6.24.13 … MegaBus and Bruce Feiler’s Walking the Bible: SHALOM HAVER … “We’re drawn to written things,” Avner said, explaining the stickers. “We’re still a people of the Book.” …

MegaBus is not as crowded today and a more diverse mix of folks than I have ever seen.  I am sitting at the table, happily connected to the very slow wifi.

My companions at the tables are a female student in a hoodie with a tiny string of pearls and a necklace that says “Michael,” a grandma type who is very tired and a first time rider, a bald-headed younger man in a tawny brown tee shirt with a white steer outline and khakis and a younger matronly type. The last woman wins the best dressed of our group.  I will say that comfortable athletic clothes are the usual outfits.

No one is a chatter box, so I think we are a good group.  🙂

Our driver is a female and she seems in control.

I am reading Bruce Feiler’s Walking the Bible. I always notice bumper stickers, so this quote from early in the book jumped out at me.

Also, every car had at least one bumper sticker, mostly on political topics, like GIVING UP TERRITORY IS DANGEROUS FOR JEWS, some were emotional, like SHALOM HAVER, or “Good-bye Friend,” which is what President Bill Clinton said at the funeral for slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. “We’re drawn to written things,” Avner said, explaining the stickers. “We’re still a people of the Book.”  Feiler, Bruce (2010-09-14). Walking the Bible (P.S.) (p. 51). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

I am reading this book because Bruce Feiler, the author will be at my church in September.

An Evening with Bruce Feiler

via First Presbyterian Church – For Christ In the Heart of Charlotte.

 …

The Willard Lecture Series Presents: An Evening with Bruce Feiler September 29, 2013. 5 pm

Are We in a Holy War? A Way Forward for Jews, Christians, and Muslims Today

At a time when the world is asking how the Arab Spring and the death of Osama bin Laden will reshape our times, Feiler will offer a vivid behind-the-scenes portrait of history in the making. Drawing on fifteen years of travels across the region, from Egypt to Israel, Iraq to Iran, Feiler brings his unprecedented experience to the most pressing questions about the Middle East peace and relations among Jews, Christians, and Muslims worldwide.

The speech will be followed by dinner and a panel discussion with leaders of local communities of faith. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT BRUCE FEILER CLICK HERE (http://brucefeiler.com/)

6.21.13 … another fine ride …

The wheels on the bus go round and round … My MegaBus is more crowded than normal. I’m sitting next to the cutest kid. He’s about 10 and is wearing jeans, a red shirt and baseball cap. Cute, cute, cute!

I’m upstairs and I have to laugh. We’re riding along, and I look out the window and I staring into the eyes of a charming pig. We actually make eye contact. I hope he has some greater purpose than bacon.

Finishing up The Year of Living Biblically. What a hoot!

 

6.5.13 … MegaBus: no brainer, game changer in my opinion

Safely in Atlanta via my safe comfortable volvo suv.  I truly prefer the MegaBus to driving. It is changed my concept of medium distance travel,  3 – 6 hours.  It’s a no brainer game changer in my opinion.

 

5.23.13 … On the road again …

Megabus, Spirit Air, Georgia Department of Public Safety,  How the Irish Saved Civilization, bookshelf: 

On the road again … And the seats are definitely more comfortable on the MegaBus than on Spirit Air!

Except for the 30 minute delay for a “random” Georgia Department of Public Safety inspection, this has been a delightful MegaBus ride. I am reading a Kindle book that I downloaded years ago, How the Irish Saved Civilization. It is way over my head.

How the Irish Saved Civilization, bookshelf, Kindle:  One of the great things about reading on Kindle is that you are able to electronically save your highlights … DENNARD shared from How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History) by Thomas Cahill

We did lose, at any rate, the spirit of classical civilization. “At certain epochs,” wrote Kenneth Clark in Civilisation, “man has felt conscious of something about himself—body and spirit—which was outside the day-to-day struggle for existence and the night-to-night struggle with fear; and he has felt the need to develop these qualities of thought and feeling so that they might approach as nearly as possible to an ideal of perfection—reason, justice, physical beauty, all of them in equilibrium.

…

From the fourth century on, instruction in Christianity could even serve as a shortcut to Romanization, as joining the Episcopalians was till recently a shortcut to respectability in America.

…

Roman Christians assumed this prejudice without examining it. Augustine, in his profundity, realized that the ahistorical Platonic ascent to Wisdom through knowledge and leisured contemplation was unaccomplishable and that it must be replaced by the biblical journey through time—through the life of each man and through the life of the

via Amazon Kindle: A Highlight and Note by DENNARD from How the Irish Saved Civilization Hinges of History.

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.

2.7.13 … wheels on the bus go round and round … love the MegaBus …

side-dominant science, Left- or Right-Sided, Scientific American: 

What do the brains hemispheres have to do with sidedness? When someone is processing language, one hemisphere is usually working harder than the other. There is also some correlation between the sides we use in our brain and the side we use on our body. This preference to use one side of the body over the other is known as sidedness, laterality or left/right dominance.

via Side-Dominant Science: Are You Left- or Right-Sided?: Scientific American.

vacation, South Africa, Wandering Earl:  Great vacation blog post about a wonderful place!

