At the DC Energy Expo a couple of weekends ago, my jaw dropped when I learned just how much energy it takes to run a plasma television set: A whopping three times as much electricity as a regular TV.  Even when they aren't running, plasma TVs suck an enormous amount of "vampire energy" - the power an appliance draws when turned off but still plugged into the wall. One of these beauties can set you back an estimated 1,452 kilowatts a year, or nearly $160, just by leaving the thing plugged in when your not using it, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

So, it's little wonder that the California Energy Commission - which enjoys being the country's environmental advanced guard - voted yesterday to ban plasma TV sales. The ban came in the form of new regulations requiring new televisions sold in the state to consume 33 percent less electricity by 2011 and 49 percent less electricity by 2013.

California's crusading for tougher vehicle emission rules is often credited with raising the bar for a new national auto emissions standard. Will the same be true for TVs? Or will the ban just ruin some people's enjoyment of big-screen rituals such as Super Bowl Sunday?

Here is a little “news analysis” I think our City Paper constituency can appreciate.

Yesterday, beer lovers were devastated to hear global warming is hurting beer production. While that news was bad, the Washington Post followed up with a dispatch today suggesting that we can solve global warming if we stop having kids.

Put the two news items together in time-honored “news analysis” tradition and what do you get? A solution! To assure a lasting supply of quality beer, forget about having that The Waltons-style family you were considering. In fact, better not too have any of the little darlings, according to a crack team of researchers at the London School of Economics.

That’s right, if we stopped having kids, we’d pretty much wipe up the climate change problem, according to the U.K. study. And, we’d presumably still be able to drive around in Hummers, live in sprawling suburban McMansions, shop until we drop, and spend every evening at the pub - mugs of a top of the line pilsner in each hand.

Read More "News Analysis: To Save Beer from Global Warming, Stop Having Kids" »

After spending “the dog days” of summer testing the water quality at D.C. swimming pools, I have decidedly mixed feelings about this footage of neighborhood mascots taking the final dip of the season. Our tests found more than a third of the pools visited were incubating harmful bacteria just like giant Petri dishes.

There’s a definite gross-out factor in letting the doggies in for a dip. Though I’m not quite sure who should be more grossed out - the pooches or the people - particularly given the footage of a happy-go-lucky mutt named Taxi Dog lapping up the pool water. Decide for yourself: We’ve got photos and video courtesy of Wayan Vota and the Petworth Listserv. Thanks Wayan!

The Food and Drug Administration may launch its own nutritional label in response to Big Food’s “Smart Choices” logo that has begun arriving in grocery stores on boxes of Froot Loops and other foods that are high in sugar, salt and fat, according to the New York Times.

Kelloggs, Kraft and PepsiCo are among the foodmakers backing the initiative. But F.D.A. officials aren't the only ones that find it unpalatable. Nutritionists and food activists have also panned the labeling program for slapping its big green checkmark on items of questionable nutritional value; Each box of Froot Loops, for instance, is 41 percent sugar by product weight, according to the Times.

The Metropolitan Police Department just re-upped its emergency supply kit recommendations this morning in honor of September: Did you know it’s National Preparedness Month?

I occasionally think it might be a good idea to create a kit and come up with a plan since we live in a place terrorists most likely dream about bombing, burning, crashing into, or … well, I think you get the picture. And, now with Swine Flu poised for a comeback, there seems even more reason to stockpile the canned food and water, though I don’t know where one is supposed to put all those rations in the average D.C. apartment. You’d need a separate storage unit. And, wouldn't that defeat the purpose? But some provisions seem appropriate.

Anyone know where I can get one of those face masks?

Officials at the city's Department of Health finally released the list of the pools its inspectors shut down this year. As a followup to our summer pool coverage, here’s the lowdown: 

The indoor pool at the University of the District of Columbia was closed Mar. 4 “for leaks,” according to DOH spokesperson Dena Iverson. Apparently, water has been seeping out of the pool and into the ground for years prior to the shutdown, says UDC spokesperson Alan Etter, who says school officials have hired a contractor and hope to reopen the pool next spring.

“For years, they’d patch it,” he says. Now, “they just want to fix it right.”

Read More "Health Department Closed Pools at UDC, Apartment Buildings" »

George Washington University has pulled up its grade in a national environmental group's annual college ranking. Then again, there really was no place to go but up after last year, when the Sierra Club named G.W. one of the five least sustainable universities in the country, the student-run GW Hatchet, pointed out in its front page coverage today.

Even though the school's environmental record doesn't suck quite as much this year, it hasn't exactly entered the “ivy league,” so to speak, of eco-friendly campuses. It is now ranked 81 out 135 universities around the country; hardly a passing score even with grade inflation so common at colleges these day.

Still, the Sierra Club’s third annual Cool Schools report didn’t even consider other D.C. colleges such as Georgetown University, American University and the University of the District of Columbia. So, there is no way to establish the true pecking order, environmentally-speaking, of D.C.  higher-learning institutions. The only other area schools included in the ranking also received uninspiring grades: The University of Maryland beat G.W. with a 67, while George Mason University brought up the rear with an 89.

After a few weeks of micro-blogging, I think I’ve figured out what Twitter is good for: all manner of information whizzing by haphazardly. I miss 90 percent of this stream-of-consciousness info. stream, what with real work to do.  But when I take the time, there is usually some funky item worth crowing about. 

