Articles by Katharine Wroth

A slideshow of mass transit’s massive artistic potential

Here’s some snowy-day fun (if you happen to live in one of the places getting socked by storms): Dave Burdick put together a slideshow highlighting the surprising beauty of subway maps old and new — yeah, New York City is in there, but you won’t want to miss the Milky Way!

British recycling site to feature celeb cast-offs

This just in: MySkip.com, which as near as I can tell is the British version of Freecycle (TM!), is hosting a 24-hour Celeb Throwaway next week to show users just how sexy recycling can be. While the names of the participants have been revealed, their items have not. What will Boy George donate? Sheryl Crow? Cuba Gooding Jr.? The cast of Mamma Mia? One's imagination hardly dares wander.

Oscar-related news and musings

The Oscars are this weekend! With the usual amount of Hollywood splashiness -- though p'raps less than in years past -- there are green efforts going on, from Global Green's star-studded pre-party on Thursday to the first-ever use of dry-cleaning bags to hold swag (!) at an after-party. Eco-leaning films have garnered nominations, including Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World and the I-was-there Katrina film Trouble the Water. Ultimate eco-lesson-with-a-heart Wall-E even got a few nods, though it was -- as one Grist staffer put it -- "screwed over for best picture."

On top of that, yummy host Hugh Jackman has racked up some eco-cred of his own over the years.

Alas, none of the five films nominated for best picture are particularly greenish. But just for fun, I've reimagined them as such below the fold, with a little help from Oscar's own synopses.

This weekend's NBA All-Star Game to be greenish

The NBA All-Star Game on Sunday will be the greenest yet -- perhaps not such a tough bar to reach, but still worth a note.

Greenish plans include, of course, carbon offsets. They also include PSAs about recycling, starring figures from the host team Phoenix Suns; lotsa recycling bins; and "sustainable" T-shirts for volunteers. Bigger-scale projects include construction of a local playground from post-consumer materials. The Suns themselves are also greening up their act, with plans to install solar panels at their arena later this year.

As we've seen before, Phoenix is surprisingly sustainable in its way, despite the whole water-sucking-city-in-a-desert thing. Hosting (and boasting about) a high-profile green sports event is another point in its favor, small though it be.