Category: POLITICS

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Tracking whale sharks / How Nixon chased women / Dead vice presidents / Man-made eggs, woman-made sperm / Chronicling Syria’s bloodshed / Friday’s blues

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For this week:
Tracking whale sharks / How Nixon chased women / Dead vice presidents / Man-made eggs, woman-made sperm / Chronicling Syria’s bloodshed / Friday’s blues

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

1. Where the Whale Sharks Go
By Christopher Joyce | Morning Edition :: NPR | Aug. 22
“After tagging more than 800 whale sharks over nine years, the team discovered that after feeding, the sharks head off in seemingly random directions. Some travel thousands of miles, and they can dive a mile deep.”

2. How the Nixon Administration Tried to Woo Women
By Emma Green | The Atlantic | Aug. 22
“It turns out that the Republican strategy on women in the 1970s was about as nimble as ‘binders full of women’ ”

3. Have any vice presidents died in office?
By Anthony Bergen | Dead Presidents | August 2013
“Yes, quite a few of our Vice Presidents have died in office, actually — SEVEN out of 47 total, so about 15% of the VPs didn’t survive their term.”

4. Lab-Made Egg and Sperm Precursors Raise Prospect for Infertility Treatment
By David Cyranoski | Nature / Scientific American | Aug. 21
“A technical tour de force, which involved creating primordial germ cells from mouse skin cells, is prompting scientists to consider attempting this experiment with human cells”

5. Syria’s civil war: A chronicle of bloodshed
By Emily Lodish | GlobalPost | Aug. 21
“News of a possible chemical weapons attack in Syria follows a chain of deadly events. Here’s a look at the worst of the worst.”

6. The Latinos turning to Islam
By Katy Watson | Newshour :: BBC World News | August 2013
“With more than 50 million Hispanics living in the US, the Latino community is now the country’s biggest minority. ”

7. Covering Nixon
The New York Review of Books | Aug. 9
“The sheer number, variety, and viciousness of David Levine’s drawings of Nixon provide some sense of his place in The New York Review’s pages during the five and a half years of his presidency.”

8. Bezos, Heraclitus and the Hybrid Future of Journalism
By Arianna Huffington | LinkedIn | Aug. 14
“The future will definitely be a hybrid one, combining the best practices of traditional journalism — fairness, accuracy, storytelling, deep investigations — with the best tools available to the digital world — speed, transparency, and, above all, engagement.”

9. The Man Who Knew Too Much
By Marie Brenner | Vanity Fair | May 1996
“Angrily, painfully, Jeffrey Wigand emerged from the sealed world of Big Tobacco to confront the nation’s third-largest cigarette company, Brown & Williamson. Hailed as a hero by anti-smoking forces and vilified by the tobacco industry, Wigand is at the center of an epic multibillion-dollar struggle that reaches from Capitol Hill to the hallowed journalistic halls of CBS’s 60 Minutes.”

10. Are Apostrophes Necessary?
By Matthew J.X. Malady | Slate | May 2013
“Not really, no.”

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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. Gary Moore — Texas Strut
2. Paul Rodgers & Gary Moore — She Moves Me
3. Dr. Wu — Storm Watch Warning
4. Needtobreathe — Prisoner
5. Rick Huckaby — Can’t Miss Kid
6. The Mark Knoll Band — High Time
7. Preacherstone — Old Fashioned Ass Whoopin’
8. Brian Burns & Ray Wylie Hubbard — Little Angel Comes A-Walkin
9. Cody Gill Band — Crazy
10. Ramblin Dawgs — Worse Without You
11. Pat Green & Cory Morrow — Stuck In The Middle With You
12. Bobby Manriquez — How We Started
13. WSNB — True Love
14. Shane Dwight — Boogie King

Kate Stone’s Civil War: Lose our scalps

Stone’s critical eye takes in a town’s beauty, overpriced luxuries, her brother’s love, and a gentleman’s proper language use.

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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)

Stone’s critical eye takes in a town’s beauty, overpriced luxuries, her brother’s love, and a gentleman’s proper language use.

Aug. 3, 1863

Lamar County, Texas

Paris is a clean, pretty place in the edge of Blossom Prairie — clumps of trees and deep white sand in the streets.

