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  • Ask Umbra dives deep with ocean advocate Sylvia Earle

    Water, water everywhere, but is it on the brink? Not if oceanographer Sylvia Earle has anything to do with it. Dearests, meet Ms. Earle, an aquanaut, author, and one of today’s greatest advocates of the ocean—also, I suspect, a direct descendant of Poseidon. (I’ve asked for funding from Grist for a DNA test to be […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Weird and wonderful places to live

    The New York Times Magazine did a photo spread of some rather extreme conversions of churches, shipping containers, water towers, and even caves. We do our own roundup of TreeHugger favorites: A chapel converted to residence by ZECC Architects. Churches ZECC Architects, beloved of their conversion of a water tower into a residence, are at […]

    treehugger.com Culture

  • Sarah Palin’s spendy nature documentary dreams to become reality TV — on TLC!

    UPDATE: Discovery’s TLC has officially signed Alaska’s most famous former official. However, Discovery would really like everyone to stop calling it a reality show, and acknowledge it for what it really will be: a “documentary series about the remarkable Governor Palin and her home state of Alaska.” Will the network’s aspirations to keep it from […]

    Ashley Braun Culture

  • Stuff your own Twinkies, then stuff your face

    Editor’s note: In his book Food Rules, Michael Pollan declares, “Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.” The idea is that by cooking at home, you’ll avoid all the unpronounceable chemicals found in store-bought junk. And even though you might gorge on it, you can only eat as […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Love your mother: Vote for Grist’s MILF video in the Telly Awards

    Remember last year when Grist said, Screw Earth Day? (What with every day being Earth Day, yadda yadda yadda.) Well, our fine and funny MILF video celebrating, er, loving your mother the right and wrong way, has been nominated for a Telly Award, which honors the “very best in video, film, and commercials.” Thanks, Telly, […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • The JetLev indulges your wettest dreams of low-carbon flying

    Are your arms tired of holding up frequent-flyer guilt? Don’t like the hassle of gassing up a personal blimp? Doubtful about the pie-in-the-sky eco-claims of recreational space tourism? Same here. That’s why we’re on cloud nine over the launch of JetLev, which allows you to fly by the seat of your wetsuit with the ease […]

    Ashley Braun Culture

  • Egger’s Head: The prodigal generation

    Robert Egger has a lot going on in his head. Just ask him.  As a nonprofit entrepreneur, a serial searcher for ordinary people doing extraordinary things, a deeply deep thoughts kind of guy, Egger gives us something to ponder every week. We ask. He yaks. We listen. And now you can, too. Listen to Egger’s […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Some tasty viewing for the first Monday of spring

    In “Chewing the Scenery,” we round up interesting food-related video from around the Web. ——- Here’s a smorgasbord of videos to get your week started right. • After a brutal winter, spring has finally arrived, at least officially (it remains stubbornly cold and wet up here in the N.C. mountains). Let’s start with an earnest […]

    Tom Philpott Culture

  • Ask Umbra on dating, individual actions, and coffee stirrers

    Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, I’m a single gal, living in Seattle, where one would think it might be easy to meet a socially and environmentally conscious, yet non-douchey fellow, but it’s actually really difficult to find any suitable guy to go out with. It’s like if I meet a dude who […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Ask Umbra’s pearls of wisdom on Bruce Willis

    Dearest readers, Do you know what today is? Why, yes, smarty pants, it is Friday, March 19, but more to the point, do you know what momentous occasion occurred on this date 55 years ago? Indeed, my speedy Googlers, Bruce Willis’ birth! And to honor the day that brought us the star of such gems […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture