I confess, I never knew kangaroos could climb trees. I do know why kangaroos don’t like when it rains outside. (answer down below).

Zookeepers in Nebraska are thrilled that one of their rare species of tree kangaroo has had twins.

Twin joeys were born at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo last month.

The proud parents of the Matschie’s tree kangaroos are Milla and her mate Noru. They were found in Milla’s pouch last month. That makes two of the four documented Matschie’s tree kangaroo births last year. Don’t know about you, but I love babies…of all kinds.

According to a Kansas City Zoo zookeeper there are only about 50 tree kangaroos in North America. They live in the wild in the rain forest in northeastern Papua New Guinea. And being in North America means they won’t be home for dinner anytime soon.

Zoo visitors are expected to get a peak when the little guys begin poking out their heads or feet as early as May.

Answer – kangaroo mamas don’t like when it rains outside, because the kids have to play inside.

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A couple of foreign tourists can be seen walking along the Karola Glacier – 5,560 meters high, situated on the boundary between Nargarze and Gyangze Counties of southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region.

Here’s the Karola Glacier.

Here are the pics.

We don’t know what the glacier looks like, or how far it extends during its peak. Is it smaller now because of global warming or is it just time to be small? Last year, my wife and I took a cruise to Alaska. The glaciers there are growing. Our environmentalist couldn’t explain why.

In case you have ever been too embarrassed to ask, by the way, where is Tibet?

A close up … look

If only we could harness the Martian methane belch…

There was a surprising and mysterious belch of methane gas on Mars NASA says. NASA thinks there might be microbial life underground, but admitted the gas could come from changes in rocks. Methane gas on earth is by far mostly a byproduct of life — animal digestion and decaying plants and animals.

This is the first study to find regular methane on Mars. Some 21,000 tons of methane were released during a few months in late summer of 2003. Hmm…I wonder, could we run a pipe from Mars to Earth? Nah. Doesn’t seem likely, does it?

“This raises the probability substantially that life was there or still survives at the present,” says the study author at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

By 2006, most of the methane had disappeared…adding to the mystery of the gas.

A similar phenomenon to the Mars belch happens in the waters near Santa Barbara, Calif. There the gas comes from decaying life in the sea floor. Even microbes in the Arctic and other extreme Earth environments release methane even they don’t use O2.

Methane is not only a waste product of life, it is also food for other life. NASA doesn’t know where the methane came from but they’d sure like to have it appear again. What do you think about the possibility of life in space?

Back in the ’70s (yeah, I am an old goat) there was a tornado that went through Cincinnati, where I was living at the time. I was listening to the warnings on the radio as I drove a delivery truck for a flower store. I happened to look in the rear view mirror and saw a giant twister. Thankfully, it was about 10 miles away. But, I couldn’t help but get out of my truck and just stand there enthralled, watching it come my way. Beautiful. It was at the height of the Cold War. Russia was saying “Our nukes can destroy the world more times than yours can.” America answered back “Destroying the Earth a few times is enough.” Neither country had the power to stop the tornado.

Storms have a beauty about them. Yeah, there’s often destruction. But there is still beauty. How about these pix after an Ice Storm in China?

Park City in Utah is currently home to one of the most unique and exquisite works of green architecture and housing. The Tahoma Townhouse project that was developed by Baker Street Properties is a three townhouse community that has managed to bag the first Built Green Utah certified residential development in Park City.

The green venture creates luxurious homes that do not compromise on the style of interiors, the comfort factor for the residents and are as good as any other modern home when it comes to offering you the best.

But what makes the Tahoma project different and special is the way it integrates green technology along with comfort housing to create a stylish living space that saves on energy consumption. Each built unit of this green venture is 47% more efficient than a standard new home built today in USA and that has earned it its special status in Park City. The homes sport superb design, spacious interiors and plenty of in-built gadgetry that will pamper you senses.

The builders and developers view the amalgamation of high end finishes and products with energy saving features as a way to take forward the real estate business in the next few decades. Starting from $1.695 million, these homes are anything but affordable.

via JetsOnGreen
Photo credits: Scot Zimmerman.

On display at the CES this year and designed by Amsterdam-based designer Ties Carlier, the Moof bike is both fascinating and intriguing as it seems to have put us in a bit of a spin. This very Spartan-styled bike has clean and clear straight lines, looks very robust and is stylish enough to be taken out on the street.

Rather than using LED lights that stick out on the outside, it incorporates two solar powered lamps within the bike itself and and makes it look more classic than contemporary. But our interest is on functions and less on form.

