Recommended reading / viewing / listening

A self-checkout app … Herman Cain’s familiar style … A failed Russian probe … Shadows of a green life … Preparing for a major Midwest quake.

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. Read past recommendations from this series here.

1. Why Green ‘Lifestyle Choices’ Will Never Save Us
By Sami Grover | Treehugger | Nov. 10
“Lights get left on when they shouldn’t. I drive places I probably don’t need to. And I confess that my wife and I still get a little lazy when it comes to line drying our clothes. All this lead to a conversation the other day about whether there is any hope.”

2. Is Money Wasted Preparing for a Major Midwest Quake?
By Richard Monastersky and Nature | Scientific American | Nov. 10
“The government says that a huge earthquake risk lurks in the heart of the country, where a series of large shocks hit 200 years ago. Seth Stein says that kind of warning is dead wrong”

3. Cain was known for casual style with staff at association
By Krissah Thompson and Aaron C. Davis | The Washington Post | Nov. 10
“As a boss, Herman Cain made it a habit to stop by and talk to his employees, even the lowest-ranking. Often, he suggested that staffers, men and women, continue the conversation over drinks or dinner — one of many ways he blurred lines between the social and professional.”

4. Russian Mars probe stuck in Earth’s orbit after engines fail to fire
Reuters | Nov. 9
“Spacecraft was to visit Martian moon of Phobos and bring back soil sample but looks like joining list of failed red planet missions”

5. Are cookbooks obsolete?
By Julia Moskin | The New York Times | Nov. 8
“Many early cooking apps were unsatisfying: slow, limited, less than intuitive and confined to tiny phone screens. Even avid cooks showed little interest in actually cooking from them. But with the boom in tablet technology, recipes have begun to travel with their users from home to the office to the market and, most important, into the kitchen.”

6. Obama improves on foreign affairs, struggles on fiscal matters
By Lydia Saad | Gallup.com | Nov. 9
“Approval on the economy, creating jobs, and the federal budget deficit is stuck near record lows”

7. Scan on a mission
By Jane Dornbusch | The Boston Globe | Nov. 9
“Stop & Shop’s new smartphone app works as a super-fast self-checkout”

8. Is ‘camioneta’ really more correct than ‘troca’?
NewsTaco | Nov. 7
“Isn’t language a means to communicate our reality? And if our reality is that ‘troca’ is a more recognizable term than ‘camioneta,’ it would seem to follow that this word should be in the dictionary. But it’s not, and that’s kind of sad.”

9. Clinton Aims for ‘AIDS-Free Generation’
By Donald G. McNeil Jr. | The New York Times | Nov. 8
“The interventions she endorsed, based on successes in clinical trials in the last two years, include circumcision for men, multidrug cocktails for pregnant women, and getting drugs to patients as soon as they are first infected rather than years later when they fall sick.”

10. The Reckoning Begins
By Michael Moran | The Reckoning :: Slate | Nov. 7
“Thanks to a catastrophic series of decisions by presidents of both parties that radically deregulated our financial system and arrogantly dismissed the “lessons of Vietnam” as dusty, irrelevant history, the United States has shortened the period during which it will remain the dominant power in the 21st century.”

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

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. Mike Zito — 39 Days
2. Chris Rea — Lone Star Boogie
3. The Terry Quiett Band — Long Saturday Night
4. Lady Antebellum — Lookin’ for a Good Time
5. The Insomniacs — Angry Surfer
6. Anna Popovic — Get Back Home to You
7. Stevie Ray Vaughan — The Sky is Crying
8. Douglas Acres — Grand Theft Mojo
9. Tommy Crain & The Cross Town All Stars — For the Music
10. Grace Potter & The Nocturnals — Some Kind of Ride
11. Los Lonely Boys — Texican Style
12. Beau Hall — Hell & Ecstasy
13. Preacher Stone — Mother To Bed

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Cooking a steak … Ending the Cuban embargo … An asteroid flyby … Texas Democrats win … Voyager 2’s second wind.

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. Read past recommendations from this series here.

1. Voyager 2 to Switch to Backup Thruster Set
NASA | Nov. 5
“The change will allow the 34-year-old spacecraft to reduce the amount of power it requires to operate and use previously unused thrusters as it continues its journey toward interstellar space, beyond our solar system.”

