Roundup: Fried Ice Edition
- Profile of Newtok, Alaska: One of the first victims of climate change, a town gradually sinking into the mud. As the hardest hit of the 180 Alaskan villages suffering from erosion, “studies say Newtok could be washed away within a decade.”
- Iceberg of Yuck: The Consumerist says, “Poison toothpaste, killer cough-syrup, and tainted pet food are the tip of the disgusting iceberg of yuck heading our way from China. Over the past four months, the FDA has rejected 298 shipments from China that included ‘filthy’ fruits, cancer-causing shrimp, and ‘poisonous’ swordfish.” There’s more, lots more. I think a lot of us are just starting to wake up to how much of the US food supply comes from China, and just how big of a problem that is, given the lax attitudes of Chinese suppliers toward food safety and health, not to mention environmental issues and labor practices.
- Meanwhile, on the brighter side: In the wake of the recent food scares, new impetus to build an organic market within China.
- Future theft: Journalist Greg Palast reveals how 4.5 million votes in the 2008 election may have already been stolen.
- Employers in New Jersey are refusing to provide benefits to couples in civil unions. “Nearly one in eight couples who have had civil unions have been turned down for company benefits [Garden State Equality’s Steven] Goldstein said. Among the cases that have come to Garden State Equality, said Goldstein is one involving a woman who told her employer she and her partner had a civil union and was told by the company, ‘We’re not going to provide benefits. We still need the word ‘marriage’ and you two aren’t married.’ … Goldstein adds, “For those who ask, ‘So long as same-sex couples get the rights, who cares what it’s called?’ the New Jersey experience has answered the question once and for all.”
- Military regime cracks down on bloggers in Fiji. New Zealand bloggers (including OcPot’s friends at NZBC) come to their rescue.
- Borat book on the way: Sacha Baron Cohen has inked a book deal for a Borat travel guide. Half of it will be a guide to the US for Kazakhs, titled Borat: Touristic Guidings To Minor Nation of U.S. and A, and the other half will be a guide to Kazakhstan called Borat: Touristic Guidings To Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
- Store-bought punching bag turns out to be filled with dirty, used underwear.
- Stewart Copeland says the band thrives on creative tension as The Police reunion tour gets off the ground. They fight a lot, but they’re all buddies, and Sting is compared to a large gorilla who is not stingy with the bananas. Also, there is apparently hugging and kissing.
- The Idiot’s Guide to Squeeze is a great overview of the band’s music and history. Lots of great links there.
- I’m not imagining this nice review of Tim Finn’s Imaginary Kingdom album.
- New Sinead O’Connor album to be released next month. Titled Theology, the double CD adapts psalms from the Old Testament into songs, with one side devoted to acoustic arrangements and the other to electric.
- Paul Newman announces his retirement from the movies. “‘I’m not able to work anymore as an actor at the level I would want to,’ Newman, who won the Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer in 1957, told GMA. ‘You start to lose your memory, your confidence, your invention. So that’s pretty much a closed book for me … I’ve been doing it for 50 years. That’s enough.'” Among other things, Newman will be focusing on the new organic restaurant he’s opened in Connecticut, called The Dressing Room.
- Comics: Tom Toles on China’s Olympic medal. Tom Tomorrow on the Republicans’ dream candidate: a guy in a Reagan mask! And as always, Bob Geiger has the Saturday cartoon roundup.
Tags:
No Comments so far ↓
Like gas stations in rural Texas after 10 pm, comments are closed.