CSRwire.com – With the goal of reducing plastic bag litter that is strangling our planet, IKEA will no longer be offering customers free plastic bags. Beginning March 15, every plastic bag at every IKEA U.S. store across the nation will cost five cents. All proceeds from this ‘program year’ bag campaign will go to American Forests, the nation’s oldest non-profit citizens conservation organization, to plant trees to restore forests and offset CO2 emissions.

Go to original in the New York Observer.

Total Information Awareness
Technologies that push the envelope of the plausible capture our curiosity almost as quickly as the could-be crackpots who dare to concoct them become targets of our derision.
Here are a dozen, from the harebrained to the practical, that have a history of raising eyebrows and just might have a hand in transforming the future of the enterprise.
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Go to original by NATHAN CRABBE Sun staff writer
TAMPA – A doctor who oversaw the botched execution of Angel Diaz testified Monday that lethal injection shouldn’t be scrutinized as if it were a medical procedure.
“There’s nothing medical about it nor to equate to it. An execution has absolutely nothing even remotely connected to medicine,” said the doctor, whose voice was disguised to protect his identity.
The comments came before Florida’s commission on lethal injection, in response to questions about decisions in the Diaz execution that defied typical medical procedures and state guidelines.
The doctor suggested that once the execution starts, medical concerns are irrelevant.
“From that point onward, the condemned inmate will not leave the death chamber alive,” he said.
The doctor testified by speaker phone on the commission’s last day of testimony. The 11-member panel holds its final meeting Saturday, where it will discuss recommended changes to the state’s lethal injection process.

Guido Daniele reduces an elephant to fit on your hand.

Green building is a growing trend, in part because companies have realized they can actually save money by making a few environmentally friendly upgrades.
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Go to original on BBC

US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country’s military infrastructure, the BBC has learned.

It is understood that any such attack – if ordered – would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centres.

The US insists it is not planning to attack, and is trying to persuade Tehran to stop uranium enrichment.

The UN has urged Iran to stop the programme or face economic sanctions.

But diplomatic sources have told the BBC that as a fallback plan, senior officials at Central Command in Florida have already selected their target sets inside Iran.

Researchers at the MIT Media Lab envision a fleet of lightweight stackable electric cars that can help reduce congestion and urban energy waste.

Go to original by Robert Weisman, Boston Globe Staff | February 18, 2007

That’s the vision of a team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab. With backing from General Motors Corp., they are building a prototype of a lightweight electric vehicle that can be cheaply mass-produced, rented by commuters under a shared-use business model, and folded and stacked like grocery carts at subway stations or other central sites.

City Withdraws Ordinance

Ordinance No. 06, 2007, which amended Section 75-41 and 75-42 of Lafayette’s Municipal Code regarding the maximum penalties for possession of cannabis (marijuana), has been withdrawn.

Original

Maybe they won’t notice when they’ve got one…
The word “scrotum” does not often appear in polite conversation. Or children’s literature, for that matter.
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Read original by DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK in The New York Times

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 — Back when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was first lady, no one better embodied what she once called the “vast right-wing conspiracy” than Richard Mellon Scaife.

Mr. Scaife, reclusive heir to the Mellon banking fortune, spent more than $2 million investigating and publicizing accusations about the supposed involvement of Mrs. Clinton and former President Bill Clinton in corrupt land deals, sexual affairs, drug running and murder.

But now, as Mrs. Clinton is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, Mr. Scaife’s checkbook is staying in his pocket.

Christopher Ruddy, who once worked full-time for Mr. Scaife investigating the Clintons and now runs a conservative online publication he co-owns with Mr. Scaife, said, “Both of us have had a rethinking.”

“Clinton wasn’t such a bad president,” Mr. Ruddy said. “In fact, he was a pretty good president in a lot of ways, and Dick feels that way today.”

Cancer is not who you are – it’s what’s happening to you.
Go to original By David Twiddy,The Associated Press, in the Salt Lake Tribune

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Buying a greeting card for someone’s birthday, anniversary or if they’re feeling under the weather is pretty straightforward.

But what if they’re undergoing chemotherapy or struggling with depression?

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Joseph Longo’s Plasma Converter turns our most vile and toxic trash into clean energy—and promises to make a relic of the landfill.

It sounds as if someone just dropped a tricycle into a meat grinder. I’m sitting inside a narrow conference room at a research facility in Bristol, Connecticut, chatting with Joseph Longo, the founder and CEO of Startech Environmental Corporation.

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