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from the LA TIMES --
One of the greatest green challenges for the future is to figure out how to power those 'heavy lift' high-horsepower vehicles for which electric motors are not going to be a viable option. A jet airplane is the most obvious example of something that has always looked like it would require high-octane hydrocarbon fuel made from crude oil. Zepplins look cool... but let's face it: Our world will not be replacing its jet airliners with blimps any time soon. But necessity is the mother of invention and it now looks like that with enough incentives from world governments -- and enough commitment from corporate board rooms--it will be possible to create sustainable jet aircraft flying on bio-fuels made from plants we can grow.

Peter Pae, writing in The Los Angeles Times, January 8, 2009, reports on a bio-fuel test flight conducted by Continental Airlines using a twin engine Boeing 737 jetliner, "The two-hour test flight over Houston, where the carrier's headquarters is located, involved powering one of the two engines with a mix of 50% kerosene and a blend of fuel derived from algae and jatropha, a weed that bears oil-producing seeds. Air New Zealand Ltd. A week before became the world's first airline to fly a plane powered partly by jatropha-based fuel And Japan Airlines Corp. is planning a test flight using fuel refined from camelina, a flowering plant that wheat farmers grow in the high plains of the U.S." An interesting and unexpected side effect of the test flight was that the pilots reported the biofuel-powered engine appeared to burn a smaller amount of fuel compared to that consumed by jet fuel-powered engine.

from Adbusters Magazine --
Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization. We’ve reached a point in our civilization where counterculture has mutated into a self-obsessed aesthetic vacuum. While "hipsterdom" is the end product of all prior countercultures, it’s been stripped of its subversion and originality. An artificial appropriation of different styles from different eras, the hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture lost in the superficiality of its past, and unable to create any new meaning. Not only is it unsustainable, it is suicidal. While previous youth movements have challenged the dysfunction and decadence of their elders, today we have the “hipster” – a youth subculture that mirrors the doomed shallowness of mainstream society.

from the London Times--
Lord Drayson, Britain's government science minister. believes he has an uncanny ability “like a sixth sense” to know and predict some events instinctively. The multi-millionaire businessman says he believes humans have strange abilities that are not widely understood. “In my life there have been some things I have known, and I don’t know why,” he said in an interview with The Sunday Times. “I think there is a lot we don’t understand about human capability.” Drayson, who returned to parliament last month to become the first science minister with a seat in cabinet, also said he believed in God and saw no conflict between faith and science. “I think faith is a very strange thing,” he said. “You don’t necessarily believe in something just because you have the evidence to prove it.”

From Mother Jones Magazine --
Dancing generates 60% of the energy that runs London's Bar Surya club. The piezoelectric floor uses quartz crystals and ceramics to transform foot energy into electricity. The club will also be installing the latest air flush, waterless urinals, low flush toilets and automatic taps to ensure maximum water saving plus the latest innovations in ecological air conditioning

another from from Mother Jones --
And now environmental bras. Lingerie maker Triumph International in Japan has developed a bra that generates power for on-the-go i-pod charging, and another that doubles as a shopping bag.  The "Photovoltaic-Powered Bra" features a solar panel worn around the woman's stomach that can generate enough electricity to charge a mobile phone or an iPod with light exposure. As an added feature, a pair of reusable drink containers give new meaning to the term "cup Size." The drinking cups are attached to the bra cups in an effort to reduce consumption of aluminum cans and plastic bottles. Another bonus: Models say the cup attachments make their breasts look larger.

from The London Daily Mail --
For blind people to regain the power of sight usually requires a miracle  -  either of the old-fashioned, Biblical variety or of the modern, medical sort. Yet an extraordinary case reported this week shows us that there may be another form of miracle that can help the blind to 'see'  -  and it's one that may force us to rethink our whole understanding of the way in which the human senses operate. In the journal Current Biology it is reported that a man left totally blind by brain damage has astounded scientists by flawlessly navigating an obstacle course without any help or practice whatsoever. Blindsight: A new experiment suggests we may have a 'sixth sense' that allows some blind people to 'see' This is perhaps the most persuasive example to date of what is termed 'blindsight'  -  the extraordinary ability of some who have lost their vision to be able to 'see' without, apparently, any ability actually to receive images in the eye and brain at all. Because blindsight is a nebulous concept, often linked to paranormal manifestations, it has often been dismissed by researchers as myth. Yet here was a case that defied any straightforward explanation. Scientists at the University of Tilburg in The Netherlands found that a man was able to negotiate his way past a series of boxes and chairs, despite the fact that a series of strokes had damaged the visual cortex of his brain to such an extent that tests have shown he is completely blind.

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