"The American Folklife Center will award up to three fellowships for the period February 2010 – February 2011 that will support new, original, independent field research into the culture and traditions of American workers and/or occupational groups found within the United States. Applicants must develop a project plan detailing the subject of the research and methods of digital documentation. The original documentary materials generated during the course of the fellowship will become part of the Folklife Center's Archie Green America Works Collection."

"The reverse auction succeeds where traditional energy procurement methods can't compete: by getting energy suppliers to compete against each other, and their own lowest bids, to give buyers the most competitive energy prices quickly, efficiently and reliably."

Good points here at coal versus natural gas rules… And some nice screedy talking points.

"The authors demonstrate that people treat the mere existence of something as evidence of its goodness. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate that an existing state is evaluated more favorably than an alternative. Study 3 shows that imagining an event increases estimates of its likelihood, which in turn leads to favorable evaluation; the more likely that something will be, the more positively it is evaluated. Study 4 shows that the more a form is described as prevalent, the more aesthetically attractive is that form. This indicates a causal relationship between aesthetic judgments and existence in a domain lacking choice among alternatives. Study 5 extends the existence bias to gustatory evaluation and demonstrates that the effect is not moderated by valence. Together these studies suggest that mere existence leads to assumptions of goodness; the status quo is seen as good, right, attractive, tasty, and desirable."

It's hard to build any kind of power plant these days: "COBB – Community members on Cobb let local and state officials know during a Tuesday evening meeting that they're none too happy about a geothermal plant in their midst that is seeking to expand its operations. But they're not alone, according to one state official, who noted that the push for geothermal power in California is resulting in more projects in areas where there hasn't been geothermal production before."

“Relatively egalitarian welfare states should not be seen as utopias or protected enclaves, but as highly competitive participants in the world market. In other words, even within the parameters of global capitalism there are many degrees of freedom for radical social alternatives.”