Adam Clare

GoodSearch

This is a good idea that makes use of the everyday, well at least an everyday online activity. GoodSearch is a site that lets you designate a charity that you’d like to donate to and a portion of ad revenue made from your search goes to the charity you specified. It appears to allow only USA-based charities benefit for now.

From GoodSearch:

“GoodSearch is a search engine which donates 50 percent of its revenue to the charities and schools designated by its users. It’s a simple and compelling concept. You use GoodSerach exactly as you would any other search engine and it is powered by Yahoo! so you get proven search results. The money GoodSearch donates to your cause comes from its advertisers â€” the users and the organizations do not spend a dime!”

Wikipedia Knowledge Dump

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit has to delete entries if they aren’t good. WikiDumper.org is the place that Wikipedia articles go to die.

There are a ton of funny entries that are rightly or undeservedly removed based on your standpoint. Some examples include Satan Claus, the theory that Santa is actually the devil, and the ever special Beard Theorem that draws a connection between beard size and socialism.

A fun site that takes on what Wikipedia sheds off.

Americans Want 40mpg

A new study by the Opinion Research Corporation has found that 78% of Americans want a 40mpg fuel legislation. LeftLaneNews has the story on the survey results.

“A bipartisan 78 percent of Americans want the U.S. government to impose a 40 mile per gallon fuel-efficiency standard for vehicles sold in the United States, according to a new Opinion Research Corporation (ORC) national opinion survey. The report indicates nine out of 10 Americans expect gas prices to go up “in the near future,” with nearly half (46 percent) “definitely” expecting a resumption of higher fuel prices.”

The comments at LeftLaneNews break down into some sort of flame war proclaiming that lower mpg seems to be better. I just skimmed the comments so maybe there are some gems in their. One person made a comment mentioning that he doesn’t want the government telling him what mpg is acceptable.

Better Tsunami Detection

Detecting tsunamis early can save millions of lives, and the earlier the detection the better. Researchers are wanting to put a new kind of detector that is placed on the ocean floor that will help provide better coverage in the Indian and Pacific oceans.

“They would offer greater coverage of the oceans by filling in large gaps between buoys, allowing scientists to promptly alert officials of undersea earthquakes that could trigger tsunamis and endanger coastal areas, she said.”

Economist Magazine Looks at Green

There has been a lot of investment in the field of energy production in the past couple years with a huge increase in the renewable energy sector. The Economist magazine wonders why this is. They openly state that this trend is good for society, but not so good for money.

My copy of the magazine arrived in the mail, and I noticed that the main article is not available on their site, thus no direct link. You may have to take my word that the Economist is unsurprisingly skeptical of renewable energy, apparently British economists are afraid of change. The Economist does provide a different angle than what I’m used to when thinking of renewable energy – the profit motive.