3.9.14 … Oh, well … the things we do for the tennis players and golfers in this world! … and kudos to SAE (I never thought I would be saying that) … and March Madness is officially over for me :( …

.

DST, Daylight Savings Time, kith/kin:  I have friends who can’t wait for this day and bemoan standard time.  I truly prefer standard time, but maybe that is because I am more productive in the morning.  Oh, well … the things we do for the tennis players and golfers in this world!

We’re talking about a tradition that was started by Benjamin Franklin in 1784 because he was interested in conserving candles.

And that’s only if you assume he was being serious. He’s credited with coming up with the idea as a joke.

It was popularized by William Willett, who had a very confusing plan for how to implement it. Really, the only reason the U.S. adopted it was so that President Woodrow Wilson, an avid golf enthusiast, could get more hours on the green.

OK, sure, and to conserve coal during WWI. There’s no argument that DST worked during WWI and WWII. But bayonets were also considered effective weapons once upon a time.

For crissakes, Willett is the great great grandfather of Coldplay singer Chris Martin—isn’t that reason enough to end this?

The other man who is credited with the proposal is New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson in 1895—of course, the reason he was in favor of it was so he could study insects longer during daylight hours.

So really, the only reason we have DST is because of a perverse interest in insect culture and unabashed SELFISHNESS, and the most lingering legacy of DST is the fact you get the song “Yellow” stuck in your head and hate yourself for singing along. Basically.

DST was designed to give people more time in sunlight, and ostensibly to conserve energy—but many prominent studies have proven we get little if any benefits from the practice. A U.S. Department of Transportation study in the 1970s concluded that total electricity savings associated with daylight saving time amounted to about 1 percent in the spring and fall months—and that was offset by the increase in air-conditioner use.

A more recent study in 2006 found similar results, which was noted by two academics wrote a NYT Op-Ed piece in 2008. They argued that not only is there little scientific proof that this reduces energy consumption—it’s actually more wasteful than not. And super annoying, which we already knew.

…

via 22 Reasons Why Daylight Saving Time Needs To Be Abolished: Gothamist.

Miles O’Brien:  My daughter came home telling this story about Miles O’Brien and then several friends posted on this.  Very brave.

You know, being a one-man band is — comes with its own set of risks. Being a journalist comes with its own set of risks. But I suspect if we had been talking about this before the accident, we would be thinking about perhaps a trip to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant or a war zone.

And, sometimes, it’s the heavy case filled with gear that you need to be careful of. And that’s what I found.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, it landed on your arm. You eventually got to the hospital.

MILES O’BRIEN: Yes.

It began as a bruise. And it just got a lot worse after about a day or so. And the pain got worse. And it — there was swelling. And it got me increasingly nervous when I saw some discoloration and ultimately some numbness in my hand. And when that happened, I knew I couldn’t deny it any longer. I had to get some medical help.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And by the time you saw a doctor, they pretty quickly identified it, you said, as acute compartment syndrome.

via Miles O’Brien on moving forward after an accident led to amputation.

Deadliest U.S. Fraternity Scraps Pledging for New Members, , SAE, Bloomberg, college life, young adults:  My daughter came in and told me about this as well.  It makes you think again aout what we are doing as parents.  We are putting them in harm’s way.  Has it gotten that much worse in 35 years?  This action by a fraternity says yes. Kudos to SAE for doing the right thing.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon, one of the largest U.S. fraternities and the deadliest, said it would ban pledging, citing the toll that hazing has taken on its recruits and its reputation.

SAE announced today what it called a “historic decision” to eliminate pledging, typically a months-long induction period featuring secret rituals. During pledging, recruits have been subject to forced drinking, paddling and other abuse. At least 10 deaths since 2006 have been linked to hazing, alcohol or drugs at SAE events, more than at any other fraternity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

SAE becomes one of only a handful of about 75 national fraternities — and perhaps the most prominent — to eliminate pledging. The ban, which takes effect Sunday, may spur broader change among Greek organizations, fraternity and college officials said. There have been more than 60 fraternity-related deaths since 2005. Many victims were freshman pledges, considered the most vulnerable because many are away from home for the first time.

via Deadliest U.S. Fraternity Scraps Pledging for New Members – Bloomberg.

Facebook,Cheryl Klein, Lent 2014 :  I’ve been a friend of  Cheryl’s on FB for several years.  I think I initially found her because she wrote about Jane Austen and then I loved reading her tales as a young editor in NY (she worked on the Harry Potter books) … but I loved where she took me today for Lent 2014 …

I’m keeping Lent this year through a calendar you can see on my blog — but if you’re interested in Lent too, what I really want you to read is this lovely sermon by Nadia Bolz-Weber (from whose church I borrowed the Lenten calendar). “There’s no shame in the truth that our lives on earth will all end and that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. It’s not depressing. What’s depressing is the desperation of trying to pretend otherwise.”

via Facebook.

No week in recent history has this been as real to me as now.  Yesterday I stood in a small restaurant on 6th ave and preached at the funeral of a 29 year old who took his own life. A man I’d never met.  I don’t generally agree to do weddings and funerals of those who are not a part of this church. But Billy was queer and an artist and suffered from bi-polar and addiction so it felt like he could have belonged to us. So I stood and spoke of love and Jesus. And I looked his mother in the eyes and said that God is always present in love and in suffering. And that God was present both the moment Billy entered this world and the moment Billy left this world.

We are dust and to dust we return.

I did not know yesterday that today, 19 hours after standing in a funeral of one child I would stand in the birth room of another. Less than a day after preaching about love and suffering and Jesus I held Duffy and Charlie’s baby Willa in my arms and thanked God for brand new life.

Then her parents asked for ashes. For them and for Zane and baby Willa too. I pressed ever so gently into her brow, onto this brand new skin that had only been exposed to air for a few precious hours, and said that even she, full of beauty and hope and just hours from her mother’s womb, even she will return– return to dust and the very heart of God.

And then I knew. I knew more than any other Ash Wednesday in my life, that the promises of baptism and funerals, the promises of birth and death are so totally wrapped up together. For we come from God and to God we shall go. And that Oh my Gosh is there so much that gets in the way of that simple truth.  And it is times like funerals when all the other BS just doesn’t matter anymore.

via Ash Wednesday Sermon on Truth, Dust, Babies, and Funerals.

Europe’s E-Bike Boom, News from the Field | OutsideOnline.com:

The e-bike boom has counteracted wishes from German chancellor Angela Merkel, who has pushed for Germans to own a million electric cars by 2020. The big pros to purchasing e-bikes? If electricity runs out, riders can always revert to “classic” pedaling. Plus, the e-bikes plug into normal wall sockets.

While cyclists may malign the bikes, they’re not just electrified vehicles for the lazy. The motors on e-bikes only kick in when riders begin pedaling, and with a force equivalent to the rider’s efforts. The bioelectrical hybrid feels less like a motorized vehicle and more like an invisible hand providing a little help. Computers on the bikes also provide riders with data about speed and battery use.

