In the latest issue of Wired, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla explains why he is betting on biofuels:

A company called E3 Biofuels is about to fire up the most energy-efficient corn ethanol facility in the country: a $75 million state-of the-art biorefinery and feedlot capable of producing 25 million gallons of ethanol a year. What?s more, it will run on methane gas produced from cow manure. The super-efficient operation capitalizes on a closed loop of resources available here on the prairie ? cattle (fed on corn), manure (from the cows), and corn (fed into the ethanol distiller). The output: a potential gusher of renewable, energy-efficient transportation fuel.

If this pans out, bullshit may save the Earth.

The Inspired Protagonist is the new official blog of Seventh Generation, a company that sells non-toxic and environmentally safe household products:

The Inspired Protagonist is Seventh Generation’s voice, reaching out, to inspire the few who will inspire the many, bringing wealth and well-being to all who live and are about to live (seven generations) on the planet. We seek to add the action of change to every word, now.

The blog contains many interesting posts relating to the environment and sustainable living. Thanks to Think Green Media for the heads up.

Don’t forget to put on
your sunscreen lotion!

MSNBC has an article asking if the current heat wave across much of the USA is a result of global warming. The correct scientific answer is “Who knows?” – it’s really impossible to pin down any one specific meteorological event to long-term climatic trends, whether it’s a hurricane or a heat wave. Nevertheless, it is consistent with global warming predictions, and there are some unique aspects to this particular onset of record-breaking temperatures:

So, is our current heat wave a symptom of global warming?

“This heat wave and other extreme events we’ve seen in recent years are completely consistent with what we expect to become more common as a result of global warming, even though we can’t be definitive on any single event,? says Jay Gulledge with Pew Climate Change.

But experts say our current heat wave is unique.

“So far, we’ve had about 80 daily high temperature records broken and in the month of July there were about 50 all-time records for the month of July broken — that’s phenomenal for any air mass, any heat wave that’s going on right now,” says Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

National Geographic Adventure Magazine presents “The Insider’s Guide to the Great Parks“, an annual roundup of the 30 best national parks in the United States and Canada. A few of this year’s winners include Yosemite National Park in California, the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland.

“An Inconvenient Truth” is a powerful and informative documentary about global warming, presented by Al Gore with compelling scientific evidence. It’s gotten very good reviews and currently has an overall 88% positive rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

Four of my favorite things are development, evolution, and breasts, and now I have an article that ties them all together in one pretty package.

-PZ Myers explains the origin and evolution of the breast, that part of the female anatomy we all know and love.

A strange-looking polar bear shot by a hunter last month had scattered brown patches of fur and the long claws and humped back of a grizzly. A DNA test has confirmed that it is a polar/grizzly hybrid, “possibly the first documented in the wild.” Read more about it at MSNBC. What should it be called? Pozzly bear? Grolar bear?