Technology-First Consensus Grows

Support for a technology-first approach to America's energy and climate needs is rapidly growing in the wake of the October 14 release of the "Post-Partisan Power" proposal by scholars at the Brookings Institution, AEI and Breakthrough Institute. Here is a sampling of the many reactions and widespread discussion generated by the report...
Joshua Green, Atlantic Monthly & Boston Globe: "Unlike most of what gets introduced just before an election, this was not a soon-to-be-forgotten political ploy, but a long-term project to accomplish what Congress and the president could not: put the country on the path to a clean energy future."
David Leonhardt, New York Times: [T]he death of cap and trade doesn't have to mean the death of climate policy. The alternative revolves around much more, and much better organized, financing for clean energy research. It's an idea with a growing list of supporters, a list that even includes conservatives -- most of whom opposed cap and trade."
Tim Mak, Frum Forum (a site started by former Bush speechwriter David Frum): "If Americans want to fight the challenges of climate change and reduce their dependence on foreign oil, this piece sets a good baseline for discussion."
Ezra Klein, Washington Post: "It's not that PPP is a sure thing, nor that it will pass Congress anytime soon. The Tea Party Republicans will need to sow their wild and crazy oats for awhile before they feel any need to tack to the center. But when they do, they aren't going to embrace cap and trade. They might, on the other hand, embrace a limited and direct approach to energy innovation."
Michael Levi, Council on Foreign Relations: [T]his idea may well make a lot of sense... most of the paper is actually a smart and thoughtful discussion of how to do energy innovation policy right".
Kirsten Powers, New York Post: " If America wants to remain the leader of the world economy, Washington has to attack this issue."
Bryan Walsh, TIME Magazine: "A truly bipartisan approach on energy and climate won't be easy--sometimes, especially right before an election, it seems completely impossible--but it's the only approach we can hope for, if we still hope."
Nature: "[G]iven the lack of consensus in other areas, long-term R&D intended to bring the cost of clean energy down might well be one area where lawmakers will be able to agree."
Case Western professor Jonathan Adler writes: "While not without flaws, the proposal represents a serious alternative to politically-moribund cap-and-trade proposals and the regulate-everything mindset that produced the Waxman-Markey bill."
Newsweek: "Cap-and-trade is on life support, but its weakness is giving other ideas room to breathe. Emerging proposals focus on investment in clean energy, pitched to the public with a narrative that omits a doomsday point of view about global warming and instead focuses on more practical considerations like job creation or the need to stop certain types of pollution."
Economists Dani Rodrik and Tyler Cowan also saw hope in the new proposal.
All that convergence around a politically centrist, technology-first approach alarmed some climate warriors on left and right.
Climate skeptic Steven Milloy of Green Hell blog (and Junkscience.com) wrote: "The left isn't oscillating at all. They are focused on establishing a one-world socialist paradise. Whatever path gets the comrades there, they'll follow. Global warming has just been there most successful gambit to date."
Said Grist.org's David Roberts: "The Republican Party don't want to spend government money on clean energy, Hayward notwithstanding."
Joe Romm, ClimateProgress.org: [It] should also be obvious we're not going to get a massive federal clean energy program either."
Not all long-time climate warriors were sour on the proposal.
While EDF chief economist Nathaniel Keohane reiterates that "we need both cap and trade and sustained investment in clean energy R&D," he went on to tell the New York Times' David Leonhardt, "if it turns out that we can't get cap and trade in the near term, we need R&D investment all the more."
Harvard's Robert Stavins still insists "there is no other feasible approach that can provide meaningful emissions reductions" beyond cap and trade, but he acknowledges: "New path-breaking technologies will be needed to address climate change, and public support for private-sector or public-sector R&D will be crucial to meet this need."
MIT's Michael Greenstone, a long-time cap and trade supporter, isn't so sure about the real-world viability of the policy he once advocated. "The first best hope was getting a world price for carbon, and that now looks remote in the coming years," he told Leonhardt. "But there are ways in which the other options may be preferable to a price only in the U.S." Greenstone endorses the need for $25 billion in clean energy R&D investments and rightly explains, "All the action is really going to be occurring in developing countries" who will need clean and affordable energy to power their economic growth.
In a second post, Washington Post's Ezra Klein looks the realpolitik in the face as well and concludes: "The best of all worlds would've been a price on carbon married to a big investment in clean-energy research. But this is not the best of all worlds. This is our world. And this [technology-first proposal] ... might be our last, best chance to protect it."

