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Only cyclists and walkers remain calm

At around 4:30am today, a powerful storm swept through New York City and surrounding areas, dumping nearly two inches of rain over Central Park in just one hour before spinning into "tornado-like" gusts in Brooklyn.

The downpour was over soon enough, but the sudden surge of water flooded our subway system, causing every major line to be shut down. Service on buses and trains into the city was either suspended or delayed, right in the midst of rush hour on a sweltering hot day.

By now, most people have either made it to work or given up trying, and at City Room, a blog in the NY Times regional section, many are weighing in about their morning commutes.

In a devastating new magazine piece

Speaking of newsmagazine pieces with refreshingly strong points of view, don’t miss the always excellent Michael Grunwald’s cover story in the current issue of Time: "The Threatening Storm." It’s a detailed, enraging indictment of the Army Corps of Engineers — its incompetence before Katrina and its ongoing failure to protect the Gulf coast from future […]

For want of a reef, the kingdom was lost

Pacific reefs dying faster than previously understood.

Take Two

Step It Up sequel is coming this November — get ready to hit the streets Step It Up, the nation-spanning climate protest organized in April by renowned author Bill McKibben, was, by all accounts, a success. And if at first you succeed, why not do it again: in a new Dispatch, McKibben announces Step It […]

Shop With the Grist Staff

Your purchases support us — not that we’d pressure you, or anything Ever wondered what the Grist staffers are like when we step away from the website-manufacturing machine? Now you can find out more about a few of us in the Grist Staff Picks Store at Amazon. OK, we admit it, this is a naked […]

Flo Nays

Federal judge halts Navy sonar exercises off California coast A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Navy to stop using mid-frequency active sonar in exercises off the Southern California coast through 2009. Noting that the Navy’s own evaluation says the sonar exercises could disrupt marine mammal behavior in as many as 170,000 instances, Judge Florence-Marie […]

YearlyKos: I’m ugly and boring

Hilarious. I was interviewed, briefly and randomly, by the Talking Points Memo guys, who were wandering around YearlyKos (and related parties) doing short video clips. Their video coverage is here. Apparently I was so boring I didn’t make the cut. Guess it’s true what they say: I’ve got a face for blogging!

Bush to host climate summit in D.C., and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Freight Fright Dream a Little Ream of Me Fencing Match We Could’ve Sworn Someone Was Already Working On That Prints: Not Charming Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: How Green Is Your Candidate? Desert Flowers Getting Sloshed Salt of the Earth

One more Grist layer on that fatty internet sandwich

Like the title says, Grist is now on the social music network Last.fm! We haven't gotten into releasing our own music (yet ... ) but our two most recent weekly podcasts are up there. More importantly, if you're a fan of Last.fm you should definitely scrobble the Grist podcast every time you listen to it. We want to see those listening metrics soar!

Have questions about Last.fm and Grist? Put them in the comment thread and we'll get back to you. And be sure to vote in the poll below the fold.

Turning the seas into sterile wastelands

I don't eat meat, or fish, or, as a friend puts it, anything with a face. (This comes up because in the Midwest, when you tell your host you are a vegetarian, you will be asked, "What about chicken? Do you eat that?" So you need a quick summary that describes the boundaries of your food weirdness.)

Occasionally people will assure me that I should be eating fish for the health benefits. After watching an extraordinary documentary feature called Deep Trouble by the BBC, I'm content to stay a herbivore. Less mercury that way too.

Deep Trouble is a lengthy, absorbing, and depressing special feature on a DVD that contained two episodes from the Beeb's magnificent Blue Planet series. The DVD I just watched was from Netflix, and it had the "Tidal Seas" and "Coasts" episodes.

One searches for a parallel to the way we're treating the seas ... about the best one I can come up with is the wholesale slaughter of the buffalo (or bison, I can't get it straight in my head) in the 19th-century western U.S. Massive killing to take only the tiniest, choicest morsels, meanwhile denuding the habitat and the creatures that depended on it.

Vegetarianism: not just about saving land animals.