Simple shapes are easier to insulate, so a simply-shaped house (think Quaker rather than Gehry) will have less heat loss. That's what I learned, plus the term "thermal bridge," which is a place like a corner where you can't shove in insulation, from this short...

The Royal Burgers Zoo in The Netherland used a drone to make cool video of their world-famous chimpanzee enclosure when one of the apes reacted like a number of humans have done. Watch the video right here.

The Boston Globe reports (here) that Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Pilgrim, mass., has had its safety rating downgraded after several unplanned shutdowns. The plant is now one of just three nuclear power reactors nationwide ranked in the next to lowest performance...

The IRS has ruled that a Vermont man who bought solar panels as part of a community solar project - a "solar farm" - can take the same tax credit that a person can have if they put the panels on their own roof. A story in the Burlington Free-Press (read it here) says...

Perhaps prodded by my light-hearted story Tuesday about whether Mt. Washington should be renamed Agiocochook, somebody has petitioned the White House to do just that, noting that George Washington owned 300 slaves, and "Allowing the George Washington's name on places...

Self-driving cars may be good or bad (they're a potential "threat multiplier" for terrorists, it seems) but at the moment they have one good effect: They're more polite toward bicyclists and pedestrians than cars piloted by carbon-based life forms. Or so says Vox:...