Check out this set of instructions for building your own wind turbine. OK, most of us aren’t going to rush out and erect one of these above our row house or apartment building. But isn’t it nice to know you could?

Going to the beach these days is like taking a dip in an open sewer, according to a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The NRDC found the nation’s beaches are befouled by raw sewerage and floating debris that is not just seriously gross but a serious health hazard. This is the 19th year that the Washington-based environmental group has published its annual seaside report card, and things aren't getting any sunnier. For the fourth year in a row, it tallied more than 20,000 closing and advisory days at popular beaches around the country.

Public health officials say swimming with sewage can make you sick and sometimes kill you. The list of waterborne illnesses includes stomach flu, skin rashes, pinkeye, ear, nose and throat problems, dysentery, hepatitis, respiratory ailments and neurological disorders, according to the NRDC. The group's advice: To minimize risk, don't go in the water after heavy rains when raw sewerage and polluted storm runoff is often swept out to sea. 

But the report also has a tiny bit of good news: Out of 200 beaches around the country, only about a dozen received top marks based on five water quality and testing measures. We’ve got one of these “five star” beaches within driving distance: Ocean City in Worcester, Maryland.

To read the press release and full report, click here. Here is a USA Today story too.

In a city like Washington with so many workaholics counting on fast food joints for sustenance, this story has maximum gross out potential: Despite those pervasive bathroom signs directing employees to wash up after using the loo, more than half of all fast-food industry workers don’t bother, according to a new study by the Federal Drug Administration.

Beyond the obvious and very icky implications, the feds are wringing their hands because the lack of hand washing can lead to the spread of food-borne diseases such as hepatitis A and E. coli.

You know the dog days of summer are upon us when the Washington Post’s television highlights include tonight’s The Yes Men Fix the World, a new HBO documentary about those zany activists/performance artists, who go around impersonating corporate executives.

Their particular form of protest comes from poking fun at serious issues such as world trade rules, corporate greed and the human role in global warming. And, they are so good at it that the suits usually don’t know the joke is on them until it’s way beyond face-saving time.

They’ve pinioned officials at the World Trade Organization, FEMA and Halliburton. In my book, I included their 2007 antics at a Canadian oil convention. Impersonating executives from ExxonMobil and the National Petroleum Council, The Men had a roomful of industry types on their feet and solemnly lighting candles made from what they claimed to be the next big renewable energy source: Vivoleum, a “fossil fuel” supposedly made from the human flesh of people killed in hurricanes, floods and other global warming-related disasters.

Given what's on TV this time of year, there are many worse ways to spend a Monday night. But even before seeing it, I have a complaint for the filmmakers: the title. The Yes Men certainly make it more fun to fret about corporate corruption and lack of political will, but change the world? At best, they call attention to its many dysfunctions.

The New York Times has a story today about farmed salmon from Chile that makes a few pretty scary points:

1. Chile used almost 350 times more antibiotics in its farmed salmon in 2008 than Norway, its chief competitor.
2. Chile is the biggest supplier of salmon supplier to the United States. So, if you’ve purchased the pretty pinkish fillets lately, they’ve likely come from Chile, though the story does note that Safeway and Wal-Mart, have reduced purchases of Chilean salmon due to concern about the fish illnesses that require producers there to use so many antibiotics.
3. Some of the antibiotics used in Chile are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Think rock and roll and Hispanic culture go together about as well as meatloaf and guacamole? Think again. For a couple of generations now, hipsters across the Hispanic world have been banging their heads to what’s known south of the border as rocanrol! 

They’ve been rocanroleando – rocking – for decades. And, for this weekend only, you can catch performance artist Quique Avilés, backed by the local band Machetres, in a unique combination of the history and music. El Canuto del Rock is a one-act play featuring Don Amadeo Martinez, a campesino-turned-DJ, who transforms a radio station deep inside rural El Salvador into an outpost of Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and The Beatles. 

Read More "Rocanrol at Gala tonight offers laughs + hard-rocking covers" »

It’s not like the mysterious fillers used in hotdogs haven’t been scaring the bejesus out of folks for years, but the inevitable has finally happened: A D.C.-based vegan group is suing the makers of Oscar Mayer, Hebrew National and other well-known wiener brands. The group wants warning labels on the dogs to alert consumers of alleged cancer risks associated with eating too much of the mystery meat. Check out the story here.

Driving while drunk has fallen dramatically over the last few decades but drug use is much more popular, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

According to the latest NHTSA roadside survey, drivers caught with blood alcohol concentrations above the legal limit fell to 2.2 percent in 2007, compared to 7.5 percent in 1975. 

Until 2007, the feds were only equipped to measure boozing - 0.08 blood alcohol concentrations or higher mean you are legally drunk. But now, the NHTSA has spiffy new screening techniques that detect drug use too. Of the nighttime weekend drivers tested in 2007, 16.3 percent were on drugs – mostly marijuana, with cocaine in second place, followed by prescription pills, the NHTSA says.

Yeah, but how scientific is a survey of 300 stops nationwide?  What about all those others who weren’t caught up in the dragnets, would they be more likely to be drugged or smashed? And, the NHTSA has segregated out the "nighttime weekend" druggies, while the boozing data apparently includes stops at all times of day and night. Perhaps the announcement's true intent is to put drug users on warning that toking and tweaking no longer goes undetected.