Newsflash for September 5, 2008

• CAKE RAFFLE -- Seth Quillen of Cottonwood Heights, UT has just won our first raffle! He is now the proud owner of a vibra-slap, autographed by the members of CAKE. Sign our mailing list now to be entered in next month's raffle.

Newsflash for August 28, 2008

• CAKE MONTHLY RAFFLE -- Many cultures see Monday as an unlucky day, even as a day when people become insane. This may have something to do with the day's association with the moon. In an effort to thank all of you for your continued patronage, we are transforming the first Monday of each month into a time of potential celebration and excitement. Beginning next month, on this day we will randomly select one name from our e-mail list to receive a surprise CAKE collectible. We will give away signed Vibra-slaps, rare vinyl, out of print posters,  t-shirts, bumper stickers, even headphones from our studio! If for some reason you haven't yet gotten around to signing our e-mail list, now might be a good time do it.

Newsflash for August 25, 2008

• Have you ever heard the phrase "cradle to cradle"? We think it is an important concept.

Newsflash for August 22, 2008

• What? You haven't heard of jatropha? Maybe it's time you did.

Newsflash for August 19, 2008

• Share a ride to a CAKE concert. Check the CARPOOL page to find shared transportation to upcoming CAKE shows.

Newsflash for August 18, 2008

• Getting tired of crazy 911 conspiracy theories? What will these people think of next?

Newsflash for August 14, 2008

• Populations are expanding fastest in regions where it is the most difficult to grow food.

Newsflash for August 11, 2008

• John McCain above the influence of lobbyists? You wish.

Newsflash for August 10, 2008

• CAKE mourns the loss of our friend Isaac Hayes. 

Newsflash for August 7, 2008

• As the tallest living things on earth, ancient coast redwoods are extremely inspiring. CAKE recommends The Wild Trees.

Newsflash for August 6, 2008

• Is America's $8 billion bottled water industry a fraud?

Newsflash for July 25, 2008

• CAKE RECOMMENDS -- Are you tired of mowing your lawn? Do you live in a dry climate? CAKE recommends ripping out your lawn.

Newsflash for July 24, 2008

• How weird. Why is CBS covering up for John McCain's lack of understanding about Iraq, editing out his mistakes for him? 
• ExxonMobil is off the hook for billions in punitive damages related to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. In 1994, the oil giant was ordered to pay $5 billion in punitive damages. In 2006, that amount was cut to $2.5 billion. Last week, the Supreme Court slashed the amount once again, to $507.5 million. By a 5-3 vote (Exxon stockholder Samuel Alito sat out), the court reasoned that punitive damages should not exceed what the company paid to victims for economic losses. Since the accident, Exxon has paid $3.4 billion in various fines, penalties, cleanup costs, claims, and other expenses. The $507.5 million will be divvied up among 32,677 commercial fisherfolk, seafood processors, landowners, native Alaskans, and small business owners. Exxon, which posted a record-breaking annual profit of $40.6 billion in February, makes $507.5 million in approximately 12 hours of sales.

Newsflash for July 22, 2008

• CAKE salutes our friend, Marcelo Camelo. Relax and enjoy.

Newsflash for July 18, 2008

• Are you deep in debt? CAKE recommends Maxed Out.

Newsflash for July 14, 2008

• A great beginning. This one from Alicia Sterenberg, who won this cherry tree at our concert in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Newsflash for July 11, 2008

• CAKE thanks and congratulates the firefighters in California who have now contained over a thousand fires in our home state.

Newsflash for July 10, 2008

• Thank-you everyone for your T-shirt design contest submissions. After serious consideration, we have chosen three of our favorites. We have been inspired by each and every entry, so thank-you again for your time and energy.
  

  

  First place goes to Thomas John. He will win free admission for two to a year of CAKE concerts. Congratulations, Thomas.
  
  
  

  

  Second place goes to Hans Nelson. Congratulations, you win free admission for two to any concert of your choice (during the next year).

Newsflash for July 9, 2008

• CAKE thought you should know the 10 highest-radiation cell phones and the 10 lowest-radiation cell phones.

Newsflash for July 3, 2008

• Olivia and "Lola" the cherry tree.