We all have a bucket list and as I approached a ‘big’ birthday, Derek reminded me that South Africa was always at the top of my list and there was no time like the present. So, thanks to DSA Vacations who planned this excellent itinerary, I got a chance to experience this wonderful country, to meet its friendly people and to have a trip never to be forgotten. And I got to spend this trip with my son…

via Our Vacation to South Africa (by Earl’s mom) – Wandering Earl.

Solidoodle,  3D Printers, technology: 

Welcome to Solidoodle, the next generation of printers that allows you to unleash your creativity in three dimensions — and multiple colors. Turn your imagination into reality — one strand of plastic at a time. Adding layers, the Solidoodle 3D Printer takes your image and transforms it into a real product that you can use.

via Solidoodle | Affordable, Easy-to-Use 3D Printers.

Henry Higgins, education, Standard English, NYTimes.com:

LONDON — A school in northeastern England has opened a can of worms by urging parents to make sure their offspring learn when to use the Queen’s English rather than their distinctive local dialect, if they want to get on in life.

Sacred Heart Primary School in Middlesbrough, in the Teesside region, wants its 5- to 11-year-olds to avoid localisms in their writing and speech and has included a handy guide in a letter to parents.

Examples: Avoid “gizit ere” and stick to “please give me it.” It’s “letter” and “butter,” not “letta” and “butta.” And always say “you”, not “yous,” even when there is more than one person.

“I believe that basic communication skills are essential for life,” Carol Walker, the school’s head teacher, said this week. “We would like to equip our children to go into the world of work and not be disadvantaged.”

She said she was not asking children to change their dialect or accents. But she did not want them to enter the world of work without knowing about standard English.

It sounds like good advice in what careers advisers would call the modern competitive workplace. But some residents feel it is part of a broader trend toward conformity and homogenization.

Academics consulted by The Evening Gazette, the local Teesside newspaper, were broadly supportive of the school’s initiative, while also defending the role of regional dialects.

via Calling Henry Higgins: School Makes a Case for Standard English – NYTimes.com.

pop culture, icons, Keep Calm and Carry On,  YouTube: 

via The Story of Keep Calm and Carry On – YouTube.

Boy Meets World, Ben Savage,  Danielle Fishel, Girl Meets World, Inside TV | EW.com, pop culture, tv:

After playing on-air sweethearts Cory and Topanga for seven seasons, Boy Meets World’s Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel, are reigniting their TV relationship for the highly anticipated Disney reboot, Girl Meets World. In the new issue of Entertainment Weekly on stands Friday, we speak to Savage, Fishel, Girl Meets World exec producer Michael Jacobs and Rowan Blanchard—who was just cast to play Cory and Topanga’s daughter, Riley—for scoop on the pilot.

Savage and Fishel talked to EW about why they signed on to Girl Meets World, how they feel about working together again, and why they really do feel like a married couple. They also share the story of the text that restarted their (TV) marriage.

via ‘Boy Meets World’ stars Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel on reuniting for ‘Girl Meets World’ | Inside TV | EW.com.

NCIS, LOL: 

Gibbs tells it like it is, and gets straight to the point.

via NCIS.

collecting, kith/kin:   I collected this hand towel last night … I am trying to figure out how to get the menu/placemat out of the Waffle House.

Waffle House, bargains, collecting, kith/kin: $4.05 … And they gave me a place mat when I asked! — at Waffle House.

.

yarn bombing, public art, SCAD – The University for Creative Careers, LOL: 

We’ve heard of photo bombing, but yarn bombing? Check out all of the places around Savannah that were ‘yarn bombed’ by fibers student Jamie Lyn Kara.

via SCAD – The University for Creative Careers.

MegaBus: Waiting for my MegaBus to load. And by the way, I paid 50 cents for this RT.

 

 

scientology,  The Colbert Report, Comedy Central, LOL: Scientology Church Violence – The Colbert Report – 2013-06-02 – Video Clip | Comedy Central

[http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/423602/february-06-2013/scientology-church-violence?xrs=share_copy]

Davidson College Class of 1982, Astronaut Tom Marshburn:  Tom, you are so out there!

http://livestre.am/4klKw

LOL:

.

2.5.13 … I often find myself between a rock and a hard place, but when I do, I am hoping that place is “thin” …

thin places, FPC, TMBS: I have loved this study! But the final article, really made me think about where and how I spend my time …

TRAVEL, like life, is best understood backward but must be experienced forward, to paraphrase Kierkegaard. After decades of wandering, only now does a pattern emerge. I’m drawn to places that beguile and inspire, sedate and stir, places where, for a few blissful moments I loosen my death grip on life, and can breathe again. It turns out these destinations have a name: thin places.

It is, admittedly, an odd term. One could be forgiven for thinking that thin places describe skinny nations (see Chile) or perhaps cities populated by thin people (see Los Angeles). No, thin places are much deeper than that. They are locales where the distance between heaven and earth collapses and we’re able to catch glimpses of the divine, or the transcendent or, as I like to think of it, the Infinite Whatever.

Travel to thin places does not necessarily lead to anything as grandiose as a “spiritual breakthrough,” whatever that means, but it does disorient. It confuses. We lose our bearings, and find new ones. Or not. Either way, we are jolted out of old ways of seeing the world, and therein lies the transformative magic of travel.