E-bikes have already taken over China, where 30 million are sold every year. The bikes have their drawbacks—they’re expensive, and they’re heavy for commuters who need to carry them—but that hasn’t stopped investors.

If you’re considering getting a Beamer, you might want to hold off a little longer—the iconic car company is working on a collection of e-bikes.

via Europe’s E-Bike Boom | News from the Field | OutsideOnline.com.

March Madness 2014, Southern Conference: Former Davidson ‘waterboy’ makes a different kind of splash, Brian Sullivan, CharlotteObserver.com:  great story about a Davidson player.  Unfortunately Davidson just got knocked out of the tournament.  march Madness is over for me …

Last year for the 2013 Southern Conference basketball tournament, Brian Sullivan got in his car and drove by himself to Asheville.

Once there, he became a waterboy for the Davidson basketball team. Although technically a member of that Wildcats squad, Sullivan was a transfer from Miami (Ohio) sitting out the season. In order to replace a team manager as one of the people seated on the Davidson bench, he had to earn his keep.

“I was the waterboy, and I was pretty darn good at it,” Sullivan said. “People have no idea how tough a job that is. Everyone’s got their own name on their water bottles. You’ve got to keep up with who’s in the game and have your five water bottles ready for them when the timeouts come. And actually the hardest part is picking them up. Players just drink and put the bottle down, and you have to run through and pick them all up. I was so into the games, I’d lose track of whose bottle was where.”

Sullivan cheerfully admits he looked like he belonged as a team manager. At 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds, he is undersized even for the Southern Conference.

“Oh yeah, I passed the waterboy test,” Sullivan said. “No one was looking at me going, ‘That kid has to be a player.’ ”

But what a player he is.

Sullivan goes to Asheville again this weekend for Davidson’s last appearance in the Southern Conference tournament, which begins Friday (Davidson won’t play until Saturday). Sullivan will ride the team bus this time as a sophomore who is the second-leading scorer for the No. 1 seed, a player averaging 13.5 points per game.

via Southern Conference: Former Davidson ‘waterboy’ makes a different kind of splash | CharlotteObserver.com.

The Debate Over Juice Cleanses and Toxin Removal, WSJ.com.

Dr. Hyman’s latest book, “The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet,” published in February, recommends avoiding all sugar, grains, dairy products, legumes, alcohol, caffeine and processed foods. Instead, followers consume a fruit-and-protein shake in the morning, then vegetables and lean protein for lunch and dinner.

He also suggests they take a long list of supplements and drink water with PGX, a form of fiber that expands in the stomach, before every meal. The combination resets the metabolism and cleans out the digestive system, Dr. Hyman says. He has also argued that a detox bath with Epsom salts each night helps remove heavy metals through the skin and reduces stress.

Liver specialists say that up to 20% of adults have some form of fatty liver disease, in which excess fat in the liver leads to inflammation, scar tissue and eventually liver failure. Some cases are due to alcohol abuse. Genetics, hepatitis, autoimmune disease and medication use also play a role. It isn’t clear whether fatty liver causes obesity or vice versa.

…

Many cleanse aficionados are health-conscious anyway. They say periodically restricting their intake helps reboot their system. “It breaks your relationship with food,” says Anne Pollack, a former chief investment officer at a large insurance company, who does a detox twice a year for three weeks with a nutrition counselor. She gives up all wheat, dairy, sugar, soy, chicken, red meat and alcohol and eats only brown rice, fruits, green vegetables, salmon and supplements such as milk thistle. After that, she says, “I have an amazing amount of energy. My skin is soft. My hair is shiny and my nails grow like crazy.”

Some packaged juice cleanses contain considerable amounts of sugar, leading some proponents to grind up their own fruit and vegetable concoctions at home. Some nutritionists recommend using a blender rather than a juicer to retain more pulp, because a liquid diet without fiber can slow down digestion. That’s partly why some juice cleanses advise using a colon cleanse before and after to fully flush out the intestinal tract.

Most gastroenterologists, however, advise against using supplements, laxatives, enemas and irrigation devices that purport to remove accumulated waste clogging up the colon. It seldom exists, doctors say, and would-be detoxers can become constipated by using laxatives too often.

Keeping the digestive tract moving normally is another reason many experts say simply eating more fruit and vegetables makes more sense than a drastic temporary regimen. New York nutritionist Bonnie Taub-Dix calls it “clean eating.” She advises: “Skip the cleanse. Have your green smoothie as a snack in the afternoon and then skip the vending machine.”

via The Debate Over Juice Cleanses and Toxin Removal – WSJ.com.

Chocolate Covered Ritz Crackers for Nutella Day!: I must be hungry …

Yay! Today is “World Nutella Day 2010” – a day to celebrate, get creative with, and most importantly, EAT Nutella!

Being in love with the salty/sweet taste sensation, these crackers are totally awesome! I’ve seen them with peanut butter, and one of my favourite things to eat is Nutella spread onto Ritz crackers. So why not have both – and then cover it in white chocolate. I don’t need to say anymore!

via Cherrapeno: Chocolate Covered Ritz Crackers for Nutella Day!.

 1 World Trade Center, TIME’s View From The Top Of NYC, TIME:  Spectacular …

THE TOP OF AMERICA

After 12 years of anticipation, the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere is ready for its close-up. How 10,000 workers lifted 104 floors, gave new life to an international symbol and created one spectacular view

via 1 World Trade Center: TIME’s View From The Top Of NYC – TIME.

1.30.14 … “Over the years I have felt the truest, purest love — the love of God, really, I imagine that’s what God’s love feels like — is the love that comes from your dog.” – Oprah

Oprah, Her Dog Sophie, greatest teachers, man’s best friend, purest love:

Oprah is a woman who loves her dogs. She’s had 21 pups in her adult life — including 11 at one time. “Nothing makes me happier than being with my dogs,” she says. In the above video from “Oprah’s Lifeclass,” we look back at the incredible bond she’s experienced with her animals.

“Over the years I have felt the truest, purest love — the love of God, really, I imagine that’s what God’s love feels like — is the love that comes from your dog,” Oprah says.

Though she loved them all, “Oprah Show” fans will remember one special cocker spaniel who rarely left Oprah’s side. “One of my greatest teachers is my dog, Sophie,” Oprah says. “Sophie lived for 13 years and came to work with me every day. Was there for every show, was backstage at the Oscars, at the Emmys, was waiting in the car if I went to the gynecologist.”

Solomon, Oprah’s other cocker spaniel, also went with her everywhere — but Sophie would cling even closer, as the pooch would get separation anxiety whenever Oprah left the room.

