We've discussed the relationship between extreme weather and climate change caused by carbon pollution from dirty energy sources. What we have now is something different from anything we've known in the past. We call it Dirty Weather. It's here to stay, and it could get a lot worse.

This is a great video based on an op-ed by Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org, narrated and illustrated by Stephen Thomson.

By Jeff Oeth

The Koch brothers don't want you to know who they are. They'd rather hide behind various names and fronts as they fund some of the world's most misleading and dangerous agendas.

What can you do about it? For starters, you can boycott Koch Industries products.

(via elephant journal)

I’m so tired of questionable business practices being passed off as corporate benevolence. Despite my local perspective, I’ll bet this is a universal issue.

Last week, our seven-year-old daughter came home from school with a bright green nylon bag that had drawstrings for shoulder straps and the Geico gecko screen printed in blue on the front. She’d attended her class’s annual end-of-school picnic at a nearby park where the children enjoy a few hours away from school amidst nature. And yet somehow, someone was there giving away these green bags. Inside of the bag were other Geico branded goodies like a sports cup and even a hand fan with a caveman’s face on it. There were other brands represented at the picnic as well. The local pet superstore got into the act by giving away a poop bag holder that clips onto your belt. There was even a coupon for a free appetizer at a franchise restaurant we never visit.

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We had the pleasure of being part of Creating Healthy Change, an eye-opening discussion on the current food system, how it's affecting our health, and what we can do about it. Alex Bogusky moderated an expert panel including Robyn O'Brien of AllergyKids.com, Chef Ann Cooper of TheLunchBox.org and Kim O'Donnel, author of The Meat Lover's Meatless Cookbook.

Groupon filed for an IPO. They have 83 million couponers in their club. They've grown their revenue 20,000% since June of 2009. These are gaudy numbers. And Groupon CEO Andrew Mason has outlined several characteristics that he says define the company and should justify investor confidence in an increasingly competitive space. This via Huff Po:

"We don't measure ourselves in conventional ways"..."we are unusual and we like it that way"..."we are always reinventing ourselves"..."we aggressively invest in growth."

So Groupon has big numbers, says edgy things about themselves, has a super-slick tech interface, and writes funny-as-hell copy. Man, that copy is Onion-like funny sometimes. The net-net: Groupon has produced diamonds while the global economy has become so many lumps of coal. But what about the companies they prospect for and the investors they court?

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Editor's note: The following is an homage to Gil Scott-Heron, a poet, musician and author who passed away on May 27, 2011.

Gil Scott-Heron will not be televised.
You will not be able to stay home, brother, sister, step sister, step mother, step brother, adopted sister, family friend who lives in the third bedroom, cousins who are staying for "just a while".
You will not be able to jack in, boot up and opt out
You will not be able to loose yourself in Facebook and Youtube,
Order pizza from within Halo
Because Gil Scott-Heron will not be televised.

Gil Scott-Heron will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Microsoft using Social Media even though they now own Skype
The revolution will not show you pictures of Syria, Iran, nor Yemen
eating their own people as they confiscate their lives beyond the cell phone cameras.
Because Gil Scott-Heron will not be televised.

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Daily Deals fever is upon us. Everywhere I look, I'm inundated with ads, articles, tweets and predictions about Groupon, Google Offers, Living Social and the countless other copycats that seem to spring up almost daily.  But for all the media buzz and conversation, it seems like we're missing the deeper implications of this phenomenon, implications that hold enormous potential and opportunity for business in the 21st century.

The real potential of the Daily Deals craze has nothing to do with deep discounts. It has to do with harnessing the power of group behavior across the social web, specifically with inspiring large groups of people to act in unison for the sake of a common purpose. So far, that purpose has mostly centered around saving lots of money, but if you imagine, for a moment, the incredible possibilities inherent in these social platforms, you'll see that we have a tremendous opportunity to do so much more.

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When U.S. regulators approved Monsanto’s genetically modified “Bt” corn, they knew it would add a deadly poison into our food supply. That’s what it was designed to do. The corn’s DNA is equipped with a gene from soil bacteria called Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) that produces the Bt-toxin. It’s a pesticide; it breaks open the stomach of certain insects and kills them.

But Monsanto and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) swore up and down that it was only insects that would be hurt. The Bt-toxin, they claimed, would be completely destroyed in the human digestive system and not have any impact on all of us trusting corn-eating consumers.

Oops. A study just proved them wrong.

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I’m troubled by an apparent split over children’s screen time between the guardians of children’s health and the guardians of their education. The public health community, from the American Academy of Pediatrics to the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity, is intensifying efforts to set limits on the amount of time young children spend with screen technology—-one to two hours per day for older children and no screen time for babies and toddlers.  

Meanwhile, the National Association for the Education of Young Children—-the nation’s premier professional organization for early childhood educators—-recently released a draft of its statement on children and technology which advocates incorporating screens into all early childhood programs and pointedly does not advocate for limits on screen time.  As it stands, NAEYC’s position on children and technology actually undermines the growing public health movement to reduce children’s screen time.

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The food pyramid, that old standby of confusion and misinformation, is going the way of the dinosaur. To be replaced by a plate.

As authors of The Nine-Inch "Diet" we could not agree more with this move. But we're all getting plump eating off such the current crop of huge dinnerware. So we would just like to suggest to the Obama administration that it be not just any plate, but a nine-inch plate.

They probably won't listen to us so let's have some fun designing the new nutritional-information plate. You know whatever we do will be better than what comes out of the USDA. We'll post them all here. The smart ones. The hilarious ones. The off-color ones. Just submit your designs to hello@fearlesscottage.com. Deadline for silliness is July 1st.