It’s not clear who first uttered the term “thin places,” but they almost certainly spoke with an Irish brogue. The ancient pagan Celts, and later, Christians, used the term to describe mesmerizing places like the wind-swept isle of Iona (now part of Scotland) or the rocky peaks of Croagh Patrick. Heaven and earth, the Celtic saying goes, are only three feet apart, but in thin places that distance is even shorter.

So what exactly makes a place thin? It’s easier to say what a thin place is not. A thin place is not necessarily a tranquil place, or a fun one, or even a beautiful one, though it may be all of those things too. Disney World is not a thin place. Nor is Cancún. Thin places relax us, yes, but they also transform us — or, more accurately, unmask us. In thin places, we become our more essential selves.

via Thin Places, Where We Are Jolted Out of Old Ways of Seeing the World – NYTimes.com

 Georges Seurat, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, favorites, art, TheArtBlab:  One of my favorites … i always go see it when I am in Chicago at The Art Institute, its permanent home.

Artifacts. TheArtBlab.com. Feb. 5. Tues. Famous Favorites in Art.

Georges Seurat (Paris, Dec. 1859-Paris, Mar. 1891) was obsessed with the science of color. The body of work he produced would solidify him as one of the most intellectual artists of his time.

The method of divisionism was the systematic refinement of the broken color of the impressionists. Seurat was seen as the founder of neo-impressionism for having devised a new painting technique based on the divisionism method. He is known for the pointillism technique of painting tiny dots of pure color. The theory behind the placement of pure color side by side, is that from a distance your eye will mix the color

for you.

Well, Mr. Seurat, it worked! But it must have taken forever to paint that way. Un Dimanche a la Grande Jatte (Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte) took two years to paint. It was painted first with regular brush work until the second year when Seurat painted the dots. The piece is is ten feet wide and six feet tall. It hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago and is known as Georges Seurat’s finest painting.

MegaBus, Atlanta, FB, LOL, thin places:  MegaBus to ATL … I am enjoying my almost favorite seat except I am facing backward. Beautiful sunset from the bus.  Love that when I share this my FB friend and childhood friend comments, “She’s trying to make platinum on MegaBus. ” Wouldn’t it be nice if a ride on the bus could be a thin place experience.

silver alert: I saw my first SILVER ALERT last night on 1-77.  i could have guessed what it meant … Silver Alert – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Interesting,  the sign just said SILVER ALERT FOR INFO DIAL 511!!

Apple:  Apple Shows Signs a Major Interface Overhaul Is Coming | Gadget Lab | Wired.com.

1.22.13 … MegaBus … Varsity …

MegaBus, Atlanta:  MegaBus today. Charlotte-Atlanta Bus waited for the DC bus … for folks returning from the inauguration. So the bus was crowded, but folks were sleepy. I am sitting backwards which is not my favorite. On the road again …

Man never took off shield from face, sunglasses, hat, coat or gloves … I have been watching too many Dexters … My sister thinks he is the invisible man ..

 Atlanta, V, Varsity:  Lunch! Thinking inside the box today! — with Mary-Stewart Lindsey at The Varsity Drive-In.

art, fine art, public art, charity art: Art created for charity v. Fine art … Which would you prefer in your home ? Buckhead v. Minotaur?

.

 man’s best friend, spirituality:

business, sleep, sleep therapy, health issues: I’m a big believer in sleep.

Turns out a good night’s rest is good for business.

One-third of American workers aren’t sleeping enough to function at peak levels, and that chronic exhaustion is costing billions of dollars in lost productivity, according to researchers from Harvard Medical School.

Sleep-deprived American workers ultimately cost their employers $63 billion in lost productivity, according to a 2011 Harvard Medical School study. Lauren Weber joins The News Hub with a look at some companies making a business case for a better-rested workforce. Photo: Reuters.

Managers at a growing number of companies, among them Procter & Gamble Co., PG +1.06% and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., GS -0.27% are waking up to the problem, investing in programs from sleep-hygiene courses to melatonin-regulating lighting to help employees improve their slumber.

via Making a Business Case for Bedtime – WSJ.com.

Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice 200: FYI …

Jane Austen is one of the most popular and important novelists that England has ever produced. This site will coordinate all the details of all the events which are being held in 2013 to celebrate Pride and Prejudice’s bi-centenary, wherever they are being held in the world.

via Pride & Prejudice 200.

11.17.2011 … MARTA Gold Line to Civic Center to Megabus to Charlotte (with a mere 2 hour delay) … WOOHOO! great visit with the mum and sis!

Atlanta, MegaBus, travel, kith/kin: Megabus to Charlotte. WOOHOO! great visit with the mum and sis… Massive traffic jam … This delay is not Megabus’ fault … View from the bus for the last 1/2 hour … 🙂 — at I 85

.

This is what I was trapped in …

A truck driver has been charged in a wreck that completely shutdown Interstate 85 for four hours on Thursday.

Rafael Lopez, 48, of New Jersey, has been charged with driving too fast for conditions, according to Highway Patrol Lance Cpl. Bill Rhyne.

The southbound lanes reopened at about 2 p.m., and traffic started to slowly move again. The northbound lanes reopened at about 2:45 p.m.

