Aaron Swartz of the Google Weblog visited the Googleplex and came back with some interesting, if blurry, photos.

Germany votes for animal rights: "Germany has become the first European nation to vote to guarantee animal rights in its constitution. A majority of lawmakers in the Bundestag voted on Friday to add "and animals" to a clause that obliges the state to respect and protect the dignity of humans."

Rain Gardens Help Replenish Dwindling Ground Water: "But the gardens blooming in the minds of two university engineers cultivate sand and gravel, water budgets and storage capacity. Potter and Dussaillant design these 'rain gardens' for one primary purpose: to replenish, or recharge, dwindling ground water supplies."

How Can I Help To Protect My Drinking Water Supply? "Drinking water protection is a shared responsibility, involving water suppliers, local and state governments, business, and individuals. We all have an important role to play, and as private citizens we have many opportunities. Environmental protection activities such as watershed protection projects are taking place across the United States. Clean and healthy watersheds are vital to safe drinking water."

A Consumer's Guide to the Nation's Drinking Water: "The United States enjoys one of the best supplies of drinking water in the world. Nevertheless, many of us who once gave little or no thought to the water that comes from our taps are increasingly asking the question: "Is my water safe to drink?" While tap water that meets federal and state standards generally is safe to drink, threats to drinking water quality and quantity are increasing. From short-term disease outbreaks linked to contaminated drinking water to restrictions on water use during droughts, we can no longer take our drinking water for granted."

How Much Drinking Water Do We Use In Our Homes? "On average, our society uses almost 100 gallons of drinking water per person per day. Traditionally, water use rates are described in units of gallons per capita per day (gpcd), gallons used by one person in one day. Of the "drinking water" supplied by public water systems, only a small portion is actually used for drinking. As residential water consumers, we use most water for other purposes, such as toilet flushing, bathing, cooking, cleaning, and lawn watering."

Cleaner Water Through Conservation: "This document [from the EPA] explains the relationship between the quantity of water and its quality and discusses how developing water-use efficiency programs can help states and local communities achieve cleaner water through conserving water.

How to Conserve Water and Use It Effectively: "What's the problem? What practices might be used to solve it? How effective are they? What do they cost? Where have they been used successfully? Practices for system users residential, industrial/commercial, and agricultural are presented first, followed by practices for system operators." from the EPA.

Anatomy of Water: "It's not every day that you encounter a biography of a substance, let alone one of the most ubiquitous substances on the face of the planet. British science writer and physicist Philip Ball has put water under the microscope of his meticulous scientific analysis in Life's Matrix, in an attempt to answer a question that is much more complex than it seems on the surface: what exactly is water?"

Making Every Drop Count: "We drink it, we generate electricity with it, we soak our crops with it. And we're stretching our supplies to the breaking point. Will we have enough clean water to satisfy all the world's needs?"