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From Eels to Kisses: 6 Wacky Ways Cities are Lighting Up Christmas Trees

Photo: The New England Aquarium The famous Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center made headlines when it got an eco-friendly makeover in 2007, replacing its conventional lights with 30,000 LEDs. But that’s not enough to make it the world’s most eco-friendly tree: From Lima to Copenhagen and Barcelona to Pittsburgh, cities around the world have gone to extreme — and downright wacky — lengths to celebrate sustainability while marking the start of the holiday season…. Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Narnia’s Neeson on the Queen’s 3D Specs

Liam Neeson and Ben Barnes, the stars of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,’ talk about shooting the third film in 3D and watching the Queen wear the glasses at the film’s premiere in London. (Dec. 8)

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Netflix licenses even more TV for streaming from ABC/Disney

We’re not sure if Netflix ended up paying the $100,000 per episode it was rumored to be offering to put new TV shows on Watch Instantly, but it has reached a new deal with Disney-ABC Television Group that keeps episodes of shows like Lost on the streaming service while also adding new ones. The delay time for adding new episodes is at least 15 days for new programming so keep that ABC.com / Hulu bookmark handy if streaming video is your viewing method of choice, but with every single episode of older favorites like Scrubs , Ugly Betty and Reaper due up in 2011, plus expanded offerings from Disney Channel and ABC Family including Greek and the High School Musical / Camp Rock series of movies we’re sure everyone can find something to watch in the meantime. ABC/Disney has been down with Netflix streaming since early on , not to mention 99-cent TV sales/rentals , whether the rumored popularity of cord cutting is true or not, it seems both companies have found a balance they can agree upon for now, check the press release after the break for more details on what’s available and when. Continue reading Netflix licenses even more TV for streaming from ABC/Disney Netflix licenses even more TV for streaming from ABC/Disney originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Dec 2010 10:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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Comptroller on Carmel fire: Government neglected citizens

Prime minister postponed decision on improvement of fire services, Minister Yishai issued warnings but did nothing, Minister Steinitz demanded reforms but didn’t transfer funds and Minister Barak also did nothing. Harsh report paints worrying picture on how government prepared to defend its citizens, states failures that led to deadly inferno result of ‘improper administration, mainly with decision makers’

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Mistletoe Could Vanish Within 20 Years. Then again, it could not.

Image credit: designatednaphour , used under Creative Commons license. From the very rare Mexican walking fish to the most obnoxious bird in the world , there are so many species out there disappearing that it is easy to get a little numb to what we are losing. But news comes from the Guardian that one species many of us rely on at this time of year is likel… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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ShowBiz Minute: DiCaprio, Lennon, Jackson

2 years for woman charged with slashing Leonardo DiCaprio; Rolling Stone releases John Lennon’s final interview; Michael Jackson’s first posthumous music video precedes album. (Dec. 8)

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80% of UK Farmers Want Solar Roofs by 2013

Image credit: Farming Futures Michael Eavis isn’t the only farmer building a massive solar roof on his cow shed . According to a new survey, more than 80% of UK farmers want to install solar on their roofs. And they want to do it by 2013. The survey, which was conducted by Farming Futures and Solarcentury , was intended to gauge the extent that farmers wanted to invest in solar power now that

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Ripxx ski app out now for Android, still has no idea what the street value of this mountain is

The closest we have ever come to a ski race is the worn out VHS copy of Better Off Dead we still have in the back of our closets somewhere, but if you’re an Android-lovin’ ski bunny jealous of all the attention Ripxx has been giving the iPhone, you’re in luck. That’s right, your fave open source smartphone OS has its very own version of the Ripxx Ski and Snowboard app. Version 1.1 features over 200 mapped out resorts, GPS tracking, stats recording (including speed, distance, and vertical drop) and more. Not bad for $5, eh? Ripxx ski app out now for Android, still has no idea what the street value of this mountain is originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Dec 2010 10:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

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Sharpton wants FCC to shut down Limbaugh’s ‘racist talk’

Click here to view this media It’s no secret that Rev. Al Sharpton isn’t a fan of Rush Limbaugh. Now Sharpton is hoping the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will finally do something about the conservative radio host. Sharpton told MSNBC’s Ed Schultz Monday that he conducting a series of meetings with the FCC to see if anything can be done to put a stop to what Schultz called Limbaugh’s “racist-type talk.” “We have a series of meetings going on, and we’re going to see the FCC next week,” Sharpton said. “We’re not going to stand by and allow publicly regulated radio and television just go for marketing and promoting this kind of racism.” Sharpton is upset that Limbaugh has repeatedly called Democratic policies “reparations” for slavery. “The objective is unemployment, the objective is more food stamp benefits, the objective is more unemployment benefits, the objective is an expanding welfare state,” Limbaugh said on May 11. “The objective is to take the nations wealth and return it to the nation’s ‘rightful owners.’ Think reparations. Think forced reparations.” On June 22, Limbaugh revisited the subject. “Obama’s entire economic program is reparations,” he said. Schultz called Limbaugh’s words “racially-charged hate speech” and noted that Republican congressmen have picked up on the the theme. Rep. Steve King (R-IA) argued last week on the House floor that the claims of African-American farmers and American Indians who were discriminated against in the 1980s and 1990s by the Department of Agriculture are fraudulent. “We’ve got to stand up at some point and say, ‘We are not gonna pay slavery reparations in the United States Congress,’” he said. “That war’s been fought. That was over a century ago. That debt was paid for in blood and it was paid for in the blood of a lot of Yankees, especially. And there’s no reparations for the blood that paid for the sin of slavery. No one’s filing that claim.” “Rush Limbaugh has the right to say whatever he wants to say. He can’t do it, though, on publicly regulated air waves,” Sharpton noted. “The FCC has a responsibility to set standards, to say the public can not be offended based on their race or their gender in this country and use federally regulated airwaves that they give licenses to that are very competitive and the FCC is very selective based on standards.” “How would you monitor racist-type talk on these radio stations that are publicly licensed by the FCC? How would do you this?” asked Schultz “They come back and say it’s freedom of speech.” “Clearly I think that Rush Limbaugh’s statements would be over the top. You can’t say in the name of free speech you can say anything you want, when you are not allowed to do anything you want on radio stations and television stations. We can’t have standards everywhere but when it comes to race,” Sharpton said. Conservative blogs have been on the attack against Sharpton ever since he first told Schultz in mid-November that the FCC should take action against stations carrying Limbaugh’s show. “[T]he bottom line is that the left wants to find an excuse, any excuse, to grab the mike from the man who has wreaked so much havoc on their cause,” Mark Finkelstein wrote for Newsbusters.

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Catholic Cemetery Launches Green Burial Offerings

Image credit: David Sim , used under Creative Commons license. When I penned a guide a few short years ago on how to green your funeral , it seemed like most of the options available for a more sustainable burial leaned, shall we say, toward the new agey side of things. But things are changing. Brian noted back in October that

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