SCIENCE – Page 11 – Stillness of Heart

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

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

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

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

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?

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

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

Today’s slaves / Wireless printers / Rediscovering a lost Byzantine city / Conservative defeat in culture war / Naming winter storms

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. America’s Post-2014 Afghanistan Game Plan
By Daniel R. DePetris | The Editor :: The Diplomat | Jan. 5
“The war in Afghanistan has become a sore point for the Obama administration, punctuated by the enormous rise in insider attacks on coalition forces and the persistent tenacity and lethality of the Taliban insurgency.”

2. The Weather Channel Is Now Branding Winter
By James Poniewozik | Tuned In :: Time | Jan. 4
“Even assuming the most selfless intentions, there’s the obvious chance for TWC to benefit. Storms that people ‘follow’ and ‘pay attention to’ are storms that people turn on The Weather Channel for.”

3. The culture war is over, and conservatives lost
By Matt K. Lewis | The Week | Jan. 3
“It’s time we conservatives accepted an alarming truth: Americans no longer agree with us”

4. Ruins of Forgotten Byzantine Port Yield Some Answers, Yet Mysteries Remain
By Jennifer Pinkowski | Scientific American | Jan. 2
“After a drought revealed the seawall of a Byzantine Empire harbor town near Istanbul, archeologists excavated what was a thriving ancient center. But how does it fit into the city’s 1,600-year history?”

5. David Attenborough: A life measured in heartbeats
By Brian Cox and Robin Ince | New Statesman | December 2012
“In an exclusive interview with Brian Cox and Robin Ince, he talks about the BBC, Darwin and what keeps him moving.”

6. James Stavridis: How NATO’s Supreme Commander thinks about global security
TED | July 2012
“Imagine a global security driven by collaboration — among agencies, government, the private sector and the public.”

7. Setting Up A Wireless Printer
By J.D. Biersdorfer | Gadgetwise :: The New York Times | September 2012
“What’s involved in setting up a new wireless printer in Windows 7 on my home network?”

8. Turkey’s Moment
By Jonathan Tepperman | Foreign Affairs | January/February 2013
“A Conversation With Abdullah Gul”

9. Introducing the First Search Engine for Math And Science Equations
Smithsonian Magazine | December 2012
“Symbolab allows users to search for equations using both numbers and symbols as well as text. The engine returns results based upon their relatedness to theory and semantics rather than visuals.”

10. Slavery’s Global Comeback
By J.J. Gould | The Atlantic | December 2012
“150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, buying and selling people into forced labor is bigger than ever. What ‘human trafficking’ really means.”

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

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

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?”

**************

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.

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Outraged legislators / Hunting a serial killer / Flight attendants’ secrets / A general’s PTSD / Loving libraries of the lost

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 hunt for the perfect serial killer
By Maureen Callahan | The New York Post | Dec. 30
“His biggest unsolved mystery: How many people did he murder?”

2. 17 Things Your Flight Attendant Won’t Tell You
By George Hobica | The Huffington Post | Dec. 28
“What you read here may shock you, or make you laugh, I’m not sure which.”

3. Top 10 Ways the Middle East Changed, 2012
By Juan Cole | Informed Comment | Dec. 29
Egypt. Afghanistan. Yemen. More change and more of the same.

4. Patti Smith: Family Life, Recent Loss, and New Album ‘Gone Again’
By David Fricke | Rolling Stone | July 1996
” ‘When I perform, I can’t say I feel like a male or a female. What I feel is not in the human vocabulary’ ”

5. Syria Civil War: Gravediggers Have No Time To Wait For The Dead
Reuters | Dec. 30
“Marble gravestones are now squeezed barely a few centimeters apart as workers try to fit as many bodies as possible into the cemetary, near a block of single storey homes. When space runs out, they may be forced to find a new location, says Abu Sulaiman, the gravedigger.”

6. General’s battle with PTSD leads him to the brink
By Kristen Gelineau | Associated Press | Dec. 29
“Maj. Gen. Cantwell would become two people: a competent warrior on the outside. A cowering wreck on the inside.”

