Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden

Did you know that crows aren't just those birds that dive at your head in parking lots or parks -- they're actually, like, super-genius winged creatures? We didn't either, until we attended the TEDxMIA conference last Friday night at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden.

You've probably heard about TED Conferences. For the past 25 years, TED has been, according to their mission, "devoted to ideas worth spreading" through gatherings of the world's intellectual, political, and scientific elite. Featuring world leaders like Gordon Brown and Bill Clinton, writers like Isabel Allende, and even Jane Goodall at their world conferences definitely has kept people listening and learning.
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Courtesy of Ben Thacker

Paddle boarding the west coast of Florida.

​You've seen them along South Beach canals like Venetian gondoliers. You've witnessed them in the ocean and Bay, a cross-breed of kayaker and surfer. Yup. The paddle-boarder. But never before have you seen them like this. Two Miami natives are traveling from Tampa Bay to Key Largo. Three-hundred miles. On paddle-boards.

Chip Walter and Ian Wogan are both from the Cutler Bay area. Chip owns a construction firm, Ian is finishing up a degree at FIU in agroecology, both love paddle-boarding. In the hopes of raising funds and awareness for urban gardens, the two are currently partaking in the Everglades Challenge, a grueling, unsupervised cross-state water race, usually reserved for kayaks, canoes, and small boats.More >>

Flickr CC Jeremy Burgin

​When the "Scoop on Poop" exhibit drops on Zoo Miami this weekend, number two is number one for fun. That's because this exciting shit is back in our toilet water by poopular demand. The traveling exhibition, based on a hit book by Dr. Wayne Lynch, last hit the 305 in 2006. But, starting this Saturday, you'll again have the chance to dig through dung, participate in a dung beetle race, listen to animal digestive systems, and even learn foreign words for poop. Kids love that kind of shit. We asked Zoo Miami rep Cindy Castelblanco all about the Scoop on Poop. Here's what she had to say.More >>

​A few years ago, porn-seeking perverts with colonialist ambitions began stumbling onto the wrong mail-order bride website. Presenting itself as a "source for meeting a nice, subservient Asian bride," BigBadChineseMama.com proceeded to break down sexual politics, racial stereotypes, and power structure via pictures of ass-kicking females above testimonials such as, "I'm learning so much about the Asian culture ever since you mailed me, Janice. Did you know it is customary for the man to cook, clean, and sleep on the living room couch?" After 130,000 hits and a slew of angry emails, Kristina Wong was being summoned for interviews and speaking requests all over the country.

This Thursday at 8 p.m., meet the self-professed "cultural jammer" for her fourth full-length solo comedy show, Going Green the Wong Way, a collaboration with Paul Tei of Miami's irreverent drama company Mad Cat Theatre. Cultist spoke to the satirical comedienne about why going green is goth, how vegetable oil cars can backfire (literally), and whether Miami is anything like that souless L.A.
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Going green with a cricket star.

​The next time you throw a cigarette butt out your car window or leave a Styrofoam cup on the sidewalk, beware. The greenest man in the world lives in South Florida and he could be anywhere. Htesh Mehta, a leading authority, practitioner, and researcher on ecotourism, physical planning, and both the landscape architectural and architectural aspects of ecolodges, comes to Books & Books in Coral Gables Wednesday to promote his latest work of ecotourism, Authentic Ecolodges. The book looks at some of the most forward-thinking ecolodges in the world's most exotic destinations.

A Hall of Fame cricket player and Ft. Lauderdale resident, Mehta was named one of five Sustainable Tourism Pioneers in the world by National Geographic Adventure and one of the 25 Most Powerful People in Adventure by Men's Journal. But New Times wanted to see what was so green about this guy in person. Read on for our Q&A with Hitesh.

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Tony Tango: dangerously dance-y and environmentally conscious

​First, Leonardo DiCaprio started driving a Prius, then M. Night Shyamalan wrote a movie about trees killing people, and now the green movement has finally invaded Miami moviemaking. The cinephiles that founded the Borscht Film Festival are pledging to go green when they start filming their shorts this winter, which should boost their already high cool quotient. It all started when Borscht co-founder Lucas Leyva recently dropped by the set of Tony Tango, an indie Miami comedy produced by Borscht alum Jonathan David Kane. More >>

Marta Xochilt Perez

Jamie Kennedy: actor, moderator, assistant Ghost Whisperer.

​If you have any nagging doubts about Miamians' commitment to the environment, climate change, acid rain, tree hugging, and The Issues, then you should have attended Tuesday night's Lexus salon, the Darker Side of Green. The crowd was quiet, contemplative, and engaged. It was a total eye opener.

Just joking ... The whole thing was pretty much a marketing clusterfuck for Lexus' new hybrid automobile, the CT 200h. People showed up for the free Patron. And the Misshapes didn't so much DJ as look bored and play with their smartphones for an hour. Surprisingly -- or maybe not -- the debate sesh between Amanda Little and Chris Horner (and moderated by Jamie Kennedy) was the big bang of the evening.

So, if you were one of the wasted assholes who chatted and slurped shots throughout or if you didn't even make the RSVP list, check out the cut for approximately 1/3 of the night's back and forth.More >>