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Cameron, how do you do it?

Looks like Cameron Diaz has had a busy week (but don't all celebs?). After winning an Environmental Media Award for her show Trippin', she surprised a class at Stanford University when she helped lead a lecture on environmentally friendly design with enviro celebrity William McDonough.

Her appearance is part of mtvU's "Stand-In: Who's Coming To Your Class?" which will be premiering on mtvU Uber on Nov. 1st.

What is mtvU Uber you ask? Like Current TV and Participate.net, members of the mtvU community can help shape news and other content by submitting videos online:

"With today's announcement, we are handing over an entire channel online to college students and everyone who wants new music," said Stephen Friedman, GM, mtvU. "mtvU Uber gives them the power to create and program their own channel, and will remain in perpetual beta mode as they experiment and pioneer the digital future."

If you thought Cameron Diaz leading a class on eco-friendly design sounds a little odd, just imagine Marilyn Manson teaching little Johnny and Suzie Arts in Society!

Rebuilding: Mississippi renewal

Everything I've heard about the Mississippi Renewal Forum leads me to believe it is (was, I guess, since it ended this week) a really kick-ass example of exactly what's needed in the Gulf Coast rebuilding effort. Time will tell whether local communities take the advice meted out in the many New Urbanist presentations, but it sounds like everybody, including Gov. Haley Barbour, was impressed. Click around the site a bit -- there's a daily journal and tons of pictures and descriptions from the presentations. Great stuff.

Update [2005-10-21 15:18:58 by David Roberts]: More at inhabitat, the NYT, and the radio program Open Source.

Barringer lets one get by

The New York Times' Felicity Barringer gets dinged by Media Matters for credulously passing on a bit of administration propaganda about the Arctic Refuge. C'mon, Ms. B, you gotta be on your guard with these people.

A report from the Environmental Media Awards

Buenos Diaz celebrates with Trippin’ producer Elizabeth Rogers. © Alex Berliner, Berliner Studio/BEImages. Six months ago, I traded the comfy coffee hangouts of Seattle for the vermilion sunsets of L.A. I wanted to expand my universe, to write for movies and television, to not have so many Birkenstocks in my direct line of sight. So […]

From Schwing to Schadenfreude

“Hot blogger” no longer oxymoron If actress/model/mega-fox Amber Valletta tells us to raise the alarm about mercury in seafood, we’ll raise the alarm. Of course, if Amber Valletta told us to hop on one foot and bark like a poodle, we’d do that too. That’s the kind of dignity we have here at Grist List. […]

Readers talk back about vegetarianism and soy

  Umbra’s column on the environmental impact of soy vs. that of meat inspired readers of all stripes — OK, mostly the stripes that are anti-soy — to share their opinions. Here’s a sample of the deluge that hit our inbox, and there’s a whole lot more posted in Gristmill, our blog. Dear Editor: What […]

Germany’s environment minister on eschewing nukes

Five years ago, Germany officially decided to shut down all its nuclear plants by 2020. This past May, the second of 19 plants went offline.

Outgoing German environment minister (and member of the Green Party) Jurgen Trittin has a succinct piece on BBC explaining the government's rationale and arguing for seeing the policy through.

Far from being a necessary element in Germany's quest to meet Kyoto targets, he says, "technically speaking, this base-load relic of the past is standing in the way of flexible and intelligent electricity production." Word.

Encyclopedia Brown and the case of the missing map

Not really sure what to make of this. Apparently the government's map of the Arctic Refuge is gone -- poof, vanished. Why on earth, you're wondering, does the government only have one detailed map of the Refuge? I don't know. Why was it sitting behind some file cabinet? You got me. Was it thrown out deliberately or by accident? Nobody knows. Does it matter? Felicity Barringer thinks maybe so:

A Journey of a Gazillion Miles Begins With a Single Inch

Wal-Mart declares it’s going green After months of scattered signs — green-built Supercenters in Texas and Colorado, a program to conserve thousands of acres of land through The Nature Conservancy — Wal-Mart executives have made it official: Their company is going green. Or, well, greenish. In a speech at a biz school yesterday, CEO H. […]

Exhaust in Translation

Green cars all the rage at Tokyo Motor Show The most buzzworthy attractions this week at the 39th Tokyo Motor Show weren’t the biggest or the most powerful but the most eco-friendly. Hoping to dazzle drivers battered by high gas prices, automakers debuted a dizzying array of low-pollution, high fuel-efficiency vehicles — some electric, some […]