Monday Morning Links: January 7th, 2008

Hey folks, I figure I’ll try to update every Sunday night with some links of interest to peruse as you ease yourself into work Monday morning:

GiveWell is (was?) a promising project in innovative, transparent, and outcomes-driven prilanthropy. And then its founder (one of two employees) decided to promote the project online without disclosing his affiliation. Innovative, perhaps, but transparent…not so much. I thought of writing a full post on this controversy, but it’s all summed up rather nicely here. My personal take? It’s an unfortunate credibility nightmare for an organization that, IMHO, was moving in all of the right directions. I’d hate to see this end any momentum GiveWell might have generated towards more transparency and questioning the norm in the philanthropic world. (UPDATE: The GiveWell Board speaks of their solution here. Holden (the founder who acted inappropriately) has been demoted, but the project will continue. Let’s hope they can put this behind them.)
So the carbon advantage is questionable (with compressed air likely requiring coal powered compressors), and the chances of mass production in the near future are next to nil, but still…there’s something intriguing about an air powered car is there not?
This is a blog about change, so if one change you’re helping a friend through in the new year is switching to a mac (3/4 tropophiliacs agree…we’re working on Dan), here are five ways to make life easier for new mac users. Also, if anyone knows how to get the right and up arrows to function again after spilling liquid on an iBook I uh…have a ‘friend’ who might appreciate you leaving that advice in the comments.
The promise of algae as a renewable and clean biodiesel fuel is one of the more exciting take-aways from a recent National Geographic cover feature on bio fuels. News that Shell will become the first major oil company to try its hand at algae is a welcome surprise. Paging Exxon…oh, still denying climate change? We’ll check back later.