"Post-Partisan Power" Media Roundup:
"A Climate Proposal Beyond Cap and Trade, David Leonhardt, New York Times
"Think tanks' new energy plan," Robin Bravender, Politico
"Stopping climate change 2.0," Ezra Klein, Voices blog, Washington Post
"Research First, Cap and Trade Next," David Leonhardt, Economix blog, New York Times

"There Is No One Correct Policy," David Roberts, Grist
"Are the Politics of Public Investment Really Easier?," David Roberts, Grist
"Why clean-energy funding is politically easier than cap-and-trade," Ezra Klein, Voices blog, Washington Post
"Beware of 'Post-Partisan' Energy Policy," Steve Milloy, Green Hell blog
"Brookings Embraces American Enterprise Institute's Climate Head Fake Along With Right-Wing Energy Myths," Joe Romm, Climate Progress
"Overselling Energy Innovation," Michael Levi, Council on Foreign Relations
"Can a Technology First Approach to Climate Change Work?," Kristen Sheeran, Grist
"Can the Government Do With Clean Energy What It Did With the Internet?," Heather Horn, The Atlantic Wire
"Case for Carbon Pricing Remains Incredibly Strong," Matthew Yglesias, Think Progress
"Digging into the 'Post-Partisan Power' Study," Michael Levi, Council on Foreign Relations
"An Attempt to Breakthrough the Bipartisan Climate Policy Logjam," Bryan Walsh, Ecocentric blog, TIME Magazine
"The Next Bipartisan Energy Agenda," Teryn Norris, The National Journal
"Everyone Agreed About Climate Change This Week," Andrew Price, Good.is
"Industrial Policy Goes Mainstream," Dani Rodrick, Dani Rodrick's Weblog
"No cap-and-trade? Focus on R&D," The Great Beyond blog, Nature
"New Climate Fight, Same As the Old One?," Andrew Revkin, Dot Earth blog, New York Times
E&E TV On Point, interview with Brookings' Mark Muro and Breakthrough's Jesse Jenkins
"Post-Partisan Energy Proposal," Jenny Mandel, New York Times, Greenwire
"Climate policy Without Cap and Trade," Joanathan Adler, The Volockh Conspiracy
"A perverse pride in foolish policies," Kirsten Powers, New York Post
"Post-Partisan Power: Problems and Praise," Kenneth Green, The Enterprise blog, American Enterprise Institute
"Industrial Policy: Deja Vu All Over Again," Claude Barfield, The Enterprise blog, AEI
"Power Surge," AEI's Steve Hayward, The Weekly Standard
"A Manhattan Project for Energy?", NPR/WBUR "On Point" radio interview with Steve Hayward, MIT's Michael Greenstone, and Freedom Work's Matt Kibbe.
"Uttering the 'C' Word," Asher Miller, Post Carbon Institute
"The Post-Partisan Power Play," Keith Kloor, Collide-a-Scape
"Searching for a New (Green) Holy Grail," Ryan Tracy, Newsweek
"Plan B," Ryan Avent, Free Exchange blog, The Economist
"What Next On Climate Change?," Tyler Cohen, Marginal Revolution
"How Close is Cheap Clean Energy," David Leonhardt, Economix blog, New York Times
"October Surprise," Joshua Green, The Atlantic
"Moving beyond cap and trade," Joshua Green, Boston Globe
"Why Bipartisanship on Energy Won't Be Easy--and Why It's Necessary," Bryan Walsh, Ecocentric blog, TIME Magazine
"Both Are Necessary, But Neither is Sufficient: Carbon-Pricing and Technology R&D Initiatives in a Meaningful National Climate Policy," Robert Stavins, Harvard University
"Why Research Alone Won't Fix Climate Change," David Leonhardt, Economix blog, New York Times
"The Fight Among Environmentalists," David Leonhardt, Economix blog, New York Times
"Real-World Steps on Energy and CO2," Andrew Revkin, Dot Earth blog, New York Times
"Jon Stewart's march is no laughing matter," Anne Applebaum, Washington Post
"The disappearance of moderate moderates," Anne Applebaum, National Post
"How To Solve America's Oil Addiction," Ari Lipsitz, New York University Local blog
"How to Save the Planet with Cheap Clean Energy," Smart Energy News blog

