The healthiest grocery stores

by CHRISTINA CLARK
Nov 11th 2008 @ 5:28PM

Filed under: Food, Local, Shopping Guide

It is a weekly choice at my house on which grocery store we will go to. Usually,we see who has the most on sale items we'd like to eat in the upcoming week. There are at least 10 grocery stores within 15 miles of my home so there are a lot of choices. 

I love to shop at Market Street, owned by HEB, which is full of beautiful produce, fresh seafood, sushi made right in front of me and brands I can't find at other stores. Unfortunately, it's a bit pricey so I can't go every week. What is the healthiest place to shop though? 

CNN asked some doctors to rate a variety of grocery chains. It's no surprise that Whole Foods came out on top, but what were some of the other leaders? 

1. Whole Foods - for it's commitment to healthy eating across the board
   
2. Safeway - called Tom Thumb where I live, for its O Organics in-house brand and an effort to have locally grown produce in stores. 
   
3. Harris Teeter in the Southeast, for its healthy shopping tools like Your Wellness for Life. 
   
4. Trader Joe's - for the in-store brands that are free of preservatives, trans fats and other unpleasantness. 
   
5. Hannaford in the Northeast, a certified organic supermarket with over 50 locally grown organic produce options. 
   
6. Albertsons - for the in store brand Wild Harvest which is about 15% less than other organic brands in the store.
7. FoodLion for it's offshoot, Bloom which offers fresh produce and nutrition kiosks where you can print healthy recipes to take home. 
   
8. Publix - for a wide variety of family programs aimed at healthy eating.
9. Pathmark in the Mid-Atlantic is a large buyer or locally grown produce. 
   
10. Super Target - for offering a wide variety of organic and healthy brands like Barbara's, Kashi and Sahala Snacks. 
    

With a list like that, let's hope you can find a good, local choice for yourself.

Related Link

What is the world's tree per person ratio?

by KELLY LEAHY
Nov 12th 2008 @ 11:21AM

Filed under: News, Plants and Wildlife

I have one tree on my property. It certainly does not make up for all of the wood products or oxygen that my family consumes annually. I figure that some of the uninhabited forested portions of the earth make up for my single oak. But how many trees are out there per person? Ecology professor, Nalini Nadkarni thinks she has the answer.

After pouring over NASA satellite photos, Nadkarni was able to estimate the number of trees on the planet and it came to just over 400 billion. Divide that by the number of people who inhabit Earth (over six billiion) and Nadkarni came up with 61 trees per person.

Nadkarni was at first thrilled with the number as she was happy for a single tree to call her own, nevermind 61. However, after giving thought to the wood products used in her life, 61 didn't seem like such a high number. This is not a reason to despair however, Nadkarni reminds us that trees are not like oil -- a non-renewable resource. To make up for the number of disposable chopsticks you burn through or golf balls you lose, plant a tree or two every year.

Rheumatoid Arthritis Breakthrough

ScienceDaily (Nov. 12, 2008) — Rheumatoid arthritis is a painful, inflammatory type of arthritis that occurs when the body's immune system attacks itself. A new article reports a breakthrough in the understanding of how autoimmune responses can be controlled, offering a promising new strategy for therapy development for rheumatoid arthritis.

Read More

Molecule That Stops SARS Invented

ScienceDaily (Nov. 12, 2008) — A Purdue University researcher has created a compound that prevents replication of the virus that causes SARS and could lead to a treatment for the disease.

Read More

NINTENDO UNVEILS WII SPEAK CHANNEL FOR FOUR-WAY VOICE CHATS

by Paul Miller, posted Oct 3rd 2008 at 9:26AM

Remember that Wii Speak microphone that Nintendo announced at E3 for Animal Crossing socialization, and then everyone promptly forgot about? Well, shuffled in with its other announcements yesterday, Nintendo announced the Wii Speak channel, that will allow for up to four people to voice chat directly without all that pesky fishing and digging and tea sipping and cute getting in the way. Unfortunately, literally nothing else is known about the feature -- we're curious if we can use that USB mic we got for karaoke, and we're sure you have burning questions of your own, but Nintendo's clearly going to debut this feature and the related hardware in its own sweet time.

