Playing Catch-up...

Been a busy couple of days with preparations for the new semester, but I don't want to get too far behind on developments in the world of sustainability. So, rather than several longer posts (and is it just me, or are my posts getting longer all the time), here's a scan of what's showing up in the Sustainable Blogosphere and on the wires:

• Both Eyeteeth and WorldChanging report on a new technology: the urine-powered battery.

• Joel Makower wants to know what makes McKinney, TX, such a hotspot for green business experiments. As I noted, WalMart's opened a green SuperCenter there, and Toyota is planning a green dealership.

• The Future is Green and Cleantech Investing point to a new report from the US Department of Energy that outlines research needed to produce "revolutionary progress in bringing solar energy to its full potential in the energy marketplace."

• Jordan Kessler at NRDC Action Fund has posted a list of resources for offsetting the carbon produced by your summer travel (or any other travel, for that matter).

• Ian at How to Save the World for Free points to yet another article touting the increased efficiency of plug-in hybrid vehicles vs. their "basic brethren."

• Ianqui challenges the Lundberg Survey's prediction that gas prices will soften once the "summer driving season" is over at The Oil Drum.

• Green Trust reports on yet another race of solar vehicles -- this times, it's boats.

• Both Metaefficient and Treehugger take note of a British company making plastic out of hemp and recycled plastic.

• And Energy Bulletin reviews the first of what is sure to be a hot new genre of popular fiction: the peak oil novel.

Those are just a few things that caught my eye -- hope you'll fill us in on things you've seen that I missed. Back to the syllabi...

Technorati tags: pee to power, batteries, green business, solar power, carbon, offsets, hybrid, gas prices, plastic, hemp, peak oil, fiction