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As we write, two brothers are making their way across the United States on self-built bikes made from recycled trash, documenting their search for eco-villages, urban farming initiatives, and new ideas for business. America ReCycled, as Tim and Noah Hussin have dubbed their project, is a quest for the lost American Dream. In their own words: "The modern American is so disconnected from those......read more
Here's a nicely styled sustainable house prototype spotted over at Inhabitat. Designed by Architecture Research Office and Della Valle Bernheimer for the Syracuse School of Architecture, the R-House is a compact, angular form that hits on the twin notes of sustainability and affordability. Built to passive house standards, with a final price tag of under $150K, the 1,100 square foot......read more
A new documentary about the U.S. food system hit its first round of theatres this month. American Meat, directed by Graham Merriwether, documents the lives of dozens of American farmers producing both industrially and sustainably raised meat. The film's main subject is Joel Salatin, a pasture-based pork rancher featured in Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma". Salatin has started producing......read more
In an announcement that's as laden with symbolism as rivers are with sediment, American Rivers has named the Potomac River, which flows through the nation's capital, the most endangered river in the United States. "America’s Most Endangered Rivers," the annual report from the clean water advocacy group, noted that the Potomac is under increasing threat from pollution caused by urban......read more
Austrian painter/illustrator Wolfgang Hutter, one of the founding members of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism formed after WWII, creates magical dreamscapes that pay equal homage to both the Old Masters and the Surrealists. With images of fantastical fairy tales scenes and imaginary Utopias, you can see why the artist is also a successful childrens' book illustrator. From the notes to the......read more
In his hotly anticipated new show at the Guggenheim Museum, Mexican-American artist Gabriel Orozco explores the fertile territory where nature and humanity intersect. The exhibition, entitled Asterisms, is a two-part sculptural and photographic installation comprising thousands of items of trash that he collected from a playing field near his home in New York and a protected......read more
Every four years presidential candidates tell the American people that that election is a turning point for the country. This year they might have actually been right. To be sure, there are always differences between candidates. On a range of issues, from health care to tax reform, voters this year faced a real choice about two different approaches to governing. But the other turning point in......read more
I kinda wish everything looked the way a Joan Didion novel makes me feel: beauty in the banal, meaning in existential plight, love in loneliness and poetry everywhere. All with an equalizing veneer of burnt light.I travel for work a bunch. I'm up both early and late, depending on the demands of the job. I take snapshots on my iPhone and share them with friends through Instagram. Here are a......read more
It's official: America's first offshore turbine is feeding the grid. No, it's not a wind turbine, but it's no less notable. Less than a month after the feds approved America's first commercial wave power project, Forbes reports that Ocean Renewable Power Company's TidGen device has started providing power to a utility grid in Maine. The TidGen turbine sits in......read more
Americans care about the food we eat and feed our families, now more than ever. In the span of just a few weeks, "pink slime" became a consumer phenomenon, leading to the unprecedented rapid-fire removal of the product from major stores and schools, the closure of production plants and USDA approval of voluntary labeling. Talk about legislation through retail. It's not just ammonia in beef.......read more
