Paste Magazine brings together musicians of all backgrounds for the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. “Songs for Haiti” features the music of Ludacris, Hansen, Of Montreal, Andrew Bird, Low Anthem and more. Given the over 200 musicians on the compilation, it’s more than likely that donors will find some music to their liking. All donations made to Paste will be divided equally →

Photo courtesy of Library of Congress

The U.S. and China are  set to engage in talks about climate pledges in Copenhagen. Both nations are currently the world’s highest emitters of greenhouse gases and have the potential to spur on other nations to follow suit in mitigating global warming. Thus far, the two nations have not made significant strides in working toward that effort. Recent talks have amounted to a lot of bluffing, posturing and feet-dragging, with China taking a slightly greater lead in taking on responsibility for the environment. Alex Pasternack at TreeHugger has a report on the current talks among policy experts and politicians. The central question that needs to be addressed is how and to what extent can developing and developed nations be held accountable? →

Touring the country with no money or friends is difficult if not entirely impossible. Sleeping four or five in a single van or pitching a tent under a freeway underpass are options available to only the most desperate of situations. Sure, you may be living out a dream, you may be breaking even, but wouldn’t it be nice to be able to sleep under more hospitable circumstances at recession-proof costs? →

In the middle of the night while most Californians were sound asleep, the state legislature passed a package of bills and a bond that rewards bad actors instead of solving the water needs of real people and the environment. The corner piece of the new deal is an $11.1 Billion taxpayer-funded scheme that will appear on the November 2010 ballot. We are extremely disappointed that the Legislature passed up an →

Half a century ago, vegetables and fruit may have looked less appetizing in size and color, but they contained a lot more nutrients than they do today. According to Mother Jones, watermelons pack 21% less iron and 42% less vitamin A than they did in the past. Broccoli, carrots and red tomatoes reflect similar reductions in nutritional value. The report suspects that hybrid crops bred for size and color are the likely reason for the decrease. →

Demand Health Care Reform Now!
Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration Bldg. - Los Angeles, CA
9/4/09
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Join one of the many health care rallies across the country and send Congress back to Washington, D.C. with the message of reform ringing in their ears. Young people — who have the most to gain from the success of reform and the most to lose from failure — are standing up and being seen in support of fixing a system that has left us uninsured, discriminated against, and broke.  →

Considering the limited resources of energy in today’s society and rising prices of practically everything and anything, it’s no wonder why researchers are looking for more creative ways to extract energy from alternative resources. The newest proposal for an energy source is from the least expected natural resource out there, watermelons. Yes, that juicy, delicious fruit that we all love to enjoy on a hot, summer day. Let’s consider why watermelons would be a qualified candidate. →

Al Gore Talk and Book Signing
Beverly Hills, CA
11/12/09
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Book Soup presents guest speaker Vice President Al Gore, co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his environmental work. He will be speaking at The Saban Theater at 7:30 P.M. about the real solutions to global issues which we’ve all heard enough about in the past couple years. His most recent book, Our Choice follows up after An Unconvenient Truth, the New York Times bestseller, and expands on his solutions to the global climate crisis which he draws from his 40 years of experience as a student, policymaker, author, filmmaker, entrepreneur and activist. →

Photo courtesy of Apple, licensed under Creative Commons

Recently, BusinessWeek posted a Harvard Business article discussing the cost of producing iPods with fair labor practices.  The study found that it would cost approximately 23% more to produce a fair-labor iPod, which equates to approximately $58 more for an iPod classic.  It begs the question, would we be willing to pay a premium for America’s most-pervasive personal electronic device?  Shoot, I hate paying a premium for anything, and I’m still rocking an iPod from 2005 with a monochrome screen.  How about you?

A new series of personal essays about job loss, mental health, and the undying pursuit of art.

When we drove out of the mountains that morning it was hot, the sun climbing higher in the sky, heating up the plants and the air around us and the metal of our car as it barreled down a neck of Lincoln Highway woven like thread through the Pennsylvania Laurel Highlands. →