Ocelopotamus

News, culture, and politics. Not necessarily in that order.

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Entries Tagged as 'Science'

Roundup: Forest for the Trees Edition

April 23rd, 2007 · 2 Comments · Activism, Apple, Blogs, Business, Climate Change, Comedy, Culture, Food, Health, Heroes, Labor, LGBT, Music, Nature, News, Peace, Pet Food, Politics, Science, Tech, TV

France heads for a runoff election between right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy and left-winger Ségolène Royal. The country’s future hangs in the balance, and a lot depends on where the defeated centrist candidate steers his followers. Right wing blogs are now trying to push the idea that there was a massive conspiracy to hide WMDs in Iraq. […]

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The Honey Bees in the Mine Shaft

April 23rd, 2007 · 8 Comments · Food, Nature, News, Science, Tech

For a while now I’ve been reading about the mysterious wide-scale disappearance of honey bee colonies, a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder, which has disturbing implications for a huge range of food crops. (According to Wikipedia, honey bees are responsible for pollinating about a third of all crop species in the U.S.) Now there’s […]

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Pale Blue Dot

April 22nd, 2007 · Comments Off on Pale Blue Dot · Climate Change, Culture, Poetry, Science, Video

A meditation for Earth Day from Carl Sagan.

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News Roundup: Back Alley Edition

April 19th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Business, Chicago, Culture, Guns, Health, Internet, Labor, LGBT, Music, Nature, News, Pet Food, Politics, Science, Supreme Court

Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling on abortion makes no exception for women whose health is in danger. This DKos diary, “5 out of 9 SCOTUS justices say my mom should be dead,” describes in vivid personal terms how a late-term abortion saved the life of the writer’s mother, and how this new ruling means that a […]

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Pet Food Recall Update — Natural Balance Info

April 17th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Business, Cats, Factory Farming, Food, Health, Journal, Kiwi, Mr. Blue, News, Pet Food

I’m getting a lot of Google traffic today from people who are searching for information about the recall of Natural Balance’s pet food, specifically the venison varieties. So, if you’re one of those folks, here’s a link to the Natural Balance site and here’s what it currently says: NOTICE: We are receiving consumer complaints regarding […]

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News Roundup: Indirect Role-Playing Edition

April 16th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Adobe, Business, Comics, Culture, Food, Hate Crimes, Health, LGBT, Media, Music, New Wave, News, Politics, Software

Gonzales is now helpfully explaining that he only had an “indirect” role in the firing of the U.S. attorneys. Yes, just like I had an indirect role in what happened to the passersby who got hit by those water balloons I dropped yesterday. I mean, all I did was let go! It was the water […]

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News Roundup: Dinosaur Dig Edition

April 13th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Apple, Business, Comedy, Culture, Feminism, Hate Crimes, Health, Human Rights, LGBT, Music, Nature, New Wave, News, Politics, Science, Software, TV

The White House is claiming that oops, they managed to lose a whole bunch of critically important emails, but as any decent techie knows, deleted emails aren’t really deleted. Someone better sit poor Karl Rove down and explain to him about file recovery utilities. Speaking of recovering things thought lost forever — scientists have recovered […]

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News Roundup: Fresh Prints Edition

April 9th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Activism, Advertising, Apple, Business, Climate Change, Culture, Health, HIV/AIDS, Human Rights, iTunes, Labor, LGBT, Media, Music, News, Politics, Science

Newt Gingrich calls on Abu Gonzales to resign. Trying to sound like a big, butch hunter to please the NRA, dreadfully amusing little joke of a candidate Mitt Romney says he likes to hunt rabbits and refers to them as “varmints.” Tell it to the Easter bunny, Mitt. I hope he left a gaily decorated […]

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More Adventures in Pet Food

April 5th, 2007 · 7 Comments · Business, Cats, Factory Farming, Food, Health, Kiwi, Mr. Blue, Pet Food, Politics

So, in the comments to my previous post on the pet food issue, I promised I’d provide a progress report on transitioning my little monsters over to the Newman’s Own organic cat food. And the short version is, so far, so good. (See this comment in particular for why I chose Newman’s Own over other […]

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News Roundup: Amber Waves of Tainted Grain Edition

April 4th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Activism, Blogs, Business, Climate Change, Culture, Doctor Who, Food, Foreign Policy, Health, Human Rights, LGBT, Media, News, Politics, Science, Science Fiction, Supreme Court, TV

Bush thinks he has the right to “attach conditions” to the Supreme Court’s ruling on greenhouse gases. Bush also said China and India must get on board the international effort to combat global warming. “Unless there is an accord with China,” he said, “China will produce greenhouse gases that will offset anything we do in […]

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News Roundup: Supreme Court, Python,
and Gromit Edition

April 2nd, 2007 · 1 Comment · Advertising, Apple, Blogs, Business, Climate Change, Comedy, Culture, Film, Fringe, Health, Human Rights, iTunes, LGBT, Media, Music, Nature, Neo-Futurists, News, Politics, Supreme Court, Torture, Travel, TV

The Supreme Court rules that the EPA has the authority — and the responsibility — to regulate greenhouse gases. Carl Pope of The Sierra Club says: “Today’s ruling is a watershed moment in the fight against global warming … The ruling is a total rejection of the Bush administration’s refusal to use its existing authority […]

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Raising Issues with Tissues: Greenpeace Infiltrates Kleenex Ad Campaign!

April 2nd, 2007 · Comments Off on Raising Issues with Tissues: Greenpeace Infiltrates Kleenex Ad Campaign! · Activism, Advertising, Business, Climate Change, Media, Nature, Politics, Video

One more post in honor of April Fool’s day — here’s Greenpeace pulling a pretty good activist prank. Kimberly-Clark, the makers of Kleenex, are responsible for clear-cutting irreplaceable old-growth forests in order to make their tissues. Meanwhile, there’s this Kleenex ad campaign where people are asked to sit on a blue sofa, artistically placed on […]

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News Roundup: “An Exceptionally Heavy
Spaghetti Crop”

March 31st, 2007 · 3 Comments · Activism, Apple, Business, Climate Change, Comedy, Culture, Factory Farming, Feminism, Film, Food, Health, HIV/AIDS, iTunes, LGBT, Media, Music, News, Politics, Science, Tech, TV, Video

Here’s a little smorgasbord of items I wanted to blog this past week, and didn’t get the chance to. Because unlike spaghetti, time to blog doesn’t grow on trees! John Nichols of The Nation asks whether we’re nearing an “Impeachment Moment,” noting that the I-word is finally being discussed — if not exactly embraced — […]

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The Roosters of the Peace

March 30th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Culture, Nature, Peace, Video

And now for something completely different: Two chickens break up a fight between two rabbits. And we’ve got the video. You go, peace roosters! What would El-ahrairah do?

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