Category: HEALTH

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

The return of ‘Arrested Development’ / The drone wars / Revitalizing sexual desire / A writer’s dreams / Don’t bring the baby to the bar

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Most of these great items come from my Twitter or Facebook feeds. Follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays, and criticism.

1. Medea Benjamin, the Woman Who Heckled Obama, Is Not Sorry
By Caroline Linton | The Daily Beast | May 24
“Medea Benjamin has spent a lifetime confronting powerful people, so she was a bit baffled when Obama called her a ‘young lady.’ ”

2. ‘Arrested Development’ returns
Arts Beat :: The New York Times | May 2013
The cast discusses the show’s fourth season.
Jason Bateman | Jeffrey Tambor | Jessica Walter
Will Arnett | Portia de Rossi | David Cross | Michael Cera

3. ‘Arrested Development,’ Season 4
By David Haglund and Emma Roller | Slate | May 24
“Panic attack! What if the new episodes aren’t very good?”

4. Jon Huntsman’s Real Challenge
By Scott Conroy | Real Clear Politics | May 24
“To hear Jon Huntsman tell it, his hopes of succeeding in a potential second presidential bid depend largely on one thing: whether enough voters come around to his views on the major issues of the day.”

5. Unexcited? There May Be a Pill for That
By Daniel Bergner | The New York Times Magazine | May 22
“The promise of Lybrido and of a similar medication called Lybridos … is that it will be possible to take a next step, to give women the power to switch on lust, to free desire from the obstacles that get in its way.”

6. China Has Drones. Now What?
By Andrew Erickson and Austin Strange | Foreign Affairs | May 23
“When Beijing will — and won’t — use its UAVs”

7. The Shadow War Behind Syria’s Rebellion
By Rania Abouzeid | Time | May 24
“Qatar and Saudi Arabia each favor different rebel factions.”

8. My Psychic Garburator
By Margaret Atwood | NYR Blog :: The New York Review of Books | May 6
“Should you, as a fiction writer, permit your characters to have dreams?”

9. How Do I Tell a Friend to Stop Bringing Her Cockblocking Baby to Bars?
By Sara Benincasa | Jezebel | May 24
“Our lives and friendships change as we get older, and it’s unfair and also creepy to expect your gaggle of single girlfriends to accommodate your kid at a boozy pre-fuckfest.”

10. Remote Control
By Steve Coll | The New Yorker | May 6
“Our drone delusion”

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TUNES

Tonight I’m spending some time with the blues, specifically with the Texas Blues Café. Check out the line-up and then listen here.

1. Bob Segar — Come to Papa
2. Rick Fowler — Walk Softly
3. Mike Zito — Natural Born Lover
4. Larry Tillery Band — Natches River
5. Micheal K’s Rumble Pack — Another Kind of Love
6. Pat Green — Let Me
7. Paul Thorn — Crutches
8. Paul Thorn — Will the Circle Be Unbroken
9. Z-Tribe — Since the Blues Began
10. Tony Caggiano — Trouble
11. Zed Head — Till I Lost You
12. Wiser Time — Had Enough
13. The Fabulous Thunderbirds — Wrap It Up

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Springtime fights over skin / Tax myths / Near-death experiences / Le Carre’s doubts / Anthony Weiner is back

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Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook for more fascinating videos, photos, articles, essays and criticism.

1. The 5 Kinds of Flesh-Obsessed Articles You Read in the Spring
By Katie J.M. Baker | Jezebel | April 11
“Every spring, concerned citizens spring up like so many tulips (or boners) to share their opinions on how women should and shouldn’t dress when it’s warm outside. Unfortunately, unlike pollen allergies, there’s no known antidote for these five most obnoxious types of seasonal ‘Ladies! Put your clothes on/take them off, plz!’ articles.”

2. Five myths about taxes
By Steven R. Weisman | Five Myths :: The Washington Post | April 11
“Whether tax cuts generally spur economic growth and tax increases generally dampen it is debatable …”

3. Why a Near-Death Experience Isn’t Proof of Heaven
By Michael Shermer | Scientific American | April 13
“The fact that mind and consciousness are not fully explained by natural forces, however, is not proof of the supernatural. In any case, there is a reason they are called near-death experiences: the people who have them are not actually dead.”

