Latest Articles
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Flava Flav opens fried chicken chain, threatens the Colonel
Look out, KFC: Flav's Fried Chicken is coming! Flava Flav just opened his first fried chicken joint in Iowa, vowing to come by and work the fryer.
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Silly Season 2.0
To those with more than a casual interest in politics, “Silly Season” is a common term used to indicate the time running up to an election when the logic of Capitol Hill, such as it is, gets crazier than usual. Votes are scheduled or canceled depending on how much they would help or hurt the […]
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Rock stars, lesbians, and probably some Icelandic elves team up for geothermal power
Two rules for industry in Iceland: Don't piss off the elves, and do NOT mess with Bjork. She is the Hugo Chavez of Iceland's geothermal power.
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Listen up, hipsters: Your next home will arrive on a truck
When we last checked in with prefab housing, it was reeling from the market crash, and green modular homes were turning into yet another thing you could only have if you were rich. But the modular revolution is back on track, with a rise in popularity for eco-friendly prefab houses.
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Yo quiero lots of weird and unpronounceable ingredients
Now that we know that Taco Bell's "seasoned beef" is mostly made up of extenders and "flavor enhancers," I got to wondering what other weird things lace the fast food giant's delicacies. Attention, truth-in-advertising lawyers: we've got a strawberry-free "Strawberry Frutista"!
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Obama's energy gambit: a call for less coal
None of the targets Obama offered in his State of the Union -- 80 percent clean energy, 80 percent access to high-speed rail, a million electric cars -- have any policy force. They are offered as signaling devices, attempts to frame political debates to come. In that context, I thought what he did on energy was quite a bit more interesting and significant than it's being given credit for.
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Obama calls for clean energy and high-speed rail in State of the Union
In his State of the Union, Obama called for 80% of electricity to come from clean sources by 2035, and 80% of Americans to have access to high-speed rail within 25 years.
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What's behind Newt Gingrich's proposal to abolish the EPA?
Everyone on the internets is busy mocking Newt Gingrich's call to abolish the EPA. And that is as it should be -- I would never ask anyone to stop mocking Newt Gingrich. Rarely has the universe mixed pomposity and dimwittery into such an exquisitely mockworthy package. I do want to note, however, that what Gingrich is trying to pull off is not just old-fashioned Republican-style "leave corporate polluters alooooone!" Don't get me wrong: Newt wants to remove constraints on polluters! But he knows (unlike his buddies in Congress) that such a baldly retrograde position will not be popular with the public, which actually likes clean air. So he needs some kind of alternative. That's why he's proposing to replace the EPA with something called the Environmental Solutions Agency.
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Is Taco Bell's beef 'filler' the healthiest thing it sells?
As Grist's Tom Laskawy reported earlier today, an Alabama law firm is suing Taco Bell in order to force the company to stop labeling the contents of its Crunchy Tacos as "beef." The firm says their own tests revealed the tacos are only 35 percent beef -- the rest is filler! Not surprisingly, Taco Bell has called the firm a pack of lying liars, sort of. Here's the official response.
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EPA: A human life is worth $7.9 million
Putting a dollar value on people is how the EPA figures out whether reducing pollution is a good idea. And the EPA thinks you're worth $7.9 million.
