David Herron .com

 Last week Apple released their latest product destined to change the world (the iPad).  At least that's what they want us to believe.  Perhaps the biggest controversy over the thing is the lack of Flash capability.  However this being java.net I have to wonder out loud, where is Java capability, and more importantly why isn't as much controversy being raised over Java being missing? But I think we all can enumerate some reasons for both being missing.  And it's worth it for the Java community to ponder this issue.

Project expected to provide up to 1,300 Jobs in Tennessee
Washington D.C. --- U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today that the Department of Energy has closed its $1.4 billion loan agreement with Nissan North America, Inc. to retool their Smyrna, Tennessee factory to build advanced electric automobiles and an advanced battery manufacturing facility. The two projects are expected to create up to 1,300 American jobs and conserve up to 65.4 million gallons of gasoline per year – an amount equal to six times the oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez in 1989.

Projects Supported by DOE Expected to Create Over 1600 Jobs in California

Earth 2100 is a rather television program presented by the American Broadcasting Company network on June 2, 2009. They showed what they called the worst case scenario of our future, rising oceans, fuel shortages, a warming climate, water shortages, the big cities of the south-west abandoned due to a lack of water, diseases, famine, a massive die-off of humanity, and on and on. It's told through the eyes of a baby born on June 2, 2009, and who lives until June 2100 (and beyond) to tell us how she lived through the catastrophe.

Last week a hue and cry was raised over mountain top removal coal mining in Appalachia. This is such an egregiously bad mining practice that a panel of scientists called for its immediate halt. I mean, what part of "mountain top removal" does not scream in huge bloody letters "DESTRUCTION"??? The goal is to "remove" mountains to get at the coal underneath. Anybody with a half an ounce of awareness would see this.

Scientists have identified some geological feature in the Antarctic that, combined with already rising sea levels, will cause a sudden collapse sometime in the not-so-distant future. They've identified two specific glaciers in west antarctic that are way past their tipping point beyond which collapse is unavoidable. Their estimate is 50% collapse within the next 100 years.

Collapse of glaciers into the ocean causes sea level rise. The melting of sea ice does not cause sea level rise.

One of the risks from the warming climate is that the glaciers on Greenland and the Antarctic would melt enough to collapse into the ocean. The melting of sea ice like the Arctic doesn't itself contribute to sea level rise. But if ice that's on land (a glacier) drops into the ocean it will rise ocean levels. Rising ocean levels have already been observed around the world but if a significant chunk of glaciers were to drop into the ocean it's thought to rise ocean levels dramatically.

At an event today in Columbus, Indiana, Secretary Chu announced the selection of nine projects totaling more than $187 million to improve fuel efficiency for heavy-duty trucks and passenger vehicles. The funding includes more than $100 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and with a private cost share of 50%, will support nearly $375 million in total research, development, and demonstration projects across the country.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In support of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas announced by President Obama at the 2009 Summit of the Americas, Secretary Steven Chu announced today that the U.S. Department of Energy has selected three initial projects under the Low-Carbon Communities of the Americas (LCCA) - a program launched in June 2009 to assist countries in Latin America with sustainable energy market transformation initiatives.