Culture

Build this beautiful shipping container house for only $40K

There's been a small vogue for houses and buildings made of shipping containers, which are cheap, plentiful, and often end up tossed in the sea (either on purpose or otherwise). This airy two-container dwelling is one of the prettiest we've seen, and it only cost $40,000 to build.

Jess Zimmerman Culture

Five provocative ways to think about cities and neighborhoods

Want to be more mindful of your city? Here are some great suggestions on how to make that happen.

Kaid Benfield Culture

Great places: how livable streets make us happier humans

My dense, walkable, transit-rich neighborhood does a lot of great things for my carbon footprint. But what it does for my soul might, in the end, be more important.

Sarah Goodyear Culture

Right-wingers bash Gore for wanting women to have access to birth control

The right-wing media is all aflutter over Al Gore saying that we should educate girls, keep kids from dying, and make birth control available to women.

Lisa Hymas Culture

One day, we’ll water plants with our pee in public restrooms

Everyone remembers that deathless scene from Waterworld where Kevin Costner pees in a jug, filters it, drinks some, then spits the rest into a plant. (EVERYONE REMEMBERS IT, I SAID. But if you’ve been living under a rock, you can watch here -- start around 1:30.) Well, that may soon become a reality. For now, at least, we’re still not drinking processed urine -- on a societal level, anyway; what you do on your time is your own business. But one ingenious conservation junkie has come up with a urinal design that filters pee in order to water plants.

Sarah Laskow Culture

Do environmentalists need shrinks?

Is the sorry state of the planet dragging you into the dumps? Psychologist John Fraser thinks a lot of enviros are suffering from traumatic distress.

Michelle Nijhuis Culture

Bicycling's gender gap: It's the economy, stupid

Why don't more women in the U.S. ride bikes? Hint: it's not just about fear and fashion.

Elly Blue Culture

Tofu, eh? Ask Umbra on going vegetarian in Canada

A Canadian living the meatless life wants to sink her teeth into information about her nationâ€™s food industry. Ask Umbra looks to the north.

Ask Umbra® Culture

Older Americans could be stranded without better transit

As the huge baby boom generation gets older, our auto-dependent society will have to adapt, a new report argues.