from : http://thebreakthrough.org/blog/2010/10/technologyfirst_consensus_grow.shtml

As the first full-color touch electronic reader, the Nookcolor stands apart from black-and-white competitors like Amazon's Kindle. The device can be used to read books, magazines, newspapers and an expanded array of children's titles. It also takes hints from Apple Inc.'s iPad with more games, Web browsing, music streaming and its own application store. Like earlier versions, it runs on Google Inc.'s Android operating system.
Barnes & Noble, which announced the product Tuesday, said it will begin taking orders for the device online and in stores on Wednesday and begins shipping in mid-November.
"I think Barnes & Noble did a pretty good job presenting this device as its own e-reader instead of just a cheaper version of the iPad," said Simba Information analyst Michael Norris. "It is focused on the reading experience."
E-readers are again expected to be popular holiday gifts, but competition has exploded over the past year - especially since Apple released the iPad in April. New models and price cuts for Amazon.com's Kindle and new offerings from Kobo, Sony and others intend to compete with the iPad and other tablet computers.
Nookcolor's features include full-color display on the new 7-inch screen; earlier versions offer color only on the bottom half of a dual-screen. It is lightweight at about a pound, making it easy to grasp while holding a cup of coffee in the other hand, and its battery is estimated to last roughly 8 hours between charges.
Barnes & Noble also is offering more digital books for the Nook, including more than 12,000 new titles for kids.
At $249, the Nookcolor is $50 more expensive than the most expensive Nook on the market. It is also more expensive than Amazon's Kindle, which retails for $139 to $189. But it costs much less than the iPad, which starts at $499, and that could entice consumers.
"What they want to avoid doing is creating product that will make consumers think, 'I'll just spend a bit more and get an iPad,'" Norris said.
James McQuivey, a Forrester Research analyst, said the Nookcolor doesn't threaten the Kindle or iPad or anything else - yet. But it does ensure Barnes & Noble gets a share of the rapidly growing markets for e-readers and tablet devices.
McQuivey was surprised that Barnes & Noble was first to the party with a color e-reader, saying he expected Sony or Amazon would be first. Still, it makes sense for the bookseller, which has had a tough year and is counting on e-books the Nook for revenue growth.
"I can see why they're putting the energy into it, because it might start looking like the knight in shining armor that any challenged retailer would be interested in seeing ride up on a horse," McQuivey said.
Other e-reader makers also are amping up competition. On Monday Borders, which offers several e-readers online and in stores, announced several offers that last the rest of this week. Shoppers can save $30 on some readers and get free shipping with online orders, or they can get a $25 gift card with a Velocity Micro Cruz tablet purchase or free e-books with a Kobo pre-order and 20 percent off e-reader accessories.
Also last week, Amazon said it would let e-book owners start borrowing books later this year, a service similar to one Barnes & Noble offers. And Amazon's Kindle is now available at Best Buy, Target and Walmart, along with Amazon.com. The Nook is also available at Best Buy and Walmart and soon Books-A-Million stores, along with Barnes & Noble stores.
Traditional booksellers like Barnes & Noble and Borders are pinning their hopes on e-readers. Research firm The Yankee Group has forecast 6 million will be sold in 2010 and the market will grow to $2.5 billion by 2013.
Shares of Barnes & Noble fell 19 cents to close at $14.98 but were unchanged in after-hours trading Tuesday.
©2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
from : http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-10-barnes-noble-unveils-e-reader.html

 (CNN) -- It's an age-old problem for avid book readers: You become so engrossed in a good page-turner that when the end arrives, you're still crying out for more.