Newsflash for June 20, 2008

• Another great planting, this one from Rachel M of Denver.

Newsflash for June 16, 2008

• Here is Lynne, of Louisville, KY, with her cherry tree that she won at the June 4th concert in Elizabeth, Indiana.

Newsflash for June 7, 2008

• CAKE has been giving away a lot of very beautiful trees lately, but we have received very few photos of the newly planted trees in their new homes. Come on people, you made us a solemn promise. Get those things into the ground ASAP!

Newsflash for May 28, 2008

• A single stadium concert releases 500 to 1000 tons of carbon dioxide, which is between 25 and 50 times more than the average American produces in a year. Perhaps it is time for bands to just stop touring already?
  

Newsflash for May 27, 2008

• The Rancho Cordova Little League season is winding down, and the CAKE Major Yankees are currently in third place out of eight teams. With a victory today, they could possibly be the team who finishes 2nd in the Majors division and advances to the Tournament of Champions. Good luck, CAKE Major Yankees!

Newsflash for May 8, 2008

• CAKE recommends the book 1776, by David McCullough. In this year, the continental army pulled off what seemed to be an impossible victory, and American colonists had to decisively choose sides; loyalty to the crown or rebellion.
  

Newsflash for May 5, 2008

• Deanna K, of Georgetown, Texas, pictured here with her recently planted peach tree, won this prize at our concert on April 17, 2008.

Newsflash for May 1, 2008

• Nicholas Stern, the British economist known for a major report in which he declared that combating climate change would cost less than ignoring it, has announced that he was wrong -- about how bad the problem is. "We badly underestimated the degree of damages and the risks of climate change" in the Oct. 2006 report, he specified last week. "All of the links in the chain are on average worse than we thought a couple of years ago." Thawing permafrost is releasing methane, oceans are acidifying faster than expected, and carbon sinks are becoming less effective, said Stern. He urged nations to come up with a stringent global climate treaty taking food production into account, and reiterated that the world should aim to produce zero-carbon electricity by 2050 (he backs carbon sequestration, nuclear power, and renewable energy). "This is about buying down risk," Stern said. "Starting now, that means it requires at least 1 percent of world GDP. That is small relative to a planetary catastrophe."

Newsflash for April 28, 2008

• McCain vs. McCain. Who will win?
• CAKE honors the philosophy of Jack LaLanne.

Newsflash for April 25, 2008

• Arbor Day is a nationally-celebrated observance that encourages tree planting and care. Founded by J. Sterling Morton in Nebraska in 1872, National Arbor Day is also celebrated by many other countries including: Algeria, Australia, Belgium, China, Cambodia, Egypt, Germany, Iran, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Republic of Macedonia, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Taiwan and Uganda.

Newsflash for April 24, 2008

• Almost 100 billion pounds of food is wasted in America each year.

Newsflash for April 23, 2008

• The average American opens 43,371 soda cans over his or her lifetime.

Newsflash for April 18, 2008

• Be very thankful for your breakfast this morning.

Newsflash for April 16, 2008

• Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile phone industry must take "immediate steps" to reduce exposure to their radiation.
  

Newsflash for April 13, 2008

• DESIGN A CAKE T-SHIRT, WIN 1 YEAR OF FREE CONCERT ADMISSION FOR TWO! We have been receiving many great design ideas. A submission deadline has now been set for May 31.  Please send your concept illustrations in JPEG or PDF format to: info@cakemusic.com.  All designs become property of CAKE upon submission. Thank-you.
  

Newsflash for April 10, 2008

• Are you tired of television? Turn it off.
  

Newsflash for April 8, 2008

• It's hard to believe, but polluters are actually allowed to contaminate your drinking water. Why? Because the Supreme Court and the Bush Administration have sided with polluters to strip vital protections from the Clean Water Act. That means that pollutants like E-Coli, bacteria, mercury, PCBs and dioxin could be contaminating the drinking water of more than 110 million Americans.

Newsflash for April 7, 2008

• Michael Pollan: Don't eat anything that doesn't rot.

Newsflash for April 4, 2008

• The grain required to make one SUV-sized tank of fuel would otherwise feed a human being for 365 days. One fill-up!