We went to church and saw a really nice-looking congregation of refined-looking people. We all liked the place so well that Mamma would rent a place there, but it is too near the borderline, the first point for an invasion and right next to the Indian Nation. We do not wish to lose our scalps in addition to everything else. We saw a large party of Indian men dashing through the town. They are nearly all Southern sympathizers, we hear.

We went shopping. There are several well-filled stores, but the prices are beyond anything. We saw a pretty light calico but Mamma could not afford it at $6 a yard. A penknife was very tempting, but who would give $25 for a little Yankee knife? Our nails will have to grow like eagle’s claws before we can afford an extravagance of that kind. We did get a few articles, absolute essentials, and Mamma indulged me in a piece of extravagance a deck of playing cards at $5. They are a different kind from those the girls use out here, but I fancy they will afford us more amusement than the finest pair of cotton cards.

A gentleman gave us a late Louisiana paper containing Mary Gustine’s marriage on July 21. I know she was a beautiful bride, and our best wishes go with her for her future happiness. I wonder how Brother Coley will stand the loss of his sweetheart, his first love affair. Like most boys, he lost his heart to a girl several years the older — fortunately a disease that never kills a boy of that age.

The Baptist meeting has been going on in Paris for seven weeks, and sixty have joined that church. It seems the strongest church of this section. Sunday morning we heard a splendid sermon, the best since hearing Dr. Marshall preach two years ago. I wish Jimmy could have heard it. It was the first real Baptist sermon I ever really listened to. Have heard the preacher, Mr. Buckner — knows what he believes and is not afraid to preach it from the pulpit.

We have made the acquaintance of another Texas gallant. Dr. Bywaters, introduced as a friend by Mr. McGleason, walked home with us from church. One thing in his favor: he does not say “mile” for “miles,” and he does not ignore the plural of “year.”

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

The value of apostrophes / Obama and Nixon / Cicada secrets / Boston Marathon bombing PTSD / A long-lost WWII Marine’s diary

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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. WW2 Marine’s diary: A brief look at a brief life
By Janet McConnaughey | Associated Press | May 27
“Before Cpl. Thomas ‘Cotton’ Jones was killed by a Japanese sniper in the Central Pacific in 1944, he wrote what he called his ‘last life request’ to anyone who might find his diary: Please give it to Laura Mae Davis, the girl he loved. Davis did get to read the diary — but not until nearly 70 years later. …”

2. How Timbuktu’s manuscripts were saved from jihadists
By Sudarsan Raghavan | The Washington Post | May 26
“The scholarly documents depicted Islam as a historically moderate and intellectual religion and were considered cultural treasures by Western institutions — reasons enough for the ultraconservative jihadists to destroy them.”

3. Why Efforts to Bring Extinct Species Back from the Dead Miss the Point
Scientific American | May 27
“A project to revive long-gone species is a sideshow to the real extinction crisis”

4. There Are Plenty of Reasons Why Parents May Read More With Their Daughters
By Nanette Fondas | The Atlantic | May 21
“Understanding a new study that finds girls get more reading time with their parents than boys.”

5. As Boston recovers from Marathon attack, emotional trauma may be just setting in
By Marissa Miley | GlobalPost | May 24
“PTSD and related stress disorders can take weeks or months to develop — and local organizations are prepared to help.”

6. Obama’s speechwriter: from intern to top wordsmith
By Darlene Superville | Associated Press | May 25
“Current and former White House colleagues, all Obama campaign veterans, praise [Cody] Keenan’s writing skills and work ethic and what they describe as his sense of fairness, modesty and willingness to help.”

7. The Man Who Knew Too Much
By Marie Brenner | Vanity Fair | May 1996
“Angrily, painfully, Jeffrey Wigand emerged from the sealed world of Big Tobacco to confront the nation’s third-largest cigarette company, Brown & Williamson. Hailed as a hero by anti-smoking forces and vilified by the tobacco industry, Wigand is at the center of an epic multibillion-dollar struggle that reaches from Capitol Hill to the hallowed journalistic halls of CBS’s 60 Minutes.”

8. The secrets of cicada survival
By John Matson | Salon | May 24
“A new brood is set to emerge this summer for the first time in 17 years. What’s taken them so long?”

