Articles by Jess Zimmerman

Energy genius wins MacArthur grant

Shwetak Patel is revolutionizing home energy use, and people are noticing. Patel was just awarded a MacArthur Fellowship -- affectionately known as a "genius award" -- for his work creating user-friendly ways for people to monitor and control their utilities consumption. In other words, this is what certified energy genius looks like.

Global warming makes Russia militarize the Arctic

There has not traditionally been a lot of military presence in the Arctic, given as how it's mostly ice and seals. But now that the ice is melting, it's just mostly seals, and those little buggers are shifty. So Russia is sending in the troops.

This park would turn an abandoned subway into an underground paradise

Sure, the High Line is great and all -- abandoned rail line turned into a beautiful outdoor leisure area, what's not to love? (Plus, reportedly you can see people getting undressed in the windows of one of the hotels that straddles the park.) But what it's really missing is an element of Neil Gaimany beautiful creepiness. I know! Let's put it UNDERGROUND.

That's the thinking behind the Low Line, a proposed park that would turn two acres of abandoned Lower East Side trolley terminal into an underground Eden.

FDA: It's corn syrup, now shut up and own it

The Corn Refiners Association has noticed that "corn syrup" is becoming kind of a dirty word. They could improve the product, perhaps, but that would be hard, so they decided to just rename it "corn sugar." But the FDA, which is in charge of things like what counts as "sugar," is having none of it.