2. Day After Day, Her Voice Takes Listeners to the Stars
By Sonia Smith | Texas Monthly and the New York Times | Oct. 29
“On a clear, cool night in the early 1960s, a father drove his young, pajama-clad daughter to one of the T-head piers on Corpus Christi Bay to marvel at an object in the sky. The girl who peered up at the sky was Sandy Wood, and this year marked her 20th anniversary as the voice of the nationally syndicated radio program ‘StarDate.’ ”

3. Texas Democrats Win Redistricting Battle
By Jessica Taylor | Hotline On Call :: National Journal | Nov. 8
“A Washington, D.C. federal court blocked the Republican-drawn Texas redistricting maps in a ruling, clearing the path for a three-judge panel to draw new congressional lines expected to benefit Democrats.”

4. Big asteroid has close encounter with Earth
By Irene Klotz | Reuters | Nov. 8
“With a diameter estimated at 400 meters, or about a quarter of a mile, Asteroid 2005 YU 55 is the biggest asteroid to make a close pass by Earth since 1976.”

5. Madness marches on
By Peter Brookes | The New York Post | Nov. 6
“With Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki and Moammar Khadafy swept into the dustbin of history and the full US withdrawal from Iraq in the works, there’s a prevailing sense that, for us, all’s reasonably right with the world. Pity, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.”

6. 10 More Stubborn Food Myths That Just Won’t Die, Debunked by Science
Lifehacker | Nov. 7
“We asked our nutritionists back to debunk some more common misconceptions about food, health, and nutrition that are still widely believed, even though there’s overwhelming evidence to the contrary. We also asked them some of your questions. Here’s what they said.”

7. Commando-Style DEA Squads Fight Cartels Abroad
By Evann Gastaldo | Newser | Nov. 7
“Squads train local authorities, but sometimes things get ugly”

8. Why the U.S. Should Drop the Embargo and Prop Up Cuban Homeowners
By Tim Padgett | Global Spin :: Time | Nov. 5
“It may not lead to a Caribbean Spring in Cuba – but then, neither has five wasted decades of embargo. The bottom line is that Washington needs to conjure the common sense to engage alternatives when Castro himself provides them.”

9. How to pan fry steak
BBC Food | June 2009
“Chef Barney Desmazery runs through the best way to cook Sirloin Steak medium rare.”

10. Turkish students bond over earthquake experiences
By Victoria Garten | The Oklahoma Daily | Nov. 7
“Oklahoma’s recent earthquakes have not fazed Turkish exchange student Mehmet Ali Nerse because he’s been there before.”

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Black holes … Differences among the GOP presidential candidates … Mummies in the house … Beating winter blues … Running the right way

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. Read past recommendations from this series here.

1. What’s that strange disk around that black hole?
By Nicole Gugliucci | Discovery News | Nov. 5
“Recently, using the Hubble Space Telescope, the light from the accretion disk around a black hole has been measured for the first time.”

2. Excavating key differences among GOP candidates
By Calvin Woodward | Associated Press | Nov. 7
“The Republican presidential candidates sound much alike in their zeal to shrink government, cut taxes and replace President Barack Obama’s big health care law with, well, something entirely different. It takes some digging to see the distinctions.”

3. Report: Ames Jones to Challenge Wentworth
By Ross Ramsey | Texas Tribune | Nov. 7
“Elizabeth Ames Jones, who left the Legislature for a spot on the Texas Railroad Commission, will reportedly get out of the U.S. Senate race to run instead for the Texas Senate against incumbent Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio.”

4. Kay Bailey Hutchison says Rick Perry ‘was very brutal’ to her two years ago
By Richard Dunham | PerryPresidential | Nov. 6
“Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison may have forgiven Rick Perry for the things he said during their bitter 2010 primary battle for governor, but she surely hasn’t forgotten.”

5. Russia: Mummified Bodies Found At Historian’s Home
Associated Press | Nov. 7
“Ministry spokesman Valery Gribakin said Monday that the suspect from the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod dug up the bodies at several cemeteries in the region. The man, whose identity was withheld, dressed them in clothes dug up from the graves.”

6. 8 Ways to Beat the Winter Blues
By Maia Szalavitz | Healthland :: Time | Nov. 4
“As the days get shorter and winter closes in, many people feel like hibernating. We start sleeping more, eating more, avoiding social contact. The effects can be particularly oppressive for people with depression. …”

7. The Once and Future Way to Run
By Christopher McDougall | The New York Times Magazine | Nov. 2
“Left, right, repeat; that’s all running really is, a movement so natural that babies learn it the first time they rise to their feet. Yet sometime between childhood and adulthood — and between the dawn of our species and today — most of us lose the knack.”

8. Polls: Ortega likely to win 3rd term in Nicaragua
By Samantha Lugo | CNN.com | Nov. 7
“He was first elected as president in 1985, and ran unsuccessfully in 1990, 1996 and 2001 before being elected again in 2006.”