A truck ran off the road and into the support for an electronic message board used for AMBER alerts and other information that spans all lanes of the interstate. It caused the structure to collapse across the northbound lanes near mile marker 67, according to the Highway Patrol.

via I-85 Reopens; Driver Charged In Wreck – Local News – Greenville, SC – msnbc.com.

A Very Young Dancer, children’s/YA literature, followup:  Having friends in the ballet world I found this interesting …

IN the fall of 1976 “A Very Young Dancer” leaped into the imaginations of a generation of little girls. This children’s book by the photographer Jill Krementz chronicled the day-to-day life of a 10-year-old student from the School of American Ballet, following her to class and through her starring role as Marie in New York City Ballet’s “Nutcracker,” for which she was handpicked by George Balanchine himself. (“George Balanchine’s Nutcracker,” performed by City Ballet, begins its 57th season on Friday at the Koch Theater.)

Stephanie DePierro was profiled at 10 in Jill Krementz’s 1976 photo book “A Very Young Dancer.”

For a time the book’s subject, Stephanie, was perhaps the most famous and easily recognizable ballerina in the world. Young readers wanted to be her. There were bags of fan mail and appearances on “Today,” “Midday Live With Bill Boggs” and a one-hour “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” Christmas special.

For anyone who’s read the classic book, it’s easy to see why it was a best seller. Stephanie’s intensity — her beauty, her dark eyes and her seriousness — draws the reader in. The stark black and white lends some of the photos a Grimm’s fairy tale quality, with a haunted undertow that appeals to girls. And it offers a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the most prestigious ballet academy in the country, which has an almost mystical quality for aspiring ballerinas. (My own daughter is a student there.)

via ‘A Very Young Dancer’ and the Life That Followed – NYTimes.com.

Roget’s Thesaurus, words:  You know what, I must be a real nerd … I love Roget’s Thesaurus, too.

A confession: I love Roget’s Thesaurus. Mine is not a popular position to avow. Most writers I know, asked if they use a thesaurus to discover more interesting vocabulary for their essays or stories, bristle with resistance. Haven’t those who look up “say” in the Thesaurus and consequently force characters to “utter,” “breathe,” “pour forth,” “state,” “declare,” “assert,” “aver,” “relate” “murmur,” “mutter,” or “gasp” ruined countless reading experiences? Haven’t students who looked up “refute” and found “confute” next on the list composed arguments that got off on the wrong track, only to be further derailed when they decided that “apodixis” suited them better than “proof”? Whatever folks think of Stephen King, most would agree with his advice, in On Writing:

One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you’re maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones.  This is like dressing up a household pet in evening clothes . … Make yourself a solemn promise right now that you’ll never use “emolument” when you mean “tip.”

via An Aficionado (Connoisseur, Fan, Devotee, Enthusiast) Speaks

college majors, humanities:

“So, what do you study?”

“I’m an English major and I’m also pre-med.”

Blank stare. Glazed eyes. Crickets. So begins another awkward introduction in the dining hall.

Similar situations are erupting on campuses across the country as a small, but growing number of aspiring doctors choose to major in the humanities or social sciences instead of the usual bio or chem. Last year, nearly a quarter of medical school applicants majored outside the sciences, and for good reason: Nowadays, medical schools don’t care about what you majored in during your undergrad.

Admissions rates are virtually equal for science and non-science majors, and most med schools encourage undergrads to take substantial courses in the humanities to prove that they’re concerned with the human condition, not just the human body.

For pre-med English majors like me, the idea is simple. I want to spend my college days reading Shakespeare; I want to spend my post-college life delivering health care to under-served communities. Why should I have to choose between them?

The possibility of becoming a non-science pre-med is far from obvious to most college students, however.

via Are you pre-med? Major in the humanities | USA TODAY College.

Davidson College, Arab Spring Lecture, William Roebuck:

William Roebuck is director for the Office of Maghreb Affairs in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. His office has been on the front lines, helping shape the U.S. government’s diplomatic response to the momentous developments known as the Arab Spring. His lecture will focus on the wave of revolutionary movements across the Arab World, as well as his recent experiences in Libya. A question and answer session will follow the lecture.

via Davidson College – Arab Spring Lecture.

diets, health: Ooh … t00 many questions!

1““““““`11111Have you tried out a trendy diet plan, such as a juice fast, the 17-Day Diet, Wheat Belly, the Paleo Diet, or the Dukan Diet (a.k.a. the “Kate Middleton Diet”)? Or are you committed to an older weight-loss plan, such as Weight Watchers or South Beach? If you’ve found success with a popular diet—or want to rant about your bad experiences with one—we want to hear from you for an upcoming Gourmet Live feature on the best diets for food lovers. Please cut and paste the following questions and send your answers to gourmetlive@condenast.com.

DIET QUESTIONS:

What is the name of (and any books associated with) the diet you tried?

How did you choose this diet?

What foods and drinks—if any—are you required to give up for the diet?

How would you sum up the other “rules” of the diet in three or four sentences?

How did you feel while on the diet (emotionally and physically)?

How long were you on the diet and did you lose any weight (if so, how much)?

What were the best things about the diet?

What about the worst things about the diet?