But if a new creation offering books that don't end proves successful, such heartache for fiction fans could be a thing of the past.

Libroid, the brainchild of German author Juergen Neffe, is a new program that tries to reboot the e-book for the interactive age, offering readers the possibility of potentially limitless content with every publication.
And with the publishing industry in turmoil as corporate giants take fewer risks amid revenue uncertainties, Neffe hopes his product will offer a new creative outlet that could revolutionize book writing.
"I saw that what happened to the music industry is happening to the book industry and one day I woke up and said 'I don't want to drown in this,'" Neffe told CNN.
"So I started thinking about what the book of the future would be."
It's certainly a pressing question for the publishing industry. As more of the book business moves off the printed page and onto a computer screen, publishers who can corner this new market stand to win big.

Bookseller Amazon U.S. said this year it was selling 143 e-books for every 100 hard copies. According to the International Digital Publishing Forum, e-book sales in the U.S. amounted to $88.7 million in the second quarter of 2010. In the same period five years earlier they were barely $3 million.

Yet, there are concerns in this nascent marketplace.

"I think ultimately what will give e-books their point of difference to traditional books ... is this interactive element.
--Dan Waddell, bestselling author

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Some industry experts speculate the low-cost market entry offered by e-books could pose a threat to the dominance of big-name publishers. And though authors might benefit from being able to self-publish, without the machinery of large publishing houses behind them, it's tough to stand out in a crowded landscape.

Enter Libroid, which creator Neffe -- a veteran journalist for Germany's Der Spiegel magazine and author of a best-selling book on Charles Darwin -- hopes will beat its own path to success.

The program, which currently runs only on Apple's iPad tablet computer, splits the traditional book page into three columns, allowing authors space to annotate their text with footnotes, images, maps, videos and web links.

Libroid delivers the book's core text in the middle of the page. Two smaller columns on either side carry the extra content. Page numbers are abandoned in favor of a percentage bar that tells readers where they are.

Interactive elements allow readers to make their own comments on virtual book clubs that can be linked up to the text. It also offers authors the possibility of updating their own work (something that U.S. author Jonathan Franzen might appreciate after the wrong draft of his latest novel was published in the UK).

With Libroid publications also allowing readers to flit between different translations of the text, Neffe said he believes the added extras, plus a lower price tag, will set it apart from standard e-books.

Though circumspect about its chances for success, he said it does have several major selling points, not least the potential to generate a new medium for fiction writers who, he says, are already lining up to try it out.

"It does sound interesting," says crime writer Dan Waddell, whose debut novel "The Blood Detective" topped the UK e-book bestseller list in 2009.

"I think ultimately what will give e-books their point of difference to traditional books -- which are still the most efficient and best design for reading and carrying literature -- is this interactive element.

"But they have to be done well, and be integral to the story; otherwise they will simply come across as annoying and pointless gimmicks."

Neffe agrees, saying although he has been bombarded by suggestions from authors, he is choosing carefully. One winning idea, he says, is the "round book."

"Round books are those with no beginning and no end. Experienced authors tell me they have problems because every linear story has centrifugal forces that try to get out from the center.

"There is a well-known author in Germany who writes crime stories. He wants to randomly mix chapters so you would be the judge in the criminal case.

"You get nine different reports from witnesses and when you shake it up, they will mix up, so you always start with different one. Every reader is having a different experience."

So, for the time being at least, there's no end in sight.

source : http://www.technologyreview.com/

Someone's Watching You

• Thursday, October 28, 2010
• By Tom Simonite

New software can track workers' activities in great detail to improve communication, but is it too much information?

Many instant messaging and email applications show you who's online at any moment. A new communications application takes this a whole step further. It can tell you if a coworker is busy working at her desk, if she's chatting on the phone, or if she's left the building on a lunch break.

