California’s startup auto company Tesla just won the 2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year for its Model S, an electric car. Analysts have lauded the start-up for winning against bigger established automotive companies. Not only did the Model S win this prestigious award, but it also exceeded its projected sales by 250 units. Tesla expects to be profitable for the first quarter of 2013 and shows incredible promise as a start-up headed for long-term sustainability. And according to Phil Lebeau of CNBC, the model S outsold the Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt last month. So, the question on everyone’s minds: how long / will it last?
As new information becomes available about common substances, public health risks sometimes emerge. This was certainly the case with with lead-based paint in homes. Prior to the 1970s, when lead usage in products began to be monitored, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 88% of American preschool children had lead levels in the blood high enough to cause health problems. Although subsequent public awareness campaigns have drastically reduced that figure, recent data from the organization shows that there are still about half a million children from the age of 1 to 5 who have toxic levels of lead in the blood, proving that the threat is far from over.
The courts have been a commonly used tool by environmental activists seeking to block certain actions, to seek redress or punishment for perceived environmental harms, and to get their voices heard. There are, however, several common legal obstacles that most activist-driven lawsuits need to overcome:
Geographers concern themselves with more than maps; they examine the whole of life itself. They view the planet as one interconnected symbiotic system, and this perspective comes to bear in their approach to the problems humanity faces. They favor hard facts over naive idealism. They seek to help the world, but they gird their expectations with pragmatic realism. They seek to answer questions about what humanity is and where it is going with data rather than vague philosophical notions.
Today’s cities didn’t just appear out of thin air; the needs of modern people with modern technology couldn’t be met by following the same design principles that informed the development of cities throughout most of human history. This necessitated the creation of a new field called urban planning, and ever since the 19th century this has informed the layout and infrastructure of every major population center across the world. It’s a mixture of art and science, and of psychology and economics. It continues to be an essential part of the modern world, and its importance will only increase during the 21st century.
The Internet has had both a hugely positive, as well as a terribly negative effect on the field of journalism. On the positive side, journalists no longer have to sit in a newsroom to bang out copy. They can type up their stories from virtually anywhere in the world and send both copy and photos instantly to their editors. Journalists can also do a lot of their story research online rather than pounding the pavement as they would have had to in the past.