9. Why Obama Is Not Nixon
By Elizabeth Drew | NYR Blog :: The New York Review of Books | May 18
“Compared to Watergate, on the basis of everything we know about what are the current ‘scandals’ amount to a piffle. Watergate was a Constitutional crisis.”

10. Are Apostrophes Necessary?
By Matthew J.X. Malady | Slate | May 23
“Not really, no.”

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.”

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Alec Baldwin’s new NBC show? / The Met gets a $1 billion gift / The quirks of the DSM 5 / Remembering Thatcher and Firestone / Renaissance art reborn

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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, articles, essays and criticism.

1. Alec Baldwin Said to Be in Talks to Join NBC’s Late-Night Lineup
By Bill Carter | Media Decoder :: The New York Times | April 9
“The most likely landing place for a show hosted by Mr. Baldwin would be in the latest of NBC’s entries, the show now called ‘Last Call.’ That half-hour interview program currently stars Carson Daly.”

2. The D.S.M and the Nature of Disease
By Gary Greenberg | Elements :: The New Yorker | April 9
“[T]here is little reason to think that a new D.S.M. will increase the prevalence of mental-disorder diagnoses, and less to think that we will ever really know how many people are sick.”

3. The Man Who Pierced the Sky
By William Langewiesche | Vanity Fair | May 2013
“When Felix Baumgartner set out to make a living by stunt jumping … the young Austrian had no idea where it would take him: to a pressurized capsule nearly 24 miles above New Mexico, last October 14, preparing to free-fall farther than any man in history, and at supersonic speed.”

4. The 21 Books from the 21st Century Every Man Should Read
GQ | April 8
“These are GQ‘s hands-down, most emphatically favorite works of fiction from the new millennium, plus all the books from the past thirteen years the authors want you to read”

5. The lady who changed the world
The Economist | April 8
“The essence of Thatcherism was to oppose the status quo and bet on freedom. … She thought nations could become great only if individuals were set free. Her struggles had a theme: the right of individuals to run their own lives, as free as possible from the micromanagement of the state.”

6. Beautiful Renaissance Paintings, All Done Up Real Handsome-Like as Photographs
By Rebecca J. Rosen | The Atlantic | April 4
“A project co-opts classic Italian art to challenge Europe’s xenophobia.”

7. Death of a Revolutionary
By Susan Faludi | The New Yorker | April 15
“When Shulamith Firestone’s body was found late last August … she had been dead for some days. … Such a solitary demise would have been unimaginable to anyone who knew Firestone in the late nineteen-sixties, when she was at the epicenter of the radical-feminist movement …”

8. Prize-Writing
By Amanda Foreman | The New York Times Book Review | April 5
“Literary prizes have become so numerous and pervasive that just like the invention of the computer, it makes you wonder how writers ever survived without them.”

9. The Invincible Mrs. Thatcher
By Charles Moore | Vanity Fair | December 2011
“Twenty years after Thatcher’s retirement, her biographer Charles Moore re-assesses the most powerful British prime minister since Churchill, one who forged a legacy that will long survive her.”

10. Cubism, Which Changed Art, Now Changes the Met
By Carol Vogel | The New York Times | April 9
“In one of the most significant gifts in the history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the philanthropist and cosmetics tycoon Leonard A. Lauder has promised the institution his collection of 78 Cubist paintings, drawings and sculptures.”

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

“Morning-after” pill / Clinton’s 2016 challenges / Shakespeare the businessman / King of nerds may reign again / Friday blues

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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, articles, essays and criticism.

1. Judge strikes restrictions on ‘morning-after’ pill
By Jessica Dye | Reuters | April 5
“A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make ‘morning-after’ emergency contraception pills available without a prescription to all girls of reproductive age, while blasting top Obama administration officials for interfering with the process.”

2. Hillary Clinton Would Not ‘Clear the Field’ for 2016
By Tod Lindberg | The New Republic | April 5
“When Colin Powell stepped down as secretary of state, he had a 77 percent job approval rating. But by 2005, Powell was yesterday’s man, content to amble downhill from the peak of his career. Clinton isn’t at all about nostalgia and gratitude; her best years may lie ahead of her.”

