2011

When the news broke yesterday that a previously unreported type of fallout from Fukushima—radioactive sulfur—had reached the United States in late March, nearly all mainstream media reports made the claim that it poses no threat to the health of…

Millions of Americans have been ingesting them for years—perchlorate, hexavalent chromium, volatile organic compounds—not because they're safe, but because they are among 6,000 toxins the EPA has not gotten around to regulating in municipal drinking…

How Did Those Vermont Fish Get Radioactive?

"Hey, don't look at us" has been Entergy Corporation's response to the discovery of Strontium-90 in fish from the Connecticut River.
But the contamination, revealed this week by the Vermont Department of Health, promises to complicate the utility's…

Fracking Radiation Targeted By DOE, GE

The Department of Energy and General Electric will spend $2 million over the next two years to remove naturally occurring radioactive materials from the fracking fluids produced by America's booming shale-gas industry.
The New York State Department…

Apple iPad Awaits Back-To-School Boom

The Apple iPad will dominate an influx of tablet computers into classrooms this fall, according to an education technology expert and industry reports.
"The iPad is the best tablet out there today that we've seen reviewed," said John Connolly,…

Google CFO: Bus Your Employees To Work

Google's chief financial officer praised his company's elaborate regional bus system Wednesday as an example of money-saving Google innovations that are not widely appreciated outside of the company.
"Take a step back and think of buses for a…

New Apps Lost In Apple App Avalanche

So many mobile applications are being developed—especially for Apple's iPhone—that deserving apps are languishing unnoticed in the App Store, according to app developers who gathered in Chicago Thursday.
"Discoverability is a big problem in the App…

One consequence of the media hunger for page views is a blurring of the line between news reporting and other forms of content.
This un-bylined story that has appeared under the BBC News banner since Wednesday probably looks to many readers, as it…

Readers rescue us

[capti on id=”attachment_2694″ align=”alignright” width=”300″ caption=”By fox_kiyo via flickr”][/caption]
When we published the summer issue of Contrary two days ago, we had less than $2 in the bank. We’ve been scraping by since the recession hit,…

Touts Device That Bioaccumulates Like Fish Do
The U.S. effort to assess damage from last year's Gulf oil disaster is overlooking the impact of low levels of petroleum contaminants, the head of the National Aquarium's Conservation Center told senators…