7. Sex secrets of NYC’s men
By Susannah Cahalan | The New York Post | Dec. 30
“It’s a cliche … that dating for women in New York City is rough. That men cheat and are immature. That finding the right guy is nearly impossible. But according to sex therapist Dr. Brandy Engler, it’s much, much worse.”

8. Handled With Care
By Andrew D. Scrimheour | The New York Times Book Review | Dec. 28
“Each was the domain of a scholar. Each was the accumulation of a lifetime of intellectual achievement. Each reflected a well-defined precinct of specialization. But what they also had in common was that each of their owners had died.”

9. 2012: The Year in Graphics
The New York Times | Dec. 30
“Graphics and interactives from a year that included an election, the Olympics and a devastating hurricane. A selection of the graphics presented here include information about how they were created.”

10. Senate Outraged at Having to Work Weekend to Save Nation
By Andy Borowitz | The Borowitz Report :: The New Yorker | Dec. 30
“Senator McConnell said that when President Obama called the Senate back to work on a budget deal this weekend, ‘At first I thought he was kidding. Not only have I never worked on a weekend, I’ve never met anyone who’s done such a damn fool thing.’ “

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Turkish soap operas / King’s ‘Whorehouse’ story / No (world’s) end in sight / Clinton’s legacy / 2012 fashion

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. Dec. 21: The Winter Solstice Explained
By Joe Rao and Space.com | Scientific American | Dec. 21
“For northern latitudes, the solstice marks the beginning of winter, but ancient skywatchers didn’t understand the sun’s migration, fearing it could disappear forever as it dipped below the horizon.”

2. End of the world: Not this year
By William Booth | The Washington Post | Dec. 21
“The U.S. Missile Defense Agency reported no incoming meteorites capable of extinction events. In France, at a mountaintop popular with UFO enthusiasts, there was no sign of little green men seeking cavity probes. In China, where an apocalyptic Christian sect was predicting doomsday, the Shanghai stock market dipped slightly.”

3. 2012 styles that made our heads turn
By Samantha Critchell | Associated Press | Dec. 21
“Every year fashion offers up the good, the bad and the ugly. But what the industry is really built on — and consumers respond to — is buzz.”

4. Hillary Clinton: Unemployed
By Jean Mackenzie | GlobalPost :: Salon | Dec. 21
“Her widely heralded term as secretary of state has ended in turmoil. Could it affect her presidential prospects?”

5. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
By Larry L. King | Playboy | April 1974
“When a true son of Texas discovers they’ve closed down “the chicken farm” he takes his business to the free-lancers. Man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.”

6. Wayne LaPierre’s bizarre pop culture references
By Jamelle Bouie | The American Prospect :: Salon | Dec. 21
“‘Natural Born Killers?’ ‘Mortal Kombat?’ You wonder why the NRA is so feared when its leader is this addled”

7. 151 Victims of Mass Shootings in 2012: Here Are Their Stories
Mother Jones | Dec. 21
“Bearing witness to the worst year of gun rampages in modern US history.”

8. A Problem of Churchillian Proportions
By James Andrew Miller | The New York Times Magazine | Nov. 1
“After one of the longest waits in publishing history … the third and final volume of William Manchester’s biography of Winston Churchill, ‘The Last Lion,’ is finally about to arrive. …”
Also, read the book review: ‘We Shall Go On to the End’

9. Turkish soaps: threat to Pakistan’s culture or entertainment market?
By Mansoor Jafar | Al Arabiya | Dec. 21
“[T]he talk of the town in Pakistan these days is a flamboyant Turkish soap opera having a theme that revolves around a taboo subject like incest, besides over exposure, and other moral problems associated with the super rich class.”

10. Crazy Far
By Tim Folger | National Geographic | January 2013
“To the stars, that is. Will we ever get crazy enough to go?”

Behind The Wall

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Rebecca Aguilar

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Anna Fonte's Paper Planes

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

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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

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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.