Nature News and Columbia University have joined forces to make a Google Earth map showing the world populations at risk from nuclear fallout. The interactive map combines data on population and the locations and sizes of reactors, plotting risk graphically in the form of circles. Small, green circles represent relatively low risk, based on population size near the nuclear plants; mid-sized yellow circles represent greater risk, with large red circles representing the greatest risk.

It's highly unlikely that you're going to see any new nuclear power plants built any time in the future, given the now worsening situation at Fukushima. But knee-jerk reactions to the accident are not what's really to blame for the inevitable decline in nuclear production.

Sen. Rand Paul had a powerful line of questioning today for Kathleen Hogan, the deputy assistant energy secretary for efficiency. In a hearing about renewing appliance efficiency standards — hint: Rand Paul does not want any — he meandered about regulations for light bulbs, washing machines, and most importantly toilets. Why is Rand Paul forced, assuming he is, to buy useless energy-efficient products, when women aren't forced to carry all of their pregnancies to term? This is what Rand Paul argued.

Eating instructions! Stair running! Five Hour Energy! Ballet bodies! Polar bear workout! Polio elimination! Winter blues! Exercise brain! Diabetes everywhere! As well as racist doctors! It's your Monday Health Watch, where we watch your health—again and again, unsuccessfully!

Carol Browner, President Obama's chief advisor on energy and the environment, is stepping down.

In three more years, you literally will not be able to purchase a good old-fashioned light bulb any more. It'll be 100% twisty, pale CFL bulbs. Which, they now tell us, aren't as amazing as promised.

In today's edition of Meet Your Republican Committee Chairs, we look at Rep. Joe Barton — energy industry puppet, BP apologist. He wants to head the powerful Energy and Commerce committee. Why? To destroy those energy-saving lightbulbs that hippies love.

West Virginia's Democratic governor Joe Manchin is extremely popular in his state but is still trailing the Republican in his Senate race, because it's 2010. What to do? Maybe go into the woods and shoot climate-change bills, with a rifle?

Barack Obama threw a bone to the hippies today by announcing his plan to place solar panels on the White House roof. Take that, hydrocarbons. But won't the next Republican president just rip these panels off, again?

The New Yorker has published a detailed account of this Congress' (now abandoned) attempts to pass a climate change bill, co-written by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. Problem was, Graham thought he could write this major bill without Fox News noticing.

Many liberals were upset with Barack Obama for not using Tuesday's Oval Office address to pressure the Senate into passing a cap-and-trade system or carbon tax. But may he have a "secret plan" in the works, as some are suggesting?

Georgia Rep. Paul Broun is concerned about an energy bill killing old people in hot states. What happens when Floridians and Georgians turn up their thermostats in summer, to save on bills? Waves of death, says this esteemed "medical doctor."

A leading energy economist says that worldwide oil supplies are rapidly running out.

In what is possibly the most bizarre coupling since Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley married, Sarah Palin and the Washington Post have come together as one and given birth to a Sarah Palin Washington Post op-ed piece. Yeah.

It's a sad day for America, and for wind: T. Boone Pickens, the vile old conservative billionaire oilman who somehow sold himself as an important environmentalist last year, is abandoning his giant wind farm plan.

With its many servers, Google devours electricity. And with search queries growing by 50%, it's only getting hungrier. The solution? Drill a two-mile-deep hole in the Earth, extracting geothermal energy and possibly destroying San Francisco with a terrible earthquake.

Good one: cutouts of "tree huggers," wrapped around actual trees, urging you to "VOTE EARTH" by switching off your lights for an hour. These cutouts are made of cardboard.

Oil was $140 a barrel on Monday, now it's below $133 a barrel either because Vladimir Putin farted or the U.S. released its fuel stock figures — we're not sure. Is Peak Oil real, or is the myth driving investors to get nutty with an otherwise healthy market? A decade ago, when oil was cheap, it was a "controversial theory," reported in the San Francisco Examiner, that predicted the party wouldn't last very much longer. So why was the conventional wisdom of OPEC fantasists, who warned of "$5 oil," so laughably bogus? (The Economist devoted a cover story to it; see left.) Who made false predictions then, and who's really talking sense about the state of the industry now?

It's about time that Starbucks offered weary consumers a little energy with their oversized caffeinated beverages. The coffee chain and infectious disease spreader is now providing the option of a "+Energy" addition to any drink. The new energy formula contains B-vitamins, guarana, and ginseng, which is the same mixture that they toss in most canned energy drinks these days, along with eye-popping amounts of caffeine. What I would like to know is this: what one flavor could possibly taste palatable mixed with every single thing that Starbucks sells, from coffee to tea to fruit-flavored goop?

With a soaring stock price and fat bottom line, Google has plenty of time and money to move into other sectors. Today Google announced a new plan to develop renewable energy like solar. Cofounder Larry Page optimistically claims Google's "goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal. We are optimistic this can be done in years, not decades." An admirable goal, to be sure, but what does this give the shareholders?