Grist List
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Awesome chart puts nuclear radiation in perspective
Chart: Randall Munroe (Click to embiggen.) Hungry for some perspective on the nuclear situation? This mindblowing chart of relative radiation doses, made by XKCD‘s Randall Munroe, is basically a Total Perspective Vortex. It’s got something for everyone: Proponents of nuclear power can point to the difference between living near a nuke plant and living near […]
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World Wildlife Fund gets in bed with McDonald’s, gives birth to darling sustainability program
McDonald’s is going to be less bad for the future of life on Earth, it promises. With the help of the World Wildlife Fund, the 32,000-store chain has pledged to do the following to improve its sourcing of raw materials: Ban beef that comes from within the “Amazon Biome,” aka Brazil’s rainforest. No more soy […]
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Congressional asshats get the old, white parody they deserve
Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” has never felt fresher than in this stirring rendition from our friends at the Natural Resources Defense Council. But that’s sort of damning it with faint praise. Upton BillYou know Fred Upton’s Bill will make you ill I thought he’d never be a smokestack guyBut now he hates clean air I […]
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Instead of putting the brakes on nuclear plants, should we be building safer ones?
In the wake of a massive quake and a tragic, deadly tsunami, Japan is also dealing with a nuclear catastrophe. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) has said that this should inspire us to “put the brakes on” nuclear development until further notice, and China and Germany are shutting down development and existing reactors. But what about […]
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Al Gore hasn’t written his new book and people already hate it
Al Gore is penning a new book about “the political, social and economic forces that are shaping what America and the world will become in ensuing decade.” It sounds exactly like Fareed Zakaria’s The Post American World. Even though his book has yet to be written, people with exclusive access to the inside of the […]
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Sorry, but the U.S. isn’t about to wean itself off of nuclear
The reality is, the United States doesn’t have the option to walk away from nuclear power, which supplies almost 9% of the nation’s energy and about 20% of its electricity. […] Nuclear energy’s drawbacks are glaring at the moment, but it’s worth remembering that no major source of energy the United States is using comes […]
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Japan’s 200 mph trains sail through earthquake with flying colors
Train, to earthquake: “Suck it!”Photo: kiyoshi.beThe tsunami that struck Japan had a devastating effect on at least four trains closest to the epicenter of the quake, washing them away completely. But in the rest of the country, it appears that the earthquake and its aftershocks only derailed a single passenger train, even through the entire main […]
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How to deck your bike out like a Victorian gentleman
Photo: Walnut StudioloYou may not rock a velocipede, but that’s no reason why you shouldn’t be tooling around town looking like Sherlock Holmes. Step one: handsome vintagey leather bike accessories. Step 2: tweed helmet hat. Grow, purchase, or rent a handlebar mustache and get ready to pretend the last 200 years never happened. Photo: bitchcakesny […]
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Little does this Libyan rebel know he’s fighting for our right to cheap gas
At the request of Libya’s resistance forces, the U.S. and its NATO allies have just promised to shoot down anything Ghaddafi puts into the sky. Which means that rebels like the one in the video above may think they’re fighting a war of liberation, but now that we’re on the scene, it’s about oil, as usual: This […]