4. Narrow escape for more than 100 airline passengers as plane crashes
By Harriet Alexander | The Telegraph | April 13
“Local television showed a picture of a Boeing passenger jet intact with a slightly ruptured fuselage and passengers in the water.”

5. Army’s Disaster Prep Now Includes Tips From the Zombie Apocalypse
By Spencer Ackerman | Danger Room :: Wired | April 12
“[W]hether you’re confronting extreme weather that shorts out a power grid or running from a marauding horde of the undead, preparation is the key to survival.”

6. Resort Of Last Resort
By Aubrey Belford | The Global Mail | April 5
“Fear, corruption, boredom, smugglers, extortionists, Saudi sex tourists and temporary wives: such is life in the Indonesian resort town that has become limbo for asylum seekers.”

7. John le Carré: ‘I was a secret even to myself’
By John le Carre | The Guardian | April 12
“After a decade in the intelligence service, John le Carré’s political disgust and personal confusion ‘exploded’ in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Fifty years later he asks how much has changed”

8. Roman ruins found in the heart of London
By Erin McLaughlin | CNN International | April 10
“Archeologists uncover thousands of ancient Roman artifacts in London.”

9. Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin’s Post-Scandal Playbook
By Jonathan Van Meter | New York Times Magazine | April 10
“They seem to be functioning again as a couple, even unselfconsciously bickering in front of the waiter. But what they do not yet have a handle on is their public life.”

10. Obama’s former speechwriter on the secrets he learned from his boss
By Sarah Muller | MSNBC | April 12
“Jon Favreau told MSNBC.com he misses his former job as President Obama’s chief speechwriter, though not the late hours. He began the job in 2005, becoming the second youngest head speechwriter in the White House’s history.”

Kate Stone’s Civil War: Tears on my cheek

The dark veil of sadness silenced Stone’s diary for more than two weeks. On April 10, 1863, she regained the strength to record what happened.

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From 2012 to 2015, Stillness of Heart will share interesting excerpts from the extraordinary diary of Kate Stone, who chronicled her Louisiana family’s turbulent experiences throughout the Civil War era.

Learn more about Stone’s amazing life in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865 and beyond. Click on each year to read more about her experiences. You can read the entire journal online here.

(Photo edited by Bob Rowen)

The dark veil of sadness silenced Stone’s diary for more than two weeks. On April 10, 1863, she regained the strength to record what happened.

April 10

Anchorage, La.

Brother Walter died Feb. 15, 1863, at Cotton Gin, Miss. Again has God smitten us, and this last trouble is almost more than we can bear. I can hardly believe that our bright, merry little Brother Walter has been dead for seven weeks. And we cannot realize that he is gone forevermore. Even peace will not restore him to us all. It is hard, hard that he should have to go, so full of life and happiness and with such promise of a noble manhood. We were always so proud of our six stalwart boys, and again one is snatched away and we cannot think of them without tears. …

For seven long weeks my dear little brother has been sleeping in his lonely grave, far from all who loved him, and we knew it not until a few days ago.

Even as I write, I feel his tears on my cheek and see him as I saw him last when I bade him good-bye in Vicksburg, reining his horse on the summit of the hill and turning with flushed cheeks and tearful eyes to wave me a last farewell. And by the side of this picture is another that has haunted me ever since reading that fatal letter: I see him lying cold and still, dressed in black, in his plain black coffin. His slender hands are worn and brown with the toil of the last four months and are crossed on his quiet breast. His handsome clear-cut features are glaring cold and white, and the white lids are drawn down over the splendid grey eyes, so easy to fill with tears or brighten with laughter. The smile we knew so well is resting on his lips. Happy boy, free from the toil and turmoil of life, safe in the morning of life in a glorious immortality.

It breaks our hearts to think of him sick and dying among strangers, a Negro’s face the only familiar one near him. I can hear him asking so eagerly, “Has Brother Coley come?” They say he longed so to see him, and he had been dead two weeks before Brother Coley knew it.

All we know of his death is from a letter of Brother Coley’s written on the sixteenth of March, the day Van Dorn’s cavalry left Arkalona for the raid into Tennessee. Brother Walter had fever but he rode all day. The next morning he still suffered with fever, and he and two other soldiers of his company were left at the house of Mrs. Owens near Cotton Gin, a little town in north Mississippi. Pompey, Joe Carson’s boy, was left to wait on him. The next morning the other two soldiers were well enough to follow on, and they carried a note from Mrs. Owens telling Brother Coley that his brother was very sick and that he had better return. He did not get the note for two weeks.