Sadly, Sophie died on March 10, 2008. “It wasn’t until she passed away that I really understood the depth of my love for her,” Oprah says. “Because I learned from a show we did many years ago with Gary Zukav that there are big souls and little souls. And Sophie was a little soul – just a little soul, but had a great impact on my life. And when I lost her is when I realized that nobody on earth had ever loved me like that little dog.”

via Oprah Remembers Her Dog Sophie As One Of Her Greatest Teachers (VIDEO).

college education, college financing,  The Daily Beast, The War Room:  INSANE! My daughter and I were talking about the price of Davidson, when I went, 1978, and today. The numbers in this article are fairly accurate.

Since 1978 the price of college has increased in absolute dollars by 1120 percent, more than any other good or service in the U.S. economy. (For example, the cost of food has increased by just 244 percent and healthcare by 601 percent in the same period). A widely cited study by Richard Arum, Academically Adrift, concludes that 36 percent of college students show no significant gains in learning over the course of their four years in college. Indeed, 68 percent of students at public colleges and universities fail to graduate in four years. And in 2012, over 50 percent of graduates under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed.

via The Price of College Has Increased 1120 Percent Since 1978, So Is It Worth It? – The Daily Beast.

And a friend sent me this and it makes some very good points!

The plain fact of the matter is this:

1. Certain colleges are a complete waste of time and money.

2. Certain majors are not only a waste of time and money, but risk making you stupider for having studied them.

3. Certain kids just shouldn’t go to college at all. They don’t like it, they’re not good at it, and they’re going to hate it.

via Stupid college tricks: should you go to college? | The War Room.

random, sperm donors, when worlds collide:  What a great story!

So Mikayla, a San Diego native, messaged Emily right away, suggesting they room together. It was too late; Emily already had a roommate. But the girls friended each other on Facebook anyway.

Then on Father’s Day, Mikayla posted a glib Facebook status. “Thank you Colombian sperm donor, for one of my X chromosomes.”

“That’s odd,” thought Emily, whose parents also had selected a donor of Colombian heritage.

She responded by writing, “Not to be creepy. But kinda think we could have same donor.”

The idea was so far-fetched that neither gave it much thought, they said. But when the girls arrived at Tulane in the fall, they met and jokingly referred to each other as “sister.”

They were placed in the same dormitory, one floor apart, and both landed parts in the same theater production, “The Vagina Monologues.” Throughout the first semester, they said hello in the stairwell but were more acquaintances than friends.

Then, over Thanksgiving break, both freshmen were part of a larger group of Tulane students that didn’t go home. They ended up at the Gonzales outlet mall, as part of a Black Friday shopping trip. Each spent the day shopping with their own friends, then discovered on the bus ride home that they’d bought the same sweater in different colors.

The similarities continued to pile up.

They both sleeptalk and sleepwalk — so much so that their parents used to put an extra lock on the door at night, for fear they’d walk outside. And back in the early 1990s, their parents had gone to the same place, California Cryobank, and selected a Colombian sperm donor with an interest in theater out of hundreds of potential candidates for insemination.

via Genes that fit: Tulane freshmen discover shared sperm-donor dad | Home | The Advocate — Baton Rouge, LA.

character counts, deviations from gender norms, double standards, shame on you:  It’s not the little white lie, it’s that she left her husband after he paid off her loans.  And yes there are double standards, but I try to hold both sexes to the same standards.  Shame on you, Wendy Davis.

Now the question is whether Slater’s sexist narrative will hurt Wendy Davis’ chances. It’s hard to imagine that there are many Texans who were considering voting for a pro-choice Democrat but would be too scandalized by her deviations from gender norms to vote for her now. The biggest obstacle that Davis faces—that she’s a Democrat in a solidly red state—hasn’t changed a bit. And the fact that the attacks on her are getting so shrill suggests that perhaps Republicans are really beginning to fear she has a chance.

via Wayne Slater paints Wendy Davis as a gold-digger and a bad mother in the Dallas Morning News..

And a little of my conversation …

I don’t know…regardless of party affiliation …people don’t like it when one is loose with the truth. She has been loose with the truth. Her one big thing is abortion.

“Loose with the truth”? She was separated at 19 and divorced at 21, rather than divorced at 19. And she “only” lived in a trailer for a few months. And she got help paying for law school. That’s the best they got. I don’t think she will win, but she just raised $12 million and the TX Repubs are scared s**tless.

The Republicans just might tear each other appart in the primaries, leaving whichever candidate wins vunerable. The attacks on one area congressman have already started, without any mention of who is running against him.

 This may be setting her up for a US House run in 2016. The districts have been heavily gerrymandered, but there still are some Democratic districts.

She is undoubtedly intelligent, attractive and came from modest means. Why couldn’t that be enough? Why have to “exaggerate” the true circumstances of her life just to get some easy to remember narrative (divorced teen mom who pulled HERself up to make it through Ha rvard Law all alone). After decades of being told ‘it takes a village’

…why can’t the true narrative of her life be enough? We should celebrate that she was able to surpass 2 of the 3 biggest causes for women to be in poverty (teen mom, no degree) to become an attorney and state office holder. So she had help, that’s great!

I guess she is a natural blonde………

yoga,  Doga,  Secret Yoga, follow-up, London’s Most Curious Yoga Classes, Completely London Blog: As a follow up to my “naked coed yoga’ article … Doga and Secret Yoga!  Those Brits … They have a better idea shen it comes to yoga.

Doga

Your dog + yoga = doga. Yes, we’re serious. Classes with Swiss instructor Mahny involve four-legged friends in your yoga practice to help you both relax. Expect mediation, stretching and gentle poses, whether you’re lifting your Chihuahua for a sun salutation or using your Labrador as a yogic bolster. And lots of jokes from your friends about the downward dog. SW6

Secret Yoga Club

Rather than a weekly drop-in, serious yoga fans might want to treat themselves to this pop-up/fitness hybrid. Held at clandestine venues across London – Secret Yoga Club provides a dynamic hour-long Jivamukti flow class, a Savasana (the relaxation bit at the end) serenaded by a singer and a three-course vegan menu. They say: ‘leave with a soul full of joy and a tummy full of goodness’. We say: ‘Sign us up!’. Find their weekly classes here.

via London’s Most Curious Yoga Classes | Completely London Blog.

2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, New Olympic Uniforms, Ugly, News from the Field | OutsideOnline.com: Once again … UGLY!

The U.S. Olympic team’s uniforms for the opening ceremonies at Sochi were unveiled Thursday on the Today Show with Matt Lauer and the reactions have been, ah, not so terrific.

The uniforms, designed by Ralph Lauren, were modeled on the show by figure skater Evan Lysacek, hockey player Julie Chu, ice dancers Charlie White and Meryl Davis, and freestyle skiers Hannah Kearney and Alex Schlopy.

The Outside staff had this to say about them.

via The New Olympic Uniforms Are Pretty Ugly | News from the Field | OutsideOnline.com.