Would you recommend this diet to a food loving friend? Why or why not?

Can we quote you by name? If so, please supply your name as you’d like to be listed, and (if you are comfortable with this), your age and gender.

via Have You Tried a Trendy Diet Plan? — Gourmet Live.

food, globalization: “And, as our food supply becomes ever more globalised, I can’t help but imagine that more and more producers of “luxury” foods will seek to make their product even more desirable with reference to a hyper-specific, utterly imaginary atlas of aspirational origins.”

Provenance is a tricky issue. Over the past few years, the names of agricultural regions, villages, and even specific farms have proliferated on urban menus and shelf labels, providing the aspirational consumer with a shorthand guarantee of authenticity, taste, and, often, local origin.The idea is that by listing the farm on which your heirloom tomato was picked, chefs honour growers as the co-producer of flavour; meanwhile, by achieving protected designation of origin (PDO) status, traditional makers of pork pies and prosciutto preserve the geographic context of their product, as well as its artisanal technique and, often, its continued economic viability.For consumers, however, these place names tend to form a more abstract cartography of implied inherent value. I confess to finding it reassuring that the lamb on offer at the restaurant up the street comes from Jamison Farm, even though I have no idea where that is, and I look for San Marzano DOP tomatoes despite the fact that (this is a little embarrassing) I couldn’t point to their carefully protected origin on a map….However, it is the branding geniuses at Marks & Spencer, suppliers of underwear and luxury ready-meals to the UK, who have taken the abstract, yet powerful, geography of food labeling to its logical, imaginary conclusion. While re-reading Sarah Murray’s excellent book, Moveable Feasts (of which more later), I came across this nugget:Sometimes places that are entirely fictional are created to add to the appeal of a food. British chain Marks & Spencer recently introduced “Lochmuir salmon,” despite the fact that Lochmuir cannot be found on a map.Marks & Spencer is refreshingly open on the subject of Lochmuir’s non-existence, with Andrew Mallinson, the company’s “fish expert,” explaining to The Scotsman newspaper that “it is a name chosen by a panel of consumers because it had the most Scottish resonance. It emphasises that the fish is Scottish.”

…

And, as our food supply becomes ever more globalised, I can’t help but imagine that more and more producers of “luxury” foods will seek to make their product even more desirable with reference to a hyper-specific, utterly imaginary atlas of aspirational origins. Chinese fois gras will come from the French-sounding Beauchâteau, Vietnamese mozzarella will be marketed under the faux-Italian name of San Legaro, and the role of geography in food description — originally intended as a means to reconnect consumers and producers — will end up further disguising the industrial commodity chain while creating an entirely alternate universe, made up of the places that we dream our food comes from.

via The Atlas of Aspirational Origins.

The Vatican, lawsuits,  Benetton,ad campaigns:  Truly bizarre:  world leaders kissing!

The Vatican is promising legal action to stop the distribution of a photo of Pope Benedict kissing an imam on the mouth. The photo is fake, by the way, and is part of a shock-factor advertising campaign by Italian fashion company Benetton that features world leaders getting fresh.

Benedict’s inamorata in the photo is Ahmed Tayeb, leader of Al Azhar in Cairo, Sunni Islam’s most influential institution. Another ad shows President Obama kissing Chinese President Hu Jintao.

The new campaign, as well as the UNHATE Foundation, a new Benetton think tank aimed at, um, communicating love, are part of the company’s social responsibility strategy. Click here for the foundation website and here for slideshow of the ads. WSJ’s Heard on the Runway has more here, and the Journal has a story on the ad campaign here.

The Vatican, however, isn’t feeling the unhate. It said in a statement Thursday its lawyers in Italy and around the world had been instructed to “take the proper legal measures” to stop the use of the photo, even in the media, Reuters reported. And Here‘s a link to the statement in Italian, for what it’s worth. (Prego.)

The statement said the ad was “damaging to not only to dignity of the pope and the Catholic Church but also to the feelings of believers.” It wasn’t clear whether the Vatican intended to sue Benetton directly.

via The Vatican is threatening a legal response Italian fashion company Benetton’s new ad campaign of world leaders kissing – Law Blog – WSJ.

art, photography, Nate Larson, Marni Shindelman, “Geolocation”series: “The images originate as tweets that Larson and Shindelman select for their poignancy, humor or some other quality. They then travel to the places that the tweets were sent from, indentified by GPS coordinates embedded in the messages, and take a picture. The resulting works pair image with words, to sometimes startling effect.” … interesting concept.

Every photograph in Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman’s “Geolocation”series starts with a caption. But the artists don’t write them themselves.

The images originate as tweets that Larson and Shindelman select for their poignancy, humor or some other quality. They then travel to the places that the tweets were sent from, indentified by GPS coordinates embedded in the messages, and take a picture. The resulting works pair image with words, to sometimes startling effect.

A selection of “Geolocation” images is on view at Montpelier Arts Center. Read my review of the exhibition (whose images are also available in book form), and check out a few of the pictures after the jump.

via Art in focus: Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman – Going Out Gurus – The Washington Post.

Storify:  How Storifying Occupy Wall Street Saved The News … still trying to figure out storify!

