Currently, rooftop solar has reached grid parity, or costing as much or less than electricity from the grid, in a few states. According to Vishal Shah, the solar energy analyst and Deutsche Bank, the industry predicts that by 2016, rooftop solar will achieve grid parity in all 50 US States. This is great news for folks looking to get off the grid, or even potentially feed power they don’t use back into the grid.

Solar power has been offered little assistance by the federal government. Only in some states have major initiatives been taken. But even though solar hasn’t received the same subsidies as other fossil fuel energies, it has had no problem reaching grid parity. Plus, in 2013, the US passed 10 gigawatts of installed solar power, with another half a gigawatt of concentrated solar power. While this is up dramatically from previous years, it accounts for less than 1% of energy produced...

Is this some kind of mythical, magical tree? Nah. All you need to understand this amazing 40-fruit tree is science! 

Sam Van Aken, an artist from New York, created what he calls the Tree of 40 Fruit not through anything nasty like genetic engineering, but an age-old orcharding practice of grafting. Grafting is a horticultural technique in which a section of stem from one tree is inserted into another. So basically you can have an apple tree, but if you want another kind of apple to grow on it, you simply need to graft branches from that kind of apple tree onto the original tree.

Pretty neat, huh?...

We get so caught up in avoiding the things that are bad for us or that we don’t want for ethical reasons that sometimes we forget to praise the good things out there. Below is a list of 400 food companies that have declined using GMO ingredients in their products. They should be rewarded with our business for opting not to use frankenfoods.

365

479 Degrees

A. Vogel

Adams Vegetable Oils

Agrana

Agricor Inc.

Ah!Laska

Alexia...

This video highlights just how gross some processed foods can be. AgileHProducts, a YouTube user with many different time lapse videos, decided to see if a twinkie would rot in the same way as a tomato. The results probably won’t shock you.

After 25 days, the tomato is withered and rotten, while the twinkie is still looking rather spry. The longevity of the twinkie can probably be attributed to the lack of dairy products in it. In addition, professor Roger Bennati of George Stevens Academy decided to put a twinkie in a glass box back in 1976.

And there it is, still today, still as much of a twinkie as it’s ever been. What a gross food...

Garlic and lemon. These are two ingredients that are potent in the fight against heart disease and high cholesterol. They’re both efficient tools for lowering cholesterol levels and strengthening the walls of blood vessels, which reduces the likeliness of getting diseases like atherosclerosis.

This is an old Russian homemade tincture that’s been used for centuries. It could potentially fight against cancer cells too, as garlic contains a large quantity of antioxidants...