Topic: Science & Technology

Johnny Goff sits at a bank of computers at the Horizon Wind Energy headquarters monitoring an expanse of wind farms from New York to Costa Rica. As a project engineer, Goff knows the math, science and problem solving skills needed to build wind turbines and keep them operating.

The vast majority of world's supply of lithium carbonate, the mineral used to make lithium-based batteries for cellphones and laptop computers is found in just four countries: China, Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia, reports William Tahil, director of research for Meridian International Research in a newly released white paper entitled, The Trouble with Lithium.

“This summer, we’ve seen severe drought in the Midwest and floods in New Mexico and Pennsylvania. These are not two different issues, but ‘two sides of the same coin,’” says Shannon Horst, executive director of Holistic Management International, the New Mexico-based non-profit that works with farmers and ranchers worldwide to create healthy land and healthy profits. “It’s the result of how we’ve built our cities and managed our water and our land.”

A scientist from the University of Manchester has discovered the first identified droplets of spider blood in a piece of amber up to 20 million years old.

COLUMBUS , Ohio – For the third time in as many years, glaciologist Lonnie Thompson has returned from an Andean ice field in Peru with samples from beds of ancient plants exposed for the first time in perhaps as much as 6,500 years.

Editor's note: This will be the last Bits & Bytes column published on AlternativeApproaches.com. However, Ms. MacDoss will drop by from time to time with articles on GNU/Linux and Open Source software.

Bits & Bytes

Why Are You Still Using AOL? by Ms. Lin MacDoss

The fact that America Online remains the largest Internet service provider (ISP) in the country boggles the mind. Their dialup service is slow, their interface is clunky and their email is quirky. In addition, using their service requires the use of software that often adversely effects a computer's performance, even when it's not connected to the net.

Bits & Bytes

Ways To Buy A Computer by Ms. Lin MacDoss

These days there are more ways to buy a computer than there are ways to make persimmon pudding and, as you might expect, there are advantages and disadvantages to each method. Let's look at the pros and cons of the various methods.

Bits &Bytes

Finding The Computer That Fits by Ms. Lin MacDoss

There are so many things to consider when it comes to purchasing a computer that Ms. MacDoss can't help but wonder if the average buyer gets a little confused. With words like megahertz, RAM and ROM being thrown-out by computer salespeople, who often don't fully understand the terms themselves, I imagine that many computer shoppers throw-up their hands and just make a decision based on price alone, which isn't always wise.

But never fear, Ms. MacDoss is here to help you sort-out some of the things you need to know to help you make the right choice the next time you need to purchase a new or used computer!

Bits &Bytes

SpamCop: Barbarians At The Gate by Ms. Lin MacDoss

As any regular reader of this column knows, Ms. MacDoss hates spam, those unasked-for and unwanted emails that promise to do everything from return your libido to bathe you in riches. Given this, can you imagine how livid I became when a recent column for ESP Magazine was returned undelivered because an organization, SpamCop, had determined that I was a spammer and had blacklisted my email accounts?

Bits &Bytes

Internet Software Shopping by Ms. Lin MacDoss

In the days before computers came equipped with CD ROMs, certainly in the days before the Internet, comparison shopping for software was pretty much reduced to pricing similar products. About all you could do back then was load yourself into the Edsel, drive down to Egghead Software or Office Depot, take a look at the scant information provided on the shrink wrapped boxes, and make the best choice possible. If it turned out you were wrong, that you should've purchased Acme Business Pack instead of Apex Business Solutions, you were pretty much stuck, since software is generally not returnable.