Ocelopotamus

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

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Entries from July 31st, 2007

Good Morning, Day 14

July 31st, 2007 · Comments Off on Good Morning, Day 14 · Activism, Culture, Essays, HCC-DDT, Health, Healthcare Crisis, Human Rights, Media, News, Politics, The Economy, Stupid

So I’ve been slammed with work for the last week or so, and I haven’t had a chance to update this count in a full seven days. During that time, about 350 more Americans have died because they couldn’t afford health care. That brings the total count to approximately 700 people who have died just […]

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Golden Compass Trailer

July 31st, 2007 · 6 Comments · Books, Culture, Fantasy, Film, Lit, News, Video

Finally! An “extended preview” trailer for The Golden Compass. Been waiting for-EV-er for a look at this.   Hard to tell too much for sure, but it does seem like they’ve gotten the look of it right. And it seems like maybe it’s going to be fairly faithful to the book — fingers crossed anyway. […]

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A Magical MASH-Up

July 27th, 2007 · 4 Comments · Blogs, Books, Comedy, Culture, Fantasy, Fiction, TV

Jim over at empty-handed.com finally figured out who this Harry Potter person everyone keeps talking about is. And he has provided no less than five new books chronicling the adventures of this popular character. The results are pure wizardry! With, um, surgical precision. And lucky you, I’ve giving you links to the whole five-book series. […]

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Lemon Battery

July 26th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Culture, Science, Video

Arrggh … so busy with work. But while I’m busy not blogging, you could always go make a bat-tree out of a lemon. (Note — you’re going to need four lemons to fire up that little LED light, so stock up!)   If life gives you lemons, hook your calculator up to them! My favorite […]

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John Edwards on Universal Health Care

July 25th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Culture, Health, Healthcare Crisis, Politics, Video

Here’s a good example of why I like this guy so much. He gets it. And he lets you know that he gets it. This is Edwards speaking at the Gnomedex Tech conference in 2006:   … and from Monday night’s debate:   Via this most excellent diary at Daily Kos.

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Music: Catching Up to Yoko

July 24th, 2007 · 9 Comments · Chicago, Culture, Feminism, Human Rights, Journal, LGBT, Media, Music, New Wave, News, TV, Video

Something I’ve been meaning to post for a couple of weeks now … I’ve long thought that Monica Kendrick is the best music writer at the Reader and the spot-on writeup she turned in just before Yoko Ono’s appearance at the recent Pitchfork Music Festival only reinforces that notion: 9:00 Yoko Ono For decades her […]

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Good Morning, Day 7

July 24th, 2007 · Comments Off on Good Morning, Day 7 · Activism, HCC-DDT, Health, Healthcare Crisis, Human Rights, Journalism, Media, News, Politics, The Economy, Stupid

About 50 Americans have died since yesterday because they couldn’t afford health care. That brings the total to 350 people who have died thanks to our profit-focused health care system just since I started keeping this count, six days ago. If 350 US citizens had died in a plane crash this week, we’d be hearing […]

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Roundup: Picketing Flamingo Edition

July 23rd, 2007 · Comments Off on Roundup: Picketing Flamingo Edition · Apple, Blogs, Chicago, Climate Change, Comics, Culture, Design, Essays, Foreign Policy, Health, HIV/AIDS, Illinois, LGBT, Music, Nature, New Wave, News, Politics, Roundup, Science, Tech, Travel

“Iraq hasn’t even begun”: Writing in the LA Times, Timothy Garton Ash, a professor of European studies at Oxford University, examines the long-term consequences of the debacle in Iraq, and concludes, “Looking back over a quarter of a century of chronicling current affairs, I cannot recall a more comprehensive and avoidable man-made disaster.” Digby on […]

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Good Morning, Day 6

July 23rd, 2007 · 1 Comment · Activism, Film, HCC-DDT, Health, Healthcare Crisis, Human Rights, News, Politics, The Economy, Stupid

About 300 Americans have died because they couldn’t afford health care since I started this count five days ago. About 50 more will die today. Since this is turning into a kind of daily witness, I suppose I should document my source for the statistic this is based on. Michael Moore says in Sicko, and […]

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Fresh Toni Basil Salad

July 22nd, 2007 · 2 Comments · Blogs, Culture, Music, New Wave

Funny, Rubber Nun and I were just talking about Toni Basil. Now John at Lost in the 80s has “The Ultimate Toni Basil Post.” Is he spying on us?  

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Good Morning, Day 5

July 22nd, 2007 · Comments Off on Good Morning, Day 5 · Activism, HCC-DDT, Healthcare Crisis, Human Rights, News, Politics, The Economy, Stupid

Since I last updated this count, on Friday, about 100 more people have died in the United States because they couldn’t afford health care. That makes about 250 Americans who were allowed to die because they couldn’t pay for treatment, just since I started this count four days ago. About 50 more will die today.

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Video Roundup: Colbert, Stewart, and Olbermann

July 20th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Comedy, Culture, Healthcare Crisis, LGBT, Media, News, Politics, TV, Video

First up, Stephen interviews Michael Moore … all the way from Brazil!  Next, Jon Stewart’s take on anti-gay Surgeon General nominee James Holsinger, in which he manages to reveal some surprising truths inherent in plumbing fixtures. (I previously posted Colbert’s take on Holsinger’s fixture fixation, but Stewart gets some good mileage out of it, too.)  […]

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Moore vs. Gupta: The Wrap-Up

July 20th, 2007 · Comments Off on Moore vs. Gupta: The Wrap-Up · Culture, Film, Health, Healthcare Crisis, Media, News, Politics, TV, Video

I didn’t get a chance to weigh in on the whole Moore vs. Gupta dustup while it was happening (much to the relief of the scale!), but here’s a little post-mortem wrap-up. First off, some links in case you missed any or all of it (all video links except the second one): Round One: Michael […]

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Good Morning, Day 3

July 20th, 2007 · Comments Off on Good Morning, Day 3 · Activism, HCC-DDT, Healthcare Crisis, News, Politics, The Economy, Stupid

Since I started this count two days ago, about 150 people have died here in the US because they couldn’t afford health care. That’s enough people to fill, what, three or four CTA buses? About 50 more will die today.

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