By Chris Schulz, RP Staff, on Fri Sep 16, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET The Politics of the Planet A California study actually looks at the potential dollars lost at various beaches because of rising sea levels. [latimes.com]
As technology changes the demand for earth metals rises and some are becoming rare and others are mined in politically dubious areas. As prices go up, recycling technology should improve. [bbc.co.uk]
The first balloon to test man-made solutions to climate change set to launch in the UK. [bbc.co.uk]
What do South Carolina and Michigan have in common? They are the only two US States that have not had a disaster declared. [npr.org]
By Robert Kahne, RP Staff, on Fri Sep 16, 2011 at 12:30 PM ET
New casting news from the next Tarantino film Django Unchained out this week. Are you as excited for this film as me? No, you aren’t. That would be impossible. [/Film]
The Weinstein Company is one of the biggest film distribution companies in the world. One of its newest films, Butter, isn’t doing so hot. So, Harvey Weinstein decided to do something crazy: he invited Michele Bachmann (the lady who fights for girl’s rights to cervical cancer) to the Iowa premier. [The Guardian]
The Toronto International Film Festival is going on right now. There is a lot of news about what films are being picked up for distribution. One film that I am excited to see, dark comedy God Bless America, was recently picked up. [Film Junk]
Christina Hendricks might play Wonder Woman in a film about the DC heroine. This would cause me great joy. [IFC]
Top Gun is being post-produced into 3-D. This is incredible stupid, but so was that movie. [The Movie Blog]
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Fri Sep 16, 2011 at 9:15 AM ET Terrelle Pryor is seeking to overturn his 5-game suspension after initially stating he would not. The former Ohio State QB just recently met with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, has stated that it was productive. We will now wait to find out if we will get the see Pryor within the first five weeks of the season. [Sports Illustrated]
By Artur Davis, on Fri Sep 16, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET  This late summer should have been prime time for a centrist third party movement called Americans Elect. With Barack Obama’s approval ratings around 40 percent, and a profound fear that Republicans are too extreme and too un-serious to govern, the case for another political path is arguably being made by events.
But unless you are an avid reader of Tom Friedman’s columns at the New York Times, or Matt Miller at the Washington Post, you’ve likely never heard of Americans Elect and their audacious plan to qualify for the 2012 ballot in all 50 states. They are well-heeled, based on starting capital from some major hedge-fund players; respectable enough to have caught the attention of serious people like Friedman and Miller; and essentially still an anonymous blip on the public radar.
 A major part of the skepticism is historical in nature – the last credible third party, the Progressives in 1912, had the virtue of being led by a popular ex president, and the updated versions have been regional demagogues or self-appointed provocateurs. Then there is the Nader factor – the experience that a third party often guarantees that the “evil”, rather than the “lesser of two evils”, wins.
All true. Yet, the national atmosphere lately has been unsettled enough that the past has ceased being the predictor of the future in politics. The grip of Democrats and Republicans on voter loyalty is weaker than it has traditionally been. We are also on the cusp of a double dip recession handmade by dysfunctional two-party politics.
Read the rest of…
Artur Davis: A Pathway for Americans Elect?
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Sep 15, 2011 at 3:00 PM ET
The National Labor Relations Board recently ruled that employees cannot be fired for complaining and/or making comments about work on Facebook or other social networking sites. [Forbes]
File Transfers [xkcd]
NASA announced plans yesterday for a new launch system that could make deep space exploration much easier. Mars here we come! [NASA]
Google has acquired Zagat according to a release from the company last week. This is sure to make Google Places an even more useful tool. [Google]
What is the wave of the future for battery tech? Jelly. [BBC]
Earlier this week, Apple, along with new CEO Tim Cook made a play to acquire Dropbox for $800 million. Dropbox declined the offer. [Chip Hazard]
By Grant Smith, RP Staff, on Thu Sep 15, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET
Show me the love: President Obama tells crows “if you love me” you’ll help get the jobs bill passed. [Breitbart]
Rupert Murdoch’s son James is called to testify before members of Parliament one more time. [The Financial Times]
“Is it weird enough yet?”: Thomas Friedman weighs in on the climate change skepticism of Republican Presidential candidates Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann. [New York Times]
NASA finally unveils it new rocket to replace the retired space shuttle. [PC World]
Texas Governor Rick Perry casts himself as a man of faith. Some argue this means he is also casting himself as an anti-intellectual. [The Washington Post]
The winning bidder for a lunch with Warren Buffet was hired at the lunch to work for Buffett. So, who is this mysterious investor and what does his hiring mean for the future of Berkshire Hathaway? [The Wall Street Journal]
By Jonathan Miller, on Thu Sep 15, 2011 at 1:00 PM ET 
At some point, I will give our loyal readers a full and mostly serious account of my amazing journey through Italy this past week.
But first, let me share my most two overwhelming impressions, of beer and Pisa.
First, beer. See the picture above. There really is Duff beer. It’s not just for Homer anymore. (And wasn’t the original Homer Greek, not Roman?)
Second, Pisa. It was absolutely amazing to see the Tower of Pisa (which is a lot smaller in person than you imagine, just as Michaelangelo’s David is a lot bigger). What an incredible thrill it was to stand in the same place where Galileo and Rick Perry dropped the pizza to disprove the scientific community’s misplaced faith in global warming and a round earth! Quite humbling.
But just like climate change and rough earth theory, the so-called “Leaning” Tower of Pisa is just yet another conspiracy. Check out the picture below. The Tower and I are perfectly straight, while the rest of Pisa leans to the right.
Another tragic myth perpetuated by the mainstream media, debunked exclusively here for the RP Nation.
You are welcome!
By Sandra Moon, RP Staff, on Thu Sep 15, 2011 at 10:00 AM ET
It’s not a joke–Schweddy Balls is the newest flavor of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. [NPR]
What the attack of mutant rice has taught us about the biotech foods industry. [Greenbiz]
Celebrity Chef Anthony Bourdain gets his own line of books. [Eater.com]
Despite rising food costs, polls show that consumers continue seeking out high quality organic and natural products. [WSJ MarketWatch]
The RP staffer’s web recipe of the week: Sour Cream Chocolate Banana Bread. Rich. Moist. Delicious.
By Patrick Derocher, on Thu Sep 15, 2011 at 9:15 AM ET Rep. Gohmert in a less interesting moment. Well, you can’t fault him for not having a sense of humor. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) has introduced a prank jobs bill that consists solely of repealing the corporate income tax. The catch? Like President Obama’s jobs bill, it is called the American Jobs Act of 2011. The President’s bill has yet to be introduced, owing to protest from both sides of the aisle, and will now have to be given a different name. Gohmert, known as a Tea Party provacateur, is considered one of the chamber’s more fiery conservatives. [Slate]
By Jeff Smith, on Thu Sep 15, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET  Sorry, but the die is cast here. Dick Cheney was the Bush administration’s most powerful proponent of a decade of failed wars of choice that cost our nation dearly in prestige, treasure, and most lamentably, blood. Two-thirds of the country strongly agrees with that sentiment.
He was the guy who argued that “deficits don’t matter” even as the tax cuts he relentlessly pushed exacerbated our already-difficult fiscal situation that every demographer (and most policymakers) understood would become perilous upon baby-boomer retirement.
In every major policy area in which he was involved, Dick Cheney was dead wrong – and many of his co-partisans actually agree with that assessment. If he thinks it will help him now to trash the people (I.e., Rice, Cheney) who at various junctures made rather ineffectual attempts to slow the train of destruction he conducted, he is sorely mistaken.
(Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena)
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