9. Brazilian Au Pair Enjoying Nameless Men, Her First Multiple Orgasm
Daily Intel :: New York Magazine | April 4
“Once a week, Daily Intel takes a peek behind doors left slightly ajar. This week, the Brazilian Au Pair Enjoying Nameless Men and Her First Multiple Orgasm: Female, au pair, 26, Manhattan, ‘happily single ever after,’ straight.”

10. The Horny Suburban Mom on a Field Trip to the Big City
Daily Intel :: New York Magazine | Jan. 3
“Once a week, Daily Intel takes a peek behind doors left slightly ajar. This week, the Horny Suburban Mom on a Field Trip to the Big City: female, freelance copywriter, 44, suburban Philadelphia/NYC, ‘sexual libertine,’ single.”

Relaxing

Stillness of Heart is taking some time off to fully enjoy the last few weeks of summer.

Stillness of Heart is taking some time off to fully enjoy the last few weeks of summer.

Stay in touch. You can follow me on Twitter or Facebook.

See you in the fall.

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Memory crystals … Obama’s anger … Latino population growth … Tsunami in Antarctica … A woman’s erotic brain.

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. Read past recommendations from this series here.

1. Superman’s Memory Crystals Inch Closer to Reality
By Matt Cantor | Newser | Aug. 15
“Hard drives could soon be made from glass.”

2. His Anger Is a Start
The New York Times | Aug. 16
“[President Obama’s] anger is long overdue. But it would be much more effective if he combined it with strong ideas of his own for how to fix the economy, rather than the thin agenda he is now promoting. ”

3. Growing Latino population should not be a shock
By Marc Rodriguez | NewsTaco | Aug. 15
“The U.S. Census Report, or at least the documents from the past four decades, should officially be considered the government’s equivalent of the television broadcast version of the Spanish-language telenovela.”

4. America, the Dysfunctional
By Leslie Bennetts | The Daily Beast | Aug. 15
“As pundits bemoan the broken political system, historians tell Leslie Bennetts that even as far back as Jefferson and Hamilton, acrimony is just the American way.”

5. Can Rick Perry Govern?
By Dave Mann | Texas Observer | Aug. 15
“Texas governor is a terrific campaigner but has accomplished little in office.”

6. Tohoku Tsunami Created Icebergs In Antarctica
NASA | Aug. 8
“A NASA scientist and her colleagues were able to observe for the first time the power of an earthquake and tsunami to break off large icebergs a hemisphere away.”

7. Mikhail Gorbachev: I should have abandoned the Communist party earlier
By Jonathan Steele | The Guardian | Aug. 16
“The former president looks back on his role in the fall of the Soviet Union 20 years ago in an exclusive Guardian interview”

8. Vintage box camera portrays Mayan women
By Jack Chang | Associated Press | Aug. 16
“Associated Press photographer Rodrigo Abd made his way to the Guatemalan mountain city of Coban in July to photograph these women vying to become this year’s National Indigenous Queen of Guatemala, who is honored for helping keep alive the country’s rich Mayan history.”

9. Vaccines are important to everyone’s health
By Jeff Kreisberg | NewsTaco | Aug. 16
“You never outgrow your need to be vaccinated. No matter what your age, there are recommended vaccines to help keep you, your family, and your community safe.”

10. The Female Erotic Brain, Mapped
By Maia Szalavitz | Healthland :: Time | Aug. 16
“Not surprisingly, the brain region associated with sensation from the clitoris was distinct from those that respond to stimulation of the cervix or vagina. Each area of the genitals showed up in its own spot, clustered in one region of the brain — the same region associated with genital stimulation in men — overlapping but separate.”

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

The ultimate quake predictor … Be smart — be bilingual … The Moche culture … The busy Jessica Chastain … A guide to quarterbacks.

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. Read past recommendations from this series here.

1. Nancy Wake, saboteur and special agent, died on August 7th, aged 98
The Economist | Aug. 13
“Of the 39 SOE women infiltrated into France, 11 of whom would die in concentration camps, she was perhaps the most redoubtable.”

2. Pursuing the Grail of an Earthquake Predictor, but Facing Skeptics
By John Upton | The New York Times | Aug. 13
“The project, called QuakeFinder, involves installing some 200 five-foot-tall sensors near fault lines to measure changes in underground magnetic fields and detect electrically charged particles in the air. The theory behind it is that changes in electromagnetic fields can foretell quakes.”

3. Why It’s Smart to Be Bilingual
By Casey Schwartz | Newsweek | Aug. 7
“The brain’s real super-food may be learning new languages.”

