Currently, half of Sweden’s nuclear reactors are idle, but it’s not because of the 1980 referendum in which Swedish citizens asked for a nuclear phase out plan and a switch to renewable energies (f.ex. the state-owned Vattenfall utility is investing $1 billion in wind and wants to build Northern-Europe’s biggest wind farm), but because of [...]

Researchers at the University of Toronto have created a semiconductor device that outperforms today’s conventional chips — and they made it simply by painting a liquid onto a piece of glass.
Nanotechwire.com

Emmet Oliver in The Irish Times reports that just 20 years after the Chernobyl disaster, a group of scientists, businessmen and academics have set up the Republic’s first campaign group in favour of nuclear energy.
Nuclear power is against the law in Ireland, and they want to change that.
“The nuclear debate in Ireland [...]

This is one of my favourite daydreams, but I hadn’t thought of it as being anything to do with
obese pelicans or shape-shifting switchblades. Not much that’s new here, but a nice compilation of what is, what will be soon, and what may be, and most important, Ecogeek has the photos.
Ecogeek

This takes a while, probably an hour, to watch, but its sheer brilliance makes the time slip by.

Robert Newman’s History of Oil
Sublime, terrifying and cut-to-the-bone funny, where real life leaves the theatre of the absurd in the dust.
See also Robert Newman’s website

The presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia have rebuffed demands by the European Union and other leaders at a summit in Vienna to temper their policies on foreign investment and energy, declaring that a new political era had arrived.
Guardian Report
Meanwhile John Pilger, in his usual uncompromising style, reports on his visit to Venezeula where he interviewed [...]

Every day there are dozens of homeless people on the streets of Dublin, for whatever reason.
Have a look at the Resource Center for the Homeless in Austin, Texas, just to see what can be done if there’s the will.
Austin seems to be the place to go, and if ever the US lifts its iris scans [...]

CPI closed down after legal threat
Siobhan Maguire
THE Centre for Public Inquiry (CPI), the controversial anti-corruption watchdog, has been wound up following threats from a property company to sue the directors if they published a report into its dealings in Dublin’s docklands.
Treasury Holdings, one of the country’s biggest developers, has confirmed that legal letters were sent [...]

I’ve only now found Colm Tóibín’s piece in the New York Times about Tara.

A Road Runs Through Tara (free registration may be required).
See also The proposed route of the M3 toll-motorway through the Tara/Skryne valley hosted by NUI Galway.
See also Hill of Tara/M3 weblog

It isn’t often I attend an event to read just one poem, but that’s what I’ll be doing on Friday night, in support of the M3 Motorway and the Hill of Tara Litigation Fund. The venue is Drimnagh Castle, Dublin, on Friday March 24, 6pm to midnight. A lot of money needs to be [...]