It's studying us ... and learning: The "most beautiful thermostat in the world" looks like "something from the future, if the future were ruled by people with impeccable taste in Scandinavian furniture." It's also impressively high-tech in its pursuit of maximal efficiency, employing a web of complex algorithms to better "learn" about our behaviors and temperature preferences, and continually updating and improving its functionalities via the Internet, to which it's connected. I, for one, welcome our new thermostat overlords! Slate
Slipping away: A short but awesome video allows the viewer to swim over the fantastically shaped and colored coral formations of the Great Barrier Reef -- and underscores the threats facing this global wonder, which has seen its coral cover decline by more than half over the last 27 years. Guardian
Dive in, everybody: When planning your next vacation to Alberta, why not consider Western Canada's newest tourist attraction, Lake Toxiceffluvia? So, funny thing, it turns out that when you dig up millions of tons of Canadian tar sands, it leaves these giant holes in the ground. What are the oil companies proposing to do with these big holes once they've gotten what they want out of them? That's right: fill them with billions of gallons of water and create lakes atop years' worth of buried mine tailings -- a civic-minded act of giving back to the community so risky that even insiders are calling it a "total crapshoot." Globe and Mail
Island of Dr. Larry: Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, whose net worth is estimated to be just north of $40 billion, plans to turn the 141-square-mile Hawaiian island of Lanai -- 98 percent of which he currently owns -- into a "green laboratory" where environmentally-minded scientists can drive electric cars to labs dedicated to projects like figuring out how to turn seawater into freshwater. Aloha, desalinization plants all running on Java platforms! San Francisco Chronicle
Attention must be paid: Climate change isn't a matter of scientific debate. But doesn't it deserve to be a subject in a presidential one? The League of Conservation Voters was hoping to get 50,000 people to sign their petition pressing Jim Lehrer, the moderator of tonight's presidential debate in Denver, to ask the two candidates a question about climate change. They ended up receiving more than 150,000 signatures. All well and good, of course, but as one wag puts it: "How did we get to the point of petitioning for a single question about how the U.S. will handle a planetary threat girded by overwhelming scientific consensus?" Huffington Post
Time to fish or ... well, you know: The world's small fisheries provide four-fifths of our global seafood catch -- but are largely unregulated and overfished. In fact, a new study confirms that "the world’s oceans are even more overfished than we had feared." The good news is that taking remedial measures right now would have an enormous effect on restoring fish populations. But “the longer we wait, the harder and more costly it will be [to revive them]. In another ten years, the window of opportunity may be closed.” Time
OMG LOL MOO: Swiss dairy cows are now sending text messages to farmers, announcing when they're going into heat. Special sensors placed in the cows' genitalia trigger the generation of the message, which alerts the farmer (aka the horny bull's "wingman)" to facilitate the hook-up. (Sample text: "guess wht im wearing rt now? cute little bell & NOTHING ELSE!") New York Times
Tips: @OnEarthMag (tag it #greenreads)
Image: Bob Jagendorf/Flickr
