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 21, 2008

• The CAKE Store is currently offering a "graduation special" for a limited time. Receive a free high-quality regulation weight frisbee with any online purchase of $50 or more. Also, for all domestic orders of $60 or more there will be no shipping charges.

Newsflash for March 19, 2008

• DESIGN A CAKE T-SHIRT AND WIN 1 YEAR OF FREE CONCERT ADMISSION FOR TWO! We are open to all kinds of ideas. Please send your concept illustrations in JPEG or PDF format to: info@cakemusic.com.   All designs become property of CAKE upon submission. Thank-you!
• Want more excitement? CAKE recommends making a video.

Newsflash for March 18, 2008

• CAKE enjoys musical bastardization!

Newsflash for March 16, 2008

• ExxonMobil Corp. tried to convince the U.S. Supreme Court last week that the company should not have to pay $2.5 billion in punitive damages to Alaskan folk affected by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Exxon, which earlier in February posted an annual profit of $40.6 billion, argued that the $3.4 billion or so that it's already paid in cleanup costs and other fines should totally suffice. The company also says that Prince William Sound, where the tanker ran aground, is back to its pre-spill pristine state, an opinion disputed by research and people who actually live there. 

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 January 11, 2008

• CAKE encourages you to exercise this new year!

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 30, 2007

• Maybe Exxon shouldn't have to pay for the Valdez disaster. Maybe no one should have to pay for damaging anything, ever.

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 28, 2007

• Hungry? Have a bite.

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

• CAKE sends warm greetings from Sacramento, CA!
• 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.

Newsflash for August 31, 2007

• The Bush administration has given a big thumbs-up to mountaintop-removal mining, the practice of blasting the peaks off of mountains and dumping the rubble into watersheds and valleys. Is this because Mr. Bush is a Christian?
• Even people who hate Michael Moore should watch his new movie, Sicko, ASAP. Your life may depend on it!
• The brains behind the tallest structure ever built at Burning Man plan to produce the tallest fire ever seen at the event -- a 1,000-foot column of flame, primed by 900 gallons of jet fuel and fed by 2,000 gallons of liquid propane. Its creators hope this massive flame will send a powerful message about the oil economy. Ha!

Newsflash for August 30, 2007

• The only people who don't want to fix the US healthcare system must be those who are getting wealthy off the horrible cruelty of it.

Newsflash for August 27, 2007

• An Oklahoma City man has been charged with aggravated assault and battery, accused of causing extensive damage to another man's scrotum just because he wore a University of Texas shirt into a local bar.

Newsflash for August 20, 2007

• Does Exxon, which recorded a second quarter profit of $10.3 billion this year, need our tax dollars? We don't think so either. Congressman Maurice Hinchey from New York has now introduced the End Oil Aid Act. Please contact your Representatives and ask them to co-sponsor the End Oil Aid Act, HR 1886.

Newsflash for August 17, 2007

• Holy crap: Dick Cheney on war in Iraq!

Newsflash for August 3, 2007

• I'm a dime, I'm fine, and I shine.

Newsflash for July 24, 2007

• CAKE salutes Turkish music.
  

Newsflash for July 16, 2007

• A great way to get to know your fellow Afghan-American citizens, and a novel of great power is The Kite Runner.

Newsflash for June 29, 2007

• CAKE recommends Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers. Watch it now!

Newsflash for June 17, 2007

• Researchers have uncovered a 300-million-year–old-fossilised rainforest, buried deep below ground in a coal mine in Illinois, US.

Newsflash for June 13, 2007

• The Army now admits that it secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents into the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets and more than 500 tons of radioactive waste - either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels. Enjoy your swim this summer!

Newsflash for June 11, 2007

• The new farm bill is in the works. Very important to get it right for once.

Newsflash for June 8, 2007

• Deciding the winner of the “War Pigs” video contest was a very difficult job because of the many strong entries. Well done, filmmakers.
  Although we did choose a first place winner, we are also naming two other submissions as runner-ups.
  
  First place goes to Julien Christophe of France.
  Julien's characterization of himself as a passionate activist, but ultimately a free-thinker won us over.
  
  The first runner-up is Michael Pentney & Chris Ytreoy, Jessica Green and Adrian Hopper of Cellar Door Films.
  Michael cleverly depicted a postman delivering news of terrorism and massive world war as he blissfully listens to rock and roll music in his headphones while on his daily route.
  
  And finally, the second runner up is Garen Mirzaian with assistance from Armen Amirkhanian and Moses Djibinian.
  Their video moved so very quickly, to so many different locales, while acting out so many CAKE song references, that we couldn't help but be impressed.
  
  The first place video will receive the prize of $1000, and the runner-ups will be given four tickets each to the CAKE concert of their choice.
  
  Click here to see many of the video entries.
  Thank-you everyone for all your hard work and creativity.

Newsflash for May 28, 2007

• This Memorial Day CAKE thanks and honors those men and women in uniform who have made and are continuing to make dramatic sacrifices on our behalf. Let us always be very careful about the causes for which we ask them to fight!
  

Newsflash for May 25, 2007

• This week CAKE salutes the mineral kingdom!
• With just one-sixth of the money targeted for the Iraq war, you could convert all cars in America to run on ethanol. CAKE wonders what else we could have done with the $456 billion we are now spending in Iraq.

Newsflash for May 17, 2007

• Watch CAKE's new favorite video.

Newsflash for May 16, 2007

• Do you eat food? If so, you really must read The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan.

Newsflash for May 12, 2007

• Are you afraid of terror?
• Are you fat? CAKE recommends avoiding food products which include corn syrup, particularly if you are overweight, since corn syrup inhibits your body's natural ability to tell itself when it is no longer hungry. No wonder so many fast food restaurants put so much corn syrup in their foods.