You know how you look at dogs and you're like, "Wow, you're cute and snuggly"? But then you look at wolves and you're like, "Wow, you're hot! You are so cut! You have such long lean muscles!" Well, scientists studying DNA from wolves and dogs think there's a reason that dogs evolved into adorable, soft, sometimes squishy pets while wolves remain lean and sinewy, with a sort of telegenic rough trade appeal about them, and the reason has to do with the ability to digest carbs.

Amy Twigger Holroyd approaches fashion with sharing in mind. In one project, she created garments that could be shared by friends with different body types. By making clothes that don’t constrict in places where people vary the most, a size six could potentially share her sweater with a size 16. Yep. Her project basically takes the magic out of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. (Unless you count buying a pricey sweater with the express intent of sharing it with friends a different kind of magic, which I certainly do.)

But Holroyd’s projects go beyond one-size-fits-all couture. Her PhD research on “fashion as a commons” is an exploration of how to democratize and disrupt the clothing industry. “If you’re not able to make, you’re dependent on buying,” she says. “And if you’re dependent on buying, you’re dependent on what those people [in the fashion industry] have chosen -- the quality of it, the design of it, the aesthetic of it.”

And so, under the umbrella label Keep & Share, she teaches folks how to fix and knit their own clothing, creates and sells long-lasting, sharable clothing, and hacks into cheap knitwear to send a message about the industry. Thanks to the independence of PhD funding, Holroyd is trying to figure out how to make this work in the real world without, you know, tanking her business in the meantime.

Holyroyd has been working and thinking about sustainable fashion since 2003 and describes her job as “designer-maker-researcher -- lots of hyphens.” I was curious about Holroyd’s experiments and called her up. Here’s our edited conversation.

Q. I first came across your work with sharable clothing in Fashion and Sustainability. Judging from your website, your work is much broader than that.

A. My design philosophy has always been about trying to help people get more out of each item of clothing, but to do it in a gentle way. There are some approaches like creating clothes to be multifunctional -- it’s one thing then it transforms into something else. Whereas, I have always tried to take a more gentle approach. I try to create things that can be shared between purposes. So a garment which you feel comfortable and happy wearing in different situations. And also things that can be worn by different people so they can be handed down over time.

Last week, President Obama nominated Sally Jewell, CEO of the outdoor gear giant REI, to head the Interior Department -- the branch of government that manages national parks, monuments, and rangelands spanning from Ellis Island to Yosemite, and is currently overseeing an epic oil and gas drilling spree. Environmental groups are tripping over themselves to praise the president for his impeccable taste.

"In Jewell, President Obama chose a leader with a demonstrated commitment to preserving the higher purposes public lands hold for all Americans,” Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune gushed in a statement. Mike Daulton with the National Audubon Society called her “a strong leader who understands that protecting our natural world goes hand in hand with a strong American economy.” Bob Irvin, president of American Rivers, beamed that “she knows how important fishing, boating, and hiking and the great outdoors are to our families, to our future, and to our heritage as Americans.”

You get the picture. Why do the greenies love her so much? For starters, she’s a card-carrying conservationist with a long record of working to protect the wild places where she and her customers like to play. But there’s another reason Sally Jewell is the darling of Big Green groups: Her industry has given conservation cachet in Washington that it hasn’t enjoyed since the 1970s.

Whether because of budget cuts or natural disasters, many of our nation's libraries are struggling. But DIY efforts are filling the cracks in a few especially hard-hit communities.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Urban Librarians Unite in New York has set up sidewalk mini libraries outside less-mini libraries that have closed due to storm damage.

These tiny, all weather libraries house about a hundred books at a time and there is no expectation whatsoever that the books will come back. ... The Mini Libraries are a resource for our communities, a chance to experiment in library science, and a reminder to the public that even if the library itself is in ruins the librarians are still thinking of them.

ULU is quick to point out that its orange boxes, while super-awesome, aren't a replacement for real library infrastructure.

Some good news for congressional Republicans: The president’s threat to take unilateral action on climate isn't looking all that threatening. White House officials are talking about small steps the administration could take, but aren't currently pushing forward on the big executive action that advocates have wanted to see: EPA regulation of greenhouse gases from existing power plants.