Brother Walter had developed a severe case of pneumonia, and on the fifth evening, Feb. 15 at 3 o’clock, he passed away with no friend but Pompey near him. It wrings my heart to think of him suffering and alone. I hope he did not realize that Death was so near and all he loved so far away. Poor little fellow, he was not used to strangers. He has been surrounded by loved and familiar faces all his short life. He was eighteen in December and died in February. He was but a boy and could not stand the hardships of a soldier’s life. Four months of it killed him.

We have no likeness of him. He has left only a memory and a name.

Kate Stone’s Civil War: A lady’s favors

Two excerpts from Stone’s November 1862 diary illustrate her views on love, flirtation, and relationships, each vibrant and beautiful even in the shadow of a growing war.

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From 2012 to 2015, Stillness of Heart will share interesting excerpts from the extraordinary diary of Kate Stone, who chronicled her Louisiana family’s turbulent experiences throughout the Civil War era.

Learn more about Stone’s amazing life in 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865 and beyond. Click on each year to read more about her experiences. You can read the entire journal online here.

(Photo edited by Bob Rowen)

Two excerpts from Stone’s November 1862 diary illustrate her views on love, flirtation, and relationships, each vibrant and beautiful even in the shadow of a growing war.

Nov. 7, 1862

How quickly this week has slipped away. Company and busy hands make the time fly. Anna came out in the middle of the week, sent the little girls and remained until Mrs. Savage came, spent the day and carried her home. After they left, Johnny and I were sitting cosily by the parlor fire. I had been practicing and he was knitting on a glove when in came Mary Richards and Mollie Hunt, an old schoolmate. I was so surprised I hardly knew her at first, but the sound of her voice recalled old school times.

Mollie and her father are on their way from Arkansas to Vicksburg. They had supper at Mrs. Curry’s and came out to get me to spend the night with Mollie. Mamma approved of the plan, and I was glad of a chance for a good chat with Mollie. I went back with them and had a pleasant visit in spite of that hateful Mr. Smith. “Don’t be bashful, Kate. Do play. I ain’t a going to court ye” was one of his trying speeches, with a grin and a leer that made me really wish him dumb. What a true Yankee he is in everything, even the set of his coat.

Mollie gave me a full and particular account of her various love affairs, about like the play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out. She would not tell me the names of any of her lovers. She must have had scores. She says she has four on hand now, all waiting in trembling apprehension of yes or no. She thinks she will say no to all. What a garment of comfort self-satisfaction is. Oh, for a nice large cloak of self-appreciation. …

Galveston has fallen, a disgrace to us for fortifying it so badly. The enemy are redoubling their exertions at every point and are awaiting a rise in the river to make an overwhelming attack on Vicksburg. In God alone is our trust.

Nov. 10

Mamma went to Vicksburg today, and I am left at home as commander-in-chief with Little Sister and the two boys, Johnny and Jimmy, as aides. We are getting on bravely today, pickle making, weaving, etc., etc. I think I should like keeping house if I were forty years old and had no one to interfere, but now it is horrid work, vanity and vexation of spirits. …

Ah, the lovely autumn weather. One should be out in it riding or walking most of the day. …

Mamma and I went out to Mrs. Henderson’s Saturday morning to see Mrs. Gustine, who is staying there now. She has been very ill and is still unable to be up. Mary and I had a gay talk discussing Col. Pargoud. We have all our traps set and baited should he venture out here again. We made an agreement so that no feeling of jealousy should mar our friendship. Should I trap the irresistible Colonel, she is to be invited to spend a month at his “palace.” Should she be the successful trapper, I am to have a standing invitation to “his marble halls.” Poor Colonel. His cheeks must burn the way the girls are discussing his fancied perfections, for not a girl of us has ever seen him. He is our standing joke.

We also agreed on Mr. Valentine’s cool assurance in sending word to all the girls he knows to knit him everything they can think of. He wants a complete outfit from each one. He did have the grace to ask Mary to make the things, and she has started on the article the easiest to make, a needle book. But if he does not soon repeat his call, Mary will donate that to some more deserving youth. None of us will do anything for him just now. He needs a little judicious snubbing. He holds a lady’s favors too lightly. In the early days I used to think he would make quite an ideal lover, but no indeed, not now that I know him better. He would run me crazy and ruin my temper in a week. He is very argumentative and I feel like contradicting him always. We do not think alike on any subject. Neither Anna nor Julia like him at all, and Mary knows him only slightly.

