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

Kate Stone’s Civil War: Preparing to run

Stone’s new year of happiness ended abruptly, and as Union troops closed in on Brokenburn, her diary fell silent. She did not write again until March 1863.

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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 new year of happiness — her brother home to recover from minor wounds, a stream of good news from the battlefields — ended abruptly, and as Union troops closed in on Brokenburn, her diary fell silent.

She did not write again until March 1863.

Jan. 1, 1863

My dear Brother came home this morning and in perfect health. How overjoyed we are to have him with us, but oh the disappointment that he is still only a captain. It seems he and the other gentlemen mentioned at the same time were recommended by the officers of their regiment for the field offices and a petition sent up for their promotion, but by the rules of war promotion could not go that way. The senior officers must go up first, and so Tom Manlove is lieutenant colonel and the senior captain, major. Tom Manlove headed a petition signed by all the officers of the regiment asking that My Brother be made colonel, but My Brother would not let it be sent up. I am awfully sorry. I fear now he will never be promoted. He has no ambition and a low opinion of his capabilities. It is foolish for me to feel so bad about it when I should be perfectly happy that he has escaped the myriad dangers and is with us again. He was mentioned for gallant conduct in Gen. Featherston’s report of the battles before Richmond. He was highly complimented on the field of battle at Sharpsburg by Gen. D. H. Hill and again in his official report.

Dear fellow, if anybody deserves promotion he does. He may get the colonelcy of his old batallion, now the 48th Miss. Regt. He was slightly wounded in the foot at the Battle of Fredericksburg, and that is why he was allowed to come home. He is looking well and cheerful. A piece of shell made a slight scar on his face but his whiskers conceal it. To me his coming was no surprise. I have been looking for him for two months, but the others were not so confident. He came by way of Mrs. Amis, and she sent him on by horseback.

Uncle Bo, he reports, is in the finest health and spirits, and our other soldiers are still at Grenada and well.

He brings encouraging news of successes. We have repulsed the enemy twice between the Yazoo and Vicksburg. Gen. Van Dorn has retaken Holly Springs and is threatening Memphis. Our victory at Fredericksburg was complete but barren of result, only it has depressed and surprised the North. Altogether we are getting the better of our foes.

Most of the family are troubled with inflamed eyes and mine are paining me so, from long writing I suppose. This has truly been a Happy New Year to us all, white and black.

Jan. 22

Sunday. After three weeks of silence let me think of what has happened. The Yankees, after an absence of more than a week employed in taking Arkansas Post, have returned in large force, have invested Vicksburg, and are cutting another ditch across the point above DeSoto, or it may be deepening the first ditch. My Brother, Mr. Hardison, Dr. Waddell, and several other Louisiana gentlemen were in Vicksburg when the boats came in sight, and they had great trouble regaining their horses, just missing several encounters with scouting bands.

My Brother started off this morning with the best and strongest of the Negroes to look for a place west of the Ouachita. Only the old and sickly with the house servants are left here. He is sure we will all be forced to leave this place as the enemy intend going into camp at the Bend, and in the event of their defeat at Vicksburg which is certain, will lay this whole country waste, sending out bands of Negroes and soldiers to burn and destroy. My Brother thinks we had better leave at once, and we will commence packing tomorrow. The Negroes did so hate to go and so do we.

We have retaken Galveston under Gen. Magruder, and the Alabama and Florida are spreading death and destruction on the seas. We have fought another … battle at Murfreesboro, and the enemy have evacuated Island No. 10. Three days fighting at Vicksburg, and the enemy badly whipped.

Heard from the boys by Joe’s servant, who is home on a visit. All well. Their regiment is now under Van Dorn.

Jan. 26

Preparing to run from the Yankees, I commit my book to the bottom of a packing box with only a slight chance of seeing it again.

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

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.”

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

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

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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. 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.”

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

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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 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

2012’s best photobombs / Take the 2012 news quiz / Our trash on the moon / The Soviet-Japanese War of 1939 / The 1927 school massacre

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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 30 Most Powerful Photobombs Of 2012
By Jack Shepherd and Dave Stopera | BuzzFeed | Dec. 19
“Never stop ‘bombing, you guys. And stingrays.”

2. New Concordia Island
Dezeen Magazine | Dec. 19
“Sunken cruise ship the Costa Concordia would be transformed into a watery memorial garden in this competition-winning conceptual design by London architecture graduates Alexander Laing and Francesco Matteo Belfiore.”

3. The Trash We’ve Left on the Moon
By Megan Garber | The Atlantic | Dec. 19
“The lunar surface is strewn with hundreds of manmade items, from spacecraft to bags of urine to monumental plaques.”

4. Habitable planet discovered circling Tau Ceti, a star close to Earth
By Alexander Besant | GlobalPost | Dec. 19
“Tau Ceti, which is less than 12 light-years from Earth, has five planets orbiting it.”

5. How Obama’s win keeps on giving
By Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake | The Fix :: The Washington Post | Dec. 19
“Whether or not a majority of Americans — or Members of Congress — believe that President Obama’s victory amounted to a mandate, it’s clear that the incumbent’s hand has been significantly strengthened by what happened on Nov. 6.”

6. Joy
By Zadie Smith | The New York Review of Books | Jan. 10
“A lot of people seem to feel that joy is only the most intense version of pleasure, arrived at by the same road — you simply have to go a little further down the track. That has not been my experience.”

7. Nature and Fairy Stories
By Sara Maitland | The Huffington Post | Dec. 17
“A newer question though is whether landscape shapes, or more modestly perhaps becomes one of the things that shapes, whole cultures, their languages, their religion and their mythology; and of course therefore their responses to their artists and artistic forms.”

8. The Deadliest School Massacre in American History — in 1927
By Justin Peters | Slate | Dec. 18
“A school board member named Andrew Kehoe, upset over a burdensome property tax, wired the building with dynamite and set it off in the morning of May 18. Kehoe’s actions killed 45 people, 38 of whom were children.”

9. The Forgotten Soviet-Japanese War of 1939
By Stuart D. Goldman | The Diplomat | Aug. 28
“From May to September 1939, the USSR and Japan fought an undeclared war involving over 100,000 troops. It may have altered world history. ”

10. 2012 News Quiz
Associated Press | Dec. 20
“A superstorm that wasn’t so super, an election that seemed to go on forever and a rap video that took the world by storm — those were just a few of the stories that made news in 2012”

Thinking As Leverage

Developing deep and critical thinking.

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Rebecca Aguilar

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

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Words, images & collages tossed from a window.

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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.

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Cadillac News, Forums, Rumors, Reviews

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Real News That Matters

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bringing joy to family meals

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low waste living drawn from food lore through the ages

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