They look like they came from QVC’s Quacker Lady line!

Looks like my Grandmother’s sweater…but, at least they were made in America!

decades-long mystery, seemingly random letters: I loved this FB post!

” This is cool not only because it is a prayer (oops, spoiler alert!), but because it demonstrates what can happen when we share, collaborate compassionately, and lend our minds and time to others in need. Surely that must be among the highest callings and most ardent lessons we can know or share? Surely.”

Yesterday afternoon, a woman seeking help with a decades-old family mystery posted a thread on Ask Metafilter titled “Decoding cancer-addled ramblings”:

My grandmother passed away in 1996 of a fast-spreading cancer. She was non-communicative her last two weeks, but in that time, she left at least 20 index cards with scribbled letters on them. My cousins and I were between 8-10 years old at the time, and believed she was leaving us a code. We puzzled over them for a few months trying substitution ciphers, and didn’t get anywhere.

The index cards appear to just be a random series of letters, and had confounded the poster’s family for years. But it only took Metafilter 15 minutes to at least partially decipher them. User harperpitt quickly realized she was using the first letters of words, and that she was, in fact, writing prayers:

…

AGH, YES! Sorry for the double post, but:OFWAIHHBTNTKCTWBDOEAIIIHFUTDODBAFUOT

AWFTWTAUALUNITBDUFEFTITKTPATGFAEA

Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name… etc etc etc

via Ask Metafilter: A decades-long mystery over a series of index cards with seemingly random letters was solved..

Facebook, predictions,  Princeton’s Demise, Digits – WSJ:

After a Princeton University study came out predicting Facebook’s demise, Facebook has responded with its own “research” predicting the downfall of Princeton: http://on.wsj.com/M47gZu

On Thursday, Facebook went a step further with its own mock academic research. “Princeton will have only half its current enrollment by 2018, and by 2021 it will have no students at all,” wrote Mike Develin, a data scientist at Facebook.

Develin said he analyzed various data points, including the percentage of queries on Google Scholar matching the query “Princeton.” Develin’s research showed the percentage had dropped dramatically since 2000, an “alarming” number, he wrote.

“In keeping with the scientific principle ‘correlation equals causation,’ our research unequivocally demonstrated that Princeton may be in danger of disappearing entirely,” Develin wrote.

The paper authors could not immediately be reached.

Facebook’s posting Thursday ends on an ominous note. “While we are concerned for Princeton University, we are even more concerned about the fate of the planet–Google Trends for “air” have also been declining steadily, and our projections show that by the year 2060 there will be no air left.”

via Facebook Responds by Predicting Princeton’s Demise – Digits – WSJ.

Maria Tallchief, the first Native American prima ballerina, Mighty Girls:  Interesting history from the art world.

Today in Mighty Girl history, Maria Tallchief, the first Native American to become a prima ballerina, was born in 1925. One of the most acclaimed ballerinas of the 20th century, Tallchief grew up on the Osage Reservation in Oklahoma. As noted in a NY Times tribute to her, “Growing up at a time when many American dancers adopted Russian stage names, Ms. Tallchief, proud of her Indian heritage, refused to do so, even though friends told her that it would be easy to transform Tallchief into Tallchieva.”

Tallchief kept her name and made her mark throughout the dance world, dancing with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo from 1942 to 1947 and the New York City Ballet from its founding in 1947 through 1965. She is pictured here in the title role of George Balanchine’s ballet “Firebird.” This dance legend passed away this past April at the age of 88.

Van Gogh’s paintings brought to life, Breakthru films, feature-length painted animation, YouTube, new technology:  very cool concept …

via ▶ Loving Vincent – Van Gogh’s paintings brought to life – YouTube.

Concept trailer for the new production from Oscar-winning studio Breakthru films, a feature-length painted animation. A murder mystery about the life and death of Vincent van Gogh told through revealing interviews with the characters from van Gogh’s own paintings.

via ▶ Loving Vincent – Van Gogh’s paintings brought to life – YouTube.

11.6.13 … End of a era :( … “Young people’s Internet behavior predicts everybody’s Internet behavior. ” …

Blockbuster, End of a era: End of a era 😦

Blockbuster, once synonymous with video rentals, had encountered a steady decline in business as rental services such as Netflix Inc. NFLX -1.77% and Outerwall Inc. OUTR +1.23% \’s Redbox increasingly cut into its business. More recently, Blockbuster has had to contend with growing streaming and on-demand services that consumers can use without leaving their homes.

Blockbuster tried to compete with its own mail business, but that will end in the middle of December, Dish said. However, Dish said it would retail licensing rights to the Blockbuster brand, including its video library, and that it would continue its Blockbuster @Home and On Demand services.

via Dish Network to Close Remaining Blockbuster Stores – WSJ.com.

starbucks spelling, LOL, Tumblr: OK … this is funny.  “starbucks spelling” on tumblr.

Kat

A collection of misspelled names from the inventors of the \”Frappuccino.\”

via starbucks spelling.

YouTube Challenge,   I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy 2013 – YouTube, Jimmy Kimmel, LOL:  My cruel father probably would have done this.  🙂

Published on Nov 4, 2013

Once again we asked parents to pull a massive prank on their kids and pretend they ate all of their Halloween candy. Here are the results of this year\’s Halloween Candy YouTube Challenge.

via ▶ YouTube Challenge – I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy 2013 – YouTube.

Starbucks, Twitter,  Gifting Platform, Fast Company | Business + Innovation:

A tweet can be used to share links, media, and status updates. But could it soon be used to share Starbucks coffee?

That\’s the promise of a new partnership launched today, Monday, by Twitter and Starbucks, which enables gift certificates to be exchanged via tweets. Called the tweet-a-coffee program, the service allows for spur-of-the-moment acts of generosity between friends, with little to no friction: Just tweet at another Twitter user in order to give a $5 digital eGift hassle-free. It\’s certainly a novel marketing tool. But the larger significance here is how companies like Starbucks are gradually beginning to see Twitter as a potential ecommerce platform.

via Starbucks, Twitter Launch Gifting Platform Via Tweets | Fast Company | Business + Innovation.

Sallie Krawcheck, Wall Street, BBC News:

Although those firings certainly stung, they gave Ms Krawcheck an epiphany – in times of distress, companies react by closing ranks, and diversity, particularly gender diversity, suffers.

“What I saw a thousand times during the downturn was, We’d like to give her that opportunity, but we need to go with the sure thing – we can\’t afford diversity right now,'” she says.

So now, as the boss of 85 Broads, Ms Krawcheck says her goal is to work in a more active way to correct the gender balance at the top.

via BBC News – Sallie Krawcheck: Wall Street boss who was glad to be sacked.

