This bike, designed by custom bike maker Tony Pereira, took top prize in an Oregon Manifest competition to design the perfect urban utility cycle. Pereira's bike is intended as a transitional vehicle for people trying to make the switch from cars. It includes a stereo, a front-mounted locking "trunk," and an electric assist motor. (Plus, it has a cupholder, of sorts! That should appeal to the SUV crowd.) Some of the other notable features that competitors incorporated into their bikes: Near-ubiquitous fenders, panniers, and racks (storage and not getting mud on you are major considerations for a daily-use bike) Cargo …

We all knew coal is harmful -- we figured people just ignored that harm because of their profit margins. But according to the prestigious American Economic Review, harm from coal-fired electrical plants costs more than twice as much as the electricity they generate. All told, coal plants cause $53 billion in damage every year. And none of that even takes climate impacts into account. Health effects from coal-fired plants -- increased deaths from sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulates -- comprise more than a quarter of pollution-related damages from U.S. industry. That's a conservative estimate, done by centrist economists, that …

This is why we have national parks, people: So there's one place in the country where "share the road" means "stop your damn car so baby bears can have a little tussle."

You've probably heard that motorcycles are more fuel-efficient than cars, and therefore better for the environment. I mean, they're practically bikes, right? It sounds plausible, but how do you find out if it's really true? The same way you find out if ANYTHING is really true: Ask the MythBusters, obviously. The Discovery Channel hosts and general experts on everything took on the myth of the green motorcycle on last night's show. (The above image isn't actually from that episode, I just thought it was badass.) Their conclusion: Hogs emit less CO2, and they are more fuel-efficient, so they should probably …

If you have a spare $4,500 lying around, you can now own a Rick Perry chia head that's as tall as Rick Perry. (From the item's description: "Hmmm, Rick recently stated at a Tea Party debate that he would be offended if somebody thought he could be bought for $5,000. He obviously hasn’t evaluated his worth as a gigantic planter.") Hair plants are not included -- like the governor himself, you're going to have to WORK for that hair. But it does ship with a gallon of Cow Wow, a manure-based fertilizer. In other words, the Perry head comes with its …

Don't tell Michele Bachmann, but it turns out that when food isn't adequately regulated, you can get giant deadly food poisoning outbreaks. Most recently, a crop of listeria-tainted cantaloupe has now killed 13 people officially, and possibly as many as 16 -- shooting right past the salmonella episode three years ago that killed nine. This is the most deaths from contaminated food since a 1998 listeria outbreak that killed 21. Listeria is no joke: It can kill as many as one in five of the people who fall ill from it. (The elderly and immune-compromised are more likely to be …

Apparently the right-wing blogosphere, not to mention some "news" organizations, will believe just about anything about the EPA. The most recent ridiculous rumor is that the agency, which currently employs 17,000 people, is on track to hire "230,000 new bureaucrats" -- at taxpayer expense, natch -- while bumping its $8.7 billion budget up to $21 billion. How did this happen? Basically, the world's dumbest game of telephone. The EPA has proposed a rule called the tailoring rule, which would allow them to enforce greenhouse-gas emissions restrictions on only the biggest industrial emitters. This is because regulating more than 6 million …

Let's say you want to build a playground for refugee children from Myanmar. And let's say you also want to recycle some rubber tires. You could tie the tires to ropes and make swings out of them, like kids have done pretty much since the tire was invented, or maybe you could put them on the ground to make an obstacle course. Or, hey, you could fashion them into a sort of Gigeresque nightmare squid! That one sounds good, let's do that. Yes, Dutch artist AnneMarie van Splunter apparently hears things like "saving the Earth" and "improving the lives of refugee …

Does this look like the face of a man who could kill a bison? Does this look like the DOG of a man who could kill a bison? WELL IT IS. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is continuing his yearlong challenge of eating healthier and more sustainably by only eating meat he kills himself, rather than meat from environmentally unfriendly factory farms. And now he's going after the deadliest game. Or wait, no. But pretty big game nonetheless. Apparently Zuckerberg used his own Facebook profile in a presentation this week, and his status said he was cooking bison burgers. Folks were all …

Sure, there's a tool for finding the apartment with, say, the most bars in walking range. But eventually you're going to need to go to work, and if your commute is miserable, even having a bar for every day of the month won't save you. (Though it'll help.) Luckily, the Walk Score guys have put together a new tool that lets you search for an apartment based on how long it'll take you to get there from work. You enter your workplace and choose your preferred time -- up to an hour, because you're not insane, are you? -- and …