However, where is all that solar energy going to come from? That seems to be a more compelling question when you look at the remainder of the bike and actually find no solar cells.

For a single-speed bike with leather on top of its handle bars and seat, this really does not look all that green. Considering that it will cost you $500, no matter how fashionable it looks we think the only green around is the cash you will shell out!

via Inhabitat

In age of the media and the internet, it would be real hard to keep a product under the wrap for a longtime and to unveil it on a grand stage in order to create a huge surprise. Leaks, spy shots and media intrusion have put an end to most surprises, but Chrysler has managed to pull off a complete surprise with its new c Electric Vehicle.

It was not until their presentation of upcoming electric vehicles at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, that the world had an idea about the 200C and for a company as big as Chrysler that is some surprise.

The fascinating thing is that the new electric vehicle will be in direct competition with the Chevy Volt and that really is an unexpected jolt. The 200C EV is an extended-range electric vehicle that has a mileage of around 40 miles on its electric motor and a good 400 miles when you use the assistance of the gas motor. With sleek curves from and better aerodynamics taken from the 300C, it reduces drag and further improves efficiency.

On the inside the 200C sports cool multimedia systems, touchscreen displays and even a tablet PC for the passengers (your kids should love it).

With the current state of the auto industry being real bad, it is all the more surprising and pleasantly refreshing to see Chrysler go green with another of their vehicles. This surely sets the tone for the future as every automaker has realized now that ‘green’ is the path towards future. [via New York Times]

Brussels is all set to ban energy-guzzling plasma TVs once the legislation gets passed in EU. The decision is going to be anything but popular with majority of Europe already having changed to plasma televisions – a popular option among the young and the old alike.

Plasma screens have been nicknamed the 4×4s of the living room by many, as they consume four times the power taken up by a traditional television set and produce four times the carbon dioxide while working. The EU is all in favor of implementing strict energy norms and that means many of these big flatscreen TVs will be no longer allowed to operate.

The LCDs obviously are less under threat as they consume far less power compared to the Plasma.

EU is taking every possible step to ensure that Europe does all it can to help reduce carbon emissions and set the reduction standards that nations have set for themselves. But one can wonder how effective this really is, when the remainder of the world goes on merrily adding more carbon dioxide each year!

Is plasma banning a good solution? Is it a small step towards a greener environment, or there’s more to it?

Source: DailyMail
Image courtesy of Ben Terret

According to stats given by Harvard University’s Alex Wissner-Gross, it would be safe to deduce that by just using the Google search, the world actually produces as much carbon dioxide as a country like Laos would do.

But how far are these claims real and if they indeed are true, do we really need to go ringing the alarm bells? According to Wissner-Gross, co-founder of Enernetics, two Google searches produce as much carbon dioxide as boiling enough water in an electric kettle for a cup of tea. And that is just the energy used up at Google’s end and not on our own system it seems.

The claims statistically might not really have much backing and to be honest it would be impossible to verify as there is no way Google is going to let you in to check on how much energy its hardware components eat and hence how much pollution it actually costs.

But the larger question on hand is about how the ICT sector is contributing to global warming and how it can actually cut back on its carbon footprint. It is already known that the carbon footprint of the ICT sector is as much as aviation- about 3% of the total carbon emissions produced.

But there is also little doubt that it is a necessity that we cannot escape and in fact saves more energy than it spends in the form of digital information. While we do hear the odd Yahoo and Google offices going green, Wissner-Gross’s statements do indeed merit a discussion. The net and its giants have a responsibility of going green to save energy, and they do indeed need to take the cause of the planet more seriously.

We wonder if that will help hasten the green wave, or not!

Source: Guardian
Image courtesy of Mark Knol

Temperatures have dipped to Arctic levels in Minneapolis. A snowstorm followed. People died from exposure. Even Kansas (you’re not in Kansas anymore) and Missouri dropped to single digits (-15Cish). At one place, Hallock, wind chill was -58 below.

I have been in the bitter cold before, changed a tire at -25C and saw ice sculptures in Northern China at the same temperatures. Seems to me that at some point, cold is just cold.

Still, the weather service says that skin left out in -40F for 10 minutes will freeze. That can’t be fun.

Snow storms are rocking the MidWest as well.

Meanwhile, where I live in sunny Northern California, we had record highs in San Francisco and Oakland for the day BEFORE the sun came up.

My bet is that my midwestern far neighbors are wondering – “Where’s global warming when you need it?”