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Putting off important decisions is rarely considered a good thing, except in politics, where procrastinating on important decisions can mean the difference between being in and out of office. Yesterday, the Obama administraton put the delay tactic to use, announcing that it will postpone its decision on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline until after the 2012 election. "Because this......read more
In three short years, the Prix Pictet has become the global prize for excellence in environmental photography, assembling some of the most powerful images of sustainability (or lack thereof) from around the world. The theme for this year's competition is Growth, which organizers call "one of the great conundrums facing humanity in the early decades of the 21st century." True enough. The winner......read more
It's always a challenge to apply the principles of modernism to architecture in rural places. In urban neighborhoods, clean lines and square angles sit harmoniously with the street grid, but out in the country they can come off as rigid and unnatural. Architect Lisa Moffitt manages to avoid these pitfalls with the House on Limekiln Line, an off-grid home in Ontario’s rural Huron......read more
Since moving to LA from Maryland in 2002, Nicholas Alan Cope has been documenting the infrastructure of his adopted hometown in stark, black-and-white photos. Those images of the city's geometric modern architecture are collected in a new book, "Whitewash," out this month on powerHouse. Cope relies on stark abstraction and the power of contrast to deliver what looks to be a surreal and special......read more
Last year saw the successful launch of Click & Grow, the hands-free, idiot-proof indoor planting device, and now it's back in a second iteration. And this time the Palo Alto-based founders turned to the crowd to develop it. Specifically designed to grow herbs at home, Click & Grow 2.0 is dubbed the Smart Herb Garden, and comes equipped with seeds for basil, thyme and lemon balm. Don't......read more
With more and more people interested in local, sustainable food, there are more and more people looking for meaningful work in the field. Enter Good Food Jobs, a “gastro-job search tool, designed to link people looking for meaningful food work with the businesses that need their energy, enthusiasm, and intellect.” Launched in 2010 by “friends, partners and ice cream......read more
On March 2, the state of Texas celebrated its Independence Day, a victory that marked the boundaries of a state so proud and so grand in scale that everything really is bigger there. Having spent 8 years of my childhood living everywhere from the Valley on the border of Mexico to Dallas, I can definitely vouch for that as well as proudly declare my complex love for Texas. In the spirit of......read more
With the right mix of creative thinking, technological ingenuity, and, well, money, there really is no limit for the future of renewable energy. Take the case of Pavegen, a UK company that has developed the world's first system for harnessing energy from footsteps. By stepping or hopping on a Pavegen floor tile, users create clean, off-grid electricity that can 
used for anything from lighting......read more
Some people creative skills to burn. Count Daphne Kotsiani among them. Trained as a classical pianist, Kotsiani is an accomplished musician with recording credits that include this collaboration with Sigur Ros. She is also a self-taught photographer, and from the looks of this series, she's taught herself quite well. With an eye for lonely forms and figures in natural landscapes, Kotsiani creates......read more
Picture a giant, spiky tumbleweed from another planet and you get an idea what Massoud Hassani's Mine Kafon looks like. The project to bring cheap and easy-to-build mine detonators to Afghan minefields has just surpassed its Kickstarter goal of 100,000 GBP (approximately 161,000 USD). Hassani, a graduate of Design Academy Eindhoven who grew up in Kabul, Afghanistan, created the Mine......read more
