the greener side

Does microwaved water kill plants?

Do microwaves poison food? One Marshall Dudley posted the results of what was supposedly a granddaughter's science project, in which the kid watered two plants (geraniums? the leaves on the clippings look different from the plantings). One sprout sipped microwaved water while the other got stove-boiled water--after it chilled, I assume. It's not a double-blind study, peer-reviewed in Nature. Yet one glance at the results are enough to make any microwave-wary folks gulp. Dudley followed up:

We have seen a number of comments on this, such as what was the water in the microwave boiled in. The thinking is that maybe some leaching took place if it was in plastic.  It was boiled in a plastic cup, so this could be a possibility.

Yeah, everyone says that plastic is safe, and microwaves don't cause cancer (although popcorn bags definitely leach teflon into your munchies). But does nuking food and water make it less healthy for living things, if not deadly? Was this a case of radiation sickness or plastic poisoning, was this test too sloppy to tell, or is it a hoax?

technorati tags: radiation environment health microwave

Out of ice

Global warming is melting polar ice caps so fast that in a few centuries sea levels might rise by 20 feet, drastically redrawing the world's maps. This next decade is our last chance to cool down. If we don't, our grandkids might say bye to the Bahamas, New Orleans (again), Miami, even San Francisco. That's what big-time studies in Science (oddly, not noted in most big-time papers today) are warning. Compare the map at left (via Christian Science Monitor) with what famous psychics have predicted. Fun!

Zaadz' seeds of green social networking

It's embarrassing that I joined Friendster years ago in a morbid bout of "where-are-they-now" curiosity, yet I was too square for the now-unkinky Tribe and I proudly raise my cane about skipping MySpace and Facebook. (Ha! it's also embarrassing that I misspelled "embarassing" for half the year in this post.) Ah, youngsters. Any term ending in "-ster" clogs my large intestine. Nevertheless, curious again, I'm outing myself for having signed up at Zaadz, a social networking site for cultural creatives, after a nice reader pointed it out. The profiles of 1,453 active "Zaadsters" each list two astrological signs--hence many stargazers/yogis/techies /Reiki-people/Burning Man devotees with interests that include green building, evolution, and felting. One guy describes himself as "a love light Padawan;" one woman calls herself a "psychoactive bodhisattva." Get it?

Will Zaddz' mission to fuse capitalism with world-changing attract swarms of green people? Zaadz is marked by an absence of cynicism, so even its form buttons are polite (right), but users such as this one gripe about censorship. To join, you must agree to either respect the "sacred space" or leave it. Hm. The site's only in private beta (testing) mode, so expect quirks. Tagging and other web 2.0 plans are in the works, as are hopes for Zaadz-branded spas and books. For now, you can peek at people and search a bank of quotes by some of "the world's greatest thinkers (59 of the 60 most-quoted are male)."

The future is megagreen, pop book says

Capitalism is becoming kinder and greener, predicts pop futurist Patricia Aburdene, author of the new Megatrends 2010. This book is a feel-good view of how businesses and technology are adapting to a growing demand for sustainability. For example, it cites studies showing that companies with socially responsible practices thrive financially.

"There is a reason for these results: A business is a whole, and systems work better when all their organic parts are honored," Aburdene told the Christian Science Monitor."We need to graduate from the ridiculous notion that greed is some kind of elixir for capitalism - it's the downfall of capitalism." Here's what the Megatrends books have predicted:

What's left of the U.S., post-prophecies

More cataclysmic Earth changes are in store for us, and soon. At least that’s what so many cocktail conversations center around these days—all of those spine-tingling “what ifs” over how scorned Mother Nature will lash out.  Blame Gulf Coast calamities, gas gouging, and even those housing bubble murmurs for preoccupying Americans with the catastrophic possibilities of nature. West Coasters shake over “not if but when” quakes, such as the San Andreas upset that's due, oh, every century or so--which would be, um, next year.

What will the planet think of next? Here’s your answer, already drawn out in these future maps. Photoshop helped me crudely overlap the predictions of Nostradamus, Gordon Michael Scallion, Chet Snow, Doris and Aron Abrahamsen, Ashton Pitre, and George Shaffer.

For example, California was supposed to splinter into islands, and Colorado would have enjoyed oceanfront property by now, if Scallion were right. Nonsense, says Pitre; the Mississippi will merge the Great Lakes for a 50-mile-wide gush down to the Gulf. Oh, stop arguing you guys. What if we just say that you're all correct? Then every colored-in zone (left) will be under water within this century.

Admit it, don't you want to be a prophet too--the one who sensed it all well in advance (but only pinpointed it ever-so-clearly in hindsight)? Here's my wisdom: buy land in Appalachia, or sprint to Canada now. Only the gray areas in the map below remain unscathed by prophecy.

The mind isn't a machine

The brain doesn't process information from points A to B in a straight line, says new research from Cornell U. Instead, data follows wavy, nonlinear looping paths to reach conclusions, so our thoughts travel through "a high-dimensional mental space."  It makes sense that gray matter would perceive things in shades of gray, fluidly, instead of like a number-crunching computer.