Newsflash for April 2, 2008

• Male U.S. rock fans are likely to vote Republican.
  

Newsflash for April 1, 2008

• Nearly two-thirds of Africans have no access to a toilet.

Newsflash for March 30, 2008

• Time to exercise irresponsible climate change reversal procedures.

Newsflash for March 25, 2008

• As the US death toll in Iraq hits 4,000, perhaps it is time to take a look at the fact that whenever oil company profits have slipped below Fortune 500 average, conflict has broken out in the Middle East. Just a coincidence? Here's the graph.

Newsflash for March 14, 2008

• CAKE salutes the artistry of another band.

Newsflash for March 13, 2008

• Read The Onion's interview with John McCrea.

Newsflash for March 10, 2008

• CAKE recommends an interesting episode of This American Life.

Newsflash for March 3, 2008

• Totally new! CAKE promotes healthy outdoor activity with a new, one-of-kind, limited edition high-quality frisbee!

Newsflash for February 28, 2008

• As global starvation worsens, the U.S. plans to devote vast amounts of grain to producing ethanol.

Newsflash for February 25, 2008

• Nearly half of the world's 1.3 billion smokers live in China, India and Indonesia, the three largest consumers of tobacco products.  In China alone, more people smoke than live in the United States.

Newsflash for February 7, 2008

• A controversial Virginia lawmaker is trying to introduce new legislation to ban rubber testicles from being fitted to the back of trucks.

Newsflash for February 6, 2008

• Hope everyone enjoyed their "Super Tuesday"! Meanwhile, U.S. President George W. Bush authorized the CIA to give its most detailed public account of its use of a widely condemned interrogation technique known as waterboarding, the White House said on Wednesday. Congratulations everyone, we are now officially a waterboarding nation!
• Is Congress is about to sell us the biggest fraud in American history?
• NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies has declared 2007 the second-warmest year on record, tying with 1998 for the title. 2005 remains the hottest, according to the agency. Researchers said, to no one's surprise, that the greatest warming occurred in the Arctic. "As we predicted last year, 2007 was warmer than 2006, continuing the strong warming trend of the past 30 years that has been confidently attributed to the effect of increasing human-made greenhouse gases," said James Hansen, director of GISS.

Newsflash for February 3, 2008

• Hillary Clinton is agnostic on nuclear power, does not want to emphasize it as a power source unless waste-storage and other problems are solved. Barack Obama, on the other hand, supports nuclear power, saying it should continue to be a part of the energy mix in the U.S. All Republican candidates support the expansion of the nuclear power industry. Want to know more about candidates' positions on climate and energy issues? Follow this link.

Newsflash for January 28, 2008

• The climate crisis will be the biggest challenge facing the next president, but the top Sunday hosts don't seem to think so. Since January of 2007, they have asked over 3,000 questions, only 6 of them even mentioning climate change. Other questions have included UFOs, jewelry preferences, pets and Chuck Norris. Sign a petition to tell reporters to focus on the actual issues. Geez.

Newsflash for January 21, 2008

• CAKE wishes everyone a contemplative Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

Newsflash for January 18, 2008

• CAKE encourages everyone to listen to the amazing mating call of the near-extinct Kakapo.

Newsflash for January 16, 2008

• A living beating heart -- grown in a jar.

Newsflash for January 12, 2008

• CAKE strongly recommends the very funny and moving Last Chance To See, by Douglas Adams.

Newsflash for December 29, 2007

• Read a new interview with CAKE's John McCrea in the SF Bay Guardian!

Newsflash for December 28, 2007

• The Evangelical Christian market consists of almost 70 million American adults and $2.1 trillion, or 28 percent of the national annual income in 2006.

Newsflash for December 27, 2007

• TREE WINNERS!

Newsflash for December 24, 2007

• Tiger mosquitos, carrying a relative of dengue fever, can now survive in a warming Europe.

Newsflash for December 23, 2007

• CAKE wants to thank our troops for their sacrifices in Iraq and Afghanistan this holiday season. Extremely festive tidings to you all! May you come home soon, safely and in one piece!

Newsflash for December 12, 2007

• Are Hummers really greener than hybrids? Hmmm.