Teens, Facebook,  Cool Anymore, Derek Thompson – The Atlantic:

Programs like Snapchat and other social sites are taking off, and the way these things usually work is that whatever technology teenagers are using today, young adults, and then older adults, will be using tomorrow. Tumblr, Pinterest, Snapchat: All billion-dollar valuations today, and all got their start among the high school and college crowd. Young people’s Internet behavior predicts everybody’s Internet behavior. The fact that they’re getting bored could mean that Facebook is becoming boring—a dangerous idea for a company that relies on the idle time of average people.

Or it could just mean that Facebook has grown up right in line with its audience.

via If Teens Don’t Think Facebook Is Cool Anymore, Should Facebook Worry? – Derek Thompson – The Atlantic.

Davidson College, Innovative Bio Instruction,   $100,000 Prize, kudos:

Prof. David Botstein, former director of Princetons Lewis-Siegler Institute for Integrative Genomics, announced today that he will donate $100,000 each to Davidson College and three other prestigious academic institutions for innovations in teaching biology. Botstein was one of eleven recipients of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, announced earlier this year by Internet titans Yuri Milner, Sergey Brin, Anne Wojcicki and Mark Zuckerberg. Botstein will share $400,000 of his Breakthrough Award with Davidsons Professor of Biology A. Malcolm Campbell, as well as faculty at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory CSHL, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California-San Francisco.\”With these awards, I recognize the successes of these four institutions in the development and delivery of educational programs that are furthering the field of biological research by training the next generation of breakthrough scientists,\” said Botstein. \”I have had the opportunity to participate in the development of these distinct programs and salute the institutions and the program leaders who have achieved the highest standards in science education.\”

via Davidson’s Innovative Bio Instruction Garners $100,000 Prize – Davidson College.

10.30.13 … Viva Las Vegas … the only gambling I did was in the TSA Security Line …

Las Vegas NV, Hoover Dam/The Grand Dam, The Neon Boneyard, The Strip, been there done that, TSA:  Grand week in LV …  can’t say that I plan to go back … been there done that.

First impression … the wind!  Monday 10.28 was the third windiest day I have experienced … without a storm such as a hurricane. The first was at 19 and in downtown Chicago, the second was at 40 and in downtown Chicago. The wind was so strong you had to push yourself to move forward.

Wind gusts of more than 100 mph blew through the Las Vegas Valley and Spring Mountains on Sunday and Monday, bringing power outages and wind damage with them.

The National Weather Service recorded 70-mph gusts in Kyle Canyon. The strongest was measured at 77 mph, and weather service meteorologist Chris Stumpf said that area had trees and fences blown down.

A spokesman from The Resort on Mount Charleston in Kyle Canyon said the resort’s power went out three or four times overnight Sunday.

A 103-mph wind gust was recorded near the Mount Rose ski resort between Tahoe and Reno.

Power outages early Monday morning affected 700 residents near the Fashion Show mall, 650 Indian Springs residents and 70 Goodsprings residents, NV Energy spokesman Mark Severts said.

“Our crews have to drive the length of the line to find the outage,” Severts said.

NV Energy confirmed a smaller outage near Flamingo Road and Eastern Avenue affected about 220 people Monday afternoon.

Main Street Station and the Plaza hotel-casino both reported brief outages Monday afternoon too.

via High winds pummel Las Vegas Valley | Las Vegas Review-Journal.

So I loved the Hoover Dam and its history and art and of course there is a good dog story!

 

   

 

Hoover Dam, said Hansen, represented for him the building genius of America, \”a monument to collective genius exerting itself in community efforts around a common need or ideal.\” He compared the dam to such works as the great pyramids of Egypt, and said that, when viewing these man-made structures, the viewer often asks of their builders, \”What manner of men were these?\”

The sculptor, according to Hansen, tries to answer this question objectively, by \”interpreting man to other men in the terms of the man himself.\” \”In each of these monuments,\” he said, \”can be read the characteristics of these men, and on a larger scale, the community of which they are part. Thus, mankind itself is the subject of the sculptures at Hoover Dam.\”

via Bureau of Reclamation: Lower Colorado Region – Hoover Dam: Artwork.

Hoover Dam is named for Mr. Herbert Hoover, the Nation\’s 31st President. When construction of the dam was initiated, on September 30, 1930, Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur ordered that the dam to be built in the Black Canyon of the Colorado as part of the Boulder Canyon Project Act was to be called Hoover Dam. By a Congressional Act of February 14, 1931, this name was made official.

After Mr. Hoover left office, the names \”Boulder Canyon Dam\” and \”Boulder Dam\” were frequently used when referring to the dam, allegedly because the new Secretary of the Interior did not like Mr. Hoover. However, the name of the dam was never officially changed from \”Hoover.\”

In the 80th Congress (1947), a number of bills were introduced to \”officially\” restore the name of Hoover Dam.

via Bureau of Reclamation: Lower Colorado Region – Hoover Dam: What is in a Name?.

And here is the dog story …

He inspected everything daily. As the dam rose higher and higher he had to ride the skips, a type of open-air elevator, to cover the ground. When he wanted to board a skip, he barked, and the operators always stopped for him. The mascot would hop aboard and bark again at the level where he wished to get off.

Trainers will tell you that one of the most difficult tricks to teach an animal is to get them to walk on any swaying, unstable surface, but Hoover Dam\’s mascot raced happily back and forth across the swinging catwalks slung across the canyon seven hundred feet above the Colorado River.

The Hoover Dam mascot was not a one-man dog. He had no master. He belonged to the dam and everyone connected with it, and they all belonged to him! If he decided to work overtime at his favorite job of chasing ring-tailed cats that infested the tunnels, he hitched a ride back to town in the first Bureau of Reclamation or Six Companies car, truck or transport that happened along. No one ever remembers him accepting a ride from anyone not connected with the dam. How he could differentiate between dam workers and casual visitors no one could figure out, but it is a known fact that he did.

Everyone wanted to feed the dog, and being a dog, he found it hard to refuse. He became quite sick. The worried workers then decided that the dog needed supervised feeding. Arrangements were made with the commissary for the dog to be fed and word was passed to all workers not to offer him any more food.

The commissary packed a lunch for him every day and he soon learned to carry it in his mouth when he boarded the transport. At the construction site, he placed the sack alongside the workers\’ lunch pails and went about his business. When the whistle blew, the dog raced for his sack and sat patiently until someone opened it for him.

…

On a day when the blazing desert sun, combined with a blast furnace wind, pushed the thermometer over the 120-degree mark, the dog found a spot of shade under a truck. The driver never noticed the sleeping dog when he started up and drove off.

News of the fatal accident was phoned to town and it was the quietest afternoon Boulder City ever experienced. Later, rough, tough, hard-rock men wept openly and unashamed as they slammed their ear-shattering jackhammers into the hard rock cliff, carving out the grave which was to be the Hoover Dam mascot\’s tomb.

