New wind turbine design. 3x more power than existing models

The Aerogenerator is a vertical axis off-shore wind turbine that will output a whopping 10 MW, 3 times more powerful than anything now. The first machines will be built in 2013-2014 after two years of tests. Rolls Royce is one of the companies involved.

Other firms are also working on 10 MW machines, each [...]

Jim Cramer Photoshop Alert

Popeye arms?

Meet Josie, 9: No secret she’s transgender

Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star. (Photo available for purchase)

Josie is unique not only because she transitioned from being biologically male to identifying as female at such a young age, but because she and her family are so public about it.

The family has been criticized for going public with it but [...]

Note to Hugo Chavez. Oil is fungible

Socialist Unity on Venezuela’s threat to stop selling oil to the US if attacked by Columbia

If actually carried out, such a threat would be a big blow for the Venezuelan economy. More than 90 percent of its export earnings are from oil. The United States is the top buyer of oil from Venezuela, which [...]

Marc Cooper on the Afghanistan Wikileaks

Thanks to the six year archive of secret documents on the war in Afghanistan released by Wikileaks and amalgamated by three newspapers, we now know what a hopeless mess we are mired in (if we didn’t know that before). NO question this is the modern equivalent to The Pentagon Papers.

The key element, I think, [...]

What’s the difference between a radical and a good organizer?

Radicals at Work, “activists building a stronger labor movement”, detail six points about what a good organizer does and how being a doctrinaire radical can get in the way of organizing effectively.

What they’re saying is very much in the Saul Alinsky mode. He was a genuine radical who had little use for [...]

12 worst hot-weather pickup lines

As thoughtfully provided by Phoenix New Times, where they know what hot weather is.

My favorites

Don’t sweat the petty things. Pet the sweaty things.

You look so hot that I could cook rice on you.

By the way, it can get plenty humid in Arizona too. It’s currently monsoon season in Tucson (that’s [...]

Los Zetas have NOT seized ranches in Texas

Intelligence professional Sylvia Longmire debunks the Examiner.com-spread rumor that the Zetas have seized Texas ranches. Longmire reports extensively on Mexico’s drug war and she can be considered authoritative.

Normally I wouldn’t dignify a story like this with a post, but it’s making enough rounds across the Internet that I feel compelled to dispel the rumors [...]

Rethink Afghanistan: ISI and Pakistan Army Kill Americans

According to intelligence reports, Pakistan Army and ISI, their spy service, are directly involved with supporting, plotting, and carrying out attacks on American soldiers. [...]

Closing thoughts on Netroots Nation

David Dayan ponders the role of progressives trying to work for change and the Netroots Nation goal of electing more of them within a Democratic Party establishment that doesn’t much care for them. He sees some hopeful signs among organizers but little from DC.

And yet. On the panel in which I participated on the [...]