided the recipe wasn't good enough to post about. After a trip to Chinatown, I decided to try the soup again, but with my own recipe.

Culture & Celebrity

Photo: Jim Spellman/WireImage/Getty Images

Sheryl Crow is the latest A-lister to enter the world of celebrity cookbooks: Her effort, called "If It Makes You Healthy," is a collaboration with her personal chef, Chuck White, and contains 125 recipes -- many of which are vegetarian or vegan friendly, says Vegetarian Star.

Science & Technology

Image via Sprint

Every time we talk about the TreeHugger iPhone app, we get requests about when we will launch an Android version. Well....

Sprint has launched a new smart phone app package called Green ID. It is a suite of apps that help Android users green up their habits from what they shop for to recycling to learning more about green actions. The solution is designed around bringing the best apps to your finger tips, and guess what! TreeHugger is included.