In the dead of night on Monday, November 14, Zuccotti Park in New York City was raided by police. In the preceding days, there were crackdowns at several of the major Occupy protests around the country. The effort had apparently been coordinated between cities. Monday night’s actions against the original Occupy Wall Street encampment were stern, heavy enough to bring a decisive end to the protest. But the raid only served to turn up the heat in New York and around the country.

As they have since the Occupation began, people on the ground fired up their smartphones to report the events as they happened, and curators around the Web gathered and retweeted the salient messages. But early on in the raid, mainstream media outlets began reporting that the police were barring their reporters from entering the park. The NYPD even grounded a CBS News helicopter. The night had chilling implications for freedom of the press. But the news got out anyway. The raw power of citizen media – and the future of news envisioned by a site called Storify – thwarted the media blackout.

…

But for the Monday night raid at Zuccotti Park, and indeed for much of the Occupation, Storify has come into its own as the social news curation tool par excellence. In fact, thanks to the media blackout Monday night, some of the most important news outlets in the country would not have had a story if not for Storify.

…

In October, it rolled out a brand new editing interface making the tool vastly easier to use. And one week ago, just before the police raided Zuccotti Park, Storify made its move, redesigning its homepage as a destination featuring the most important stories on the social Web. Storify’s vision is no less than a leveling of the media playing field. On the Storify homepage, lifelong and first-time journalists stand side by side.

…

Damman says this is the perfect demonstration of the Storify redesign. These social media documents are the real story, and the NYPD’s obstruction of credentialed journalists only shows how out of touch the police are. “The police in New York don’t realize that it doesn’t matter to not have journalists on the scene,” Damman says, “because everybody is a reporter. What happened last night shows that they don’t get that.”

“Most of the content comes from the people on the ground, from the 99%.”

via How Storifying Occupy Wall Street Saved The News.

tweet of the day, Steph Curry:  🙂

Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30)
11/17/11 8:00 PM
Lol no doubt i have something nice in store RT @sdotcurry: Cmon son! #blood RT @StephenCurry30: Big game tomorrow. What do I wear lol?

Occupy Wall Street:  Do you think OWS reflects the sentiment of  50 % of the country?

The Occupy Wall Street protests continue to spread around the country, highlighting grievances some Americans have about banks, income inequality and a sense that the poor and middle class have been disenfranchised. A recent New York Times/CBS News poll found that almost half of the public thinks the sentiments at the root of the movement generally reflect the views of most Americans. What are your thoughts about the movement? Do you agree with the protesters’ methods? Please note you must be logged in to post a comment.

via Public Opinion and the Occupy Movement – Interactive Feature – NYTimes.com.

criminal acts, fashion, Marc Jacobs:  Thought this one interesting …

In a case that seems ripe for Sherlock Holmes, Scotland Yard is investigating an alleged theft of samples from designer Marc Jacobs‘s Spring 2012 fashion collection that took place along a posh London Street.

The missing clothes, shoes and handbags were from the collection that the designer showed on his New York runway in September, as well as less-dramatic looks from his so-called pre-collection, according to a person familiar with the situation. Police estimated the value at £40,000, or a little more than $63,000.

Marc Jacobs executives declined to comment.

ReutersMarc Jacobs had to cancel its planned London ‘press day’ for fashion editors; above, a look from the Spring 2012 collection.

Sales to retailers of the Marc Jacobs collection closed in October, and the loss won’t affect products destined for stores next spring, said the person familiar with the situation. Those items are already being manufactured. What’s more, the brand has duplicates of the samples in New York, the person said.

But as a result of the samples’ disappearance, the Marc Jacobs brand was forced to cancel its planned London “press day” where fashion editors and reporters are invited to view the collections. Press days allow publications to see and select items they may photograph in future issues.

via Marc Jacobs’s Spring Collection Allegedly Stolen in London – WSJ.com.

President Abraham Lincoln, Mormons, history:  Very interesting piece!

On Oct. 20, 1861, a vital piece of the Utah puzzle was solved, as the final lines of a telegraph were strung together, linking the

Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific, through an office in Salt Lake City. On that auspicious occasion, which spoke so loudly of union, Brigham Young remarked,“Utah has not seceded, but is firm for the Constitution and laws of our once happy country.” Those were words guaranteed to warm Lincoln’s heart. Two days later, more good news, as General J. Arlington Bennett wrote him to ask if he could recruit 1,000-10,000 Mormons to fight for the Union.

But the question was far from solved, and on Nov. 18, Lincoln attacked the Mormon question in a most Lincolnian way. Instead of ordering an invasion, Lincoln ordered information. Specifically, he asked the Library of Congress to send him a pile of books about Mormonism, so that the aggregator-in-chief could better understand them. These included “The Book of Mormon” in its original 1831 edition, and three other early studies of the Mormons, with extensive, lurid chapters covering their polygamy. For some reason, he also ordered a volume of Victor Hugo, in French, a language he could not read.

Fortified by his reading, Lincoln came to a great decision. And that decision was to do nothing. Sometimes that, too, can be a form of leadership — what Churchill called “a masterly inactivity.”