4. Can We Make Jurassic Park Yet?
By Natalie Wolchover | Life’s Little Mysteries | Aug. 11
“Even if we do someday find ancient dinosaur DNA, it will be in shambles — snippets of code just a few base pairs long. We’ll have no idea how to stitch the snippets together. Thus, sequencing the dinosaur genome from fossilized tissues or blood may never be a viable route to their revival.”

5. The Moche Culture – Some Historical Background
By Jaime Briceno | Arqueologia del Peru | Aug. 13
“Studies of Moche iconography have contributed substantially to our understanding, offering insight into Moche ideology and ritual.”

6. Jessica Chastain’s Busy 2011 Launches Her Star
Huff Post Entertainment | Aug 13
“Attention, moviegoers: Here is the preemptive answer to the question each one of you will, inevitably, ask at some point over the next six months: Her name is Jessica Chastain, and she’s here to stay.”

7. The Longform.org Guide to Quarterbacks
By Max Linsky | Slate.com | Aug. 13
“From pre-draft jitters to post-retirement bliss, five glimpses into the minds of NFL QB’s.”

8. London Labour and the London Poor by Henry Mayhew
By Robert Douglas-Fairhurst | The Guardian | Oct. 16, 2010
“Henry Mayhew’s dazzling ‘Cyclopoedia’ of London street life gave voice to the city’s poor and has influenced writers from Kingsley to Larkin.”

9. The Guy Battling a Sunburn and His Girlfriend’s HPV
Daily Intel :: New York Magazine | June 6
“Once a week, Daily Intel takes a peek behind doors left slightly ajar. This week, the Guy Battling a Sunburn and His Girlfriend’s HPV: male, writer/editor, 24, Bushwick, straight, in a relationship.”

10. Attack on the Osirak reactor
Witness :: BBC News | June 8
“It is 30 years since Israeli war planes destroyed a nuclear reactor in Iraq.”

‘A bold shore and no danger’

Part 8 of this series focuses on Bartholomew Sharpe, an incredibly daring English pirate and excellent navigator who preyed on Spanish sailors along the western coast of South America.

This special Stillness of Heart series explores the Morgan Library & Museum’s fascinating exhibit, “The Diary: Three Centuries of Private Lives.”

Part 8 focuses on Bartholomew Sharpe, an incredibly daring English pirate and excellent navigator who preyed on Spanish sailors along the western coast of South America. Sharpe was sent back to England to be tried for murder in 1682, but he carried a secret gift for the king that he knew guaranteed his acquittal.

Examine images of his amazing diary and listen to the museum’s audio guide here.

Entries in this series:
Part 1: Introduction to the exhibit and Charlotte Brontë
Part 2: Frances Eliza Grenfell
Part 3: Sophia and Nathaniel Hawthorne
Part 4: Paul Horgan
Part 5: John Newton
Part 6: Mary Ann and Septimus Palairet
Part 7: Walter Scott
Part 8: Bartholomew Sharpe
Part 9: Tennessee Williams
Part 10: John Ruskin

Picturing a world at war

Sometimes beautiful words, colorful maps and heartwrenching diary entries are simply not enough to fully appreciate the day-to-day nightmare of civil war. Sometimes a frayed, black and white photograph is all you need to tell the story, complicate one’s understanding, or upend shallow assumptions.

Sometimes beautiful words, colorful maps and heartwrenching diary entries are simply not enough to fully appreciate the day-to-day nightmare of civil war. Sometimes a frayed, black and white photograph is all you need to tell the story, complicate one’s understanding, or upend shallow assumptions.

The frightening desolation of a field littered with swollen bodies, the angry eyes of a proud Union soldier, the smoking wreckage of a derailed train — these are images that dare us to try to understand what we see in them. They are terrible and beautiful moments frozen in time until our eyes rest upon them, our imaginations re-energizing them into movement, injecting scents, sounds and emotions, hoping somehow that we understand them a little better. Sometimes, that’s enough.

This afternoon I discovered Shorpy.com and its wonderful collection of Civil War photos. Take a moment to stroll through the gallery. The beauty and sadness is mesmerizing.

Thanks to my friend, the attorney Jim Dedman, one of the authors of the legal blog Abnormal Use, for sending this piece my way.

