United States of America
Jasmin Malik Chua is a writer and editor of diverse topics,
from ethical fashion to female representation in comic books.
She graduated from New York University with a master
of science in biomedical journalism.
Ethical Fashion
"No leathers, feathers, or fur." That's the Stella McCartney promise. It's also an ethos that helped make 2015 its most profitable year to date, according to the British fashion label, which published its first global Environmental Profit & Loss Account this week. Despite laggardly growth in the ...
In "Gandhi Does Yoga," a tongue-in-cheek video by College Humor, ol' Mahatma himself rises from the dead to visit the "world's least Hindu gym." The yoga instructor, lithe and blonde, considers Gandhi with a tight smile. "Maybe next time try and wear appropriate attire? Maybe a Lycra top?" she a ...
Bhava's newly launched convertible boot was made for mileage. Crafted in Spain from 100 percent vegan-friendly materials, including a solid wood heel, the "Editor" is three boots in one. The secret to its versatility? A pair of stirrup-like shafts, which transform the shoe from an ankle boot to a knee-high or over-the-knee boot in a matter of seconds. Purchased individually, these three styles could cost you up to $1,000, according to Francisca Pineda, the New York-based label's founder and...
A collaboration between photographer Fabrice Monteiro and fashion designer Jah Gal, The Prophecy is a series of haunting tableaus illustrating Senegal's widespread environmental crisis. The African country, nearly half of which is classified as semiarid, is locked in a constant battle against desertification that is exacerbated still by deforestation, overgrazing, and slash-and-burn agriculture. Refuse lies strewn across the streets of its capital, Dakar, while industrial waste chokes the...
A young blonde woman weeps openly on camera, her manicured fingers perched wanly against her cheekbones. "I can't take it any more," she sobs in Norwegian. "What sort of life is this?" Her name is Anniken Jørgensen, one of three young fashion enthusiasts who "star" in a five-part online reality ...
Science
Engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder have developed a thin, artificially structured "metamaterial" that can cool objects without the use of water or energy. The film works to lower the temperature of the surface beneath it through a process known as "passive cooling," meaning that it vents the object's heat through thermal radiation while bouncing off any incoming solar energy that may negate those losses.
Like harnessing the power of the sun or getting a charge from physical movement, the conversion of ambient energy into electricity is getting pretty old hat. Tapping multiple sources simultaneously, on the other hand, is something else altogether. The secret was under our noses this whole time.
Scott Pruitt should send a shiver down your spine, even if your idea of environmentalism is using the same cup for a refill of your soda. At his confirmation hearing for head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency nearly a fortnight ago, Pruitt was unable to name even a single EPA regulation he supported.
With the cost of crude oil surging to record highs, a heated battle of blame is in full swing, with a lineup of suspects that includes the oil industry, Congress, commodity speculators, environmentalists and developing countries in Asia.
A polar bear clinging to a melting iceberg may the poster child for global warming, but rising temperatures, pollution and other human activity are also affecting the animal kingdom in far subtler ways. Like the proverbial canary in the coal mine, the natural world could be giving us other signs that human intervention has knocked it way off kilter.
Comic Books
I had barely turned seven when my older brother, eight years my senior, returned from the comic book store one day with a puckish glint in his eye. Thrusting the latest issue of Crisis on Infinite Earths under my nose, he could barely contain his glee.
Set against the rolling hills of pseudo-medieval France, Giants Beware! is the story of Claudette, a pint-size rapscallion who wears her hair short and her temper shorter. The daughter of the village blacksmith, Claudette has a singular ambition: to snuff out the neighborhood baby-feet-eating giant and destroy it.
Like the shadows that flicker in the corner of your eye, Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things doesn't fill you with outright terror-at least, not at first. Far more frightening is its creeping sense of dread, the nagging feeling that something is unutterably, irretrievably wrong.
Misc.
The first pregnancy test had to have been lying, so I took a second—and then a third. Believe me, I tried to stop. Not because it was obsessive (it was), but because it was wasteful: Each kit was hermetically sealed in a foil wrapper and then placed in a paper box, which was, in turn, shrink-wrapped in plastic, just in case there was any rogue human chorionic gonadotropin lurking around the pharmacy. Already I could feel my carbon footprint expanding along with my uterus.
"Aunt Flo," crimson tide, "that time of the month": Whatever euphemism we use for menstruation, it remains—even in our enlightened times—a subject that women are all too eager to conceal with a flurry of sanitary products we can chuck aside before moving onto more important matters, such as chocolate and foot rubs.
PCs and information-technology equipment consume $8 billion in annual electricity costs each year in the United States. The price is even greater when you factor in carbon emissions caused by this power use, which contribute to global warming. With such high economic and environmental costs, energy efficiency has become unavoidably vital. In other words, it's time to take your PC green.