You think computers don’t contribute to our carbon footprint? Well, they do and here’s how much the people at LocalCooling.com estimate the numbers to be:

“More than 30 billion kilowatt-hours of energy is wasted because many of us simply forget to shut down our computers when we’re not using them”

So although this is just another power manager for your computer, it shows you an estimate of how much energy you are saving, translated into trees, gallons of oil and watts.

Global warming, meet Local Cooling.

It focuses on a number of subjects ranging from genetic testing, biotechnology, gene patenting and gene ownership.

Although it was an interesting read, I found it to be sort of a rush job. About 80% of the book is composed of small stories based on different areas of the biotech industry and the remaining 20% is a quick story to make it look like you were actually reading a novel of some sort.

I was expecting the stories to crossover and intertwine but no such luck. It was sort of like a textbook of biotech facts and oddities.

I did enjoy the fact that the stories are based on true facts or almost, like Crichton claims in the following way:

“This novel is fiction, except for the parts that aren’t”

Overall, it’s a quick read that keeps the reader interested and goes into some subjects that have a controversial component, be it ethical, legal, financial or all of the above.

I’m not sure if it is just my (hardcover) copy of the book but I noticed the pages seemed to be roughly cut and sort of unaligned. Is your copy like that?

If you want to watch an hour long interview of Michael Crichton on Charlie Rose’s show, you can watch it here. (via Genetics & Health)

Is it just me, or is Crichton’s voice rather irritating? And while I’m at it, is it just me or is Charlie Rose a not-so-good interviewer?

Michael Crichton’s NEXT

For those who don’t know what the Pastafarian religion is about, I recommend a visit to the official website.

What I found most amusing about this whole story was the fact the student kept up with the requisites imposed or recommended by the Pastafarian religion. Namely dressing up in full Pirate attire.

The school says that the suspension for one day is not due to the students religion but due to his pirate clothing.

Maybe if they knew more about his religious beliefs, they’d understand he was just trying to fight global warming! hah!

What would Flying Spaghetti Monster do?

Don’t know who this man is/was? Well, he was a very intelligent man who just happened to invent the wrong things. Although they served great purpose when they were invented, they later became some of the most damaging inventions on our environment.

What did he invent? Nothing more than CFC’s that ate away our precious ozone layer and the leaded gasoline that made the motors work better but filled our air with lead, which just happens to be toxic to us air-breathers.

So, while the Bush administration is thinking about re-stocking the air with lead, let’s not forget about the ozone layer! Might as well let them CFC’s loose!

How to pull a Thomas Midgley!

Well, yesterday I sat down with her to watch Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and it hit me. Although I knew things were bad, I had not read anything scientific enough to make me open up my eyes… and mind.

Although the documentary was made to sensationalize the whole ordeal, it has an underlying truth. That if we don’t do something about the way we are sucking the Earth dry of resources, we will most probably have to think about moving nextdoor. Oh yeah… there is no nextdoor!

And today, I woke up and while rolling through my feeds and emails the titles just popped into my sight as if one of those “Beautiful Mind” moments! Ice retreat, hydrogen economy, sustainable energy, solar tax, etc.

I’m actually an avid reader of a few websites and blogs that talk about these issues like Physorg.com and Clean Break, among others.

Global Warning: You have been warmed!

While running through my feeds, I stopped over at Clean Break for a look-see on the clean energy news and found this amazing analogy by David Suzuki:

“it’s like we’re all in a car heading 100 kilometres an hour toward a brick wall, but we’re all arguing about who’s going to sit where, rather than trying to turn the wheel and apply the break. Meanwhile, he added, NGOs like the Suzuki Foundation are locked in the trunk of the car so all you can hear is their muzzled shouts in the background.”

Great analogy.

David Suzuki’s global warming analogy