Should Your Driverless Car Hit a Pedestrian to Save Your Life?

People say that one day, perhaps in the not-so-distant future, they’d like to be passengers in self-driving cars that are mindful machines doing their best for the common good. Merge politely. Watch for pedestrians in the crosswalk. Keep a safe space.

A new research study, however, indicates that what people really want to ride in is an autonomous vehicle that puts its passengers first. If its machine brain has to choose between slamming into a wall or running someone over, well, sorry, pedestrian.  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/24/technology/should-your-driverless-car-hit-a-pedestrian-to-save-your-life.html?_r=0

Story courtesy of The New York Times by John Markoff

An Unwelcome Tourist Arrives in New Jersey: Clinging Jellyfish

So Dr. Bologna, a biologist and ecologist at Montclair State University, brought the animal back to his lab. There scientists extracted, analyzed and sequenced its DNA, and determined that it was indeed the clinging jellyfish, spotted in New Jersey for the first time.  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/18/science/an-unwelcome-tourist-arrives-in-new-jersey-clinging-jellyfish.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront
Article courtesy of The New York Times by TATIANA SCHLOSSBERG

As Wind Power Lifts Wyoming’s Fortunes, Coal Miners Are Left in the Dust

“Coal is hurting, but wind power is our bright spot on the horizon,” said Cindy Wallace, the director of the Carbon County Economic Development Corporation. “Eventually, we could be the wind capital of Wyoming, the U.S., the world.”

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In Wyoming, the country’s biggest coal-producing state, the energy landscape is transforming along with the nation’s, but in a state of 584,000 people, that change is happening at hyperspeed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/20/us/as-wind-power-lifts-wyomings-fortunes-coal-miners-are-left-in-the-dust.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
Article courtesy of The NY Times by Coral Davenport

Wildfires, Once Confined to a Season, now Burn Earlier and Longer

Fires, once largely confined to a single season, have become a continual threat in some places, burning earlier and later in the year, in the United States and abroad. They have ignited in the West during the winter and well into the fall, have arrived earlier than ever in Canada and have burned without interruption in Australia for almost 12 months. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/13/science/wildfires-season-global-warming.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fearth&action=click&contentCollection=earth&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
Article courtesy of the New York Times by Matt Richtel and Fernanda Santos

Key Players in Climate Change

Diplomats from at least 167 countries are gathering in New York to sign the climate accord reached in December in Paris. Whether they make good on their pledges to slow dangerous greenhouse gas emissions will depend in large part on the actions in the years ahead by the world’s largest polluters. A status report on the key players follows.  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/04/21/science/paris-agreement-carbon-dioxide-global-warming.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fearth&action=click&contentCollection=earth&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
Article courtesy of The New York Times

http://sierraclub.org/sierra/2015-3-may-june/green-life/roughing-it-urban-jungle

John Muir once said, “The mountains are calling and I must go.”
But for the metropolitan adventurers among us…are rooftops close enough?
Brooklyn sculpture artist Thomas Stevenson has pioneered a new kind of “rugged” adventure in the concrete jungle of New York. Titled Bivouac NY, his project invites urban explorers to sign up for one of his fifteen hour-long, post-work rooftop camping trips.  http://sierraclub.org/sierra/2015-3-may-june/green-life/roughing-it-urban-jungle
Article courtesy of Sierraclub.org by Stephanie Steinbrecher

After decades of altrusim and hard work, a trail will run through the Santa Monica Mountains

For more than 50 years, Southern Californians have dreamed of following an uninterrupted trail among the sycamore canyons and sandstone peaks of the Santa Monica Mountains.
http://www.latimes.com/la-me-backbone-trail-20160525-snap-story.html
Article courtesy of the Los Angeles Times by Thomas Curwen