Grist List
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Traditional Chinese medicine contains endangered animals, carcinogens
It’s probably best not to make all your meals out of pink slime and enriched HFCS, but a word to the wise: “Natural” doesn’t always mean safe.
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America’s best-known nuclear family gets mural at world’s best-known nuclear disaster
Street artists have started covering walls within the no-go zone of Chernobyl with advertising from the world's nuclear power companies -- and a family portrait of America’s favorite family with a nuclear safety officer dad.
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Bike lanes make drivers less likely to be jerks, says study
A study of driving habits found that one in six motorists in Baltimore passed cyclists at an illegal distance, making them eligible to be shot to death under “stand your ground” laws, assuming we could somehow combine the laws of Maryland and Florida.
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Against all odds, Los Angeles is getting a bikeshare
Los Angeles! Despite your reputation as the most car-dependent city west of, uh, anything, you’re totally trying to get in on the green transportation revolution, and we love it! Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced over the weekend that the City of Cars will soon have a permanent bikeshare program. And if there were ever a city […]
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In Washington, prison inmates raise bees, frogs, and butterflies
When you think “prison,” you don’t usually think “idyllic bower of nature’s most rare and beautiful specimens.” But at the Washington State Department of Corrections, inmates can skip the license-plate making and spend their days cultivating endangered local animals, insects, and plants. Participants in the Sustainable Prisons Project raise Oregon spotted frogs, Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies, […]
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Penguin lives the dream, bites Newt Gingrich
Gingrich was bitten on the finger by the penguin at the St. Louis zoo.
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Critical List: U.S. carbon emissions on the rise; Japan without nuclear power
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions have started to rise again. After May 5, Japan will be without nuclear power, at least until two idled reactors are started back up. New forecasting technology means fewer people die in extreme weather.
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Scientists discover ancient antibiotic-resistant bacteria
Okay, nobody panic, but scientists have found a stash of bacteria that have never had contact with humans, but are resistant to antibiotics anyway. If this happened in a movie, this would probably end with everyone becoming dead. But I’m sure it’s fine!
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Walmart is bigger than Manhattan and richer than Norway
Mother Jones sized up the retail giant. Here's what they found.