Typically, Lincoln reached his decision through a homely parable, told to a Mormon emissary:

When I was a boy on the farm in Illinois there was a great deal of timber on the farm which we had to clear away. Occasionally we would come to a log which had fallen down. It was too hard to split, too wet to burn, and too heavy to move, so we plowed around it. You go back and tell Brigham Young that if he will let me alone I will let him alone.

That parable is about as much as we will get in the way of a formal explanation, but it is enough. To his generous store of common sense, we might also add the freshness of Lincoln’s memories of the bloodshed at Nauvoo in 1844, when angry mobs had killed the Mormon leaders, with elected officials standing by and doing nothing. And the centrality of Utah to the grand vision of a transcontinental republic, embraced fully by America’s most western president to date.

via Lincoln and the Mormons – NYTimes.com.

11.16.2011 … On the megabus :) — at I 85 … mega-glad that I made it safely to mega-ATL … and safely to Lenbrook for Veggie plate including vegetarian egg rolls and then bingo … Nice evening with the Lenboook ladies — with Mary-Stewart and Mamma at lenbrook square.

Megabus, Atlanta, bingo, kith/kin:  First day of Megabus service to Atlanta … a little slow … but arrived safely and had a great visit with the Mom.

.

via http://stageus.megabus.com/routemap.aspx

holidays, photos, tips: Get Creative! … I am certainly glad imperfection is perfectly OK!!

Imperfection Is Perfectly Okay

Capturing a technically good image takes a lot of learning and practice. That said, I like to grab seasonal shots even in their imperfection — like this scene through a bus window during a New York City downpour on Central Park West. Shoot as many pictures as you want, because with digital — unlike when I started shooting two decades ago — there’s no film to process, and you’re not burning through a lot of film (or through your wallet) every time you take a dozen photos. Mind you, the downside is that you might not think through your shots as clearly as you do when you have to manually focus and change film cartridges every 36 pictures.

via Holiday Photo Tips: Get Creative! – Photo Gallery – LIFE.

college students, human memory, learning:  Great article…

I expect that most of us can identify personally with the connection between cues and memories. The power of cues helps explain why a particular song may remind you of a memorable afternoon in Paris, or why, for me, the smell of stale beer always draws up vivid memories of my first-year dorm room.

Further reflection is likely to yield more-intellectual examples. One long afternoon over winter break in my sophomore year in college, I sat in a chair in my parents’ living room and had my life changed by Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh. Whenever I sat in that chair, for many years afterward, detailed memories of O’Neill’s play and its impact on my life would return to me. And I can walk into certain classrooms on my campus and immediately recall formative experiences I had in my development as a teacher.

But while we may be able to draw up endless examples of how our minds have created such connections between learned information and the contextual cues that accompanied our first encounter with that information, those examples don’t translate very easily—as Miller points out—into concrete pedagogical practice.

If it turns out that the greatest memory challenge our students face is retrieving information from their long-term memories when they need it to perform on exams and assignments, and if that retrieval ability depends on the use of contextual cues during the information-encoding process, what does that mean for our job description as teachers? Do we have any control over the cues that accompany the encoding of information in our students’ brains? Can we help them develop effective cues?

via Teaching and Human Memory, Part I – Do Your Job Better – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

NBA lockout, college hoops, Pat Forde:  Enjoyed this article!

A long-lost friend is knocking on your front door, sports fan.

Open up and let him in.

Look who’s there – it’s college basketball. You remember him – used to be a lot of fun to be around, especially in March. Amid the more serious entities on the sporting cocktail circuit – college and pro football, the NBA, Major League Baseball – he was the life of the party. A weeknight at the gym (or just watching on TV) was always a good time.

The return of UNC’s Harrison Barnes and others is among the many reasons college basketball is flying high so far this season.

Then the old friend got wayward. He became irresponsible, with scandals cropping up constantly. He hung around sketchy characters – greasy third parties who attached themselves to star players. And then even the stars themselves became transient properties, just passing through on their way to the NBA, never sticking around long enough to develop a bond with the fans.

After a while, the product just wasn’t very good – not the players, not the teams. As problems kept surfacing, the credibility went the way of boxing. And all those other sports looked like better alternatives.

College basketball hit the skids.

But like the prodigal son and Britney Spears, college hoops is back after some rough years. And not looking too bad.

This is the chance to reacquaint with your old friend, sports fan. What else are you going to do, watch the NBA?

That league appears intent on alienating its fan base with a prolonged lockout that could eradicate the entire season. Already, 26 percent of the games have been canceled. The players union and ownership are at the breaking point. So is the faith of the customers.

You won’t see LeBron and Kobe and Dirk on Friday nights anytime soon – maybe not until next fall. So if you love hoops, what’s the alternative?

Let in your old friend.

The college game still has tremendous problems – cheating, hypocrisy and a corrosive cult-of-the-coach mentality among them. But this 2011-12 season is college hoops’ big chance to regain its seat at American sports’ main table.

The opportunity is there, and the product should be good enough to take advantage of that opportunity.

The talent on the floor – individually and from a team perspective – is as good as it’s been since 2008 at least.

When Harrison Barnes and Tyler Zeller of North Carolina, Jared Sullinger of Ohio State and Terrence Jones of Kentucky all said no to the NBA draft and came back to school, the game got a jolt of star power. Casual fans who like watching pro-level talent perform have something to tune into.

