Inhabitat’s Week in Green: solar aircraft, freshwater wind farms, and the Automotive X Prize
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.
This week Inhabitat saw the world's first solar-powered aircraft soar through the night sky as it successfully completed its first 24-hour flight. We also took a look at the 15 ultra-efficient cars currently vying for the Progressive Automotive X Prize. Electric vehicles also made the headlines left and right this week as Korean carmarker CT&T announced plans to produce EVs in South Carolina and California rolls out plans for a whopping 1,600 charging stations.
Heatwaves swept the states this week, but we found some solace in the abundance of sunshine as Obama unveiled plans to kick-start the US solar industry with a $2 billion investment. We also looked at a sleek and stylish solar powered bag and an advanced solar cell manufacturing technique that promises to boost the efficiency of thin film photovoltaic cells by a fourth. Wind power also made waves as plans were officially unveiled for the United States' first freshwater wind farm in Lake Erie.
Finally, this week we saw several remarkable advancements from the field of biotechnology, starting with an amazing new wound dressing that harnesses nanotechnology to detect and treat infections before they strike. And from the desk of strange-yet-true comes one architect's plan to create a conceptual home entirely from meat cells grown in a lab!
Inhabitat's Week in Green: solar aircraft, freshwater wind farms, and the Automotive X Prize originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Jul 2010 20:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Paying the Amazon tax
Yay, taxes! It looks like more and more states are considering forcing the likes of Amazon and Overstock.com (note: I’ve never bought anything from there!) to pay taxes. This is good and bad: it helps, however little, state governments balance the books, but it also raises the cost of “doing business” in those states. It also makes it more expensive to buy things online. Boo!
As always, the story is more complicated that it needs to be. A law recently went into effect in Colorado that would have forced Amazon to pay taxes on money made via its affiliate store program. You set up an affiliate, you get to sell your wares “on” Amazon, then Amazon takes a cut of your profit. Win-win. Well, rather than comply with the new law, Amazon has canceled the program altogether in Colorado, saying it would cost too much money to remain viable. The affiliates aren’t made at Amazon, but rather the state for coming up with the law in the first place. Is taxing a guy who sells tupperware (or whatever) via Amazon really going to keep Colorado afloat?
You’ll note that New York is the biggest state, so far, to collect taxes for Amazon. That means that for every widget I buy from Amazon, I have to pay tax, as if I were walking into a Best Buy (not that I’d ever shop at Best Buy again, mind you).
Other states that tax Amazon include Rhode Island and South Carolina. So, it’s not really like we need to storm the Internet Bastille or anything, but I can understand why people get upset.
Then there’s the much larger, far beyond the scope of CG topic of, well, does taxing the likes of Amazon really help out the states that much that it’s worth crushing affiliate programs left and right? I don’t know, I don’t want to get into a tax “thing” here, I just sorta wanted to complain about having to pay shipping and tax on my Amazon orders. I’m sure I’m not alone in that regard.
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Paying the Amazon tax
Google Mobile Searches Get Optimized Based on Location [Google]
Google's location-aware features can feel creepy at times, but in the case of mobile searches they can make life a heck of a lot easier. Queries made from most mobile devices can now include suggestions optimized for your current location.
The basic idea is to reduce how much you need to fumble with your phone and give you the most relevant query suggestions possible. Let's say I'm sitting around in Tampa, Florida and searching for a museum. It's more likely that I might be that I'm looking for some quick info on the Museum of Science and Industry than for Louvre and now my Google search suggestions reflect that. Then again, the entire system isn't without flaws, unless people around my area are really more likely to search for the University of South Carolina than for a Florida college.
Ah well, the feature is live, so check it out and see if there are any oddities like that in your search suggestions. [Google Mobile Blog]
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Google Mobile Searches Get Optimized Based on Location [Google]
Excavator Mud Skiing Is America’s Greatest Pastime [Sports]
A spinning excavator, a giant pit of mud, rednecks, reckless disregard for personal safety, speed, waterskis and moonshine, added to taste: some recipes are simply perfect.
There are a lot of questions posed by this video. Is the excavator stranded? Is this just a group of people making the best of a messy, annoying situation? Or was it placed there intentionally, as a part of some kind of perennial South Carolinian tradition; a sacred coming of age ritual known in the local dialect as gittin'r done? Lastly, when can I try this?
Search as I may, I can find no answers. Just more questions. [Break]
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Excavator Mud Skiing Is America's Greatest Pastime [Sports]