Monday Links: July 28th, 2008

I’m running a bit behind blogging schedule today, but it’s Monday so cut me some slack.  Links (still good, even cold):

• Here’s an example of greenwashing taken to a profoundly appaling extreme:

To celebrate 75 years of Esquire History, or perhaps in a desperate attempt to prove to the wired generation that magazines can be high tech too, Esquire will sport an electronic ink cover on its September Issue. Except for the few copies destined for the Smithsonian and other collections, that will be a 100,000 electronic pages which will be e-waste at latest when the battery runs out after 90 days.

Want to know what the estimated environmental impact of this completely useless and indulgent distraction looks like?

150 tons of CO2 equivalent, similar to the output of 15 Hummers or 20 average Americans for an entire year, and a 16% increase over the carbon footprint of a typical print publication (based on calculations by Discover Magazine, Time, and In Style). The potential environmental impact of the E Ink covers increases even more when you consider that the units are designed to be disposable after one use and they’ll make it more difficult or impossible to recycle the paper portion of the magazines.

• Let me set a scene for you: Steve Jobs, after appearing a bit pale and very thin at Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference, is the subject of various industry and media rumors about his health.  Apple’s PR department writes off concerns, saying that El Jobso was suffering from a “common bug.”  Many tech writers and bloggers don’t buy this (shocker), and continue writing speculative stories about what is going on with the Chosen One.  Well, Jobs finally responded with a phone call to NY Times business writer Joe Nocera (emphasis mine):

“This is Steve Jobs,” he began. “You think I’m an arrogant [expletive] who thinks he’s above the law, and I think you’re a slime bucket who gets most of his facts wrong.” After that rather arresting opening, he went on to say that he would give me some details about his recent health problems, but only if I would agree to keep them off the record. I tried to argue him out of it, but he said he wouldn’t talk if I insisted on an on-the-record conversation. So I agreed.

Because the conversation was off the record, I cannot disclose what Mr. Jobs told me. Suffice it to say that I didn’t hear anything that contradicted the reporting that John Markoff and I did this week. While his health problems amounted to a good deal more than “a common bug,” they weren’t life-threatening and he doesn’t have a recurrence of cancer.

Well then.  Okie dokie.

• I’ll be writing about NASA’s adoption of social media and information sharing in a post later today on open government; in the meantime, check out the amazing NASA Images website that just went live.  Unbelievable pictures.  One of my personal favorites, the untethered spacewalk:

[Hat Tip OhGizmo]

• Here’s a throwback link from the good ole days before Mental Floss started pushing a partial RSS feed, thus infuriating me.  From their (now sadly dead) full feed: here’s a surprisingly fascinating story about laying trans-atlantic cables (you know, like the ones that were accidently severed earlier this year).

• Lego jumps on the alternative energy bandwagon with a wind turbine set.

• I will be trying this Huevos Rancheros recipe just as soon as possible.