Food & Health

A new beverage labeling initiative that is starting this fall provides an interesting example of how businesses can change without government mandates or laws. Launched by the American Beverage Association (ABA), Clear on Calories provides a standard disclosure system for the calorie content on the front label of any single-serve beverage item. Participation is not federally enforced but all the big beverage companies, including Coke, Pepsi, Dr Pepper-Snapple Group, and Nestle Waters of North America have signed on, as has Honest Tea.

Travel & Nature

Image credit: Matt Callow/Flickr

Most conservation, unfortunately, is reactive. Though improved assessment methods make this reaction more timely, plans are crafted after habitats are degraded and species are recieve protected status after their populations have demonstrated critical declines.

New research, however, could help conservationists pinpoint the moment a species will take a turn towards the unrecoverable—knowledge that could change the way preservation plans are designed and implemented.

Culture & Celebrity

Photo via Oceana

Actor Ted Danson, who recently joined Morgan Freeman and Oceana to support the organization's study of oil plumes in the Gulf of Mexico, has signed on for another project: playing against type as an unsympathetic oil baron in "Everybody Loves Whales."

Science & Technology

photo: Humanitarian and Development Partnership Team in the Central African Republic via flickr

About ten months ago a report came out claiming to link recent upsurges in African civil war to changes in climate change, and predicting that there would be 50% more conflict in the coming decades. Well, a new article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says not so fast, finding that civil wars have been declining since 2002, in track with increased prosperity.

Travel & Nature

Photo via Pandiyan, Flickr

Conservation International has released a new report that spells out a bleak future for the world's freshwater turtles: A full 1/3 of the 280 known species currently face extinction. Evidently, a lucrative pet trade, hunting of turtles for food, and habitat loss are the key contributors to turtles' "catastrophic decline". The good news --what little there is, anyway -- is that the rapid decline can yet be turned around with some key action.

Fashion & Beauty

Images: Littlefly Jewelry

Forget what the glossy magazines say -- even bookworms have their own sense of irrepressible style. That's what British designer Jeremy May seems to be hinting with his lovely, handcrafted jewelry pieces made from the laminated pages of recycled books. Each holds a trace of their unique literary pedigree, which is impossible to replicate.

According to May, "Paper is many things: a carrier of text, illustration, history and emotion," but it's the sensitive crafting process and presentation that makes this collection of "literary jewels" so special:

Science & Technology

There's a growing body of evidence that land-use conversion in the tropics, driven in part by biofuels, negates many of their benefits. Photo: Craig Morey via flickr.

The UK government's own climate advisors have recommended that current biofuel targets for transport of 10% by 2020 are too high, given concerns about their impact on tropical forests. Currently the nation gets about 2.5% of its transport fuel from biofuels, and recent study has shown that most of this does not meet sustainability criteria.

Cars & Transportation

Photo: Peugeot

Aimed Mostly at Fleet Buyers at First
Peugeot has released some details on its iOn electric car, which is based on the Mitsubishi i MiEV. In France, the leasing price will be of €499 (about $643) for five years, and this includes: the vehicle and its battery, a 5-year warranty covering the battery and electric power train, servicing and maintenance for five years or 50,000 km (31,000 miles), specific electric assistance, and Peugeot Connect, Electric Driving (smartphone application) services and access to the Mu by Peugeot mobility program.