Mr. McRae was nursing Ashburn on his death bed a year ago tonight, and now he too is sinking into the cold arms of Death. In the presence of Death, we feel at its fullest God’s terrible power. …

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Fashion at the Golden Globes / Breaking down the drone war / The Army’s brain drain / Why do wet fingers wrinkle? / Cities preparing for climate change

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Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism.

1. The Golden Globes: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
TMZ | Jan. 13
“The 70th Annual Golden Globes are in full swing and as usual there’s sure to be some fashion fiascoes showing up and showing off.”

2. Texas Has Created a Costly Roadmap for Defunding Planned Parenthood
By Molly Redden | The New Republic | Jan. 11
“Since fading from our national memory as the presidential candidate who couldn’t remember the Department of Energy, Perry has gone home to oversee the dissolution of what was once a decent health-care partnership with the federal government, the Women’s Health Program.”

3. Everything We Know So Far About Drone Strikes
By Cora Currier | Pro Publica | Jan. 11
“You’ve certainly heard about drones. But the details of the U.S. campaign against militants in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia — a centerpiece of the Obama administration’s national security approach — remain shrouded in secrecy.”

4. Gwen’s Take: Why Do People Want to Be President?
By Gewn Ifill | The Rundown :: PBS NewsHour | Jan. 11
“Why do they turn over their lives to years of grueling fundraising, speech-making, handshaking, second guessing, bad foods, bad hotels and life inside the bubble?”

5. Funding for Human Expeditions in the Ocean May Have Run Aground
By Tony Dokoupil | Newsweek | Jan. 14
“Legendary explorer Sylvia Earle is saying goodbye to the ocean floor, but are machines good enough to take her place? Tony Dokoupil reports in Newsweek on the robot takeover of ocean science.”

6. Mashable’s Favorite Tech From CES 2013
By Lance Ulanoff | Mashable | Jan. 10
“We saw smartphones, humongous Ultra HDTVs, smartphone cases, Bluetooth speaker systems, advanced gaming systems and accessories, 3D sensors and more.”

7. An Army of None
By Tim Kane | Foreign Policy | Jan. 10
“Why the Pentagon is failing to keep its best and brightest.”

8. How American Cities Are Adapting To Climate Change
By Jeff Spross | ThinkProgress | Jan. 11
“Almost two-thirds are pursuing adaptation planning for climate change, compared to 68 percent globally, and virtually all U.S. cities report difficulties acquiring funding for adaptation efforts.”

9. Seeing Time Machine Let Go of the Past
By J.D. Biersdorfer | Gadgetwise :: The New York Times | September 2012
“My Time Machine program keeps alerting me that it is deleting old backups. Should I be worried about this message?”

10. To Grip Wet Objects, Wrinkle Your Fingers
By Sindya N. Bhanoo | The New York Times | Jan. 10
“[S]cientists report that wrinkled fingers and toes allow a better grip on wet objects — so they may have evolved to give early humans an advantage in wet conditions.”

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Goals of the Texas legislative session / Q&A on Obama’s fight with GOP / Appreciating Al Jazeera / Happy birthday, Tricky Dick / Why do animals play?

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Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism.

1. Lawmakers Want Big, Bold Measures This Session
By Aman Batheja | The Texas Tribune | Jan. 11
“[T]here is widespread interest among state leaders to make large investments in Texas’ future this session, specifically billion-dollar commitments to water and transportation projects that prepare Texas for a population boom demographers warn is on the way.”

2. Q&A: Obama lacks clear edge in next fight with GOP
By Alan Fram | Associated Press | Jan. 11
“The government will run out of cash in about two months. The Obama administration will need congressional approval to borrow more money or face a first-ever federal default, threatening global, economy-rattling consequences.”

3. Banks seek NSA help amid attacks on their computer systems
By Ellen Nakashima | The New York Times | Jan. 11
“The cooperation between the NSA and banks … underscores the government’s fears about the unprecedented assault against the financial sector and is part of a broader effort by the government to work with U.S. firms on cybersecurity.”

4. Happy 100th, Nixon: You’re still tricky to critics
By James Hohmann | Politico | Jan. 9
“Richard Nixon would have turned 100 Wednesday, but about the only people marking the occasion are historians, family members and loyalists from the disgraced 37th president’s administration. And even they’re slowly dying off.”

