Grist List

New solar cells can be printed right onto buildings

The world's largest dye-sensitized solar cell has just made an appearance. These cells have a couple of major advantages over traditional solar cells: one, they're incredibly cheap, and two, they can be printed right onto the materials used to make a building. Right now they’re being incorporated into girders manufactured by Tata steel.

Russia lets VIPs ignore traffic laws

Do you hate sh*tty drivers? Well, in Soviet Russia, sh*tty driver hates YOU! Moscow's road rage problem is epic, perhaps due to the fact that their traffic solution involves giving special police-style sirens to "VIP" drivers (read: 900-plus important people, government officials and so forth, and the 900-plus folks who can get a hold of them in some other way). However poorly the U.S. is doing at managing traffic, Russian solutions make our roads look like a buggy path in Amish country.

Why tapping the strategic petroleum reserve is a bad idea

When it comes to oil, this is what the U.S. looks like to the rest of the world

The Obama administration has decided over the next two months to release 60 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This is kind of like giving Bubbles from the Wire $5 when he's in the middle of one of his smack binges -- it's not really going to affect consumption, and it sure as hell doesn't address the root problem, which is our seemingly insuperable addiction to oil.

Congress: Let’s just rename it the 'Dirty Water Act'

Have we mentioned that our leaders in Congress are working their butts off to undermine the country's foundational environmental laws? It's not just Republicans, either! Yesterday, a bipartisan bill that would weaken the federal government's ability to keep water clean passed out of committee. The bill would amend the Clean Water Act to give "primary responsibilities for water pollution control" to the states.

Critical List: McKibben's march on Washington; speeding up permits for offshore drilling

Bill McKibben invites you to come to D.C. in August and march on the White House over and over and over again. The goal is to convince the administration that siphoning Canada's tar sands through the Keystone XL pipelines is not a good idea and also to get heat stroke.

Transocean issued a report blaming BP for the Macondo spill. A Norwegian prosecutor issued a report blaming Transocean for $1.8 billion in tax evasion.

House Republicans don't care who was to blame for the Macondo spill; they just want the EPA to approve permits for offshore drilling more quickly. Bored with this spill! Let’s start on a new one!

Solar-powered laptop lets you play outside while you work

What's the best way to piss off a computer scientist? Buy her a laptop that only works when it gets enough sun. It's the perfect gag gift for the basement-dwelling, vitamin D-deprived coder in your life.

Is China trying to steal this city?

China seems to be turning its countryside into a sort of Baudrillardian Euro-Epcot -- they've got two replica English villages, a mini-Barcelona and mini-Venice, a Scandiavia-esque "Nordic Town," and a German district in the city of Anting. Now they're planning to add a replica of the Austrian village of Hallstatt, and the original Hallstatt is pretty pissed.

Interactive climate change maps show just how screwed we are

The Climate Hot Map, from the Union of Concerned Scientists, notes climate trouble spots worldwide. These are by no means all the effects of global warming -- for instance, we're guessing that Canada is not in fact a charmed oasis, untouched by climate change outside of one river in the Northwest Territories. But it does give you a sense of just how widespread the crisis is. (And maybe they'll keep updating it until it's just a mass of flags.)

Texas' fracking disclosure law has huge omissions

Yesterday we told you about Texas governor Rick Perry doing something right for once -- he passed of a law forcing drillers to disclose the chemicals used in the controversial and environmentally destructive practice of hydraulic fracturing. Turns out the law has a bunch of loopholes that corporations are duty-bound to exploit in accordance with their legal obligation to maximize shareholder value, even if doing so threatens people’s health. Maybe you've heard this story before?