[Via Joystiq]

• READ 

ELECTRIC UTILITIES SET TO TEST SMART CHARGING SYSTEM WITH PLUG-IN PRIUSES

by Donald Melanson, posted Nov 10th 2008 at 1:14PM

We heard a few months ago that some fleets of plug-in Priuses were set to go into testing in early 2009, and it looks like some of those plans are now starting to get a bit clearer, with two southeastern electric utility companies recently announcing that they plan to use the PHEVs to evaluate a new smart charging system. Apparently, Duke Energy Carolinas and Progress Energy are particularly interested in testing how billing and energy usage will be tracked when a vehicle subscribed to one company charges on another network, and also how they'll be able to ensure that folks who feed energy back onto the grid get properly credited. To that end, all the Priuses in the test will be equipped with a V2Green connectivity module, which allows for two-way communication between the vehicles and the grid and promises to let utility companies minimize grid stress. No word on an exact start date for the fleet roll-out just yet, so anyone in the area had best keep an eye out -- you never know when they might just silently sneak up on you when you least expect it.

[Via AutoblogGreen]

• READ 

Circuit City Files For Bankruptcy

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday November 10, @01:11PM

from the i-bet-their-execs-got-cashed-out dept.

WillDraven is just one of many who writes to tell us that Circuit City, the United States' 2nd largest consumer electronics retailer, has filed for bankruptcy under chapter 11. This news comes as no surprise as the company has been in financial trouble, recently announcing that it will be closing over one fifth of its stores and laying off 17% of its U.S. employees in the process. 'Larger rival Best Buy, which is based in Minneapolis, has said it might take over stores that distressed rivals close. Yet a flood of discounted merchandise from liquidating Circuit City stores could hurt Best Buy during this holiday shopping season, said Jefferies & Co analyst Dan Binder.'"

Getting Little Sleep May Be Associated With Risk Of Heart Disease

ScienceDaily (Nov. 11, 2008) — Sleeping less than seven and a half hours per day may be associated with future risk of heart disease, according to a new article. In addition, a combination of little sleep and overnight elevated blood pressure appears to be associated with an increased risk of the disease.

Read More

Babies Placed In Incubators Decrease Risk Of Depression As Adults

ScienceDaily (Nov. 11, 2008) — Babies who receive incubator care after birth are two to three times less likely to suffer depression as adults according to a new study published in the journal Psychiatry Research.

Read More

Protein 'Tubules' Free Avian Flu Virus From Immune Recognition

ScienceDaily (Nov. 11, 2008) — A protein found in the virulent avian influenza virus strain called H5N1 forms tiny tubules in which it "hides" the pieces of double-stranded RNA formed during viral infection, which otherwise would prompt an antiviral immune response from infected cells, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers in an online report in the journal Nature.

Read More

Windows 7 Benchmarks Show Little Improvement On Vista

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday November 11, @05:23AM

from the second-verse-same-as-the-first dept.

snydeq writes"InfoWorld's Randall Kennedy examines Windows 7 from the kernel up, subjecting the 'pre-beta' to a battery of benchmarks to find any signs that the OS will be faster, more responsive, and less resource-intensive than the bloated Vista, as Microsoft suggests. Identical thread counts at the kernel level suggest to Kennedy that Windows 7 is a 'minor point-type of release, as opposed to a major update or rewrite.' Memory footprint for the kernel proved eerily similar to that of Vista as well. 'In fact, as I worked my way through the process lists of the two operating systems, I was struck by the extent of the similarities,' Kennedy writes, before discussing the results of a nine-way workload test scenario he performed on Windows 7 — the same scenario that showed Vista was 40 percent slower than Windows XP. 'In a nutshell, Windows 7 M3 is a virtual twin of Vista when it comes to performance,' Kennedy concludes. 'In other words, Microsoft's follow-up to its most unpopular OS release since Windows Me threatens to deliver zero measurable performance benefits while introducing new and potentially crippling compatibility issues.'"

Kinetic energy to power your gadgets?

by CHRISTINA CLARK
Nov 10th 2008 @ 4:58PM

Filed under: Gadgets and Tech, Alternative Energy

Instead of worrying about charging up your cell phone with electricity, or even solar power, what if you could do it just by your normal, daily walking around? That's what makers of some kinetic chargers are making possible. 