5. Turn the channel to Al Jazeera
By Daoud Kuttab | The Los Angeles Times | Jan. 8
“The Arab network should be a welcome source for U.S. news junkies.”

6. Japan Explores War Scenarios with China
By J. Michael Cole | Flashpoints :: The Diplomat | Jan. 9
“There has been much speculation over the years about whether Tokyo would intervene if the PLA ever invaded Taiwan.”

7. Why do animals like to play?
By Jason G. Goldman | BBC Future | Jan. 9
“Recreation may look like it serves no obvious purpose, but when dogs and other animals are having fun they are learning some valuable lessons.”

8. How Much Alcohol Is Safe for Expectant Mothers?
By Melinda Wenner Moyer | Scientific American | Jan. 4
“An occasional drink during pregnancy is unlikely to harm most children, but we lack the tools to fully measure alcohol’s effects on the developing brain”

9. Kisses and Hugs in the Office
By Jessica Bennett and Rachel Simmons | The Atlantic | December 2012
“How a once-intimate sign-off is feminizing the workplace, for better or worse”

10. Converting Paper to Digital Files
By J.D. Biersdorfer | Gadgetwise :: The New York Times | Sept. 21
“What’s the best way to convert a box of old newspaper and magazine clippings to digital files, doing it myself and without spending a lot of money?”

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

The consequences of LiLo / Celebrating Richard Ben Cramer / Lima’s ugly side / Unborn babies can learn language / Public sees harm from U.S. politics

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Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism.

1. Here Is What Happens When You Cast Lindsay Lohan in Your Movie
By Stephen Rodrick | The New York Times Magazine | Jan. 10
“[Director Paul] Schrader thinks she’s perfect for the role. Not everyone agrees. Schrader wrote ‘Raging Bull’ and ‘Taxi Driver’ and has directed 17 films. Still, some fear Lohan will end him.”

2. Hagel pick: Final snub of George W. Bush
By Alexandra Burns | Politico | Jan. 9
“[T]he most vehement objections have come from the conservative, interventionist foreign policy community — the so-called neoconservatives who created the ideological architecture for the wars Bush launched in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

3. What do think of Richard Ben Cramer now?
By Tom Junod | Esquire | Jan. 8
“Richard Ben Cramer is the only one I still read for that holy, misguided, and somewhat dangerous purpose — the only one whose blood I still welcome for the purposes of transfusion. The others carry the risk of infection, which is to say the risk of mannerism.”

4. Hiding From People-Search Sites
By J.D. Biersdorfer | Gadgetwise :: The New York Times | Aug. 29
“I recently found my name, address and other personal information listed on this Web site called Spokeo.com. How do they get this information and can I delete it?”

5. Wodehouse and Fitzgerald — emblems of a lost age
By Robert McCrum | The Guardian | Jan. 7
“The two authors incarnated very different visions of England and the US between the wars”

6. From the Slums of Lima to the Peaks of the Andes
By Alastair Bland | Off the Road :: Smithsonian | Jan. 7
“That there could be anything in the world but dust, rubble, traffic, burning trash heaps, mangy dogs and slums seemed impossible as we rolled northward through Lima.”

7. Babies Seem to Pick Up Language in Utero
By Nicholas Bakalar | Well :: The New York Times | Jan. 7
“A baby develops the ability to hear by about 30 weeks’ gestation, so he can make out his mother’s voice for the last two months of pregnancy.”

8. Rebooting Republican Foreign Policy
By Daniel W. Drezner | Foreign Affairs | January/February 2013
“Needed: Less Fox, More Foxes”

9. Most in U.S. Say Politics in Washington Cause Serious Harm
By Frank Newport | Gallup | Jan. 7
“More than three-quarters of Americans (77%) say the way politics works in Washington these days is causing serious harm to the United States, providing still another indicator of the low esteem in which Americans hold their elected officials. …”

10. Creative Aging: The Emergence of Artistic Talents
By Richard Senelick | The Atlantic | Jan. 4
“Depending which part of the brain is affected, different skills will be preserved or impaired in various types of cognitive decline and dementia. This gradual reformation is what may allow the emergence of new artistic abilities.”

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TUNES

Tonight I’m spending some time with the blues, specifically with the Texas Blues Café. Check out the line-up and then listen here.

