National Geographic News / Christine Dell’Amore

If there’s a giant tortoise heaven, Lonesome George is lonesome no more.

The century-old giant tortoise was found dead in his corral Sunday at the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island (map), part of Galápagos National Park.

Perhaps best known for his apparent aversion to female tortoises—hence his nickname—George was the last known individual of his subspecies, Geochelone abingdoni, also called the Pinta Island tortoise or Abingdon Island tortoise.   [Read more…]

By Jill Richardson

Economists all know this joke, which “comes from the stereotype that many economic models require unrealistic or absurd assumptions in order to obtain results.” And yet, how many heed its warning?A physicist, a chemist and an economist are stranded on an island, with nothing to eat. A can of soup washes ashore. The physicist says, “Let’s smash the can open with a rock.” The chemist says, “Let’s build a fire and heat the can first.” The economist says, “Let’s assume that we have a can-opener…”

A new book, The Locavore’s Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000 Mile Diet by Pierre Desroches and Hiroku Shimizu, uses arguments from neoliberal economics to explain why those who advocate eating local food are wrong. Often, their arguments require assumptions as silly as the one in the joke. For example, in making the case that the world moved from a diet of local food to a global food system for a good reason (and therefore we should not return to eating local), they assume that modern locavores will face the same technological limitations as our ancestors, who were also locavores. But aside from the numerous strawman arguments found throughout the book, there are several points where economics are properly applied to food and agriculture and – the authors charge – prove that local food is a bad idea.

But perhaps the opposite is true instead; that the models used in neoliberal economics do not accurately apply here. Here are six economic principles that do not fit when it comes to food and agriculture:
  [Read more…]

By Nadin Abbott

July 5, 2012 (San Diego)– If like most of us in the coast you heard a loud rumbling that lasted for about thirty seconds, last night, you were not alone. Nor was it your imagination. The fire works had a glitch. The good news is, nobody got hurt.

According to August Santori, the person in charge of the show last night, they suspect they had a corrupted file in the firing cue sequence. Hence the four barges and the land site on Imperial Beach all fired their mortars in thirty seconds. He also explained that this was a weird event and that it was unexpected. They had another twenty nine shows around the nation, and they all went off perfectly. His company runs three hundred shows a year, and their goal is to achieve a 100% rate of success.   [Read more…]

Wall Street Journal’s MarketBeat / Paul Vigna

American solar companies got an assist from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, which ordered steep duties on China’s big solar-panel companies.   [Read more…]