Newsflash for December 4, 2007

• CAKE marvels at the expensive way the US government spends money procuring energy supply. Almost seems as though someone is stealing money from the US population to give to a select group of corporate campaign donors.

Newsflash for November 30, 2007

• More than four times the number of natural disasters are occurring now than did two decades ago, British charity Oxfam said in a study Sunday that largely blamed global warming.

Newsflash for November 21, 2007

• If the US Army gives you a signing bonus--let's say $30k for another two years--and you get your arms shot off by Iraqi insurgents after a year and are thus not fit for duty, you have to give back $15k.

Newsflash for November 14, 2007

• The total economic impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is estimated at $1.6 trillion by 2009, a congressional committee said in a report released Tuesday. The total war costs could grow to $3.5 trillion by 2017, the committee estimated. 
• CAKE's "b-sides and rarities" is now available at the iTunes store.

Newsflash for November 12, 2007

• Do you want to be a star? CAKE recommends Sunset Boulevard.
• Fulfill your holiday gift-giving needs with one of our attractive and compelling clothing items featured in the CAKE STORE. The shirts are high-quality, reasonably priced, and sweatshop-free.

Newsflash for November 7, 2007

• Rudy Giuliani is a liar.
  Hillary Clinton is a liar.
  Fred Thomson is a liar.
  Barack Obama is a liar.
  John Edwards is a liar.
  John McCain is a liar.

Newsflash for November 6, 2007

• For a higher quality understanding of world events, CAKE recommends the conservative publication, The Economist.
  
• Do Texans feel threatened that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is twice
  the size of their state?
  

Newsflash for November 1, 2007

• The 9/11 saga of United Flight 93 crashing down in the abandoned miningtown of Shanksville PA is tragic and inspiring. Too bad the plane actually came to rest in New Baltimore, where the wreckage was quickly cordoned off and media attention diverted to a missile crater in Shanksville. Read more in Victor Thorn's Phantom Flight 93.
• Have you seen the awesome new embassy in Iraq?

Newsflash for October 24, 2007

• Twice the size of the state of Texas? CAKE salutes the Great Pacific Garbage Patch!

Newsflash for October 23, 2007

• Enjoy political discussions with your friends and family? Prepare yourself here.

Newsflash for October 22, 2007

• A University of Ohio fact sheet estimates that we eat from one to two pounds of insects each year, and without knowing it.
  

Newsflash for October 16, 2007

• Unsure about which presidential candidate shares your values and views? Try this useful tool!

Newsflash for October 9, 2007

• What is it with Republicans nowadays? Does it have anything to do with their strident Christian worldview?

Newsflash for October 8, 2007

• The recording industry won a key fight Thursday against illegal music downloading when a federal jury found a Minnesota woman shared copyrighted music online and levied $220,000 in damages against her. The jury ordered Jammie Thomas, 30, to pay the six record companies that sued her $9,250 for each of 24 songs they focused on in the case. They had alleged she shared 1,702 songs in all.
• Do your children use those cute little cell phones?

Newsflash for October 4, 2007

• CAKE recommends Clarence Ashley.

Newsflash for September 21, 2007

• Do you even remember the tragedy of 9/11?

Newsflash for September 20, 2007

• Learn more about coal.
• CAKE salutes this year's World Beard & Mustache Championship winners.

Newsflash for September 19, 2007

• In the U.S. alone, we throw away 100 billion plastic bags each year -- the equivalent of 12 million barrels of oil. Let's party!

Newsflash for September 17, 2007

• Are you ready for war with Iran? Get ready!

Newsflash for September 16, 2007

• "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil."  -- Alan Greenspan
• Knee-jerk patriotism is just fear of death?

Newsflash for September 13, 2007

• World's oil running out sooner than expected!
• Do you have a left-wing brain or a right-wing brain?

Newsflash for September 5, 2007

• We torture and kill entire species in the name of security?
• Is the USA like Rome?

Newsflash for September 4, 2007

• Religion is AWESOME!

Newsflash for September 2, 2007

• Isn't it about time for some "family values" in health care for our retired citizens?
• CAKE believes we have taken for granted the value of dependable weather.