Technology & Innovation — March 31, 2011

Is Cloud Computing a Green Industry?

The future of the green cloud may, in fact, be determined by our action or inaction on seemingly unrelated battles like Cap & Trade, says government cloud computing advisor, Kevin Jackson.

bigthinkeditor

Kevin Jackson recently reported to the National Reconnaissance Office and Central Intelligence Agency on the environmental qualities of cloud computing. “The topic of my presentation, ‘Is Cloud Computing Green?’, explored the commonly held belief that the coming shift to the cloud will simultaneously reduce the carbon emmisions footprint currently attributed to the Information, Technology and Communications sector. Logic argues that increased data center efficiency would reduce the need for new data centers. In the end, my conclusion was that the answer to weather cloud computing is green is still being written. …”

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

▸

7 min

—

with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

Up Next

Technology & Innovation

Only 50 Years of Oil Left?

The world may have no more than half a century of oil left at current rates of consumption, the British bank H.S.B.C. warns in a new report, as developing countries’ demand surges to new levels.