Latest Articles
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Why is the U.S. government so bullish on coal predictions?
The Department of Energy has a more favorable outlook for coal than virtually any other major forecasting institution.
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These fruit-shaped bus shelters make public transit more delicious
Waiting for a bus is never the most fun part of a commute, but if you lived in Isahaya City, Japan, you could at least pretend you were some kind of magic bus-riding mouse in a fairy tale. Bus shelters in the city are sculpted and painted to look like giant fruit.
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We’re ripping up our mountains to ship coal overseas. Maybe we shouldn’t?
New research demonstrates the scale of American coal exports and the cost we pay. Happily, we're not entirely powerless.
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Watch the moon landing live (with a 43-year delay)
In 2009, Jason Kottke built a site where you could watch the first moon landing as it happened, second by second, just 40 years late. Today, on the 43rd anniversary of the moon landing, you can still watch “live” coverage by Walter Cronkite, unfolding on YouTube just as it would have if you were clustered […]
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New York’s massive new bike-sharing program tripped up by computer problems
Computers don't want bikes to succeed. Computers NEVER want bikes to succeed.
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Book lovers make mini public libraries out of trees
These hollow-log bookshelves were erected in Berlin a few years back to help encourage the reuse of books. The German team behind the project explains: The project adopts the idea of putting up a bookcase in a public space, in which people could release their used books to be picked up by others. This way […]
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You can help make this bike-in movie theater a reality
[protected-iframe id=”56fa6e0fc78268992ddb7ec4c39f24da-5104299-30166106″ info=”http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/manifold/bike-in-theater-nyc-sf/widget/video.html” width=”470″ height=”350″ frameborder=”0″] Coworkers Jason Anello and Anna Boyarsky set up a bike-in movie theater in Brooklyn last year, and now they want to do it again — but bigger, better, and bicoastal. They’re raising funds on Kickstarter for permits and licensing, because the show itself won’t make any money: The plan is […]
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Aquifer discovered in arid Namibia could yield 400 years of water — or 15
A fantastic, life-saving discovery in one of the driest countries in the world also bears a large amount of risk.
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Baby gorillas have figured out how to dismantle hunting snares
In the forests of Rwanda, mountain gorillas sometimes get caught in snares that were intended for game like antelopes. Adult gorillas can often escape; younger ones aren’t always so lucky. But staff at the Karisoke Research Center recently observed young gorillas finding and dismantling the traps before anyone could get caught, reports National Geographic News: […]
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This kid is Grist’s new hero
This photo is from 2011, but we just saw it going around the internet, and we kind of want a poster to hang up in the office.