TUNES

My soundtrack for today included:

1. RUSHING Moby
2. CANTAR AL AMOR Marc Antoine
3. BLINDFOLD Morcheeba
4. FOREVER Goldfrapp
5. GRACE U2
6. HURRY ON NOW Alice Russell
7. NEVER ON SUNDAY Pink Martini
8. IT’S NOT MY CROSS TO BEAR The Allman Brothers Band
9. JA VIDI Christophe Goze
10. NOVEMBER RAIN Guns N’ Roses

Recommended reading / viewing / listening

Obama turns 50 … Sex diaries … Underwater Roman ruins … The beauty of math … The science of doomed diets.

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. Read past recommendations from this series here.

1. Seeing Catch-22 Twice
By Ron Rosenbaum | Slate.com | Aug. 2
“The awful truth people miss about Heller’s great novel.”

2. Starved Brain Cells May Cause Diets to Fail
By Jennifer Welsh | LiveScience | Aug. 2
“When a dieter starves themselves of calories, they starve their brain cells as well. New research finds that these hungry brain cells then release ‘feed me’ signals, which drive hunger, slow metabolism and may cause diets to fail.”

3. Why Math Works
By Mario Livio | Scientific American | Aug. 2
“Is math invented or discovered? A leading astrophysicist suggests that the answer to the millennia-old question is both”

4. Snorkeling for Roman Ruins
By Barbara A. Noe | IntelligentTravel :: National Geographic | Aug. 2
“In Italy, Roman ruins sprinkle the landscape like Parmesan cheese on pasta. In a twist of the typical, terrestrial way to see them, I recently donned a snorkel mask and fins on the Bay of Naples.”

5. Metropolitan Museum Returns Antiquities Found in King Tut’s Tomb to Egypt
By Marlon Bishop | WNYC | Aug. 2
“Last November, the Met agreed to give back the artifacts after an internal museum investigation determined it had no right to the antiquities — mostly non-museum quality pieces, ranging from small fragments to a tiny bronze dog — in the first place.”

6. Q&A: Adding International Keyboards to the iPad
By J.D. Biersdorfer | Gadgetwise :: The New York Times | Aug. 2
“Is it possible to switch the iPad’s keyboard layout to French like you can do on a Mac?”

7. The top 1%
Fault Lines :: Al Jazeera | Aug. 2
“With 1% of Americans controlling 40% of the country’s wealth, we examine the gap between the rich and the rest.”

8. The Valentine’s Day Sex Diaries
Daily Intel :: New York Magazine | Feb. 15
“The 24-Year-Old Female Editorial Assistant on the Upper East Side. The 32-Year-Old Male Designer Up in the Boston Area. The 27-Year-Old Mom in the Bronx. The 27-Year Old Female Grad Student in Park Slope. The 21-Year-Old Female Fashion Student in Wicker Park, Chicago.”

9. Turning 50, President Obama becomes a Washington tweener
By Manuel Roig-Franzia | The Washington Post | Aug. 2
“Reaching the pinnacle of American power so early means Obama will have to figure out what to do with himself for a big chunk of his 50s, whether in 2013, when he could become a 51-year-old one-termer, or in 2017, when he could leave office as a 55-year-old two-termer.”

10. Australian evacuee
Witness :: BBC News | June 20
“During World War II, many British children were sent away from the cities to escape German bombs. Most went to the countryside but some went as far away as Australia.”

Happy Birthday to me, sort of

There’s still so much left to do, so much still to explore. Thanks for joining the party. I’m just getting warmed up.

“I resisted creating a personal, standalone blog like this for a long time.”

That’s how I began this blog, one year ago today. I’m so happy the resistance crumbled, the hesitation eased, and the words flowed.

I’ve used dozens of posts to write about the Civil War and mojitos, Yuri Gagarin and Eva Longoria, Michelangelo and Theodore Roosevelt.

I’ve written about Thomas Jefferson’s ice cream. “Mad Men” and earthquakes. Papa Hemingway and Papa Ortiz. Writing and writers. I’ve recommended great reads and remembered great places.

There’s still so much left to do, so much still to explore.

Thanks for joining the party. I’m just getting warmed up.

F.

TUNES

My soundtrack for today included:
1. MISS YOU The Rolling Stones
2. COLOMBIA Jan Hammer
3. CRY Godley & Creme
4. TONIGHT, TONIGHT, TONIGHT Genesis
5. RICO’S BLUES Jan Hammer
6. CARRY ME Chris DeBurgh
7. FEELS LIKE THE FIRST TIME Foreigner
8. CROCKETT’S THEME Jan Hammer
9. NOTORIOUS Duran Duran
10. ALL SHE WANTS TO DO IS DANCE Don Henley

Thinking As Leverage

Developing deep and critical thinking.

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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.

Cadillac Society

Cadillac News, Forums, Rumors, Reviews

Ob360media

Real News That Matters

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

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