Month: November 2023

Enlarge (credit: Lew Robertson via Getty Images)

In 1976, beloved chef, cookbook author, and television personality Julia Child returned to WGBH-TV’s studios in Boston for a new cooking show, Julia Child & Company, following her hit series The French Chef. Viewers probably didn’t know that Child’s new and improved kitchen studio, outfitted with gas stoves, was paid for by the American Gas Association.

While this may seem like any corporate sponsorship, we now know it was a part of a calculated campaign by gas industry executives to increase the use of gas stoves across the United States. And stoves weren’t the only objective. The gas industry wanted to grow its residential market, and homes that used gas for cooking were likely also to use it for heat and hot water.

The industry’s efforts went well beyond careful product placement, according to new research from the nonprofit Climate Investigations Center, which analyzes corporate efforts to undermine climate science and slow the ongoing transition away from fossil fuels. As the center’s study and a National Public Radio investigation show, when evidence emerged in the early 1970s about the health effects of indoor nitrogen dioxide exposure from gas stove use, the American Gas Association launched a campaign designed to manufacture doubt about the existing science.

Enlarge / The Apex, SWFT's take on a very affordable e-mountain bike. (credit: John Timmer)

The subject of this review, SWFT's new Apex mountain bike, pulls together threads from two bikes we've looked at previously. One of those threads came courtesy of SWFT, which introduced itself to the world with the Volt, an exercise in trying to get e-bike prices down to the point where they weren't competing with a decent used car. While the Volt wasn't a great bike, it was perfectly functional and offered a decent ride at a sub-$1,000 price. Now, SWFT is trying to work that same magic with a mountain bike.

The second thread came courtesy of the Specialized e-mountain bike we looked at earlier this year. In that review, I suggested that if you wanted to drop less than three or four thousand dollars on even a non-electrified mountain bike, you would sacrifice quality and features.

The Apex raises the stakes of that sacrifice by keeping dual suspensions, throwing in an electric assist, and targeting the price below $2,200. The sacrifices involved are pretty noticeable and are made worse by a couple of questionable design decisions. While the bike can be fun to point at a trail, it doesn't work especially well as a mountain bike, though a lot of its issues would be easy to correct if SWFT decided to come out with a 2.0 version.