Grist List

Mesmerizing video of flattened food

Filmmakers Hugo de Kok and Kay van Vree say they “where curious about de forms and shapes food makes when you flatten them.” (They’re Dutch.)

Jess Zimmerman Food

Taco Bell sold 100 million Doritos tacos in 10 weeks

The Doritos Locos taco is now Taco Bell's most popular product launch ever.

Jess Zimmerman Food

A solar-powered cell phone charging station inspired by Occupy Wall Street

Tommy Mitchell wasn’t an Occupier, but when he visited Occupy Wall Street, he found out that OWSers were charging their cell phones at a hot dog vendor’s gas-guzzling generator, The New York Times reports. “I was like, ‘Well that’s awful,’” he said. That’s when he began thinking about inventing a device that could harness renewable […]

Sarah Laskow Energy

Today in astronomical weirdness: This is your last chance to see the transit of Venus

Manhattanhenge is cool, but it happens twice a year. Ditto Supermoons. Solar eclipses are less common, but nothing like today’s astronomical weirdness. This afternoon and evening, Venus will pass in front of the sun, for the last time in your lifetime unless you are a robot or a Time Lord. Here’s why you should try […]

Jess Zimmerman Culture

Disney bans junk food ads from kids’ programming

Disney will no longer broadcast or post advertisements that promote unhealthy food. The company is also branching out into food policing, with the "Mickey Check" -- a Disney seal of approval on a packaged food's nutritional value.

Sarah Laskow Food

Critical List: Northeast cap-and-trade program dropped emissions; World Environment Day

It’s World Environment Day — bring out your green-minded celebrities! In the Northeast, power plants’ carbon emissions fell an average 23 percent during the three years of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative’s cap-and-trade program (compared to the previous three years). By 2050, Latin American and Caribbean countries could be racking up $100 billion in damages […]

Sarah Laskow

Here’s what Pittsburgh looked like before smoke control

Vintage photos of Pittsburgh, from before it passed a smoke-control ordinance in 1941, are so hazy that some of them look like they've been hit with some kind of artsy-grunge Instagram filter.

Jess Zimmerman Health

Flash mob proves conclusively that cars are the most annoying ever

Flash mob factory Improv Everywhere stages weird, transcendent little moments of cooperation, synchronicity, and pantslessness (they’re the ones behind the No-Pants Subway Ride). But their latest effort, the Car Alarm Symphony, doesn’t do much besides prove that parking lots, already a blight on the landscape, could always be worse.