Latest Articles

Try out these 50 hilarious no-handed bike moves

If you have ever thought to yourself "self, I wonder what are the 50 most hipsterish bike tricks," wonder no more. Not sure how I feel about "the Hitler" — guys, that one is historically not really funny? — but you gotta love the "Def Leppard drummer," the "nasty internet commenter," and the "fall the […]

Reenact global warming in your cocktail

This Japanese site sells ice cube molds depicting penguins and polar bears sitting on ice floes. As the ice melts, both the floes and the critters are destroyed, making this a pretty good simulation of the effects of global warming. Finally, a product that combines climate education with all the drinking you need to do […]

Here’s a win-win: Geothermal power can make lithium for electric vehicles

Existing geothermal power plants are powered by a hot brine from deep within the earth's crust, which is just lousy with dissolved minerals -- literally "half the periodic table," reports Scientific American. One of those elements is lithium, which can be extracted from the geothermal fluid that existing power plants in California's Salton Sea are already pulling out of the ground.

This is remarkable on many levels at once.

How Central Park cools the entire planet

Like all urban parks, Central Park cools New York City through evaporation. That is, its plant life and ponds give off moisture, which takes heat energy with it. It's as if the park sweats.

Until recently, though, we didn’t know whether green spaces cool the planet as a whole.

Is this the perfect urban bike?

This bike, designed by custom bike maker Tony Pereira, took top prize in an Oregon Manifest competition to design the perfect urban utility cycle. Pereira's bike is intended as a transitional vehicle for people trying to make the switch from cars. It includes a stereo, a front-mounted locking "trunk," and an electric assist motor. (Plus, it has a cupholder, of sorts! That should appeal to the SUV crowd.)

Canada probably didn’t NEED that ice sheet, right?

If you thought you were melting over the summer, just be glad you're not an ice sheet that's been chilling out since before Europeans settled in Canada. Over the summer, two huge Canadian ice shelves in the Arctic shrunk down precipitously, report scientists from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. One sheet had already split into two sections and just kept getting smaller; the other broke in half this year. Icebergs are breaking away and "pose a risk to offshore oil facilities and potentially to shipping lanes," reports the Associated Press. "Since the end of July, pieces equaling one and a half times to the size of Manhattan Island have broken off."

This is not normal behavior for an ice shelf this large and old, says the AP:

Critical List: MIT recreates photosynthesis; City of Austin goes 100 percent renewable

MIT created an "artificial leaf" that recreates photosynthesis.

In Germany, they've got so much wind-generated electricity, they’re giving it away.

Driving 75 mph isn't fuel efficient, ahem, Maine.

Austin's going to be the largest local government using only renewable energy to power its municipal buildings.

Kangaroo bikes and Bambi killers: Meet the cyclists of ‘Outdoorsia’

On the South Dakota fringe, Elly Blue discovers a mutant bike culture and a new way to bring home the, uh, bacon.

After the flood [VIDEO]

Late summer is time most farmers have been working for all year, and when your crop gets wiped out, it can mean losing the bulk of your income.

Lost in the maize [VIDEO]

More Mexicans struggle to afford tortillas, a daily staple, as food speculation fuels rising corn prices in their country.