1. J.J. Grey & Mofro — Country Ghetto
2. Dr. Wu — I Don’t Need No Woman Like You
3. Delta Moon — Ghost In My Guitar
4. ZZ Top — Nasty Dogs And Funky Kings
5. Stoney Curtis Band — That’s Right
6. Kelleys Lot — Drive
7. The Fabulous Thunderbirds — Stand Back
8. Jeff Powers & Dead Guys Blues Band — Bad Luck Boogie
9. Ian Moore — Pay No Mind
10. Ray Wylie Hubbard — Down Home Country Blues
11. The Stone Coyotes — Trouble Down In Texas
12. Lost Immigrants — Dixie Queen
13. Band Of Heathens — Hallelujah

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Hauling a rock into orbit / A comatose Senate / Fiction to understand Iraq War / Navy SEALS fighting Jabba the Hutt / John Kerry and Cuba

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Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism.

1. Senatus Decadens
By George Packer | The Daily Comment :: The New Yorker | Jan. 4
“The Senate is in a prolonged, self-induced coma. It does not produce creative legislation. It does not inspire important debate. It is not responsive to key national problems. Its pretense of institutional dignity is so battered that junior senators openly mock it.”

2. Emerging wave of Iraq fiction examines America’s role in ‘bullshit war’
By Paul Harris | The Guardian | Jan. 3
“Flood of books with ‘elegiac feel running through them’ tackle eight-year conflict and help US to understand the folly of war”

3. Be Cautious With Free Software
By J.D. Biersdorfer | Gadgetwise :: The New York Times | August 2012
“Is it safe to install freeware and shareware on my computer?”

4. Can Kerry make friends with Cuba?
By Nick Miroff | GlobalPost :: Salon | Jan. 2
“While the ex-senator’s been a harsh critic of U.S. policy toward Havana, he’ll have a hard time changing anything”

5. Louis C. K.’s Symphony Of Comedy
By Chris Duffy | WBUR | Jan. 3
“In a field notorious for compromise, where comedians routinely change personas and water down material to get sitcom deals, C.K. has managed to maintain his voice.”

6. High schooler suspended for poem on understanding Adam Lanza
By Natasha Lennard | Salon | Jan. 2
“A 17-year-old high school student in San Francisco has been suspended indefinitely after she wrote a poem in her personal notebook which included the lines, ‘I understand the killings in Connecticut; I understand why he pulled the trigger.’ ”

7. Good and Bad, the Little Things Add Up in Fitness
By Gretchen Reynolds | Well :: The New York Times | Jan. 2
“I was delighted to report … that the ‘sweet sport’ for health benefits seems to come from jogging or moderately working out for only a brief period a few times a week.”

8. How Real Navy SEALs Would Handle Famous Movie Missions
By Shane Snow | Underwire :: Wired | December 2012
“[W]e asked 17-year SEAL veteran Don Mann … how the SEALs would handle a few epic missions of our own devising. And by ‘our,’ we mean Hollywood’s.”

9. Dissatisfaction City
By Jesse Elias Spafford | The New Inquiry | Jan. 2
“The Las Vegas casino is a machine for social control that works not through repression, but disinhibition”

10. NASA mulls plan to drag asteroid into moon’s orbit
By Jeff Hecht | New Scientist | Jan. 2
“The mission would cost about $2.6 billion — slightly more than NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover — and could be completed by the 2020s.”

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Puerto Rico’s new governor / Our lifelong dreams / Cannibal insect sex / The Soviet’s Afghan lessons / Savoring Texas blues

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Most of these great items come from my Twitter feed or Facebook news feed. Follow me on Twitter and on Facebook for more fascinating videos, articles, essays and criticism.

1. Gerda Lerner, a Feminist and Historian, Dies at 92
By William Grimes | The New York Times | Jan. 3
“[The] scholar and author … helped make the study of women and their lives a legitimate subject for historians and spearheaded the creation of the first graduate program in women’s history in the United States. …”

2. Why You Won’t Be the Person You Expect to Be
By John Tierney | The New York Times | Jan. 3
“[W]hen asked to predict what their personalities and tastes would be like in 10 years, people of all ages consistently played down the potential changes ahead.”

