http://www.catbird.org/blog cat's world. Sat, 04 Oct 2008 01:11:36 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The Washington Post writes: With the Chinese milk products-melamine scandal generating fresh headlines, U.S. health officials on Friday unveiled what they consider acceptable levels of contamination with the industrial chemical. The bottom line: No amount of melamine is safe in infant formula. For all other foods, only amounts less than 2.5 parts per ... http://www.catbird.org/blog/archives/2008/10/03/can-we-trust-our-food/ 1. She doesn't have any national experience and less than two years experience as governor of Alaska 2. She's pro-life. Fine in an individual, not in the VP 3. She's against same-sex marriage 4. She supports natural-gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 5. She said, "[polar bears] are worthy of our utmost ... http://www.catbird.org/blog/archives/2008/08/29/5-reasons-i-dont-support-vp-candidate-sarah-palin/ On Wednesday, the New Jersey Court ruled that factory farming practices cannot be considered humane just because they are widely used. This decision, reached unanimously, sets a legal precedent to end abuses of livestock on factory farms across the U.S. and comes as several other states are making similar rulings. http://www.catbird.org/blog/archives/2008/08/01/new-jersey-court-rules-factory-farm-practices-not-humane/ Yesterday I sat on the grassy hump in front of my mother's gravestone and dug out five shallow holes in the fertile earth in which to set five small flower pots. Nestling the pots in protects them from the wind and gives the roots access to moist dirt when I ... http://www.catbird.org/blog/archives/2008/07/25/five-shallow-holes/ This TIME article about Club4Climate implementing a piezoelectricity dance floor to generate electricity reminded me of my post about using power generating equipment on playgrounds. Coincidentally, just before I read it, I was talking to a friend about how great it would be if kids could generate power, not just ... http://www.catbird.org/blog/archives/2008/07/16/power-dancing-and-power-playing/ Sometimes I can't even believe what I'm reading is actually real. "For the first time, the new rule allows the government to publicly release the names of the stores that have sold recalled meat and poultry posing the most severe risks to peoples' health." Note that it's a "rule" not a law. "..the ... http://www.catbird.org/blog/archives/2008/07/11/usda-to-tell-shoppers-which-stores-sell-recalled-meat/ Just one day after reading that scientist James Hansen believes Earth is near the climate change tipping point, I read this interview with Michael Pollan in which he discusses farming, environmentalism, and ways to combat the current food and energy crises. Pollan talks about the connections between, well, everything: what we ... http://www.catbird.org/blog/archives/2008/06/26/michael-pollan-on-solar-based-agriculture-among-other-things/ U.S. law allows food manufacturers to label a food as something that it only vaguely resembles. For example, what is yogurt? Yogurt is, according to Merriam Webster, is "a fermented slightly acid often flavored semisolid food made of milk and milk solids to which cultures of two bacteria (Lactobacillus bulgaricus and ... http://www.catbird.org/blog/archives/2008/06/24/what-is-yogurt/ Steve's Born replacement shoes have cracked a sole. Are these shoes designed to only last 6 months? Ridiculous. I won't even bother contacting the company this time. But really, we are done with Born. http://www.catbird.org/blog/archives/2008/06/18/born-again/ President Bush wants to allow offshore oil drilling in previously protected lands off the U.S. Coast. Doing so could yield 18 billion barrels of oil. "That would meet current U.S. consumption for about 2-1/2 years, but it would likely take a decade or more to find the oil and ... http://www.catbird.org/blog/archives/2008/06/18/and-in-energy-news/