Latest Articles
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Underground school lunch blogger hits ‘Good Morning America’
Still life, with spork: Mrs. Q’s snap of pre-fab “Salisbury steak,” with canned peaches and canned corn. Photo: Mrs. Q In “Chewing the Scenery,” we round up interesting food-related video from around the Web. ——- Mrs. Q is an anonymous midwestern public-school teacher who has vowed to eat the rotten dreck being served up […]
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Ask Umbra on Ronald McDonald’s retirement, card games, and a coffee stirring stir
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, After close to 50 years of hawking fatty food directly to kids, a groundswell of parents, health experts, and children’s advocates are calling on McDonald’s to retire Ronald McDonald. A new report and national poll released by Corporate Accountability International found that close to half of the […]
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My family (yours, too) needs rich social spaces–not cars–to be happy
Lisa’s fantastic essay, “Say it loud: I’m childfree and I’m proud,” had 196 comments last time I checked. If you haven’t read it, you really should. I’ll wait here. … It got me thinking. Pardon a weekend ramble. Me and my little resource hogs.I’m a father of two boys and I’ve absolutely loved it. I […]
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Friday music blogging: Rogue Wave
Rogue Wave’s 2004 debut album, Out of the Shadow, was an immediately memorable mix of bright, melodic indie pop and off-kilter, art-rock time shifts. It made you want to tap your foot, but often made it quite difficult to keep time. It was one of those albums that got better the more time you spent […]
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Easter and plastic eggs
There’s always a place for some old-fashioned hating on plastics, especially if there’s a timely hook: “If the traditional Easter egg is a symbol of resurrection, or a more paganesque generalized celebration of fertility, than what does a plastic Easter egg signify?” Andrew Leonard asks at Salon. He learns that Easter, historically a high-sales season […]
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Why climate realists and skeptics talk past each other
Courtesy Nemo’s great uncle via FlickrTruth be told, I’m more interested in people who are overcoming barriers to progress than in the endless “does global warming exist?” debates. When your house is on fire, at some point you stop arguing with someone who says there’s no fire, and you focus on getting your family out. […]
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Can we get some attention for our issues now?
Fareed Zakaria — prominent foreign policy writer, Newsweek International editor, Washington Post columnist — uses President Obama’s campaign words to suggest it’s time for the president to devote his attention to energy policy: During the 2008 campaign — before the global economic crisis — Barack Obama said the top three things he wanted to accomplish […]
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Lunchroom drama, nanotech follies, and other tasty bites
When my info-larder gets too packed, it’s time to serve up some choice nuggets from around the Web. —————- Get ’em while they’re hot. • Remember Fed Up with Lunch, my favorite stunt blog ever? In it, an anonymous teacher in the midwest does something that few adults would volunteer to do–not even ones who […]
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Debunking the “you’d be a great green parent” argument
A number of commenters on my “I’m childfree and I’m proud” post, both here and on Facebook, argued that I’m just the sort of smart, eco-groovy person who should be having kids, to ensure that there’s a new generation of thoughtful and active citizens to carry on the good fight. Thanks for the compliment! But […]
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Al Gore wants Earth Day volunteer videos
Al Gore is calling on volunteer videographers to create short videos about their favorite organization working on climate-change solutions. Three of them will appear on YouTube’s homepage on Earth Day, April 22. Then millions of YouTube viewers will have their climate awarenesses raised. For one whole day … Can’t hurt, right? “This year on Earth […]