a suburb without cars is like a day without coughing

Brent pointed out this article in the New York Times about a carfree German suburb:
Street parking, driveways and home garages are generally forbidden in this experimental new district on the outskirts of Freiburg, near the French and Swiss borders. Vauban’s streets are completely “car-free” — except the main thoroughfare, where the tram to downtown Freiburg [...]

Marriage by any other name . . .

It might work if you’re a Montague or a Capulet, but for LGBT folks, marriage by any other name does not smell as sweet. Here’s the bottom line on why this issue is so important and pushes so many buttons:
Marriage = legitimacy.
That is, if LGBT folks can marry, it means that their relationships are [...]

Drought

Bad news from California (like we didn’t already know) in the Wall Street Journal: Shrinking Water Supplies Imperil Farmers.
Dwindling water supplies are compounding economic woes in California’s Central Valley, causing farmers to leave fields fallow and confront the prospect of going under.
The state’s water supply has dropped precipitously of late. California is locked [...]

Mr. Fusion, Meet Ejeep

Seems like we’re getting back to the future in style.

The Climate Friendly Cities is a project of the Green Renewable Independent Power Producers (GRIPP), a local non-government organization. In the Ecopolis episode, GRIPP Chairperson Athena Ballesteros explained that she envisioned GRIPP to address the pollution and noise problems that come with the 250,000 or [...]

what catching up looks like

[Graph of my feed-reading habits over the last month, courtesy Google Reader.]
OK, maybe less “catching up” and more “declaring newsfeed bankruptcy.” I’ve been a wee bit busy for the past month or two (or three… shush!), and it’s not likely to let up for another month at least. Sorry about the relative radio silence. I [...]

Welcome, Haumea

The Solar System’s planetary roll call just got longer. From today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day:
One of the strangest objects in the outer Solar System was classified as a dwarf planet last week and given the name Haumea. This designation makes Haumea the fifth designated dwarf planet after Pluto, Ceres, Eris, and Makemake. Haumea’s smooth [...]

gettin’ hitched update

(via Wil) Just wanted to congratulate George Takei and Brad Altman on their wedding Sunday evening. Bagpiper processional for the win:

On a side note, George Takei is 71?!? Criminy! Yet another person I can see storming around when he’s 120, shouting, “I’m one hundred and twenty!”

gettin’ hitched, San Diego style

I haven’t had time to post any of the California marriage awesomeness lately, but I couldn’t pass this Union Tribune article up:
San Diego County issued a record 230 marriage licenses today and performed 144 wedding ceremonies on the first day gay and lesbian couples were allowed to marry in San Diego.
County officials did not break [...]

Science Fair Project Isolates Plastic-Eating Microbes

[from Geekdad] In the spirit of the awesome maverick science-fair project[1], I give you Daniel Burd and his amazing plastic-eating microbes.
“Almost every week I have to do chores and when I open the closet door, I have this avalanche of plastic bags falling on top of me,” he said. “One day, I got tired of [...]

gettin’ hitched (again) in California

It might just be a temporary victory, but today the California Supreme Court overturned a ban on gay marriage that was voted into law (as Proposition 22) back in 2000.
Domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage, the justices ruled 4-3 in an opinion.
The cases were brought by the city of San Francisco, [...]