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I have three days’ worth of links accumulated and only one Friday afternoon roundup post to squeeze them into! Help me with the zipper.
- As many as 6,000 hogs may have been fed melamine-tainted feed: “A USDA official said that so far states have quarantined one farm each in South Carolina, New York, North Carolina and California. Other states affected are Kansas, Oklahoma and Utah.” Also see Itchmo’s Friday Recall Update for the latest on the pet food situation.
- Greg Saunders had a great piece at This Modern World on how Seung-Hui Cho slipped through the loopholes of gun regulations. It’s a brilliant post and the final paragraph is particularly on-target, if you’ll pardon the expression. Go read it.
- It’s been a very active week on the LGBT civil rights front. ENDA — the Employment Non-Discrimination Act — was introduced in the house by Rep. Barney Frank and a bipartisan group of legislators. New Hampshire’s legislature approved a civil unions bill, and its governor says he’ll sign it. And Iowa passed a gay civil rights bill covering housing and employment, and its governor says he’ll sign that.
- Meanwhile, the Republican governor of Kentucky thinks the idea of gay couples having domestic partners benefits is such an all-fired emergency he’s considering calling a special session of the legislature to make sure the homos know their place. And all too predictably, now that he’s running for preznit, Rudy Giuliani has now flip-flopped on his longstanding support for gay civil unions.
- Panic on the streets of London: Thursday evening fire on Oxford Street shuts down London’s “leading retail street.”
- Stephen Hawking goes on a zero-gravity flight. Click through for the memorable photo.
- “We spend too much time hiding illness”: Roger Ebert appeared in public for the first time in months, following a rough bout with cancer including surgery on his jaw and bleeding problems that left him severely weakened. Prior to attending the Overlooked Film Festival, he wrote a piece in the Sun-Times about what he’s been through, what he looks like these days, and why he doesn’t care what the gossip papers may say about it. Afterwards, Marc Caro described how it went. Both links via Gapers Block.
- A hunter has shot and killed one of the last seven known female Amur leopards, one of the rarest cats on earth. Via Towleroad.
- Steve Jobs continues to do a better job of understanding music buyers than the music industry. “Many” in the industry reportedly want iTunes to add a subscription model so they can make money from recurring charges. “‘Never say never, but customers don’t seem to be interested in it,’ Jobs told Reuters in an interview after Apple reported blow-out quarterly results. ‘The subscription model has failed so far … People want to own their music,’” he said. Right on.
- Meanwhile Mac sales grew by a whopping 36% in the fiscal 2nd quarter of 2007.
- Spinal Tap reunites to fight climate change — maybe their slogan could be “don’t turn the earth up to 11.” And Tom Toles has a cartoon with the necessary steps for dealing with global warming.
- Finally, Itchmo has the scoop on adult toys for dogs. For real.
