To defend our way of life abroad we may need to reconsider how much junk food it involves at home.

It’s not every day that former generals and admirals speak out about children’s health and education. But last Thursday was one of those days. According to Mission: Readiness, a nonprofit, bipartisan organization led by retired senior military leaders, 75 percent of 17 to 24 year olds cannot enlist in the military because they fail to graduate high…

The ocean is an important factor in absorbing and mitigating Earth’s carbon emissions, but it is becoming overloaded with carbon. Between 2000 and 2001, its absorbtion rate decreased by 10 percent.

Another week has passed us by, friends. The Messenger, which GOOD helped produce and develop, is now showing in New York, and, as of today, in Los Angeles. It tells the story of a young soldier who’s charged with the task of notifying families of our war dead. It’s quite moving, if we do say so ourselves, and it’s might help you remember what to be thankful for.

For the full recap of this week in GOOD, head…

The University of California is an awesome institution. Its ten campuses give 150,000 college students a high-quality public education every year and UC Berkeley, UCSF, and Boalt Hall can compete with any super-expensive private school on quality and reputation. UC Davis is largely responsible for California’s fantastic wine, and for some reason UCLA is crazy famous in Asia. It’s a model for public higher education.

But the University of California has been getting less awesome because…

Cell phones usually contribute to urban noise pollution. But the folks at Paris’s Sony Computer Science Laboratory have created an app that lets any GPS-enabled phone help us understand the problem. Behold NoiseTube:

Serenity now!

Here’s a rather scathing PSA from Plane Stupid. (Note, if you get squeamish at the thought of seeing polar bear deaths depicted in a fairly gruesome—and slightly absurd—manner, or if you yourself are a polar bear, you might think twice about watching.)

Wow. Granted, each flight doesn’t literally kill a polar bear. This isn’t some sick inversion of the ringing bells that beget angel wings from It’s a Wonderful Life. But it does hammer home the increasingly…

From the folks over at TreeHugger:

The email system of one of the world’s leading climate researchers was just reported to be infiltrated by hackers. Protected information and email messages sent from climate scientists at the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) began turning up on public websites today. Why the CRU was targeted is still unclear–though there’s speculation that with the global climate meeting in Copenhagen nearing, opponents of climate action may be going so…

Cookbooks often read better as literature than as technical lab manuals. That shouldn’t stop us from reading them, or from improvising our recipes.

We no longer learn to cook solely from generations-old oral traditions. Our recipes don’t tend to get handed down from village bakers, local brewers, or blood relatives. So, when the holidays hit, chances are we’ll head to the bookshelves for ways to make stuffing or cranberry sauce. This approach is not without its pitfalls.…

I often carry with me through airport security more than 3 ounces of toothpaste, in the hopes that I can helpfully explain to a TSA agent that toothpaste is not a gel, aerosol, or liquid, but is—by definition—a paste. Sadly, they have yet to try to take my toothpaste.

Luckily for me and all travelers, the TSA knows how complicated deciding what fits into the ever-nebulous “gel, aerosol, and liquid” category, especially with holiday specific items,…

Apparently very little. A Times reporter took one out for a test drive past its 40 mile battery range. What happens is that the gas-powered generator kicks in—silently—giving more battery power to the car. Its not as if you suddenly switch to a gas-powered engine; you’re still using electric power, just not stored electric power. Indeed, even while the generator is on, accelerating is silent, as you’re just putting more battery power into the engine, not…