Radioactive Bitz and Piecez

SUBHEAD: What happens over the next 24 hours is likely to be critical.By Steve Ludlum on 16 March 2011 in Economic Undertow - (http://economic-undertow.blogspot.com/2011/03/radioactive-bitz-and-piecesz.html)Image above: Uranium pellets on assembly line for use as nuclear fuel. From video below.The pitiful, inexorable slide of the Japanese nuclear station at Kurushima continues as radioactive

Planning for Failure

SUBHEAD: Inconceivable! Why failure should be a part of this plan, but isn't.By Sharon Astyk on 14 March 2011 in Casaubons Book - (http://scienceblogs.com/casaubonsbook/2011/03/inconceivable_why_failure_shou.php)Image above: The wreckage of the Challenger shuttle in 1986 just months before the Chernobyl meltdown. From (http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/investigations/q0122.shtml)."He'll never

Macondo and the Reactors

SUBHEAD: Society has reached limits to complexity along with the ability of our space ship to 'carry' toxic overloads such as this nuclear disaster.By Steve Ludlum on 13 March 2011 in Economic Undertow - (http://economic-undertow.blogspot.com/2011/03/macondo-and-reactors.html)Image above: Paste-up of BP Macondo blowout and aftermath of Japanese tsunami by Juan Wilson.This updates the monumental

Mountains as Nature's Lifeboats

SUBHEAD: Conditions in mountain ranges may offer important climatic stepping stones for cool-loving plants and animals.Image above: View Swiss Alps. photo by Jim Whitehead/Creative Commons.By Matthew McDermott on 9 November 2010 for TreeHugger.org - (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/11/mountain-ranges-conservation-safe-havens-warming-world.php)While there have been some pretty dire reports

Company of the Year - Monsanto

SUBHEAD: What Monsanto’s fall from grace reveals about the GMO seed industry.Image above: A toy, produced for Monsanto Chemical Company, for a farmer's child. What's that in his hand? GMO cabbage or an extra-terrestrial? From (http://inthevalley.tumblr.com/day/2009/08/20)By Tom Philpott on 12 October 2010 in Grist -(http://www.grist.org/article/2010-10-12-