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  • Prez steals, owes fines

    OK, so you couldn’t tell a lie, Georgie boy, but apparently you made no bones about stealing a couple of library books and not paying your fines. Gasp! That’s right, Pres. George Washington was just as big a fan of the library as Ask Umbra (woot for reusing, Mr. Prez); however, according to an old […]

  • Come to the largest climate rally ever on the D.C. mall on April 25

    Guest blogger Denis Hayes was national coordinator for the first Earth Day in 1970, and director of the federal Solar Energy Research Institute from 1979 to 1981. He is now president of the Bullitt Foundation and international chair of Earth Day 2010. Find out about the Earth Day big rally in Washington, D.C., as well […]

  • Ask Umbra on food dehydrators, cage-free and free-range poultry, and e-readers

    Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, I am enthusiastic about growing my own food in my small garden and I am looking for ways to preserve my produce for use out of season. I cook and freeze some things and have done some canning, but this year I thought I would make things […]

  • Eco dog treats confound canines and humans alike

    Everyone’s a critic: one of our panelists gropes for a sniff of biscuit.Photo: Jason Houston I’ve got a bone to pick with conventional dog biscuits. Like commercial dog food, they are made with un-green or even potentially dangerous ingredients. Surely, they’re unworthy of a companion who greets your return from the mailbox with nothing less […]

  • Updating the "Granny Cart"

    Transport guru Todd Litman says the biggest vehicular breakthrough of recent decades is the rolling suitcase. That’s not the conventional wisdom. Most recent attention to the wheels of the future focuses on electric cars, and they are clearly essential. Still, for some, they are also a false hope, suggesting that all we need to change […]

  • Ask Umbra’s pearls of wisdom on stress

    Dearest readers, Achy muscles from hunching over your computer? Tumultuous tummy from crazy deadlines? Tension headache from staring at that tiny cell phone screen too long? Well, April is National Stress Awareness Month and today is National Stress Awareness Day, so step away from the laptop, the calendar, and the phone for some deep breathing […]

  • Bundles of balloons a new form of carbon-free travel?

    Move over Balloon Boy. Cluster ballooning’s as real as it gets.Photo: omnibus via FlickrIt’s carbon-free, it flies, and it has lots of balloons. How are cluster balloons not catching on? Well at least one man is getting around the way Balloon Boy pretended to do and the way the old man in UP does. Last […]

  • But can you dance and chew gum at the same time?

    Photo: KIMTI wore a purple lamé dress to my junior prom, which I attended with my best friend, Jessica, because we were both too dorky to actually have dates. (Sorry, Jessica, I should just speak for myself. I was too dorky, and Jessica was my faithful best friend. Thank you, Jessica. And thanks for driving […]

  • Everybody poops…for a price

    While it’s true that an airplane bathroom isn’t necessarily anyone’s idea of a five-star restroom experience, it does come as a welcome relief 30,000 feet above the ground after two in-flight club sodas. So imagine your surprise when, after scrambling over your fellow passengers and down the narrow aisle with a full bladder, there’s a […]

  • Insane posse of climate deniers?

    I know you were probably a little worried that these guys had gone extinct, so I have some excellent news: Insane Clown Posse just came out with a new song! And that’s not all. It teaches us about science—with a twist—so no need to fret any longer about our flagging education system. It’s a little […]