"Air conditioning is not an aspect of urbanism whose implications we often consider. What follows is Alison Carafa’s fresh and cheerful journey through some of the unintended uses for, hacks to and consequences of this unloved but, for many, indispensable addition to urban windows."

On the Missouri river's engineering. "I’ve said elsewhere that I think the Army Corps is an exceptionally peculiar organization, probably the country’s most radically avant-garde landscape practice, but rarely recognized for that, as it is the scale, agency, and organizational intricacy of the Corps’ work, not its formal properties, which render it so radical."

"The UK’s electricity market is far from perfect, but it is quite robust enough to handle a near hurricane, followed by unexpected falls in wind speed. What further demonstrations that wind turbines are effective providers of electricity could possibly be required?"

"The countryside is often a man-made landscape, not a natural idyll, and wind turbines are just part of that tradition, writes Will Self." A good read.

James Holloway on new technologies in lighting (LEDs, OLEDs) and older ones (flourescents, and the thankfully dying incandescents). Shocking factoid: "Department of Energy figures cite electric lighting as responsible for 11 percent of residential and 25 percent of commercial energy consumption in the US. That's all energy, not solely electricity."

Flash Bristow's guide to the changes in British pylon design over the last eighty years or so. This was the best bit of another Jonathan Glancey Guardian piece: http://gu.com/p/2p972/

From a couple of years ago, Stephen Spender's poem The Pylons quoted in a piece by Jonathan Glancey.

The BBC, starting from a false premise (that pylons aren't pretty already) and going down a complete blind alley (some unbuilt, anthropomorphic, and awful designs) before revealing a couple of interesting nuggets (like the name of the chap who designed the UK's current pylons). Still, overall worth a read.

"Using New York City as its point of reference, The Works takes readers down manholes and behind the scenes to explain exactly how an urban infrastructure operates." If it hadn't have been for this book, I'd never have realised there were still steam networks (naturally, NYC's is the largest, but apparently Paris has one also).

"At the Energy Center’s two downtown plants, we produce steam and pipe it to approximately 170 customer buildings for space heating, domestic hot water, air conditioning and industrial process use." Either the network, or its proximity to water pipes, probably explains the occasional sight of steam venting downtown. Shame the full-size map is only a PDF.

"The health dangers from nuclear radiation been oversold, stopping governments from fully exploiting nuclear power as a weapon against climate change, argues a professor of physics at Oxford University." I suspect Wade Allison is right, but the comments prove the way nuclear power is feared by the population.

An annotated, free, online version of Stewart Brand's Whole Earth Discipline. I've only really read the nuclear chapter so far but that one alone is good stuff.

"If we are serious about curbing climate change, what would actually help? More people in cities, lots of nuclear power stations and lashings of GM crops, urges Stewart Brand. Unless green activists embrace the benefits of all three, they are not part of the solution, but part of the problem." A review of his new book in the Guardian.

On exposed live cables (or "stray voltage") in New York. "Since the start of 2008, only about eight shocks per month have been recorded, down from almost 24 a month in 2004, according to the foundation’s Web site. The number of electrified objects has risen steadily, to more than 900 per month this year, the data show." America is a bit broken.

Against tumble dryers and their horrific energy consumption. "Clothes lines evoke a negative emotional reaction from many Americans, who view them as flags of poverty." Americans are a bit broken.

Fascinating stuff, about the emigre from Iraq and the way the Norwegians decided to deal with the discovery of oil reserves.

A prototype phone that uses ambient energy in radio waves to power standby mode (nearly). "Instead of harvesting tiny amounts of power (a few microwatts) from dedicated transmitters, Nokia claims it is able to scavenge relatively large amounts of power — around a thousand times as much — from signals coming from miles away"

Are technological civilisations curtailed by the lack of cheap energy, and is that what's going to happen to our civilisation? It's not a new thought, as I note, but it's good to see it getting coverage.

It doesn't look like there's a pool of photos on Flickr for Drax, but here's a power station on the outskirts of Nottingham with its own group.

Hugh Pearman on Drax, the UK's biggest power station - coal fired, of course. "Drax and its kin had better go on working, and let's hope we don't forget how to push the buttons and pull the levers. Otherwise all our screens will fade to black"

"an 8-outlet surge protector that makes it simple to eliminate wasteful standby power to your electronic devices, helping you reduce energy consumption" US only for now, but a good start.

More Guardian, wondering if Gordon Brown is going to back away from European Union targets on renewable energy generation.

Guardian story on a study by the Energy Watch Group from Germany, arguing that oil production peaked in 2006. Certainly the way the price has behaved makes it look like demand is outpacing supply.

"The global rush to switch from oil to energy derived from plants will drive deforestation, push small farmers off the land and lead to serious food shortages and increased poverty unless carefully managed" Hardly shocking, but good to see reported.

Clifford on the solar heating power plant in Spain.

"tossing Santa Lucia overboard for filtered municipal water, carbonated on-site" Hopefully this will spread- I've never liked bottled water.

I'm amazed how few people have put the Mexican tortilla price rise and the hyping of biofuels together.

Ars on the challenges facing the one-watt standard for consumer (and business) electronic devices on standby. Seems to be achievable; I just hope there's enough pressure (from various directions) to make it happen

Idiotic parroting of the Times line on devices and standby, when a bit of research (as pointed to) would let them know that there's no law planned. Sigh.

Instead of educating the public about the possiblities of decentralising electricity generation, are Greenpeace just adding to the power of nightmares with their film about nuclear power stations and terrorism?

"Five biggest polluters in UK produce more CO2 than all motorists combined" - well, yes, four of them generate electricity, though, so it's hardly surprising. Corus showing up is interesting.