Grist List
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Knowing what you spend on energy can cut usage by more than half
Feedback: It works for robot monkey arms and Scientology auditing, so shouldn’t it work to help you save electricity? Networking company Silver Spring Networks and Oklahoma Gas & Electric think so (and so do we). They’ve teamed up for a year-long experiment in Norman, Okla., to test smart grid solutions, allowing users to get feedback […]
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Let’s stripmine life’s birthplace on Earth because we suck at recycling!
The biome around a hydrothermal vent is truly like nothing on the planet, because most candy-ass living creatures can’t hack it in such a hot, sunless, sulfurous environment. But even though it’s inhospitable, it may actually be where life began on earth. None of this, of course, will stop mining companies from reaming the vents […]
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Happy birthday, Darwin! Have a giant recycled squid
Sometimes, despite your best intentions, you end up with plastic bags. This is why nature invented the giant squid, humans invented knitting needles, and Deadly Knitshade invented Plarchie. He’s knitted out of 162 plastic bags, and is shown here cuddling with Charles Darwin, who celebrated his 202nd birthday on Saturday. If you want to celebrate […]
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Who’s got the greenest house on the planet?
It’s pretty easy to determine the biggest pie, or longest fingernails, or fattest twins. But what about the greenest house? AOL’s consumer finance site, of all places (they’re into journalism now!) has a nice roundup of what, exactly, it means to have a green home. There are a number of buildings that have claimed or […]
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Adorable reindeer die to teach you a lesson about sustainability [COMIC]
Stuart McMillen’s comic “St. Matthew Island” is a parable about population control, resource scarcity, sustainability, and biodiversity, with bonus cute reindeer. Here’s the short version: The reindeer of this tiny Bering Strait island weren’t native, but were brought in by the U.S. military. Left to their own devices, they thrived, then competed for dwindling resources, […]
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Are flesh-eating robots the future of green tech?
Sure, you can get power from the sun and the wind and other things you could paint on the wall of a child’s bedroom — if you don’t mind being a hippy. But aren’t there any forms of alternative energy that are more, you know, metal? Enter James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau, British designers who […]
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Lady Gaga’s boyfriend writes binge-drinking health book ‘The Drunk Diet’
You and me could write a bad fromage.Photo: Drunk Diet Beer for breakfast! Lord Gaga (real name: Lüc Carl) lost 40 pounds by binge-drinking — and his sound weight-loss tips will be featured in forthcoming book The Drunk Diet, reports The New York Observer. His blog has some great previews of health tips: On life […]
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‘Piecycle’ makes it OK for hipsters to eat dessert
Max Kraushaar has ridden his fixie right out of an episode of Portlandia to bring you some lemon meringue. It’s like a hipster Mad Lib: Skinny guy with [handlebar mustache/fedora/giant glasses] delivers [pie/cupcakes/pot brownies] on a [bicycle/bicycle/bicycle]. In this case, the skinny dude is a University of Washington student named Max, the cranial accessory is […]
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The yuppies of the future live in yurts
It’s no longer enough for your Futuristic Future Dwelling of the Future to be eco-friendly, alternative-powered, and 100 percent recyclable. You also have to furnish a portfolio of computer-rendered yurt-porn, showing the glamorous lifestyle available in your tiny pod home. “Lifepod” is a small, sustainable prefab that can be packed up and shipped anywhere in […]
