Brown Is the New Green in Trendy Los Angeles

Staff / Truthdig Aug 27, 2009 It takes a lot of someone else's water to keep L.A.’s palm trees growing and its Jacuzzis bubbling, but Angelenos are defying their moochy reputation and conserving like nobody's business. The city's mayor thanked his citizens for their double-digit cuts in water and power consumption last month -- in the thick of summer no less. Update Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

The Electricity in Your Garbage

T.L. Caswell / Truthdig Aug 3, 2009 With biomass pioneers advancing their technology, the smelly stuff that you throw away today may be providing electricity for your home tomorrow.Almost like magic, biomass developers are tapping more and more kinds of waste to produce clean, renewable energy. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

Die Hard 5: Real Life

Staff / Truthdig Apr 9, 2009 Hollywood has given us many a laptop-wielding hacker who causes explosions, blackouts and mayhem with a few malicious keystrokes, but such scenarios may not be confined to preposterous action flicks anymore. The Wall Street Journal reports that cyberspies from China and Russia have infiltrated the U.S. electrical grid, mapped it and left a little something behind. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Iraq Awards Iran Contracts, U.S. Sulks

Staff / Truthdig Oct 18, 2007 Determined to show just how adolescent they can be, U.S. representatives in Baghdad have expressed dissatisfaction and suspicion over a pair of power plants that Iranian and Chinese companies plan to build in Iraq. One American military official described the contracts this way: "As you know, it's not always as it appears." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Kicking the SUV Habit — Finally

Staff / Truthdig Aug 19, 2006 Ford announced its largest production cuts in 20 years, blaming high gas prices for customers shifting away from its pickups and SUVs and toward higher-mileage models We were wondering how long it would take Americans to wean themselves from their SUV addiction Now, if we could just get a few more of these next-generation electric cars on the road. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

No Gas, But Zero to 60 in Four seconds

Staff / Truthdig Jul 26, 2006 The Tesla company's new all-electric car can go 250 miles off a 3.5-hour charge and hit speeds of 130 mph. And although at $100,000 apiece, they're not ready for the masses, the Teslas represent a huge leap over GM's 1996 all-electric model, and offer a glimpse of things to come. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

The Next Must-See Documentary

Staff / Truthdig Jul 7, 2006 Check out the new movie that The New York Times calls "a prosecutorial examination of the role of oil companies, the automobile industry and the Bush administration (them again) in stymieing the development of emission-free electric vehicles." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Gitmo and Afghanistan Interrogation Tactics Exposed

Staff / Truthdig Jun 19, 2006 In a new book, a medical ethicist has compiled a list of interrogation techniques documented at US detention centers in Guantanamo and Afghanistan They include: external electric shocks; beating; punching with fists; use of truncheons; stretching or suspension (to tear ligaments or muscles to cause asphyxia) UPDATE: An L Times reporter writes that the barring of U reporters from Gitmo "make[s] us all the more determined to question, probe and illuminate the actions of our government being waged in the country's name" . Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )