Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Sin Cities
A team of researchers at Kansas State mapped the seven deadly sins. This one shows lust, according to registered STD cases. Red is deadly. Green is heavenly. Find the rest here at WIRED.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
A find by explorers of the world's largest garbage collection, a cluster of waste twice the size of Texas that floats in the northern Pacific. More images and commentary here.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Women and Happiness
Gallup researcher Marcus Buckingham breaks down the trends in aging and happiness for women. It's not looking good.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
For the Love of Sentences
A sentence is like a tune. A memorable sentence gives its emotion a melodic shape. You want to hear it again, say it—in a way, to hum it to yourself. You desire, if only in the sound studio of your imagination, to repeat the physical experience of that sentence. That craving, emotional and intellectual but beginning in the body with a certain gesture of sound, is near the heart of poetry.
--Robert Pinsky, on sentences and George Herbert, who wrote them well
Friday, August 14, 2009
When Cocaine and Broccoli Collide
U.S. Border Patrol agents in Laredo say they've seized nearly $8 million in drugs after searching a bus and a truck laden with frozen broccoli.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Friday the bus was packed with more than $4 million in cocaine and driven by a 30-year-old from Conroe. No arrest was immediately made after the Thursday seizure, but the agency reports the investigation is ongoing.
A separate search of a truck turned up more than a ton of marijuana and nearly 50 pounds of cocaine worth more than $3 million. Authorities say the man driving the truck was turned over to immigration authorities on federal drug charges.
--via Associated Press
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Getting the Story First
In one murder after another, the "Canal Livre" crime TV show had an uncanny knack for being first on the scene, gathering graphic footage of the victim.
Too uncanny, say police, who are investigating the show's host, state legislator Wallace Souza, on suspicion of commissioning at least five of the murders to boost his ratings and prove his claim that Brazil's Amazon region is awash in violent crime. Police also have accused Souza of drug trafficking.
"The order to execute always came from the legislator and his son, who then alerted the TV crews to get to the scene before the police," state police intelligence chief Thomaz Vasconcelos charged in an interview with The Associated Press.
The killings of competing drug traffickers, he said, "appear to have been committed to get rid of his rivals and increase the audience of the TV show."
--via Associated Press
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Finally!
The American Psychological Association declared Wednesday that mental health professionals should not tell gay clients they can become straight through therapy or other treatments.
--via Associated Press
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Monday, August 03, 2009
Speaking of the Times...
Will they ever learn to link properly?
She thought for a minute and then laughed. “Oh, fine. I suppose they probably don’t attach sexuality to Julia Child, either.” (Dan Aykroyd famously parodied her lack of femininity in a “Saturday Night Live” skit, parts of which Ms. Ephron includes in her film.)Where's the skit, you tease? We've all heard of Dan Aykroyd and seen Saturday Night Live already.
--via "Julie & Julia" review, here.
The New Face of American Power
What we can really learn from Gatesgate:
...America is being led, to a striking extent, by a new elite, a cohort of the best and the brightest whose advancement was formed, at least in part, by affirmative action policies. ...And yet the consequences of that change remain unresolved.
..Even those who now occupy niches at the top of society, regard their status as complicated, ambiguous and vulnerable.
--from Helene Cooper at the Times
Friday, July 31, 2009
Ten Insults for the Modern Man
1. FRENCHIFY (v)
Definition: 1) To make French in quality or trait 2) To make somewhat effeminate, and 3) To contract a veneral disease (a 19th century slang).
Analysis: We have the English to thank for this word. Most people implicitly understand that it means to become more like the French, but not a lot know the second or the third meaning. We’re still not sure which is more insulting.
Find the rest here. Thanks, Mr. Perlin!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)