When Rep. Henry Waxman of California and Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts released a draft of a much-anticipated global warming bill last week, it effectively marked the start of this year’s debate over regulating greenhouse gas emissions. But even with a Democratic majority in Congress and a sympathetic Obama administration, it’s going to be a long, tough fight. The debate centers on a proposal to create a cap-and-trade program, which, if passed, would set national limits on greenhouse gas emissions and require big polluters to get credits, or permits, for their emissions, which could then be traded between cleaner and dirtier companies. Among the questions that remain to be answered: how to design a cap-and-trade program that not only works but also protects average Americans from potentially higher energy costs and how to spend the hundreds of billions of dollars the program is expected to raise. As things look now, the House and the Senate could start debating the bill within the next few months. And yet, particularly in the Senate, supporters face major obstacles stemming from uncertainties and warnings about the economic impact of climate change policies. The recession has only served to fuel opposition from […]
A growing number of states are moving to require home builders to offer solar electricity and hot-water systems in new homes, right alongside more traditional options such as fancy kitchen countertops and special window treatments. ‘It’s just like the granite countertop upgrade or the two-car garage or the larger closet - these are options the homeowner can choose to purchase,’ said Jeff Lyng, the renewable energy program manager for Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter’s Energy Office. In Colorado, lawmakers are considering a bill that would require builders to offer a range of options, from pre-wiring the home for solar power to full installation of a solar system. The legislation would also require builders to tell buyers they can roll the cost of the system into their mortgage, reducing up-front costs, Lyng said. ‘What this begins to do is standardize things. We’re trying to build Colorado’s infrastructure to be ready for solar,’ Lyng said. The Colorado proposal has passed in the state House and awaits Senate consideration. Ritter, a Democrat who had solar panels installed at the Governor’s Mansion in Denver several years ago, said he plans to sign the bill. Elsewhere: ¢New Jersey lawmakers approved […]
The health care industry, a well-known laggard in information technology, is where most of corporate America was a decade or more ago in adopting Internet-style computing. There are innovators, intriguing experiments and lots of interest, but the technology hasn’t yet gone mainstream. Still, the direction is now clear, and only the pace of the shift is in question. The Obama administration’s plan to spend $19 billion to hasten the adoption of electronic health records that can share data across networks – ‘interoperable, in techspeak – will only give more impetus to the shift toward Internet-style computing. And there is plenty of evidence of the emerging transition being demonstrated and announced this week at the health information technology’s big annual conference and trade show in Chicago, sponsored by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, or HIMSS. One good example of the trend is a joint project, announced on Sunday, between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and GE Healthcare. The project will deliver individually tailored public health alerts to electronic health records in doctors’ offices. The goal, for example, is to have an alert pop up on a physician’s screen that a certain patient, based on location, […]
Can two people have sex and still remain ‘just friends?’ A recent study found that 60 percent of college students have been in a ‘friends with benefits’ relationship, but that the possibility for romantic feelings - and a lack of communication - can complicate such an arrangement. That may seem fairly obvious. But the study, published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, focused on why college students have these relationships at all. Researchers from Wayne State University and Michigan State University asked 125 undergraduates why they would or wouldn’t have sex with a friend, and what the advantages or disadvantages would be. Two-thirds of participants said they had been in a ‘friends with benefits’ relationship, and 36 percent said they currently were in one. The main advantage of such a relationship was ‘no commitment’ (reported by 59.7 percent of participants), which was followed closely by ‘have sex’ (55.6 percent). More than half of those who had sex with a friend said they had engaged in all forms of sex; 22.7 percent said they had intercourse only, while 8 percent said they did everything but have intercourse. ‘[The relationships] were perceived as providing a relatively safe […]
PRAGUE– Just hours after North Korea launched a long-range rocket, President Barack Obama called for ‘a world without nuclear weapons’ and said the United States has a ‘moral responsibility to lead the way, as the only nation ever to use them. Obama’s speech was long planned as the centerpiece of his first presidential trip overseas, but it gained new urgency after North Korea sent a multi-part rocket soaring over the Sea of Japan early Sunday morning. North Korea insisted the launch was meant to put a satellite into space but the U.S. and other nations believe Pyongyang is trying to develop the capability to launch a nuclear warhead. The president, who was woken up just after 4:30 a.m. local time by news of the launch, spoke to the authoritarian state in remarks hastily added to his text. ‘Now is the time for a strong international response, and North Korea must know that the path to security and respect will never come through threats and illegal weapons, Obama said to thousands thronged into the cobblestone square outside the elegant Prague Castle, in what was the largest crowd of his five-country, eight-day swing. ‘All nations must […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