If you aren't into charging while walking, how about a hand crank device? The Eco Media Player is similar to an MP3 player but uses one minute of hand cranking to power it for 45 minutes. It plays movies, music and stores photos. 

The market for kinetic powered devices is growing and so are the product offerings. Keep your eyes open for more things that arepowered by you.

Related Link

Scientists discover carbon eating stone - The power of rock

by JOSH LOPOSER
Nov 10th 2008 @ 3:30PM

Filed under: GreenTech, Climate Change

The power of rock should never be underestimated, but in this case I'm not pondering the electricity consumed by one of the nation's premiere outdoor music festivals -- or even the phenomenon that occurs when you crank your amp up to 11. I'm talking about literal rock here, the igneous variety to be specific, andscientists think it can save the planet.Peridotite rock, found predominately in the earth's mantle, can actually "soak up" the CO2 emissions floating in our atmosphere. 

In a nutshell, when this magical rock comes into contact with CO2, the gas is converted into solid minerals like calcite. Sweet. Scientists Peter Kelemen and Juerg Matter have even come up with a plan to store at least 2 billion tons of the carbon emissions that humans produce each year (about 30 billion tons are produced worldwide). According to these guys, working out of Columbia University, they could kick start the rock's carbon storage potential by boring deep into the rock in Oman -- where it meets the surface -- and inject pressurized carbon mixed with hot water. 

Currently, the scientists have filed for a patent and are researching the viability of peridotite storage on a commercial scale.

Related Link

Less is more for the holidays

by CHRISTINA CLARK
Nov 10th 2008 @ 2:54PM

Filed under: Home, Tips, Green Giving

I try my best to write about things on Green Daily that I would actually do or try myself. And what I am about to write is a big one at my house this year. 

Less for Christmas. I know. It's difficult to really embrace this idea. I am working on it though. And the more I read around the web, other people are thinking about it too. 

How can you get started? Keep reading. 


Decide first if you want an eco-friendly focus, a money-saving focus, or both. We are going more for a money-saving focus at our house but many of our choices are turning out to be green.

• Talk to family and friends who would be receptive to the idea of exchanging simple, homemade gifts or services or skipping gifts altogether. One of my cousins is really into canning and eagerly agreed to swap homemade gifts. I didn't broach the subject with my bachelor male cousin who is into video games and TV dinners. Maybe next year. 
  
• Be realistic about the time until Christmas. 
  
• Keep it simple. Don't plan to bake 15 varieties of gourmet cookies (unless that's your thing). It will cost you more time and money than regular Christmas shopping. 
  
• If you have a closet full of wrapping supplies, use them before getting any more. And if you don't, look for alternatives like comic pages or newsprint with potato stamp images that your kids can make. 
  

We have a variety of approaches at our house. I have several knitted scarves in process (I am an habitual starter or projects). I have family members who have commented that they liked this or that one, so I am working to finish those for the family members that liked them. 

We canned a wide variety of jams this year and my husband bakes all of our bread. So, we will be giving many friends a loaf or two of homemade bread along with some jam. Family members will receive these in addition to other gifts. 

I just got married in June, so for some immediate family members, I am making mini wedding scrapbooks (I already scrapbook so I am using various scraps and bits and pieces from other projects). For others, a framed photo of my husband and I with them on our wedding day. 

And finally, the biggest thing we are doing is just buying less. For many cousins that I don't see regularly, we are simply giving a Christmas ornament. For my nephew we are spending the largest portion of what we budgeted for him on a savings bond. Everyone else will buy him toys. We will get him a sleeping bag, some hiking boots and a nature book with a coupon good for a camping trip with us. 

It was hard for me to let go of the idea of buying really cool stuff for everyone. I had to admit I was doing it partly to find something they would like, but also partly to feel good when they told me it was a really cool gift. So this year, I am working on making changes that will be better for the planet, better for my wallet and just better for everyone all around. 

What are you doing differently? 

Computer Model Can Predict Human Behavior And Learning

ScienceDaily (Nov. 10, 2008) — A computer model that can predict how people will complete a controlled task and how the knowledge needed to complete that task develops over time is the product of a group of researchers, led by a professor from Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology.