During Tuesday night's State of the Union address, the president issued a challenge to Congress to act on climate change. He pointed at previous efforts to pass market-based, cap-and-trade legislation as an example. "If Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations" from the threat of climate change, he warned, "I will."

Prior to the speech, there was some speculation that Obama might announce support for carbon regulations on existing power plants. Last week, the EPA reported that such facilities are the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., which means new rules for the plants would be a powerful step in fighting climate change. The EPA has had the power to impose such regulations for a while, but has so far only proposed measures limiting emissions from brand-new power plants. A threat to regulate old plants, many of which have been belching out carbon and particulate pollution for decades, could be potent.

In a meeting this morning, however, it became apparent that this isn’t going to happen any time soon -- if at all. A small group of reporters from various outlets, myself included, met with several administration officials, including Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality; Heather Zichal, deputy assistant to the president for energy and climate; and Brian Deese, deputy director of the National Economic Council. Pressed to explain what steps Obama would take if Congress didn't act, the response was underwhelming.

"We're not in a position to say, 'These are the 15 things we're going to do,'" Zichal said, "but I think the point here is that we have demonstrated an ability to really use our existing authority -- permitting-wise, what we can do through the budget -- to make progress." She noted that the administration has opened up federal land to renewable-energy development and reduced greenhouse gas emissions from the government itself. And don't forget the work done to improve the energy efficiency of walk-in freezers and battery chargers.

Which is all fine -- but it seems unlikely that Congress will feel is it forced to address the problem when faced with the prospect of Obama mandating even tighter efficiency standards for commercial appliances.

Bored with nude cycling antics? One-up those bitches with a cycling suit that makes it look like you're riding around without your skin. Alternately, this is a good outfit for fans of House Bolton. (Yeah, that's right, bet you thought I was done with the Game of Thrones references until after March 31, didn't you? NO SUCH LUCK.)

If you watch this video of a storm in Hattiesburg, Miss., you will be very very glad you weren't in this car -- first, because it's perilously close to a SERIOUSLY GIANT TORNADO, and second because the dude driving keeps flipping out and the dude filming keeps being all "shut the fuck up, Donny, you're out of your element." It doesn't seem like a relaxed atmosphere.

Matt Damon was looking for a way to, and we quote, "persuade people to give a shit about toilets." [Editor’s note: Matt, call me, you’re hired.] So he decided to hold a press conference, to educate people about the lack of basic sanitation and clean water around the world. At that press conference, he announced that "in protest of this global tragedy … until everyone has access to clean water, I will not go to the bathroom." And he wants us all to join him.

See for yourself:

For the first time in the Sierra Club's 121-year history -- and only 164 years after Henry David Thoreau's famed treatise on the topic -- the executive director of the organization will be arrested in an act of civil disobedience.

The event (which entices members of the press with a promise of "great visuals") will happen shortly before noon today outside of the White House. The issue spurring such drastic action by Sierra Club director Michael Brune is the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, meaning that Brune will be something like the 1,200th person arrested at the White House protesting that issue.

Brune will be joined by about 50 others, including Bill McKibben of 350.org (and Grist's board), civil rights leader Julian Bond, Robert Kennedy, Jr., and actress Daryl Hannah (who has been arrested at a White House Keystone protest before). Also included at the event: Randy Thompson, a Nebraska rancher who has emerged as a leader in that state's fight against the pipeline. According to Fortune magazine, fund manager Jeremy Grantham also plans to participate. "I have told scientists to be persuasive, be brave and be arrested, if necessary, so it only seems proper to do this," Grantham told the magazine. (Full disclosure: Grantham's foundation is a funder of Grist.)

Personally, we’d never drink from a cup that Halliburton handed us. It seems like it would be likely to contain crude oil or crushed babies or something, and would probably seal us in a blood pact where we have to spend half the year in the underworld. But Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) is a braver man, apparently. He took the cup offered to him by Halliburton and -- in what he describes as a “ritual-like” way -- took a gulp.

In the cup was fracking fluid.

Hickenlooper, who describes himself as a "recovering geologist," told the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday: “You can drink it. We did drink it around the table, almost ritual-like, in a funny way."

"Like a pact?" asked Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), a recovering comedian who did not find this funny at all.

It did sort of sound like a secret pact.