Greenfreeze technology has been around since 1992 and is installed in over 300 million refrigerators worldwide. But it wasn’t allowed into the United States until earlier this year when the Environmental Protection Agency gave Ben & Jerry’s the go-ahead to test 2,000 Greenfreeze units.
HFCs and other fluorinated gases are the most dangerous greenhouse gases that you’ve probably never heard of. Together, they are responsible for 17 percent of global warming pollution in the atmosphere.
Archive for September, 2008
First Greenfreeze Climate-Safe Freezer Launches in the United States
Learning Like a Christian: An Interview with Stanley Hauerwas
TOJ : A question that I was going to hold for later but that seems appropriate to bring up now, given what you have just said about the lack of memory in both the modern university and society at large, is, why do American universities, while touting themselves as global institutions that reach out to all different types of people, still struggle to genuinely incorporate both minorities and the impoverished into their institutional life?
SH: Inclusivity is a way of forgetfulness. I often suggest that egalitarianism is the opium of the masses. This is simply because inclusivity is often nothing other than the direct attempt to eradicate difference. Therefore, I think that the presumption of inclusivity is exactly a way of preventing the conflicts we need to have in order to have healthy communities. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but I just think that’s the way it works.
TOJ: In a sense, it is a way of excluding the type of people who don’t fit into the type of inclusivity we’re looking for.
SH: Right. Exactly. I mean tolerance and inclusivity are always strategies of the powerful!
For This Documentary Tells Me So
The idea that documentaries are unbiased truth is well-established nonsense, of course, but some filmmakers are better at covering their ideological tracks than others (the good ones are, anyway). For the Bible Tells Me So tackles a tough, timely topic: the antagonism between Christian fundamentalists and practicing homosexuals. This complex subject deserved a more nuanced, reflective treatment than it’s given here. Daniel Karslake, the director, has made a warm and genial film that lands, quite predictably, on the ‘let’s all just get along’ platform. The majority of Christians have no problem following that prescription, but that doesn’t mean they’re ready to concede theological wrongheadedness.
Is ‘Organic’ Worth It?
Foods Worth Buying Organic:
Spinach and Lettuce
Most people already spring for expensive bagged salads—so why not pay a little more (around a dollar a bag) for the organic version?
Bell Peppers
One of the Environmental Working Group’s so-called “dirty dozen”—12 types of produce that have the highest level of pesticide residue. Their company includes celery, peaches, nectarines, and cherries.
Apples
Ninety-two percent of the apples tested by the EWG were positive for pesticide residues—and 72% of those had more than one type of bug-killer on their peel.
Peanut Butter
Chemicals tend to concentrate in oils—one reason residues from up to 28 different pest-killers have been found in p.b.
Strawberries
Bugs love supersweet fruits, so it’s no wonder that random F.D.A. tests found trace amounts of 38 different kinds of pesticides on these luscious, soft-skinned treats.
Microwave Popcorn
It’s the oils that are to blame for the pesky contaminants in popcorn. Newman’s Own organic brand costs only a few cents more per bag than Orville Redenbacher’s.
Foods Not Worth Buying Organic:
Milk
Any residue from cattle feed ends up in milk fat, which gets removed if you drink low-fat or skim. And, contrary to popular belief, all milk—organic or not—is free of antibiotics.
Chicken and Fish
The USDA hasn’t created official guidelines for what constitutes “organic” fish. Also, meats in general don’t have as many residues as produce.
Olive Oil
Fewer synthetic chemicals are used in the production of olives than in other conventional
crops to begin with—so you’re not getting that much bang for your buck if you buy organic.
Yogurt
Like milk, any trace amounts of residue in yogurt would come from the fruit mixed in, not the yogurt itself.
The Force Unleashed Wii Review
Verdict : 82%
Good points: controls are fantastic; great variety of moves; fantastic presentation; duel mode’s a nice addition
Bad points: far, far too short
Summary: With a bit more to it we’d have no issues giving this a Gold Award. As it is, it’s great fun but far too short.
Distance of a Point from a Hyperplane
Here we learn how to determine the distance of a point from a hyperplane. This is a very practical problem which one can encounter in many different guises. Later, we will use in a different way within the context of least squares approximations. Happily, there is one simple formula which answers this problem completely and in all dimensions.
Changes at the Clairton Coke Works
The Allegheny County Health Department has called US Steel the best and worst of the county’s industries, the best in terms of job…the worst in air quality. US Steel has been ordered to reduce emissions at the coke works at a cost of more than a billion dollars. But will that be enough? The Allegheny Front’s Deborah Weisberg has the story.
The Left, lost in the politics of identity
Instead, the left in recent years has had trouble going beyond what has come to be called “identity politics”–a politics that is rooted more in group self-assertion than in attempts to create broad alliances. Of course, oppressed groups must always struggle to overcome their second-class status; equality demands no less. But what began in the late 1960s as an assertion of dignity by various groups, a remedy for exclusion and denigration and a demand by the voiceless for representation, has developed its own habits and methods of silencing. At the extreme, in the academy but also outside it, standards and traditions are now viewed as nothing more than camouflage for particular interests. Many a dispute is premised on the idea that there is a fundamental difference between X (women, say, or people of color) and Y (white males); that X has been oppressed or silenced by Y and should therefore be hired, promoted, and specially represented on reading lists and at conferences.