Read More

Researchers Discover New Risk Factor For Cardiovascular Disease, And A Way To Control It

ScienceDaily (Nov. 10, 2008) — A team of international researchers – including scientists from the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and McGill University – have discovered that having high levels of particular protein puts patients at increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The results of the study were so conclusive that the clinical trial had to be stopped before its scheduled completion date.

Read More

A greener cruise - is there such a thing?

by CHRISTINA CLARK
Nov 7th 2008 @ 8:02AM

Filed under: Travel and Vacation

Giant cruise ships stuffed with food, tourists and featuring multiple swimming pools and even grass on deck don't exactly make me think of a green vacation. There are things you can do to choose the greenest options out there when picking a cruise vacation.

• Choose a cruise that leaves from a port close to where you live. If you don't live close to a cruise port, at least fly nonstop to your departure city since planes use the most fuel in take-offs and landings. 
  
• Find out cruise line policies on wastewater treatment. Some cruise lines have high tech, eco-friendly wastewater treatment on all ships and other lines are still implementing the changes. 
  
• Find a cruise line, or destination that focuses on eco-tourism as much as possible. The overall services and facilities should be more eco-conscious. 
  
• Finally, to really minimize your impact, sail on a ship with 150 or fewer passengers. You won't have all the big cruise ship amenities but you will have a much smaller impact on the environment.

Related Link

MINI NUCLEAR PLANTS

Mini nuclear power plants are coming. As small as a shed, and buried locally underground where they are needed, these plants have no moving parts and simply produce energy for years.

[Image Source: Next Energy News]

Mini nuclear plants to power 20,000 homes | Environment | The Observer:

"Nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed the first atomic bomb."

Of course safety and disposal would be a concern...

"The miniature reactors will be factory-sealed, contain no weapons-grade material, have no moving parts and will be nearly impossible to steal because they will be encased in concrete and buried underground."

But, they do appear to have real orders. I think that perhaps for countries that have electrical infrastructures that are not stable - this may be a compelling option.

"The reactors, only a few metres in diameter, will be delivered on the back of a lorry to be buried underground. They must be refuelled every 7 to 10 years. Because the reactor is based on a 50-year-old design that has proved safe for students to use, few countries are expected to object to plants on their territory. An application to build the plants will be submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission next year."

The company is named Hyperion, and below is some additional information on the reactor:

"The Hyperion nuclear battery is filled with an uranium hydride core and surrounded by a hydrogen atmosphere. The self sufficient nuclear generator is simply buried underground and hooked up to a steam turbine it generates enough electricity to power a 25,000-home community for at least five years.

The nuclear battery cannot overheat and has no mechanical function to maintain. The company is expecting to produce 4000 units in the next 3 years, which could provide 100GW of power, equal to about 20% of America's total energy usage.

Each mini reactor can produce 27 megawatts worth of thermal energy and it is totally self-contained, involves no moving parts and, therefore, doesn’t require a human operator.

‘In fact, we prefer to call it a ‘drive’ or a ‘battery’ or a ‘module’ in that it’s so safe,’ Hyperion spokeswoman Deborah Blackwell says. ‘Like you don’t open a double-A battery, you just plug [the reactor] in and it does its chemical thing inside of it. You don’t ever open it or mess with it.’""

Octopi date back 30 million years to one ancestor

by SEA STACHURA
Nov 9th 2008 @ 2:15PM

Filed under: Plants and Wildlife

I can't even trace my family line back four generations, but of course octopi, despite not having an intelligable language to scientists, no written history, no cemetry and no heirlooms to speak of their roots have been linked to one species of octopus living in the Southern Ocean 30 million years ago. 

Even better, their great-great-great-pi grandmother and grandfather are still around. All right, not literally, and not even in photos. But the species that links all octupi together is still around, and only lives in the Southern Ocean.

The research was done as part of the Octopus Family Gathering which is part of the Census of Marine Life (CoML) due to be complete in 2010. (For the record, there is a CoML but there is not an OFG.)

The name of the octopus who gave birth to a hundreds of species isMegaleledone setebos, a shallow water octopus. Sea ice helped push oxygen and nutrients into the depths of the oceans, and octupi followed the trail, eventually spreading around the globe. Sort of like the Eurasians, only maybe less violent. 