So, in death as in life, the Hoover Dam mascot looks upon the dam he loved for as long as it will stand and when the wind howls around the towers of the dam, the old-timers smile knowingly. It isn\’t wind. It\’s the dog baying at the ring-tailed cats.

via Bureau of Reclamation: Lower Colorado Region – Hoover Dam: Dog on a Catwalk.

The Neon Museum, the Neon “Boneyard”:  A friend insisted I go … I’d go again!

                           

Most of our signs are exhibited in “The Boneyard” where they serve as inspiration to fascinated artists, students, historians and designers.  It is home to some of the most treasured and world-famous signs of Las Vegas – Caesars Palace, Binions Horseshoe, the Golden Nugget  and the Stardust. The two-acre Musuem campus includes the adjacent Neon Boneyard Park as well as the \”The Boneyard\” which houses more than 150 historic signs. Each sign in the collection has a unique story about who created it, what inspired it, where and when it was made, and how it fits into the development of Las Vegas and the citys rich history.  Changes and trends in design and technology are also illustrated in the pieces that range from the 1930s to the present day.

via Neon Boneyard – The Neon Museum Las Vegas | Guided tours available daily.

The Neon Museum officially “opened” with the installation of its first refurbished sign, the Hacienda Horse and Rider, at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street.

Today, restored signs can be viewed as public art and visited on a self-guided tour twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The gallery includes, among others, the Lucky Cuss Motel, the Bow & Arrow Motel, The Silver Slipper, Binion\’s Horseshoe, the Normandie Motel, Dot’s Flowers, the Landmark and 5th Street liquors.

via The Collection – The Neon Museum Las Vegas | Guided tours available daily.

The Strip:  I took two long walks along the Strip … the first I’ll call Massive Sensory Overload … I had a headache ever since I arrived (it actually went away while at the Hoover Dam) … I returned to my hotel the night before and curled up … I was so relieved to move from the the Paris, to MGM, to NY NY, to Luxor and then from the Mandalay Bay part of the building to the Four Seasons part. My sensory overload went down with each step I walked. It was amazing how much more pleasant the Four Seasons was.  I can honestly say that LV was not on my “bucket list,” and I would never go out of my way to return.  Our Hoover Dam tour guide Peter told us that 15 of the world’s largest resorts are in LV. I definitely have a different concept of resort.

 

   

And my second walk … I was able to manage the sensory overload a little better …

So here is adventure no. 2 …

Barney’s in LV … Although I can’t afford anything … I love it that sheath dresses are in and that they are at least knee-length … Also lots of black. Just my style.

Venetian actually worked for me … Kinda …

Casino Royale and Harrah’s … Not so classy …

Bally had street characters too … Like Times Square … Very Strange!

But the Chihully Glass installation at the Bellagio was worth the adventure!!

And the Bellagio fountains were nice …

 And then of course the pop up wedding chapel … According to the sign they perform just about any type of service … Even a pet wedding! And I actually saw two brides!  Unfortunately, they did not stand out from the crowd!

 Given that Coke has a store … They don’t sell it in most places.  But Pepsi gets its two cents in.

 

And then when I finally arrived  home after traipsing up and down the Strip, I had to walk to the very end of this very long hall!

Facebook:

Who says FB doesn’t connect … a high school friend and I were not only both in LV, both at the Four Seasons, and both went to Neon Boneyard on the same day, so we had to meet for drinks  … and except for visiting at Westminster reunions, had not seen each other in ages … Small world!! Loved it!

And a final note …

I can honestly say Las Vegas security was the worst I’ve ever seen. I separated from John because  he was TSA pre-cleared.  I rejoined him 50 minutes later.  Their system was a major fail. Not only did  they let people through who were TSA Pre-cleared and First Class, but they let those who were late go in a shortened line, about 1/10 my line, and 2x I had to gamble … I  had to make line choices, and I never make good choices.  And that was the only gambling I did, and needless to say, I felt like a total loser.

10.3.13 … She’s right. I feel bad … I am glad she “refuses to disappear” … You rock, super lara croft! …

Lara Croft, viral photos, FaceBook, mean girls, privacy, being kind: She’s right. I feel bad because I have laughed many times at these pictures.  (But I must say the folks that go to WalMart ought to know better by now.) I don’t think I have shared … but i cannot say for sure.  I will try to be kinder going forward.

The first thing I needed to do was figure out where the picture came from. That wasn’t hard — it came from me. I’d posted the image on Facebook, but like so many before me, I’d failed to pay attention to my privacy settings when I uploaded it. Instead of restricting access to my friend network, I’d inadvertently given access to the whole world.

But Facebook made it easy to find people who had commented on the images. By now, the picture had metastasized through reposts on Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, 9Gag, FailBlog. But looking through the Facebook “like” function, I could track down the most offensive commenters.

Most of them were women. Shocked? I wasn’t. Anyone who’s survived high school can tell you how women slice each other up to make ourselves feel better.

…

In the months since, my attitude toward these throwaway images of mockery on the Internet has changed. I no longer find them funny. Each one of those people is a real human being, a real person whose world imploded the day they found themselves to be a punch line on a giant stage. I speak up whenever a friend gets a cheap laugh from one of these sites. I ask one simple question: “Why do you think this is funny?” Very few have a good answer. Mostly they just say, “I don’t know.” Reminding people of our shared humanity hasn’t exactly made me popular, but it feels like the right thing to do. I know what it’s like to be the person in that horrible photograph. I can’t inflict such pain on someone else.

I’ve also learned to keep a tighter rein on my privacy settings online. I don’t always succeed at keeping my content private, but I’m certainly more guarded now.

And while my self-confidence took a large blow from the experience, I’m getting over it. My photographer friend Terri did a photo shoot with me after it all went down. She’s a retro pinup photographer, and I’ve been posing for her for a while now, but that particular shoot felt great. Just to be seen a little bit more as I wanted to be.

But I refuse to disappear. I still go jogging in public. I don’t hide my flabby arms or chubby ankles for fear of offending someone else’s delicate sensibilities. I dress in a way that makes me happy with myself. And this Halloween, I’m thinking of reprising my role as Lara Croft just to give all the haters the middle finger.

And no, I won’t be putting the pictures online this time.

via My embarrassing picture went viral – Salon.com.

7.16.13 … Boschendal 1685 Chardonnay Pinot Noir 2010 … Thanks FB friends for helping me learn about wine …

10 Degrees South, Boschendal 1685 Chardonnay Pinot Noir 2010, South Africa: So I had a great meal at 10 degrees South and tried a new wine … then I got to discuss it on FB.  Thanks FB friends for helping me learn about wine  …

Might have to try this. I am a Pinot Noir girl myself but this sounds interesting….

…

 the marriage of Chardonnay + Pinot Noir = Champagne !!!!! :))))))

…

This was not sparkling. And yes, as I researched it, I saw that. http://www.reversewinesnob.com/2012/02/boschendal-1685-chardonnay-pinot-noir.html

…

The Reverse Wine Snob: Boschendal 1685 Chardonnay Pinot Noir 2010 – A One-Of-A-Kind Combo You’ll…

Chardonnay and Pinot Noir? In the same wine? I knew right away that I had to try this wine. On top of that, this one comes from the winery that produced our Chardonnay Showdown winner. And on top of that, it also comes from South Africa which has been doing some really exciting and unique things with wine. (See our Saturday Splurge last week, The Bernard Series SMV.) Throw the $14 price tag into the mix and how could I possibly resist?

The 2010 Boschendal 1685 Chardonnay Pinot Noir shows a copper color in the grass. It looks more like a white wine than a red but in addition to the blend, the Pinot Noir had minimal contact with the grape skins which is what imparts the darker color to red wine. My first thought on smelling the wine is that it reminds me of a Sauvignon Blanc. Gooseberry, tropical fruit, a little wet grass and a little spice are the primary aromas. The wine tastes; however, of peach and honey with light raspberry flavors and a real nice minerality. This one is very easy to drink with a nice combination of flavors and a long finish. I can see this being a good complement to many different foods.

It’s always interesting to see reactions to a wine like this, precisely because it breaks conventions. If you drink this wine expecting a Chardonnay, you won’t be blown away. If you go in expecting a Pinot Noir, you’ll definitely be disappointed. But if you can set aside those expectations and judge the Boschendal 1685 Chardonnay Pinot Noir on its own merits you’ll find a really nice, very drinkable and definitely unique wine. That’s plenty good enough for me and this one gets a well deserved Recommended Buy rating.

via The Reverse Wine Snob: Boschendal 1685 Chardonnay Pinot Noir 2010 – A One-Of-A-Kind Combo You’ll Want More Than Once.

…

Oh, of course obviously it’s not sparkling. But sparkles aside was just suggesting that the Chard + PN is a great combo ! ;))))

…

The “copper color in the grass” … definitely copper … but “in the grass” … is that a typo?

…

 ‘Glass ‘ of course which is very interesting as American wine commentators rag on French Rose Champagne ‘s coppery color when the desired color is “pink” !!! Really doesn’t matter but funny as perhaps “Coppery” doesn’t have the romantic literary allure as ” Rose׳” !!!!

 

…

 7.14.13 … worst airports … “the only alternative is to become guest of honor at the crematorium” … 10 Degrees South … Robert Galbraith’s ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’ … “To thine own self be true” … RIP, Finn … I am J.K. Rowling … | Dennard’s Clipping Service.

7.15.13 … Chardonnay Pinot Noir, who knew? … MY DOG BURNS … royal babies/special babies … Aparecium! … favorite children’s books … | Dennard’s Clipping Service.

6.4.13 … I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face …

Facebook, I’ve grown accustomed …, Nordstrom:  Facebook is making so many of us miserable … the kids just move on.  But we are oldies are just stuck.  I hate the ads … Nordstrom, how could you do this to your loyal customers!

Damn! Damn! Damn! I’ve grown accustomed to your face (on FB).

Please come back … I’ll take you back. Damn! Damn! Damn!

My Fair Lady – I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face/The Ending – YouTube.

5.24.13 … 5 Surprising Facts About the Death Penalty Worldwide … i before e …

death penalty: Interesting …

 5. Just 21 countries in the world carried out the death penalty last year.

via 5 Surprising Facts About the Death Penalty Worldwide.

 

George Takei, spelling rules, Facebook: The stuff George Takei posts on Facebook is some of the most amusing …

George Takei.

George Hosato Takei (武井 穂郷 Takei Hosato?, /təˈkeɪ/ tə-kay; April 20, 1937) is an American actor and author, best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the USS Enterprise in the television series Star Trek. He also portrayed the character in six Star Trek feature films and in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager. He is a proponent of gay rights and active in state and local politics as well as continuing his acting career. He has won several awards and accolades in his work on human rights and Japanese–American relations, including his work with the Japanese American National Museum.

via George Takei – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

4.16.13 … A few more words of comfort … What comforts you?

Pope Francis, 2013 Boston Marathon Terrorist Attack, Rom 12:21, Religion News Service:

In the aftermath of this senseless tragedy, His Holiness invokes God’s peace upon the dead, his consolation upon the suffering and his strength upon all those engaged in the continuing work of relief and response. At this time of mourning the Holy Father prays that all Bostonians will be united in a resolve not to be overcome by evil, but to combat evil with good (cf. Rom 12:21), working together to build an ever more just, free and secure society for generations yet to come.

via Pope Francis tells Bostonians to “combat evil with good” | Religion News Service.

Patton Oswalt, Facebook:  I noticed that several people quoted/shared/retweeted this quote from Patton Oswalt, and then, a few took his comments down.  I had no idea who he was.  For those of you who do not know who he is, like me …

Patton Oswalt (born January 27, 1969) is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor and voice actor known for roles such as Spencer Olchin in the popular sitcom The King of Queens, and voicing Remy from the film Ratatouille.

via Patton Oswalt – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

And here is what he said …

“I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, ‘Well, I’ve had it with humanity,’” the post on Oswalt’s Facebook page read. “But I was wrong. I don’t know what’s going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem. One human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths. ”

“But here’s what I DO know. If it’s one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. (Thanks FAKE Gallery founder and owner Paul Kozlowski for pointing this out to me). This is a giant planet and we’re lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they’re pointed towards darkness.”

The post concluded  by saying “So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, “The good outnumber you, and we always will.”

via Patton Oswalt and other Notable People Share Thoughts Online About the Boston Bombing – Speakeasy – WSJ.

4.14.13 … random stuff … Megabus ride … You never know who you will meet …

MegaBus:  You never know who you will meet.  We had a spirited conversation about politics and education.

Nathaniel White Jr. graduated from Duke and went on to become director of the Public Health Sciences Institute at Morehouse College.

via Duke University to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Its Racial Integration : The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.

Downton Abbey Season 4, spoilers, Wetpaint:  S I’m missing DA

We’ve already read that she’ll be getting a new boyfriend. But, thankfully, we shouldn’t expect more major character deaths. “We don’t want it turning into Midsomer Murders, where they live in the same village and 450 people get murdered,” Julian laughed. So no other actors are allowed to suddenly leave the show!

via Downton Abbey Season 4 Spoilers Roundup: Who’s Coming, Who’s Going, What’s Next? – Wetpaint.

sermons, education, teaching:  Very interesting …

 Discipleship. Our generation may be drowning in ideas, but we’re starving for real human contact.

The problem is, our churches are structured to deliver sermons and music. If there’s any energy left, we disciple people.

What if we could turn that around? What if there were a way of organizing believers around a weekly discipleship experience, instead of a weekly lecture-and-singalong?

Universities are doing it. They’re moving lectures to the web, and turning classroom time into small group and individual “discipleship.”

Funny. That’s exactly what the early church was like. Sermons were for nonbelievers, but the church was essentially a small group discipleship experience. Perhaps it’s time to experiment once again with this ancient strain of church planting, less reliant on a weekly sermon, and more dependent on believers spurring one another on toward good works.

via Are sermons becoming obsolete?.

Thunderclap, Twitter, Facebook, AllThingsD:  

 To do that, they’re using Thunderclap, a startup designed solely to promote mass social media messaging. It works by getting Twitter and Facebook users to essentially hand over control of their feeds in order to broadcast a single message, at a given time, for a specific campaign.

via Laurene Jobs Uses Thunderclap to Push Issue on Twitter, Facebook – Peter Kafka – Social – AllThingsD.

Tiger Woods, Vanity Fair: Article is very good, if you can get past the scintillating parts.

Earl was always convinced that this child would achieve greatness. When the boy was less than a year old, Earl gave him a golf club. At the age of 2, Tiger putted with Bob Hope on The Mike Douglas Show, at 5 he appeared on That’s Incredible!, at 13 he received his first recruitment letter from Stanford University, and by the time he was 14 he had won five Junior World Championship titles. His dad was always at his side.

“My heart fills with so much joy when I realize that this young man is going to be able to help so many people,” Earl told an audience at an awards dinner to honor his son as America’s outstanding college golfer of 1996, just before Tiger reached 21 and turned pro. “He will transcend this game and bring to the world a humanitarianism which has never been known before. The world will be a better place to live in by virtue of his existence and his presence. I acknowledge only a small part in that, in that I know that I was personally selected by God Himself to nurture this young man and bring him to the point where he can make his contribution to humanity.”

Earl Woods told Sports Illustrated’s Gary Smith, “Tiger will do more than any other man in history to change the course of humanity.” Anyone?, Smith asked. More than Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, Arthur Ashe, Mandela, Gandhi, Buddha? “Yes,” Earl answered.

‘Hello, world,” Tiger announced at a press conference when he turned pro, in 1996. That year brought the first major endorsement deal of his career: $40 million over five years from Nike. There is a pivotal, untold story from that time, and to hear it I have to find Woods’s early adviser, a pioneering African-American attorney named John Merchant, who had known him since the early 90s. We have dinner in a dimly lit restaurant in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where Merchant, now 77, loudly and emotionally laments the fall of not only a sports superstar but also a universal symbol of hope. “This is worse than one of Shakespeare’s tragedies,” he says.

It’s the result of ignorance and greed, Merchant declares, and it all began when IMG, founded in 1960 by the agent Mark McCormack and the golf legend Arnold Palmer, entered the picture. In the mid-1990s, an agent named Hughes Norton spoke with Merchant, hoping to negotiate a deal. “Just out of curiosity, for a person of this stature, what kind of commission does IMG get?,” Merchant says he asked Norton. “And he said, ‘Our regular commission is 25 percent.’ And I said, ‘Hughes, you don’t know me and I don’t know you. But I bet you a dollar that you know something about American history, don’t you? Well, Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, and I’m not about to let you or IMG make a slave out of this young man. Twenty-five percent is ridiculous.”

via The Temptation of Tiger Woods | Vanity Fair.

quotes, Twitter:  I’ll have t.o remember this one next time I go through a breakup with a young person

“@efasheefaa: Dont kill yourself over a boy, hell bring another girl to your funeral.”

via 7 Twitter.

greenhouse, greenhouse kit, backyard:  Really like this greenhouse … It’s made from a kit!

Plus, isn’t it a lovely idea to nurture creativity inside a structure designed to nurture plants? While weight and price were practical considerations, Vendrolini says the warmth of a greenhouse also appealed to him.

via See how an inventive work-from-home designer made an office from a greenhouse, for some inspired thinking in the backyard.

Phillips Academy Andover Election, culture, Christina Huffington: Unlikeable?  Really?  Another, I thought we had moved beyond that…

Girls — and later women — decide not to run for office because they don’t want to be unlikeable, not because they are lacking leadership qualities. We often hear that the more successful a woman is, the less likable she becomes. Let’s try to change that.

via Christina Huffington: Andover Election: The Girls Are Not All Right.

Smash,  tv, Marilyn Monroe, Speakeasy – WSJ:  Always the case … just when I start likeing a show, it gets cancelled, or at least probably cnaceled.

The fledgling Broadway show “Bombshell,” about Marilyn Monroe, holds a dress rehearsal for invited guests, and among the technical problems is a costumemalfunction that leaves lead actress Ivy Lynn (Megan Hilty) naked at the end of a scene with the actor playing President John F. Kennedy.

The positive audience reaction–and jump in ticket sales–prompts producer Eileen Rand (Anjelica Huston), director and composer Tom Levitt (Christian Borle), and book writer and lyricist Julia Houston (Debra Messing) to ask Ivy to keep the nudity in the show. She wants time to think it over.

via ‘Smash’ Recap: Naked Truth about Marilyn Monroe – Speakeasy – WSJ.

The Bible: Miniseries, Mark Burnett, Roma Downey,  Satan-Obama Controversy:  Would they really do that?

Downey hadn’t expected public discussion about “The Bible” series to center on Satan at all; rather, she’d expected people to be talking about Jesus. “The night before that [Satan-Obama controversy] broke in the news, Jesus had made his first appearance on the screen,” she tells Oprah in the clip. “And I was so looking forward to [the next day], knowing that Jesus would be on the lips of everyone… For Satan to be the point of conversation was really heartbreaking.”

In the clip, Downey also points out that “The Bible” had been screened prior to airing on the History Channel and that no one had mentioned Satan’s resemblance to Obama — a resemblance, Downey says, that was completely unintentional. “We love the president,” she says. “We have nothing but respect for the president. We felt somehow hijacked.”

Burnett says that when you work on highly publicized projects as he and Downey did with “The Bible,” criticism comes with the territory. “It’s a free country,” he says. “And you’ve got to accept that.”

via ‘The Bible’: Miniseries Producers Mark Burnett, Roma Downey Respond To Satan-Obama Controversy (VIDEO).

Princeton Man, marriage market,  MRS. degree,  gender equality, WSJ.com:  Worth reading …

 Finally, at a time when women outrank men in education and income, it no longer makes economic sense for a woman to marry up in terms of education. The most economically productive marriages for professional women are ones in which husbands are freer to care for the needs of the family while the women focus on their lucrative careers.

In her letter to Princeton women, Ms. Patton acknowledges that these young women could delay marriage and “choose to marry a man who has other things to recommend him besides a soaring intellect.” On this point, she is right. In fact, economic theory predicts that this is exactly the decision that many Princeton women will make—not because they have to but because they can.

via Why Settle for a Princeton Man? The Marriage Market – WSJ.com.