White light, green heat: LEDS aren’t just for clock radios any more. In fact, LED lightbulbs may turn out to be the bulb of the future instead of compact fluorescents. Thanks to a breakthrough in the 90s, modern LEDs can emit white light instead of just red or green. They last up to five times […]
Entries Tagged as 'Politics'
Roundup: Carrot Whittling Edition
May 15th, 2007 · 4 Comments · Blogs, Culture, Education, Energy, Film, Food, LGBT, Music, New Wave, News, Politics, Science, Science Fiction, Tech
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Roundup: The Bitch Is Back Edition
May 11th, 2007 · Comments Off on Roundup: The Bitch Is Back Edition · Apple, Comedy, Comics, Culture, Doctor Who, Health, Healthcare Crisis, Human Rights, LGBT, Media, Music, New Wave, News, Peace, Pet Food, Politics, Science Fiction, Tech, Torture, TV
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The Colbert Report on Intolerance Toward Intolerance
May 10th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Comedy, Culture, Hate Crimes, Politics, TV, Video
Stephen Colbert explains why we all need to be more sensitive to the feelings of bigots. (After all, if you prick a homophobic prick, does he not bleed?)
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Converting the Local Sealife to Slurry
May 10th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Chicago, Energy, Nature, Science
Aaron administers a much-deserved rhetorical thrashing to Mr. Burns’ real-life analog at a certain local power company, who thinks lethally scalding the local fish (and other aquatic life) by expelling 100-degree water into the Chicago and Lower Des Plaines rivers is the most efficient way to cool the companies’ coal-fired power plants. This process, called […]
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Roundup: Kansas Twister Edition
May 9th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Comedy, Culture, Doctor Who, Education, Food, Health, HIV/AIDS, Journalism, LGBT, Media, Music, New Wave, News, Politics, Science Fiction, TV, Video
Kansas governor says it’s been harder to deal with the recent tornado disaster because the war in Iraq has put such a drain on the state’s National Guard. Both personnel and equipment that should have been available to the state are currently tied up in Iraq. “Here in Kansas, about 50 percent of our trucks […]
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Music: Amnesty International’s Instant Karma — The Campaign to Save Darfur
May 9th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Activism, Culture, Human Rights, iTunes, Music, New Wave, News
Green Day’s cover version of “Working Class Hero” by John Lennon was released May 1 as the third single from Instant Karma: the Campaign to Save Darfur, Amnesty International’s album of Lennon covers by various artists to raise awareness about the human rights catastrophe in the Sudan. All proceeds from the album will go to […]
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In His House at R’lyeh the Ronald Waits Dreaming
May 8th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Culture, History, LGBT, Lit, News, Politics, Theater
Apparently the Republican candidates spent their recent debate going on and on about how great Ronald Reagan was and blah blah “Morning in America” blah blah Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn! blah. Oh, Republican candidates. You silly creatures. You really should know better than that. Because now I’m going to have to open a […]
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EuroTrib on the Sarkozy Victory in France
May 7th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Blogs, Culture, Media, News, Politics
I was looking for some progressive European perspective on the victory of right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy in France’s presidential election yesterday, so I went over to the European Tribune (that’s the European sibling blog of The Booman Tribune, for those not familiar with it). Jerome a Paris, whom I know mainly from his excellent environmental diaries […]
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The Actor’s Side of the Gay Heroes Controversy
May 7th, 2007 · Comments Off on The Actor’s Side of the Gay Heroes Controversy · Culture, Heroes, LGBT, Politics, Science Fiction, TV
Still catching up on stuff I meant to post last week. As a follow-up to my previous post about the gay-character-on-Heroes controversy, Thomas Dekker, the actor who played Zach, has now told his side of the story in a posting to his MySpace site (warning: incoherent, monitor-shredding layout. In other words, it’s a MySpace page.) […]
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Roundup: Sunday Potluck Edition
May 6th, 2007 · 9 Comments · Activism, Blogs, Comics, Culture, Education, Film, Foreign Policy, Hate Crimes, Health, LGBT, Lit, Music, News, Peace, Pet Food, Pets, Poetry, Politics, Tea
Sunday was always potluck day where I grew up, so I hereby present to you this glorious covered casserole of links I didn’t get around to posting this week. With a few fresh ones stirred in, just to keep you guessing. Retired general compares Bush to a deserter: “By vetoing this bill and failing to […]
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“Very Bad HIV Legislation in Illinois”
May 6th, 2007 · Comments Off on “Very Bad HIV Legislation in Illinois” · Activism, Chicago, Health, HIV/AIDS, LGBT, Music, Politics
I got an email this week from my friend Justin Hayford, who works at the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago when he’s not moonlighting as a cabaret crooner. Justin had a lot to say about a couple of pending bills in the Illinois House of Representatives. I could spend a bunch of time trying to […]
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Indiana Teacher Punished for Teaching Tolerance
May 1st, 2007 · 5 Comments · Culture, Education, Journalism, LGBT, Media, News, Politics
Andy Towle is right. This is absolutely sickening. The short version of the story: An Indiana journalism teacher is being punished for allowing a high school sophomore to publish an essay in the school paper that essentially said gay people deserve to be treated like human beings. Here’s a quote from the student’s essay: “I […]
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Roundup: Giant Hourglass Edition
April 30th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Activism, Apple, Blogs, Books, Culture, Education, Fantasy, Foreign Policy, Health, Human Rights, Lit, Media, News, Politics, Science, Science Fiction, Tech, TV
As part of an international day of protest over the genocide in Darfur, campaigners in London displayed a giant hourglass filled with “blood” to symbolize time running out. The image at right is from a video featuring Hugh Grant tied to the campaign. More than 200,000 have died, with 2 million displaced and 4 million […]
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The All-You-Can-Eat Crow Pie Buffet
April 30th, 2007 · Comments Off on The All-You-Can-Eat Crow Pie Buffet · Comics, Culture, Foreign Policy, Media, News, Peace, Politics
Tom Tomorrow had a great “special edition” cartoon up on the Huffington Post last week, revisiting some of the things that pro-war pundits had to say at the start of the war. Here’s a small excerpt from the cartoon. That’s just the first four of 12 panels — click on the cartoon excerpt to go […]
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