The U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposes the House and Senate health care bills. Online, they have posted a “Health Care Toolkit” consisting of talking points, suggested emails and letters, videos from their national ad campaign, and other material for those who’d like to stall the current push toward reform. But here’s an extract from a [...]

According to the AP, “The worst U.S. recession since World War II and the lure of the Internet have combined to make the (newspaper) industry’s annual ad revenue $20 billion less than it was three years ago.” But why read about the decline of newspaper circulation in, say, a newspaper or even on a newspaper’s [...]

This infographic, found on Boing Boing, is one way to starkly illustrate excessive CEO pay. It shows how many minimum wage earners it would take to equal the salaries of the top eight corporate chief executives in 2008. Click on the chart to see it full size.

McDonald’s is closing in Iceland because the collapse of the country’s currency has doubled the cost of importing the ingredients the fast-food chain uses.

Around the world, though, the Golden Arches is still a golden goose. September sales were up 5% as “consumers sought low-cost meals,” according to Forbes.

But we don’t need a quarterly report to tell us that McDonald’s is still going strong in the U.S. We know that from this post from the blog Weather Sealed:

…just how far away can you get from our world of generic convenience? And how would you figure that out?

Saturday was International Day of Climate Action. From the New York Times: On Saturday, (activists) tried something new with the goal of prodding countries to get serious about reaching an international climate accord: a synchronized burst of more than 4,300 demonstrations, from the Himalayas to the Great Barrier Reef, all centered on the number 350. [...]

The Obama administration has announced that seven companies which received government bailout money will need to cut compensation to their highest-paid employees. (The Fed today also announced a pay-review plan designed to cut down on excessive risk-taking. Reaction to that later.) From the New York Times: The plan, for the 25 top earners at seven [...]

You may have caught the news item yesterday about a stunt that the satirical group The Yes Men pulled at the National Press Club. Yes Man Andy Bichlbaum posed as a spokesman for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, announcing that the business group had reversed its position opposing climate change legislation and would cease campaigning [...]

Savvy entrepeneurial initiative or cynical rip-off? Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, USA is offering to take care of the pets of born-again Christians forced to leave them behind in The Rapture. We are a group of dedicated animal lovers, and atheists. Each Eternal Earth-Bound Pet representative is a confirmed atheist, and as such will still be here [...]