Official Google Blog: Announcing the Panoramio Photo Contest

The Panoramio community enables you to share your photos and explore them on Google Earth, Google Maps and other places. If you’ve never geo-tagged a photo, watch this video to learn how easy it is to add photos to the Panoramio layer in Google Earth.

Now you can add some excitement to your photo project and enter your photos to the monthly Panoramio Geotagged Photo Contest! Starting this month, we’ll be giving away the new Casio Hybrid-GPS camera EX-H20G to the winner of each category (Scenery, Heritage, Travel and Unusual Location). The Panoramio community reviews all of the submissions and votes for what they consider to be the best each month.

Official Google Blog: Announcing the Panoramio Photo Contest

Renewable Energy Focus - Europe: 50% electricity from marine renewables by 2050

By 2050 Europe could get up to 50% of its electricity needs from renewable marine sources, according to a report by the Marine Board of the European Science Foundation.
The study defines marine renewable energies as including: offshore wind, wave, tidal, and ocean currents, as well as exploiting salinity and temperature gradients and using algae for biofuel production.

“Marine renewable energy is in its infancy, but it has remarkable potential so the target of 50% is ambitious, but achievable – we just need research, industry and policy to come together,” says Lars Horn from the Research Council of Norway and Chair of the Marine Board.

Renewable Energy Focus - Europe: 50% electricity from marine renewables by 2050

"Mind-Boggling" Pictures: Goats Scale Dam in Italy

"Mind-Boggling" Pictures: Goats Scale Dam in Italy

By scaling Cingino Dam, salt-craving ibex, such as this animal pictured in summer 2010, are "showing ingenuity, taking advantage of this human-created thing in their environment," the Nature Conservancy's Opperman said.

Some other enterprising species can also work around dams in their habitats. For instance, eels can literally wriggle up some dams obstructing their paths, Opperman noted. But all too often dams act as barriers for wildlife, for example by blocking migrating salmon and other fish.

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Minister Alex Salmond Announces Higher Renewable Targets by 2020 (UK) >> Offshore Wind

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has announced that Scotland’s renewable electricity target for 2020 is being raised from 50% to 80% of electricity consumption, putting Scotland well in the lead in the EU. He’s also said that 100% by 2025 was possible.

Scotland’s existing 50% target was established in 2007 and, aided by a rapid expansion in wind power, the country is on course to exceed its interim target of 31% in 2011. According to the Scottish government, much higher levels of renewables could be deployed by 2020 with little change to Scotland’s current policy, planning or regulation framework. A separate study commissioned by industry body Scottish Renewables, reported similar conclusions- 123% was possible! And Scottish Green Party co-leader Patrick Harvie even called for setting a 100% renewable target, ‘perhaps even before 2020’!

Minister Alex Salmond Announces Higher Renewable Targets by 2020 (UK) >> Offshore Wind

Life on Mars could have soaked in 3 billion year-old hot springs

Life on Mars could have soaked in 3 billion year-old hot springs

In recent years, the evidence for extensive water on the surface of Mars has continued to pile up, and, with it, the interest in the possibility that the red planet once supported life. But finding evidence of life that might have died out a few billion years ago poses a significant challenge, to put it mildly. Now, some researchers have identified an attractive place to look: apparent remnants of hot springs on an extinct volcano. On Earth, similar deposits have preserved indications of bacterial life.

In The Fight Against IT Waste, 1E Releases NightWatchman 6.0

In The Fight Against IT Waste, 1E Releases NightWatchman 6.0

Computer power management software company, 1E has released a new version of its marquee product, NightWatchman.

Like its predecessors, version 6.0, helps corporations manage their network of computers to optimize energy efficiency. It gives IT managers the ability to remotely power down computers and establish energy-saving settings (ie. automatic shutdown of desktops during the weekend).

In the latest version, 1E has added three key features: a new web-based dashboard (to help managers oversee the entire company’s computer power usage), improved diagnostic tools to determine why a computer hasn’t properly powered down, and tariff calculations based on location.

The "Chef's Farm: Small Vegetable Plant to Debut for Use in Restaurants

Small Vegetable Plant to Debut for Use in Restaurants -- Tech-On!

Dentsu Facility Management Inc will start taking orders for the "Chef's Farm," a small vegetable plant that can be installed in, for example, a restaurant, in June 2010.

The vegetable plant, which will be released in the summer of 2010 in Japan, was exhibited at International Food Machinery & Technology Exhibition 2010 (FOOMA JAPAN 2010), which took place from June 8 to 11, 2010, in Tokyo. It is priced at about ¥8.3 million (approx US$90,552). Dentsu Facility Management claims that it is possible to harvest 60 heads of lettuce per day (20,000 per year) and recoup the investment in about five years.