Latest Articles
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Stranded in suburbia: Why aren’t Americans moving to the city?
It's going to take more than wishful thinking to convince Americans to move back to the urban core.
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Republican candidate Herman Cain has extensive Koch ties
The Koch brothers are everywhere, and it turns out that Herman Cain, the current Republican front-runner with the simple 9-9-9 tax plan, has been extensively wrapped in the slimy arms of the Kochtopus.
Cain's 9-9-9 plan, for instance, didn't come from Sim City (not directly at least). Instead, a businessman who served on the board of the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity helped him come up with it. Cain’s campaign manager and members of his staff have also worked for AFP in the past. His campaign's law firm is representing AFP in an unrelated matter. -
The world's first vertical forest is under construction in Milan
We've pretty much established that trees are awesome -- they make you smart, improve your home's value, filter pollution, provide shade, and produce oxygen. But even in a city that prioritizes green spaces, surface area is at a premium. How do you provide enough trees while still living densely? Milan, Italy, has a creative answer: a forest in the form of a skyscraper.
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Radioactive fallout detected in Tokyo
Radiation has a sneaky way of spreading, and in Tokyo, citizens have identified 20 sites contaminated by radioactive cesium from the Fukushima meltdown.
The government wasn't planning on testing in Tokyo, but citizens and a nuclear research center started their own investigation and came up with positive results. -
Climate change is making plants and insects shrink
Here's a novel weight loss tip: Live on a planet whose global warming trend is so severe that you need to shrink in order to adapt. Oh, and it helps to be an insect, spider, plant, or marine creature. (Or a sheep. Evidently we already knew sheep were shrinking.) If you can manage that, you could be on your way to losing up to 22 percent of your body size, just from climate change!
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Revolution in the air
“Those Who Take the Meat from the TableTeach contentment.Those for whom the taxes are destinedDemand sacrifice.Those who eat their fill speak to the hungryOf wonderful times to come.Those who lead the country into the abyssCall ruling too difficultFor ordinary men and women.”-Bertolt Brecht I first heard about the “people’s microphone” technique during the November, 1999 […]
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Target is switching to sustainable seafood
Target is the latest chain to pledge to phase unsustainable seafood out of its stores. The company has already rid its shelves of orange roughy, farmed salmon, and Chilean sea bass, and plans to switch entirely to sustainable fresh and frozen fish by 2015.
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What happens when a whale dies?
What happens when a whale dies? Little ocean beasties get a feast, as illustrated in this video, the most beautiful and least icky illustration of decomposition you may ever see.
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Queer as farm folk: Can the LGBT community save sustainable farming?
The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community has a history of organizing collectively and revitalizing urban spaces. Can they do the same for small-scale farming?
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Critical List: Climate change is shrinking animals; Mexico could export water to the U.S.
Climate change is shrinking animals, like sheep and salamanders, and fruits too.
Mexico could start exporting water into the United States.
One partner in the Macondo well is ponying up $4 billion to settle with BP over last year's oil spill.
