Caribbean Sea Little Green Island wallpaper, Green and geeky straddling bus, Blue whales tune in and talk on wavelengths

Caribbean Sea Little Green Island wallpaper

“Straddling” bus–a cheaper, greener and faster alternative to commute

A big concern on top of urban transportation planner’s mind is how to speed up the traffic: putting more buses on the road will jam the roads even worse and deteriorate the air; building more subway is costly and time consuming. Well, here is an cheaper, greener and fast alternative to lighten their mind up a bit: the straddling bus, first exhibited on the 13th Beijing International High-tech Expo in May this year.

The “straddling bus” or hollow bottomed subway or whatever would be powered by a combination of solar and electrical power. Passengers would travel on the top and fast vehicular traffic would be able to pass underneath. My long-standing opinion that we waste a lot of space in the way we build and utilize our highways doesn’t seem so strange now. While a version of double-decked roads occurs in some cities, I’ve thought for years we should be building layered roads so that we could use both layers for transportation. Small buses and super fast trains and could use the top. While personal transport could use the bottom. We lose a lot of millions of acres of arable land that could otherwise be kept for wildlife preservation, farming and low impact residual building because of road construction.

Study finds blue whales have perfect pitch, but research raises more questions than it answers

The only thing the researchers have been able to determine is that the whales’ singing is coalescing into a single frequency of 16 hertz, “like a choir singing together where they all mutually tune in to the same frequency.” Whatever conclusions researchers draw from that phenomena are pretty speculative, he added, but “the fact that they’re all tuning to the same frequency is pretty remarkable.” The study may prove useful in future studies, including why blue whales’ overall population has remained low while other species have continued to rise, and why their pitch has been decreasing in recent decades. He said that noise from ships and boats is in approximately the same frequency range as whales’ songs, so that may be causing them to lower their pitch.

They all learn and repeat the songs they hear. A very sophisticated way to communicate. It mat not be exactly the same as chatting with a friend, but it is a form of talking. That they are able to change their frequency to certain hertz just makes their communication abilities that much more fascinating.

Could better corporate ethics have prevented BP oil spill?

Religious leaders and scholars are clamoring for more corporate accountability in the wake of what they call the destruction of God’s creation in the Gulf of Mexico, and they may have found a partner in their battle cry: the American business school.

“Look at the Gulf disaster — no one has questioned the core value system that BP used to cut corners with that rig out in the Gulf; namely, the race to maximize profits at all costs,” said Mark Wallace, a professor of religious studies at Swarthmore College. “That’s the religion of our time . . . the fundamental worldview that animates our common life together.”

Eco-religious scholars such as Wallace aren’t calling for the erosion of capitalism. Rather, they envision a nuanced form in which businesses also consider the well-being of communities and the environment in computing the bottom line. It’s a system known as triple bottom line economics.

Business educators say they see no conflict in the approach — and expect the BP spill will soon be part of their curriculums as well.

“Without a doubt, it’s feasible for companies to incorporate those values. Anyone who looks at this particular situation in hindsight is going to recognize that prudence is the best option,” said Bruce Bullock, the director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business. “Good business and good environmental sense need not conflict.“

Good luck with that. Despite the ongoing degradation of the environment, inaction on global warming and disasters like the BP spill and multiple mining tragedies – some like senatorial candidate Rand Paul of Kentucky have not learned a thing – Paul claims mine safety regulations are unnecessary because ‘no one will apply’ for jobs at dangerous mines.

As Amanda Terkel pointed out, a bunch of dirty coal groups lobbying for looser regulations have banded together to form a 527 to elect industry-friendly Republicans. One of the candidates they intend to back is, of course, Rand Paul. The Wonk Room takes a further look at how Paul’s positions favor law-breaking corporations over the safety of workers.