3. British class system alive and growing, survey finds
Reuters | April 3
“British people can now aspire to and despise four new levels of social classes, according to a new survey conducted by researchers in partnership with public broadcaster the BBC.”

4. For Cuba’s traveling dissidents, an anxious return
By Nick Miroff | GlobalPost | April 3
“Will Castro opponents face retaliation back home?”

5. When It’s Brains, It Pours ($$$$$): Obama’s Big (Neuro) Science Project
By Gary Stix | Talking back :: Scientific American | April 3
“There will be no lunar one small step or a genomic three-billion nucleotides within the next four years.”

6. Hobbit ring that may have inspired Tolkien put on show
By Maev Kennedy | The Guardian | April 1
“Lord of the Rings author was researching the story of the curse of a Roman ring for two years before starting Bilbo Baggins tale”

7. Three days that saved the world financial system
By Neil Irwin | The Washington Post | March 29
“How the world’s top central bankers hopscotched across Europe, wining and dining, to save the global economy.”

8. Study shows Shakespeare as ruthless businessman
By Jill Lawless | Associated Press | March 31
“Researchers from Aberystwyth University in Wales argue that we can’t fully understand Shakespeare unless we study his often-overlooked business savvy.”

9. Secret Service Prostitution Scandal: One Year Later
By Shane Harris | Washingtonian | March 25
“That wild night in Cartagena rocked the elite secret service and embarrassed the White House. Was it a one-time incident or part of a pattern of agents behaving badly?”

10. The Cash-Strapped King of the Nerds Plots a Comeback
By Hal Espen and Borys Kit | The Hollywood Reporter | March 28
“[Harry Knowles, the] founder of the once-renegade movie site [Ain’t It Cool], who earned the admiration of Peter Jackson and Steve Jobs, is struggling for money and relevance in the wild media landscape he helped to create.”

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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. Electrofied — Bad Case Of The Blues
2. Dr. John — Cold Shot
3. Robert Earl Kean — Throwin’ Rocks
4. Will Tang — Love Bites
5. Nasty Ned and the Famous Chili Dogs — Out On The Town
6. Matt Schofield — Siftin’ Thru the Ashes
7. Andrew Strong — To Many Cooks
8. The Vaughan Brothers — Good Texan
9. Lady Antebellum — Love Don’t Live Here Anymore
10. John Campbell — Epiphony
11. Bonnie Raitt — Pride And Joy
12. Micheal Burks — Fire And Water
13. Three-legged Fox — Soul Thief
14. Paul Thorn — Long Way From Tupelo
*Instrumental out by Nick Moss & The Flip Tops — The Rump Bump

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Naked-image scanners out / Eva Longoria: Political leader / Nixon’s Checkers speech / The perfect vagina / Famous presidential words

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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. Naked-Image Scanners to Be Removed From U.S. Airports
By Jeff Plungis | Bloomberg | Jan. 18
“The U.S. Transportation Security Administration will remove airport body scanners that privacy advocates likened to strip searches after OSI Systems Inc. (OSIS) couldn’t write software to make passenger images less revealing.”

2. How Coffee Drank Soda’s Milkshake
By Derek Thompson | The Atlantic | Jan. 18
“Soda is in a free fall, with domestic revenue down 40%. Coffee culture is ascendant, up 50% in ten years.”

3. Eva Longoria’s Next Role: Hispanic Activist in Washington
By Monica Langley | The Wall Street Journal | Jan. 18
“She helped urge Mr. Obama to make a key change in immigration policy last year, and she is teaming with business to explore investments in housing and retail developments in Hispanic communities.”

4. The secret story of Richard Nixon’s first scandal
By Jeffrey Frank | Salon | Jan. 19
“Long before Watergate, a secret fund almost ended his career — instead, the Checkers speech taught him everything.”

5. Just Say No To ‘Barbie’ Vagina
By Ami Angelowicz | The Frisky | Jan. 18
“[T]he myth of the ‘perfect vagina’ continues to thrive.”

6. Asking Siri — the Right Way
By J.D. Biersdorfer | Gadgetwise :: The New York Times | September 2012
“I just upgraded to iOS 6 on my iPad and am trying to get used to using the Siri assistant. Is there a correct way to ask for stuff?”

7. In four short years, how the world changed
By Marc Fisher | Post Politics :: The Washington Post | Jan. 14
“Whatever mandate they’ve been elected to fulfill, whatever sense of control they felt on that first January morning when the crowd’s hopes carried them down Pennsylvania Avenue, quickly runs up against a cold fact: The world stops for no president.”

8. A New GOP Begins, and Ends, With Immigration Reform
By Nate Cohn | The New Republic | Jan. 16
“Opposition to immigration reform has hurt Republicans among Latino voters, and although a 180-degree switch on the issue might not yield immediate gains among Hispanics, it’s an essential starting point.”

9. Meet the World’s Laziest Valentine’s Day Gift
By Kat Stoeffel | The Cut :: New York Magazine | Jan. 16
“E-card purveyor Datevitation wrote … to alert us to their love coupon books, which can be customized to include 20 of some 200 date options. …”

10. From Iffy to Mulligan: Words American Presidents Made Famous
By Katy Steinmetz | Time | Jan. 16
“We all remember George W. Bush’s verbal gems. Who could forget resignate, decider or misunderestimate?”

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Follow the inauguration / Feminist critics of Michelle Obama / Looking beyond the password / Who protects Bo? / The greatest inaugural speeches

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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. Inauguration 2013: A Social Media Guide
By Elana Zak | Washington Wire :: The Washington Post | Jan. 18
“Here are ways to follow and participate in President Barack Obama‘s second inauguration.”

2. Feminists split by Michelle Obama’s ‘work’ as first lady
By Lonnae O’Neal Parker | The Washington Post | Jan. 18
“In 2008, when Obama announced her intention to be ‘mom-in-chief,’ many feminists decried her decision to give up her career and said she had been victimized by her husband’s choices.”

3. Google Declares War on the Password
By Robert McMillan | Wired | Jan. 18
“Google is running a pilot project to see if these USB-based Yubico log-on devices might help it solve the password problem.”

4. Inside Obama’s Presidency
Frontline :: PBS | Jan. 15
“A probing look at the first four years of Barack Obama’s presidency.”

5. Muhammad Ali, still the greatest at 71
By Matthew Kitchen | The Culture :: Esquire | Jan. 17
“[F]ew are aware that in 1990, just six weeks ahead of Desert Storm, Ali flew to Iraq to broker the release of fifteen hostages being held as human shields by Saddam Hussein. …”

6. Guard Dog
By Brian Palmer | Slate | Jan. 16
“Does the Secret Service protect Bo Obama?”

7. Getting Around the WWW
By J.D. Biersdorfer | Gadgetwise :: The New York Times | September 2012
“Why do some Web addresses begin with “http://www” while others omit the “www” altogether?”

8. From Death Star to Disney, exploring the ‘Star Wars’ franchise
By Daniel Terdiman | CNET | Jan. 15
“[N]o one has ever really told the complete story tying together how the ‘Star Wars’ universe fits into popular culture, how it impacts the economy, and how it inspired so many fans to create their own fiction.”

9. Inaugural speeches through history
The Washington Post | Jan. 16
Kennedy, LBJ, Obama, and more.

10. Sandy lesson: Don’t mess with Jersey
By David Rogers | Politico | Jan. 16
“A chippy Chris Christie set the tone early when the New Jersey governor warned fellow Republicans … that they’d picked ‘the wrong state’ to begin changing the rules for disaster aid.”

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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. Smokin Joe Kubek — Never Enough
2. Bluessmyth — Rollin’ Penny
3. Todd Sharpville — Picture Of You
4. Rob Allen — Rainbow Blues
5. Too Slim & the Taildraggers — The Fortune Teller
6. Kelly Richey — No More Lies
7. Smokin Hogs — Outa My Head
8. Pride and Joy Band — Evil Thoughts
9. Dean Haitani — Dissin’ Me
10. Brett Hinders — Buddy Holly Memoriam
11. Chris Duarte — Mr. Neighbor
12. Grace Potter — Go Down Low
13. Grace Porter — Nothing But the Water
14. Van Wilks — Sometimes You Run

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.”

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