8 Ways to Sunday

I’ve decided to eliminate my RSS 1.0 feed and replace it with an RSS 2.0 feed for full posts and comments. This will allow busy readers who don’t have time to surf around to twenty web sites the chance to stay current with 8WTS. For those who prefer it, the RSS 2.0 excerpts-only feed is still available.

In order to break as few things as possible, I’ve set up an Apache redirect from the address of my old RSS 1.0 feed to the address of the 2.0 feed. I’m crossing my fingers that at least some of the desktop and web-based feed aggregators out there are smart enough not to be baffled by this. If you were using my old RSS 1.0 feed and things go awry, I apologize in advance.

All the credit for my new posts + comments feed goes to Jennifer at Etc.. You can find the template I’m using there, as well as some other cool RSS templates.

Two Bronx ice cream vendors have been charged with attempted murder for allegedly attacking a competitor with a lead pipe over disputed ice cream truck routes. Who knew the ice cream truck business was so brutal? (Associated Press, via CNN)

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader has announced that he will meet with Democratic candidate John Kerry to discuss their common cause “to defeat the giant corporation residing in the White House masquerading as a human being.”

In his announcement, Nader spoke highly of Kerry’s record on the environment and made other supportive noises. He indicated that he has no plans to drop out of the race, however, which just goes to show how utterly detached from reality the man is. A recent poll which shows Bush and Kerry in a statistical dead heat in a two-way race also shows Nader costing Kerry the election by taking 5% in a hypothetical three-way race.

Former president Jimmy Carter, increasingly vocal of late after decades of silence on US partisan politics, hit the nail rather brutally on the head during a recent Democratic unity fundraiser: “Ralph, go back to umpiring softball games or examining the rear end of automobiles, and don’t risk costing the Democrats the White House this year as you did four years ago.” Not what I would’ve expected from the renowned humanitarian and global peace activist, but in my opinion exactly what needed to be said.

(citations: CNN and Gallup News Service)

About fucking time.

According to a report by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), increased waste production from tourism and industry is now one of the greatest environmental threats to small island nations. Among one of the more startling factoids: “the shoreline of the Pacific isle of Nauru, for example, appears blue-green in aerial photos, not from coral reefs, but from mounds of discarded beer cans.” (Associated Press)