Wal-Mart To Implement Eco Labeling
On July 16, Wal-Mart announced that it will require all of its product suppliers to calculate the environmental impact of their products. Wal-Mart will compile the information into a green rating system to be displayed alongside the product’s price tag. Since Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer, this move will certainly set an important example…
Matt Taibbi On Goldman Sachs
If you haven’t been reading Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi on the ubiquitous government presence of the Goldman Sachs investment bank, what are you waiting for? Here’s a teaser from his long, detailed history of the company’s entanglements with a succession of administrations (if reading’s not your thing, you can watch him talk about it…
Interview: Noah Wilderman, Phish-Scene Documentarian
Filmmaker Noah Wilderman’s Maybe So, Maybe Not could be your life. Inspired by Phish’s reunion, Wilderman grabbed his camera and took his production skills into the joyfully reconvened fan community in order to document a scene on the run. Funded through donations and love, Wilderman’s project is a free-ranging, inevitably improvised film capturing a most…
How Republicans Perceive Democrats’ Health Plan
This convoluted (yet colorful!) schematic of House Democrats’ health plan by their Republican colleagues actually suggests a convincing argument for a single-payer solution. For a clearer breakdown of what House Dems are proposing, check out The Washington Post‘s summary here. via What I Learned Today
Animal Collective Snags First Official Grateful Dead Sample
Pitchfork points to a Gorilla vs. Bear post reporting a Tweet by Animal Collective’s management announcing that the Grateful Dead have cleared the group’s use of a piece of “Unbroken Chain” in a new tune, “What Would I Want Sky.” (Whew.) According to the Tweet, “Phil Lesh loved the track please pass this to the…
Interview: Ken Hays, Gathering The Vibes Since 1996
The Gathering of the Vibes has been an East Coast summer institution of Grateful Dead-centric music and hijinks since 1996, when it was founded by Ken Hays as a performance offshoot of Terrapin Tapes, his successful tapers supply source. The Vibes return to Bridgeport, Connecticut’s Seaside Park on July 23-26, with another strong lineup featuring…
Billy Bob Thornton Fights STDs – With Song!
By Josh Gelfand Frank Zappa fans might smell a rip-off, but actor/rocker Billy Bob “I like French-fried ‘taters” Thornton has written a new song about the dangers of venereal disease. Why? Because, as Thornton recently told Bill Maher, “it is something I think needs to be talked about,” adding that there just aren’t enough songs…
House Cuts Anti-Drug Media Campaign
By Jonathan Perri Surreal yet patronizing taxpayer-funded advertisements – often featuring talking dogs, deflated humans, and girlfriend-stealing aliens – aimed at stopping teen marijuana use may be a thing of the past. Last week, the House Appropriations Committee recommended reducing funding for the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign by 71%. The cut would slash funding…
MTV European Concerts To Raise Climate-Change Awareness
The New York Times reports that Moby will headling the first in a series of concerts sponsored by MTV to communicate the urgency of the climate-change crisis. The concert will take place August 20 in Stockholm to coincide with World Water Week. Part of an MTV Europe multimedia initiative called Play to Stop, the Moby…
If They Can Put A Man On The Moon…
By Eric Leventhal The date was May 25, 1961. Just ten days earlier, German biochemist J. Heinrich Matthaei first identified the genetic code triplet. (Thanks to him, I can still remember the names of all the nucleobases I had to memorize in high school.) In February, the Beatles played their first show at Liverpool’s Cavern…