3. What We Can Learn from the Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan
The Takeaway | Jan. 3
“Americans should take note of the Soviets’ success in funding the Afghan government, and that the Soviet-supported Afghan government did not fall to the Mujahedeen until 1992, when the Soviet Union collapsed and Boris Yeltsin cut off aid to the country.”

4. Cannibal insect sex caught on video
By Joanna Carver | New Scientist | Jan. 3
“This video shows a female insect feasting on her partner’s hind wings then drinking the blood from his wound, apparently with little interest in procreation.”

5. How Obama Decides Your Fate If He Thinks You’re a Terrorist
By Daniel Byman and Benjamin Wittes | The Atlantic | Jan. 3
“A look inside the ‘disposition matrix’ that determines when — or if — the administration will pursue a suspected militant.”

6. Puerto Rico charts new course with new governor
By Danica Coto | Associated Press | Jan. 2
“Alejandro Garcia Padilla was sworn in on a stage overlooking the Atlantic Ocean outside the Capitol building in San Juan amid the cheers of thousands of supporters from his party, which opposes statehood.”

7. Beate Gordon, Unsung Heroine of Japanese Women’s Rights, Dies at 89
By Margalit Fox | The New York Times | Jan. 1
“A civilian attached to Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s army of occupation after World War II, Gordon was the last living member of the American team that wrote Japan’s postwar Constitution.”

8. Is America Still the Land of Opportunity?
By Marcus Mabry | IHT Rendezvous :: International Herald Tribune | Jan. 1
“Over the last decade or two, the American middle has been hollowed out, with an affluent, well-educated class growing on one side of the divide and a poor and working-class majority on the other, faced with limited opportunities to change their circumstances.”

9. European disunion done right
The Economist | December 2012
“The [Holy Roman Empire] offers surprising lessons for the European Union today”

10. Adding Missing Titles to iTunes Tracks
By J.D. Biersdorfer | Gadgetwise :: The New York Times | September 2012
“I have some old CDs that I want to convert to MP3 with iTunes. When I put the discs in the computer’s CD drive, iTunes lists the songs as Track 01, Track 02 and so on, instead of the titles. Where does this information come from and how do I get the song names on the files?”

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TUNES

Tonight I’m spending some time with the blues, specifically with the Texas Blues Café. Check out the line-up and then listen here.

1. Preacher Stone — Come Together
2. Hamilton Loomis — Bow Wow
3. Rocky Jackson — Shoulda Never Left Texas
4. Wynonna — Freebird
5. Lynyrd Skynyrd — T For Texas
6. Oreo Blues — Nobody Knows
7. Bluessmyth — Bluessmyth
8. Tommy Crain — Why I Sing The Blues

2012 in review

It’s been my best year ever. Thank you all for your interest.

WordPress.com prepared a 2012 annual report for Stillness of Heart.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 7,900 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 13 years to get that many views.

It’s been my best year ever. Thank you all for your interest. Click here to see the complete report.

Behind The Wall

Tabletop Games

Rebecca Aguilar

#CallingAllJournalists Initiative | Reporter | Media Watchdog | Mentor | Latinas in Journalism

Anna Fonte's Paper Planes

Words, images & collages tossed from a window.

Postcards from Barton Springs

Gayle Brennan Spencer - sending random thoughts to and from South Austin

The Flask Half Full

Irreverent travelogues, good drinks, and the cultural stories they tell.

Government Book Talk

Talking about some of the best publications from the Federal Government, past and present.

Fighting Irish Wire

Cadillac Society

Cadillac News, Forums, Rumors, Reviews

Ob360media

Real News That Matters

Talking Pictures Audio Description

Pintar Discover

Space Navy

Mealtime Joy

bringing joy to family meals

Øl, Mad og Folk

Bloggen Øl, Mad og Folk

a joyous kitchen

fun, delicious food for everyone

A Perfect Feast

Modern Comfort Food

donnablackwrites

Art is a gift we give ourselves

Fridgelore

low waste living drawn from food lore through the ages

BeckiesKitchen.com

MUSINGS : CRITICISM : HISTORY : NEWS

North River Notes

Observations on the Hudson River as it passes through New York City. The section of the Hudson which passes through New York is historically known as the North River, called this by the Dutch to distinguish it from the Delaware River, which they knew as the South River. This stretch of the Hudson is still often referred to as the North River by local mariners today. All photos copyright Daniel Katzive unless otherwise attributed. For more frequent updates, please follow northriverblog on Facebook or Instagram.