The return of those players helped guarantee that the Tar Heels, Buckeyes and Wildcats all would be better than they were last year. In fact, all three programs are probably better than any team was last year.

Let’s face it: if the talent level weren’t massively down in 2010-11, we wouldn’t have had both Virginia Commonwealth and Butler in the Final Four. They were great stories, not great teams. We wouldn’t have had the ninth-place team in the Big East (Connecticut) winning the national title while scoring 109 points in two games – the lowest Final Four total for the national champion since 1946.

When that fetid Final Four ended with Jim Calhoun – facing personal NCAA sanctions for violations within his program – holding up the national championship trophy after a weekend of horrible hoops, college basketball might have reached its nadir.

Now the game is climbing back up.

via NBA lockout opens door for college hoops – College Basketball – Rivals.com.

The Insanely Great History of Apple, posters, infographics: pretty cool …

The Insanely Great History of Apple is a cool new poster from PopChartLabs.com, where you can purchase the $25, 18”x24” poster for yourself (and many other great ones).

The world’s most comprehensive mapping of Apple products, this print shows every computer released by Apple in the last thirty years, from the original Mac through the MacBook Air. Products are sorted according to type, including the connections between various form factors which have arisen as Apple has invented—and reinvented—insanely great products.

via Cool Infographics – Blog – The Insanely Great History of Apple.

 college students, “Occupy Generation”, Occupy Wall Street:  Passing of the mantle?

As of today, Occupations are occurring in nearly 500 cities worldwide, according to Occupy Wall Street’s website. The protests have already been successful in one sense. The country is talking about ‘income inequality’ like never before. Since the protests began, the media has used the term 400% more this week than the week before the Occupation began according to a Politico metric.

So then, what next? In the words of Tom Hayden: “What happens next will be a collective judgment based on what they’ve been through. History awaits their decision.”

The country is waiting on these young people to act. They wanted to start a conversation, and they did. The question remains how they will be able to fix anything.

Will they form a political movement or continue changing the system from the outside? Will leadership emerge or will the difficult process of leaderless general assemblies succeed without it?

The answer might be found in Iowa. On January 4th, 2012, Occupiers from around the country will travel to Iowa to demonstrate at the First-In-The-Nation caucus. That is, if they can get organized. Much like Chicago, the cameras will be rolling in Iowa starting in early December. The demonstrators have a chance to affect the grassroots political process in historic fashion, if they are willing to engage it at all.

via Passing the mantle: The new Occupation Generation | USA TODAY College.

Benetton, advertising, controversial advertising: Benetton has the Pope kissing an imam, and Obama kissing Hugo Chavez in ad campaign. Doesn’t make me want to buy their clothes …

“Twenty-five years ago, Italian fashion label Benetton rode its controversial “United Colors of Benetton” ad campaign to global fame,” write the Journal’s Christina Passariello and Jennifer Clark.

Now, after having lost speed to competitors such as Inditex’s Zara and Hennes & Mauritz’s H&M, Benetton is trying for a second publicity coup.

On Wednesday, the house unveiled its first major brand advertising campaign in more than a decade, titled “Unhate.”

The images are of global leaders kissing: U.S. President Barack Obama locks lips with China’s Hu Jintao and with Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez.

A picture of the Pope embracing one of Islam’s leading figures, Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb, the imam of the al-Azhar mosque in Egypt, was hung from a bridge near the Vatican early Wednesday.

Alessandro Benetton anticipated that this ad would be the most controversial. “We could be excommunicated,” he said, only half-joking.

via Benetton’s Controversial Ad Campaigns, Featuring Obama, Chavez and the Pope – Heard on the Runway – WSJ.

Maria Popova, theoatmeal.com:  Another find from Maria Popova … Old but gold – top tweets illustrated …

I drew some tweets – The Oatmeal.

Coco-Cola, Arctic Home Coke Commercial, WWF, csr:   Protect the polar bears  … nice ad … but is this csr or just an advertising ploy.

This is the Arctic. This vast area of tundra, jagged peaks and frozen seas is the only place where the polar bear can live, hunt and breed. And it needs our help. Check this out, then join us at ArcticHome.com to learn about these amazing animals through video, pictures and bear facts from World Wildlife Fund. Together, we can help make sure the polar bear has a place to call home. http://CokeURL.com/ArcticHome

via Arctic Home Coke Commercial | Protect the Polar Bears – YouTube.

Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs, “journey for enlightenment”:

I don’t think it was just a question of liking him. I admired him, respected him, and found him unbelievably compelling even though he’s not your usual role model. I mean, he wasn’t the sweetest person I’ve ever met. But he was certainly the most interesting and, in some ways, mesmerizing person I’ve met.

SQ: If Jobs hadn’t been successful, would people still admire him?

WI: I tried to make it all come together in the book, which is the passionate perfectionism that causes him to be hard-driving and not put up with things that he considered mediocre. It’s what led him to create great products, but also to gather around him a loyal and talented team. So, to say that you can separate that passion for perfection and that demanding nature from the fact that he kept driving them like crazy to make the iPod perfect, is wrong. His personality is integrated into his success just like Apple products have the software and the hardware integrated with one another.

via Steve Jobs’s ‘journey for enlightenment’ – Under God – The Washington Post.