Fox News Got Gas Prices Hilariously Wrong
Remember those predictions that gas prices would hit $8 this summer? If not, you don't watch enough Fox News.
Remember those predictions that gas prices would hit $8 this summer? If not, you don't watch enough Fox News.
Tata is Working on an Electric Car to be Sold for Less than $20,000
This new Tate EV is currently under development, and the goal is to sell it for about 10 lakh, which is about $20,000.
Is It Really a Coal Auction When Only One Company Bids?
In the Bureau of Land Management's upcoming lease auction for over 700 million tons of coal on public land in Wyoming, there's likely only to be one bidder: Peabody Energy
Vestas Scraps U.K. Wind-turbine Plant as Industry Seeks Clarity
Vestas Wind Systems A/S shelved plans to build one of Europe's largest offshore-turbine factories in southeast England as the wind industry calls for clarity on subsidy programs.
Japan Approves Feed-in Tariffs
Industry Minister Yukio Edano approved Japan's feed-in tariffs for renewable energy on 18 June 2012. The tariffs are among the highest in the world.
An Introductory Feminist Reading List
We’ve been having a lot of conversations on the blog about feminism this week, and a reader wrote in asking for suggestions of non-fiction if he wanted to give himself a basic primer on feminism as intellectual tradition. Lots of you wrote in with good suggestions, so here are my favorites and the books that were recommended most often by the masses.
1. Vindication of the Rights of Women, Mary Wollstonecraft: The foremother of feminist philosophy, Wollstonecraft used this piece to push back against arguments that women should only receive domestic education, and to lay the foundations on which other women would build the argument for equality between the sexes.
2. A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf: Woolf is arguing for educational access and economic independence as necessary preconditions for women who want to write, but her arguments are applicable to women seeking self-determination in any manner of arena.
3. The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan: There’s no question that Friedan is a problematic figure, particularly given her attitudes towards people of color and lesbians, but her analysis of the gap between what society wanted women to aspire to and the happiness it actually brought them played a critical role in the national feminist conversation of the last century.
4. Sister Outsider, Audre Lorde: Friedan’s flaws are Lourde’s triumphs: a black woman, a lesbian, and the child of immigrants, Lourde’s work makes a major contribution to a vision of feminism that isn’t the sole preserve of and salve for the wounds of white, heterosexual, middle-class women.
5.Gender Trouble, Judith Butler: Butler’s critique of the idea that femininity is natural rather than constructed is a perfect introduction to gender theory for first-timers.
6. Justice, Gender, And The Family, Susan Moller Okin: Reccomended by philosopher friends, Moller Okin takes the concept of justice from public life and applies it to the private sphere.
7. The Second Shift, Arlie Hockschild: A landmark examination of how domestic labor is divided in families where both parents work.
8. This Bridge Called My Back and Borderlands/La Frontera, Gloria Anzaldúa: The former is an essay collection including work by Anzaldúa and other women of color, the latter a collection of prose and poetry by Anzaldúa, recommended to me by Chicana friends in college and vital reading.
9. Ain’t I A Woman?, bell hooks: Another critically important book about the intersections of race and gender, examining the magnifying impact of sexism on slavery, sexism in the black community and racism among feminists.
10. Backlash, Susan Faludi: Particularly valuable context on the War on Women, which is not precisely new.
11. Crazy Salad, Nora Ephron: Lots of folks think of Ephron solely as a creature of Hollywood, but her reporting on the women’s movement as it came into flower in the twentieth century is vital, and funny, and very much gives a sense of what it must be like to have lived through the contradictions, victories, and failures of the moment.
Why Nuclear Power is Not an Energy Solution
With clean energy prosperity in sight, there are well-meaning people who suggest that nuclear power could be part of the solution. The Sierra Club vehemently disagrees with them.
Lower Subsidies Lead to Larger Solar Plants
Who'd have thought it? A cut in subsidies for solar has lead some UK developers to increase the size of their solar plants.
