AltWeeklies Wire
Runaway Growthnew

Forty years into the "War on Cancer," casualties are mounting -- and we still don't know what motivates the enemy.
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Bill O'Driscoll |
11-08-2011 |
Health
Who (Re)Built the Electric Car?new

ChargeCar reimagines plug-in vehicles.
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Bill O'Driscoll |
07-24-2010 |
Transportation
Tags: ChargeCar, Illah Nourbakhsh
'Creative Nonfiction' Begins Life Anew as a Quarterly Magazinenew
At the recent relaunch party for Pittsburgh-based literary journal Creative Nonfiction as a quarterly magazine, editor Lee Gutkind showed he hasn't forgotten old insults to the genre he's strived to popularize.
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Bill O'Driscoll |
03-15-2010 |
Books
Barry Lopez on a Writer's Responsibility in a Time of Environmental Crisisnew

Every couple of years, Barry Lopez assigns himself a trip that he knows "will knock me over backwards." And it's not the sort of travel you might expect from the naturalist author of such classics as Of Wolves and Men and Arctic Dreams.
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Bill O'Driscoll |
02-08-2010 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Modern-Day Gold Rush Comes to Pennsylvanianew

Natural gas drillers are buying mineral rights from property owners across the state, but environmentalists worry about the price to be paid.
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Bill O'Driscoll |
04-27-2009 |
Environment
'Clean Coal' Isn't Clean, But Is It Our Best Hope Against Climate Change?new
"Clean coal" is a contradiction in terms: Mining coal and burning it remain a dirty business. But is even cleaner coal a real, if distant, promise ... or merely a dangerous distraction?
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Bill O'Driscoll |
02-02-2009 |
Environment
Ad-ded Value: The Super Bowl Is More Mythic Than Evernew

In a fragmented media market, the Super Bowl is about all we have in common anymore.
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Bill O'Driscoll |
02-02-2009 |
Media
'The Scramble for Africa' Argues that Western Activists Have Darfur All Wrongnew

Steven Fake and Kevin Funk agree: When it comes to Darfur, even people who share their leftist politics mostly don't get it.
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Bill O'Driscoll |
11-11-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Lawrence C. Connolly Crossbreeds Crime Thriller and Fantasy Tale in Debut Novelnew
In Veins, the interweaving of nature's dark beauty and the destructive majesty of heavy industry informs the story's crossbreeding of crime thriller with fantasy with special potency.
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Bill O'Driscoll |
10-28-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Lawrence C. Connolly, Veins
Author Nancy Nichols' New Book Looks For the Man-made Causes of Cancernew
Her insights about survivorship are among the more provocative aspects of her new book, Lake Effect: Two Sisters and a Town's Toxic Legacy, in which she argues that instead of fixating on miracle cures, we should look harder at potential man-made causes of cancer.
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Bill O'Driscoll |
09-29-2008 |
Nonfiction
'Dancing in Amdo' Questions Some Basic Assumptions About Tibetnew
The first thing you'll wonder about filmmaker Carl Cimini's documentary about Tibet under Chinese rule, is, "How'd he score an interview with the Dalai Lama?"
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Bill O'Driscoll |
09-08-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Leslie Anne Mcilroy's 'Liquid Like This' is Passionate, Well-crafted Versenew
Mcilroy uses formal care to set off raw emotion, insurgent thoughts, a lubricated imagination full of jazz horns, yanked-up skirts, lipstick traces, let-down lovers, open wounds and cold beers.
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Bill O'Driscoll |
08-04-2008 |
Poetry
Rick Rhodes Wrote the Book on Boating the Ohio River and Its Tributariesnew
The Ohio River is a practical guide for contemporary boaters, with detailed sketches of all eight rivers, dozens of black-and-white photos, and rosters of boat clubs, marinas and other dock sites -- even riverside restaurants.
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Bill O'Driscoll |
07-21-2008 |
Nonfiction
'The Carbon-Free Home' Explains How to Really Go Greennew

The Hrens' 320-page book categorizes shows how, on a budget, they stopped contributing to global warming and resource depletion, and also saved money.
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Bill O'Driscoll |
06-16-2008 |
Nonfiction
Building the Parkour Movementnew

Parkour is edging into the public consciousness, thanks in part to vehicles like the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale, which opened with a spectacular construction-site foot chase featuring parkour pioneer Sebastian Foucan and events like the Memorial Day Weekend International Parkour Expo.
Pittsburgh City Paper |
Bill O'Driscoll |
06-16-2008 |
Sports