Latest Articles

McDonald’s tried to make ‘onion nuggets’ happen

Given the kind of stuff that gets the fast-food green light, it’s hard to believe that there are even more concepts that end up on the cutting room floor. But there are, and the McDonald’s Corporation’s archives manager Mike Bullington knows about all of them. The most shocking item in his collection of fast-food memorabilia, at […]

King Coal’s Road to Nowhere: the Coalfields Expressway

In the tranquil, misty mountains of southwest Virginia, the coal industry is trying to build its very own road to nowhere. King Coal’s latest scheme is to try and take $2 billion of federal funds — our tax dollars — to build the Coalfields Expressway through rural Southwest Virginia. Coal companies plan to use mountaintop […]

If you like to cook, this new use for a plastic bottle will honestly change your life

Watch -- just watch! -- what this genius lady does with an egg and a plastic bottle.

Global warming debate needs less ‘both sides’ wankery

Tom Zeller Jr. at Huffington Post argues that the climate debate needs "cooler heads." He ignores the fact that it already has plenty of cooler heads; the real problem is the hotheads on the right.

Meet the brave little solar-powered robot who’s helping us understand hurricanes

Chasing a tornado might be nuts, but chasing a hurricane is beyond nuts. Being in a car near a tornado sounds like a bad idea, but at least you might hit a Norse god or end up in Oz or something. You’d have to go hurricane-chasing in a boat or helicopter, though, and being in […]

GOP convention, day one: A platform built on oil, an argument based on inaccuracy

At the GOP convention, Republicans are pushing stale old energy policies and telling lots of lies.

Polar bear dick size is apocalypse’s most recent casualty

This is one of those super-depressing “oh my god the world is ending” things that’s easy to joke about because it involves shrinking polar bear penises. And let’s face it, shrinking polar bear penises are just funny, the way rubber chickens or people falling down are just funny.

Meet Julian and Joaquin Castro, rising Democratic stars with a strong green streak

San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro, who'll be giving the keynote at the Democratic convention, and his twin brother Joaquín, who's running for Congress, are both big advocates for clean energy.

Ants basically invented the internet

Step aside, Al Gore. You, too, Tim Berners-Lee. Now we know who really invented the internet: ants. “Invented” is maybe not exactly right. It’s more like they independently discovered one of its fundamental principles. Sort of like Newton and Leibniz and calculus, except that it’s quite clear who discovered this particular algorithm first. (Hint: It […]

Frackers’ faulty concrete leads to methane in Pennsylvania wells

But don't worry, folks. The industry says this rarely happens. So the odds that your water is flammable are pretty low.