Articles by Chris Schults

The Daily Grist Headline Battle Royale: Match 2

Thanks to everyone who participated in the first Daily Grist Headline Battle Royale. There were 34 votes and the winning headline was my personal fave, "One King to Bring Them All and in the Darkness Bind Them," which garnered 35% of the votes.

Here are this week's nominees:

1. Nobody Undoes It Like Sara Lee: Industry-backed bill would overthrow state food-labeling laws
2. Beetle Bailiwick: Warmer B.C. ravaged by beetles, haunted by dead birds
3. Bring in Da Illinois, Bring in Da Hunk: Obama speechifies for energy independence, chemical-plant security
4. I Know You Are, Senator, But What Am I?: Pro-drilling Alaska rep aims to punish anti-drilling Washington senators
5. Rumblings in the Bronx: A virtual walking tour of the South Bronx

Remember, if we can keep this going and gain some momentum (read: we need more than 34 votes), we could have ourselves a "Daily Grist Headline Deathmatch" at the end of the year.

Now vote!

Academy Awards nominees include several green films

So what do perch, penguins, Pocahontas, and Participant Productions have in common (other than alliteration)? Oscar.

This Sunday night, the 78th Annual Academy Awards will feature a bevy of nominated films with environmental themes -- from pesky perch to egotistic energy execs to badgered, um, badgers.

If you couldn't care less about the movies and you're more into people watching, check out this week's Grist List to see what eco-swag green celebs will be receiving.

For the rest of you, the nominees are ...

Personal Rapid Transit

I've oftened wished the bus would "appear" when I arrive at the bus stop. Such daydreaming often led to ideas about somehow combining personal vehicles and public transit. As usual, mine is not an original idea, as Jeremy Faludi over at WC points out:

Wouldn't it be nice to have a bus waiting for you every time you walked up to a stop? And wouldn't it be nice if the bus just went to your destination, without stopping anywhere else in between? The main reason people drive is for convenience like this. But if public transportation were as cheap as a bus and as convenient as a cab on roads with no traffic, why would anyone bother driving anymore? That's the idea behind "Personal Rapid Transit", an idea that's been around for forty years, but is still struggling to see the light of day.

What is PRT? This, according to Jeremy:

The basic idea is having an elevated track with personal-sized cars, only big enough for 2 to 4 people (and normally used for solo trips). Cars on the main track always go at full speed, with cars shunting off to side tracks for entry & exit at stations. These stations would be located a reasonably short distance from each other so users would never have to walk too far to get to a stop, and stations would always have empty cars waiting for the next user to arrive. This individualized service would be made possible by having all the vehicles automated--no human drivers in the system, just smart network-management software.

Head on over to WorldChanging to read more. What do y'all think?

The evolutionary reason for humans?

This post over at WorldChanging got me thinking.

For those who liken the human species to a virus, feeling the planet would be better off without us ...

For those who poo-poo technology ...

Pop quiz: What do you do when an asteroid is hurtling toward the Earth and the impact will likely cause mass extinction?

Maybe send some pesky humans into space to knock the rock off its course? By employing some fancy technology?

But wait ... are extinction-level events "natural"? Cause if so I assume we humans should not prevent them.

Maybe I'm just a confused "libertarian." Take the poll (click "Link and Discuss") and tell me what to think.