Last Saturday, in a packed Allianz Arena in Munich, Chelsea striker Didier Drogba stepped to the penalty spot with the chance to win the most prestigious trophy in world club soccer, to end the UEFA Champions League final with one 12-yard kick. The 34-year-old striker had done more than any other player to bring the Blues to the brink, scoring a driving header off a corner in the 88th minute to draw level with Bayern Munich at 1--1. As the scene unfolded, I thought back to another moment, one I spent with Drogba two years earlier inside a dusty compound, surrounded by soldiers wielding AK-47s, in the tense Angolan enclave of Cabinda. Drogba was there to play in the Africa Cup of Nations for his ... Continue reading →

Photo by Alexander Stein Because nothing says potato skins and buffalo wings like mid-2000s dance-punk: LCD Soundsystem seem to have been ripped off in a commercial advertisement for T.G.I. Friday's, the American chain restaurant. The clip, below, features a song that sounds suspiciously similar to the music from "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House", the opening track from LCD's 2005 self-titled debut. (Thanks to reader Michael Campitelli for the tip.) Just last week, a British car commercial surfaced with song that sounded startlingly similar to Beach House's "Take Care". The band responded and noted that an ad agency spent weeks trying to license the song, which they declined. Check out the commercial below, as well as the track's music video. T.G.I. Friday's "2 for ... Continue reading →

Ohio's top environmental official is warring with a coalition of state and local air regulators, and he's trying to lure away other state officials unhappy with the national group's outspoken support of new federal emission rules. Ohio EPA Director Scott Nally says the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, or NACAA, is devoting too much energy to lobbying Congress and the Obama administration and not enough to fulfilling what he considers the group's core mission: providing state and local authorities the technical information they need to implement the Clean Air Act. Nally, who was appointed last year by Republican Gov. John Kasich, is asking state officials to commit by the first week of June to creating an alternative organization to the 30-year-old NACAA, which has ... Continue reading →

MANITOWOC — On its maiden crossing of the 2012 season Thursday, the S.S. Badger has apparently become stuck on the floor of the Manitowoc Harbor near the Best Western Hotel and can't get into port.A public address announcement at 1:35 p.m. from the Badger's ticket office indicated that there would be, at least, a two-hour delay before passengers and vehicles would be able to disembark.With a scheduled noon arrival from Ludington, Mich., the Badger was already late into port by about 40 minutes.Deputy Fire Chief Gregg Kadow indicated that Lake Michigan Carferry officials were seeking to have a tugboat come down Lake Michigan from Sturgeon Bay and attempt to free the Badger.Filed by the Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter Continue reading →

While watching all the tweets about today's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) public hearings in DC and Chicago on the agency's proposed carbon pollution safeguards, we saw this tweet from the Environmental Law & Policy Center in Chicago: Hmm, is the coal industry astro-turfing again? The coal industry has to pay people to say they support coal? A little internet digging found us the ad on Craigslist, only the ad was already deleted, and the best we could find for a while was just this Google search showing part of the text (this is a screenshot - click to enlarge it): Here's the ad on Craigslist - it's been deleted. Using some Google search skills with those words, we were able to piece together this much ... Continue reading →

The EPA's weak oversight The Tribune's Michael Hawthorne explains why it is difficult for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to determine the safety of chemicals found in flame retardants and other industrial compounds used by U.S. manufacturers. Continue reading →

Billboards in Chicago paid for by The Heartland Institute Photograph: The Heartland Institute The ultra-conservative Heartland Institute admitted it was in financial crisis on Wednesday, with the flight of corporate donors making it difficult to pay staff or cover the costs of its annual conference aimed at debunking climate science.In a speech at the close of this year's climate conference, Heartland's president, Joseph Bast, acknowledged that a provocative ad campaign comparing believers in human-made climate change to psychopaths had exacted a heavy cost.However, Bast also attributed Heartland's current problems to his weakness in financial management."These conferences are expensive, and I'm not a good fundraiser so as a result I don't raise enough money to cover them. We really scramble to make payroll as a result ... Continue reading →