Grist List

Badass enclosed, untippable electric motorcycle is the ultimate green transport

It goes 200 miles on a third as much battery power as an electric car. It has airbags and an enclosed cockpit. It's gyroscopically stabilized, like a Segway. It could be the future of transportation.

Christopher Mims Technology

Biker uses GPS to turn city into an Etch-a-Sketch

A Baltimore man uses his bike and his phone's GPS tracking to turn the city into art.

Jess Zimmerman Transportation

Cleantech spending drops 75 percent in five years

A new paper from Brookings, the World Resources Institute, and the Breakthrough Institute shows exactly how much trouble cleantech is in: Depressing, no? Some of that rapid decline comes from the end of stimulus spending. But the researchers found that even discounting those funds, federal support for cleantech dropped 47 percent between 2011 and 2012.

Sarah Laskow Technology

Charming video explains where traffic comes from and how to fix it

Jess Zimmerman Buildings

A tire fire so big it can be seen from space

Tire fires are a nasty business, and in Kuwait yesterday, a fire broke out at a dump that held more than 5 million tires. The fire was so big that the smoke plume was visible from space: A tire fire this big is an environmental disaster. It won’t just pollute the air with hazardous materials […]

Sarah Laskow Health

Critical List: Americans link climate change to hot weather; yet another Keystone XL bill

The majority of Americans are convinced that climate change had something to do with the warm winter and last year’s super hot summer. Good news: They believe climate change has consequences. Bad news: When it gets cold, they’ll be convinced we fixed it. House Republicans are going to vote today on yet another bill that […]

Sarah Laskow

Politically conservative cities suck for pedestrians

Walkin’ in politically conservative cities, walkin’ in politically conservative cities, nobody walks in politically conservative citiiiiies. Okay this is not very catchy, but Will Oremus at Slate has noticed that it’s true. The most walkable cities are reliably politically liberal — the 19 most walkable are all in states that voted for Obama in 2008, and […]

Jess Zimmerman Housing

Bill Nye explains why the city of the future is bike-friendly

The city of the future has showers at the office for bike commuters, weatherproof bike highways, and tunnels engineered to create helpful tailwinds, according to Bill Nye the Science Guy.