wnyc:

Cool project to revisit news stories that made a big splash back in the day. First up: a giant floating barge of garbage from 1987.

-Jody, BL Show-

Imagine revisiting a big scandal from the past in video form. That (seems) to be what Retro Report is all about. Fantastic! Want more!

Why don’t oil companies hire climate deniers?

Met a guy who runs his own business making recycled cardboard computers. He wants to help schools in the rural south, and eventually expand to help governments in developing nations. RecomputePC

Fences made of bees to keep elephants from destroying crops. Also, farmers have a new source of income: honey. win-win!

sciencecenter:

Innovative solution to the problem of destructive elephants

While the revival of elephants in Kenya has been a huge success for conservationists, it has come at the expense of farmers and villagers who live near the sometimes dangerous pachyderms. Some clever thinking may end up saving everyone some grief. Elephants, like humans, are afraid of bees. Farmers that experimented with fences made of bee hives - instead of traditional thorn bush fences - and found them to be much more effective. And as an added bonus, Kenyan farmers may now benefit from selling honey.

(via hi-brizil)

Great business idea - getting employees outside for a dinner. Looks hella expensive.  

onearth:

anti-eco:

Check out this photo gallery of a company whose goal is to get people back to nature and embrace its beauty… Truly outstanding!

We’ve pretty much been dying to get to an Outstanding in the Field dinner since we first heard of them. Unfortunately, those events don’t cater to journalists’ budgets. And our request for a press pass back in summer 2007 went unanswered. 

Over Memorial Day Weekend, while most people were relaxing, Henry Schwaller was facing the reality of the assault on the arts in the United States. The chair of the Kansas Arts Commission found his agency in the crosshairs of Republican governor Sam Brownback, who employed his line-item veto to completely eliminate support for the arts in the upcoming state budget. The move made national headlines, not just for the dire affects that it will have on the arts in Kansas, but because Brownback publicly claimed to be setting an example for the rest of the nation.

Are the culture wars back?  Read more here. (via curator-of-curiosities).

Climate Adaptation: Let Brownback reap what he sows. The creative economy will not blossom in Kansas, nor in the states he’s setting “precedent” for. Who the heck wants to move to Kansas any way? Certainly not the creative classes. Definitely not the emerging class of entrepreneurial environmentalists. Definitively not new college graduates. Kansas has an aging population and are having less kids - this means economic disaster is on the horizon from mass retirement of baby boomers. There is no one to replace these retirees. Brownback can do all the short-term social engineering and short-sighted budget tweaking he wants by crushing the liberal arts, but I assure you he is fucking Kansas, hard.

Clever.

humanscalecities:

 Valleys of the Valley

Some have argued that we should stop using Detroit as groundzero for disasterbation. I disagree. The situation in Detroit has inspired more young people to get involved with city planning, economic development, and local politics. Artists, entrepreneurs, builders, farmers, VC’s, city planners, etc., are flocking to Detroit to try to save it. Shrinking cities phenomenon has an upside and a positive outcome, and that is more civic involvement, and a better quality of life. 

utnereader:

Anyone who has poked around Detroit or even just seen the now ubiquitous images of its sprawling desolation is bound to have conflicting reactions. The city is a staggering spectacle, but the question of what exactly it is you’re looking at—or, more precisely, seeing—is something of an ethical and aesthetic litmus test in an age of so many artfully composed portraits of devastation. Detroit’s photographers manage to turn suffering into a still-life. Read more …

Welcome to Fat Ho Burger. This is real and it’s in Waco, Texas. A 23 yo entrepreneur opened it up to improve people’s spirits. She mentions all the bad environmental news, and says she opened it as a light-hearted escape from the realities of the world.

‘Fat Ho Burgers’ Opens in Texas: MyFoxDFW.com

I admit I was against it before I was for it. Watch the video through to the interview with the owner. I believe her intent. What do you think? Is this good economic development? 

Free Solar Panels? Homeowners just pay the rate?