Uncategorized

Friday music blogging: Middle Brother

I don’t know if you’re allowed to call a band a “supergroup” if the bands of which it is composed are all fairly obscure. But as someone who loves the constituent parts of Middle Brother — singer/songwriters John McCauley of Deer Tick, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, and Matthew Vasquez of Delta Spirit — I’m happy […]

Japan’s 200 mph trains sail through earthquake with flying colors

Train, to earthquake: “Suck it!”Photo: kiyoshi.beThe tsunami that struck Japan had a devastating effect on at least four trains closest to the epicenter of the quake, washing them away completely. But in the rest of the country, it appears that the earthquake and its aftershocks only derailed a single passenger train, even through the entire main […]

Little does this Libyan rebel know he’s fighting for our right to cheap gas

At the request of Libya’s resistance forces, the U.S. and its NATO allies have just promised to shoot down anything Ghaddafi puts into the sky. Which means that rebels like the one in the video above may think they’re fighting a war of liberation, but now that we’re on the scene, it’s about oil, as usual: This […]

Japan’s tsunami gets the Pixar treatment in realistic animation

This reporter didn’t really appreciate how a “subduction zone earthquake” of the kind that afflicted Japan causes a tsunami, until he watched CGI-ish animation of one in progress. Watch out for the explosive kick around 0:06: Read more: Animation: Subduction Zone Tsunami Mother Jones    

So much for all that new nuclear energy we were going to build

Photo: Joost J. Bakker The possibly-impending meltdown of three very shaky nuclear reactor cores at the Daiichi plant in Fukushima, Japan, isn’t doing much for the public image of nuclear power, a source of energy about which fans of planet Earth are divided. Kate Sheppard, Mother Jones‘ enviro reporter on the Hill, speculates on Twitter […]

What exactly is happening with the Japanese nuclear reactors?

The nuke plant in Fukushima, Japan.Photo: Beacon RadioThe Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan, currently has three boiling water reactors in danger of “meltdown.” Here are the basics on what’s happening and what that means. How does a boiling water reactor work? The nuclear core transfers energy to water by heating it. This cools […]

Thanks to Ringo Starr, Chevron won’t be forking over $18B to Ecuadoran Indians

Photo: Rainforest Action Network At least for now, Chevron doesn’t owe Ecuadoran villagers $18 billion for completely ruining their jungle with oil, a U.S. district court judge has ruled. That’s a reversal of a decision made last month by a court in Ecuador — but Judge Lewis Kaplan figures he has just as much say […]

EPA puts off long-promised coal ash protections

(This post originally appeared at Facing South.) Communities imperiled by poorly managed coal ash won’t be getting help from the federal government any time soon. The Obama administration announced last week that it would not issue long-awaited federal regulations this year after all. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson shared the news in a March […]

As if the Gulf Coast hasn’t had enough to deal with, now there are dead baby dolphins

Swim, little guy! Swim away as fast as you can!Photo: Mark LeeWell HERE’S some cheerful news for your Friday afternoon: Dozens of dead baby dolphins have been washing ashore in the Gulf of Mexico, along Mississippi and Alabama coastlines. Crap. The timing seems pretty suspicious — the BP oil spill happened around the time these […]

James Fallows discussion and Last Mountain film screening

On February 1, 2011, Grist hosted a screening of the new documentary The Last Mountain—a look at the fight against mountain top coal removal in West Virginia’s Coal River Valley.  Prior to the film, Grist founder and head honcho extraordinaire, Chip Giller, sat down with director Bill Haney and James Fallows of The Atlantic for […]