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How we build stuff at Grist

This is an introduction to how we build our web products here at Grist.  I hope you find it interesting whether you work at Grist, are just curious, or want to decipher some of the jargon involved.

Bloomberg announces $9 million challenge to spur innovation in cities

The Bloomberg Philanthropies' Mayors Challenge will award $9 million in prizes to cities that demonstrate bold, innovative ideas. The best part: Anyone can enter.

Giant LEGO wildlife is cooler than anything you made as a kid

The theme of the new installation at the Reiman Gardens, a massive public garden at Iowa State University, is “Nature Connects.” That usually means something about the complex interdependency of the ecological network and blah blah hippie stuff, but in this case it means nature literally snaps together out of LEGO bricks. And also blah […]

12-year-old whose awesome speech floored 1992 Rio Summit returns to Rio+20 as a mom

At the original Rio summit,12-year-old Severn Suzuki became "the girl who silenced the world for six minutes" by giving a kick-ass speech to the assembled delegates.Twenty years later, her perspective has changed but her message hasn't.

New York likely to limit fracking — to some of the state’s poorest counties

Of course, those counties are the ones sitting over the necessary shale formation. But it's a perpetuation of a long-difficult link between pollution and poverty.

Brace yourself: Burger King is introducing a bacon sundae

I was under the impression that the “put bacon on everything” trend had run its course, but if so, nobody sent Burger King the memo. The chain is reportedly introducing a “bacon sundae” as part of its summer menu. That’s … exactly what you think it is.

Food has gotten cheaper — but at what cost?

Americans now spend just under 9 percent of our income on food, about 30 percent less than we did in 1982. But is this a good thing?

Why the rumors about the iPhone ditching walking, public transit are wrong

We got our hands on a developer version of the new iPhone operating system. What we found may be even better than you would expect.

A pop culture history of the Earth Summit

When world leaders first gathered to talk about saving the planet, Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” was grooving at the top of the music charts. If only we had it so good today.

Secretary Clinton will represent the U.S. at Earth Summit

An announcement from the State Department outlines the full U.S. government delegation.