In L.A. Beavers v. City: Beavers in the lead

by SEA STACHURA
Nov 9th 2008 @ 3:26PM

Filed under: Plants and Wildlife

The Beaver Haters and the Beaver Lovers have been at war in Martinez, Calif. The beavers have been in the middle, but they seem to be ignoring the rocket grenades overhead.

Martinez, Calif. is a short drive north from San Fransisco, and it's also home to a relatively new family of beavers. In 2006 a pair of beavers took up residence in Alhambra Creek in the oil town. They dammed; they had babies; they brought tourists and then came the Beaver Haters. 

The Beaver Haters is a pseudonym for a group of property owners who felt the beavers were digging under a retaining wall. They wanted the beavers removed. Immediately. The Beaver Lovers were offended by the Beaver Haters demands. They felt the beavers weren't doing a damn thing to the retaining wall and formed a group called "Give a Dam." 

The city went for a middle ground and spent $400,000 to reinforce that wall just a few feet from the beavers' home. Beaver Lovers worried this would prompt the beavers to leave. After three weeks of rumbling, noisy, and what might even be considered to a beaver violent construction the beavers are okay. So far, they are sticking around. 

No word on whether their reproductive systems may have been shocked or whether toxic materials were leaked into the creek and will later poison the family. Who knows. But for now, the beavers are safe. They are burrowing, and they are in the lead.

As an aside, Give a Dam discovered information that indicated the beavers had not dug under the retaining wall nor done any damage to it. The damage predated the beavers. Like they said, the beavers don't give a damn about the retaining wall.

Video: China's wasteland of toxic consumer electronics revealed

by Thomas Ricker, posted Nov 10th 2008 at 4:11AM

Any self-respecting gadget hound knows that China is responsible for packing millions of shipping containers with the consumer electronics we crave. What you may not know is what we ship in return: our waste for recycling. Of growing concern is e-waste, resulting from the deluge of PCs, cellphones, televisions and crapgadgets we churn through at an accelerating clip each year. While domestic recycling programs are good-intentioned, often the most toxic of our e-waste is shipped illegally back to China and boiled down for its precious metals under some of the most crude conditions you can imagine. When faced with the choice of familial poverty or the slow accumulation of poison in their bloodstream (for $8 per day), it's not hard to imagine what many rural Chinese people will choose. So while we give Greenpeace's self-congratulatory promotions and oft-subjective "Guide to Greener Electronics" company ratings the occasional hard time, their attempts to raise e-waste awareness are commendable. Now go ahead, check the video from 60 Minutes' intrepid reporters after the break and let the guilt wash over you.

Update: As noted by reader Jason, a more thorough (and disturbing) exploration of these e-waste dumps can be found in a Current TV video shot last year in the same region.

Drive From Sydney Museum Could Unlock NASA Moon Data

Journal written by tqft (619476) and posted by timothy on Monday November 10, @04:28AM

from the for-want-of-a-nail dept.

"An archiving error by NASA has meant 173 data tapes have sat in Perth for almost 40 years, holding information about lunar dust that could be vital in expanding science's understanding of the moon. But after almost four decades, a donation from a Sydney computer society looks set to breathe fresh life into a long-neglected field of lunar science. ... These were the only active measurements of moon dust made during the Apollo missions, and no-one thought it was important. ... Mr Holmes has kept the tapes in a climate-controlled room since then, and it was only when he stumbled upon a 1960s IBM729 Mark 5 tape drive at the Australian Computer Museum that his company had the ability to unlock the information."

• moon
• drm
• madeofcheese

• science
• nasa

• story

Crapgadget: how to ruin a gift-giving experience edition

by Darren Murph, posted Nov 10th 2008 at 11:04AM

Especially in North and South Dakota, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Disgustingly, that also means that the onslaught of horrifically crappy gadgets to celebrate the occasion are making their way out in full force. In this episode of the world's lamest excuse for gadgets, we see a smattering of gizmos that you should never -- under any circumstance -- give to anyone you love (or like, or don't loathe). On the other hand, these are all perfect for gifting someone you aren't particularly fond of. Check out the catastrophes below, and toss in your vote for most pathetic in the handy poll down there.

Read - USB animal hand warmer / massager
Read - Ornament ball digital photo frame
Read - Santa stocking USB drive
Read - Dog mat mouse pad
Read - Banana peeling simulator
Read - Santa / Snowman digiframes