The system, called myUnity, was developed at FX Palo Alto Laboratory, a corporate research lab owned by Fuji Xerox. The smart-phone and desktop app gives users a visual contact list showing what their contacts are up to. This can help users decide when would be a good time to contact someone, and how best to do it. MyUnity draws on multiple sources of information, including the location of a cell phone running the app and information processed from a user's webcam. The software provides a one-click interface for contacting someone via either e-mail or instant message.
Jacob Biehl, a member of the team that developed myUnity, says the software can help users deal with an increasingly fragmented workplace. "The number of tools people use to communicate with their colleagues is increasing, and people are working in different locations and pockets of time," Biehl says.
The software, available for Windows computers and Android smart phones, uses simple color codes and text to show if a person is, for example, sitting alone at his workstation, or if he is away from his desk but still in the building. This makes it easy to decide if it's best to stroll over to talk with someone, or to call his cell phone, says Biehl. The interface can also show more detailed information, for example, by displaying status messages from IM or VOIP services and drawing on public calendars.

 

Information is collected by a suite of software and sensors that feed data back to a service running in the cloud, where users' clients can access it. Software installed on a corporate network tracks where people are logged in from; and the phone app shares their location information (although only the city they are in is shared with other users). "You can also override that with a custom label for certain locations, for example, their home," says Biehl. When someone is in the office, her approximate location within the building can be pinpointed via Wi-Fi access points and Bluetooth sensors tracking their phone or laptop.

MyUnity can tell if a person is working at her desk by tapping into her webcam or a security camera with a view of her workspace. "They look for motion in certain areas defined by the user," says Biehl. That allows this part of the system not only to spot the movement of someone seated at their desk, but also to spot the presence of a visitor. The team is experimenting with using infrared sensors that sense the presence of people but do not capture video.

The Android phone software also detects whether or not a person is in a call, while the desktop version knows whether a person is actively using his computer or not. The ability to track desk phone use is being added to the service. Users can choose how much they want the system to share about them.

source : http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/26632/?p1=A3

New role: A new vestibular implant is based on this cochlear implant. But rather than treating deafness, it treats disorders of the inner ear.
Credit: Cochlear

Biomedicine

An Implant Could Ease Balance Problems

• Thursday, October 28, 2010
• By Courtney Humphries

A patient has received the first ear implant to treat a balance disorder; researchers hope it leads to similar devices that are even more complex.

Last week, a man from Yakima, Washington, became the first patient to receive an implant designed to quell the disabling attacks of vertigo that result from a condition known as Meniere's disease. The device, developed by researchers at the University of Washington, is the first therapeutic implant to treat a disorder of the vestibular system, a set of organs in the inner ear responsible for sensing head motion and maintaining balance. The researchers hope that the device will not only help treat the disease but also pave the way for more complex devices for balance disorders.
People with Meniere's disease experience sudden attacks that can include intense dizziness, tinnitus, nausea, and hearing loss. The attacks can last from 30 minutes to several hours, and may happen every few years to every day. There is no cure, although the condition can sometimes be treated with medications and dietary restrictions. In very severe cases, patients opt to destroy the function of the inner ear through surgery or medical treatment.
The inner ear contains a set of three structures called the semicircular canals, which function like a gyroscope by detecting the movement of fluid through the canals to sense the rotation of the head. Jay Rubinstein, an ear surgeon and otolaryngologist at the University of Washington Medical Center, explains that the brain normally receives constant input about head movement from the vestibular nerves, which are connected to each of these structures, as well as two other structures that sense horizontal and vertical movement.
Doctors believe that during a Meniere's attack, fluid buildup in the inner ear blocks the information from the nerves in one ear, leading the brain to think that the body is turning. The implant works by electrically stimulating the vestibular nerves attached to the semicircular canals of the compromised ear during an attack, thereby compensating for the missing signal.

 

The new implant is a modification of a cochlear implant whose design and surgical implantation had already been approved by the FDA. The modified one consists of a surgically implanted device that contains three electrode arrays: each one is inserted into one of the semicircular canals. An external processor, worn behind the affected ear, communicates wirelessly with the internal component. When experiencing an attack, the patient can manually activate the device. At other times, it remains off. Although the device requires surgical implantation, it does not require disabling a patient's balance system or pose the threat of hearing loss, which is the case with some of the more radical treatments for severe Meniere's disease.

source : http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/26631/?p1=A1