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Friday music blogging: Beastie Boys

To Kids These Days, the Beastie Boys must seem like a fixed, eternal part of the pop culture universe, like a constellation that periodically comes in and out of view but you always know is out there somewhere. Which is weird for an old fart like me who remembers their first album, Licenced to Ill, […]

CoalCares responds to Peabody legal threat

As you probably know, the Yes Lab (home of the Yes Men) recently put up a site called CoalCares.com, a parody suggesting that coal company Peabody is interested in doing something about the health impacts of coal on children. (How dare they!) Peabody responded, predictably, by threatening a lawsuit. Here’s the letter the Yes Lab […]

Students Gear up to Protest Exxon Graduation Speech

As college students around the country are wrapping up their semesters, graduating seniors at Worcester Polytechnical Institute (WPI) find themselves in the midst of an ethical controversy. On Saturday, WPI’s commencement speaker is none other than oil baron Rex Tillerson, CEO and chairman of ExxonMobil, although perhaps you’re more familiar with his role as the […]

Don’t want to face impossible decisions? Act now on climate

The Mississippi River on the rise.Photo: boxchainCross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. As The Washington Post reported today, people along the Mississippi River and its swollen tributaries are facing a very difficult decision: Should they flood the farms to save the cities? That’s a tough spot to be in, and one we are more […]

Today in ‘you should pay more attention to utilities’ news

This woman is paying attention. Are you?For decades, electric utilities in the U.S. have mostly been barriers to progress on clean air and clean energy. This mainly has to do with the perverse way they are regulated, which ties their profits to deploying huge amounts of capital to build huge power plants burning cheap fuel […]

Salem citizens win against Big Coal

This week the people of Salem, Mass. got the news they’ve been waiting for years to hear: the 60-year-old, dirty coal plant in their community that leads to 53 premature deaths per year is shutting down. The Harvard School of Public Health reported [PDF] that pollution from the Salem Harbor Coal Plant not only leads […]

Should we label cars the way we label cigarettes?

Photos: New York City Department of TransportationMaybe the flashing skeleton will get their attention. That’s what the New York City Department of Transportation is hoping, anyway. The city announced yesterday that it will start using electronic message boards saying “Speed Limit 30” and “Slow Down” with a skeleton figure in an attempt to get drivers […]

LAPD takes electric bikes for a spin

The Los Angeles Police Department bicycle coordination unit is running a pilot program that put officers on electric bikes. They're pretty schmancy bikes, too. They can go up to 20 mph, top speed for typical cyclist. The manufacturer donated the bikes to the police department, but they retail for $3,499. The program began because LAPD […]

Watch an entire country lose its sh*t for a bullet train

This surprisingly emotionally affecting video was shot in Japan right before the recent tsunami. It's a commercial for a new bullet train line, which completed a network running nearly the full length of the country, connecting all of Japan in a way that people clearly found deeply meaningful. The tsunami hit the day before the line […]

A green roof grows in Brooklyn

Crimson clover blooms on the roof at the Linda Tool factory.Photo: Sarah GoodyearStanding on the barren, cracked sidewalk outside the nondescript brick building that houses the Linda Tool factory in Red Hook, Brooklyn, you would have no idea that there is a verdant meadow three stories above your head. Oh, but there is. And on […]