Want to see something really scary? Forget Independence Day, 2012 or any other Hollywood horror story. This summer, Countdown to Zero should land on your Top Ten list. The cast includes such international stars as Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev and Tony Blair. The doomsday plot? Unless the world acts quickly, time will run out on [...]
Talkin’ Trash: Days 11 – 13 of Rubbish
For nearly two weeks now, I have been collecting garbage on my daily walks and documenting the experience while conducting related research. It’s a lab experiment of sorts where the earth is my lab. An interesting secondary gain from this journey, is the opportunity it has afforded me to engage many folks in conversation. Little did I [...]
About Obesity and Entertainment
The number of Americans that are overweight is startling. As consumers, we must re-evaluate eating and exercise habits as well as how–and how much–we entertain ourselves. One of the major causes of obesity is based on personal experiences and circumstances, but more specifically–stress. Another has to do with genetics. Americans have been forced to cope [...]
Privatized Trash: Days 8 – 10 of Rubbish
For 21 days, I will be collecting garbage on my daily walks and sharing with you a few photos of my fascinating findings, my captivating collection, some garbage-specific research and numerous thoughts about the experience. The earth, while expansive and seemingly infinite, is methodically churning into one massive garbage dump. Each week Mr. or Mrs. [...]
Palin, Fear, and Mama Grizzlies
Sarah Palin’s “mama grizzlies” video fans the flames of fear that already fuel the over-parenting trend in this country. In an apparent effort to reach out to middle of-the-road women, Palin’s PAC video launches a vague attack on the “fundamental transformation of this country,” embedded with a challenge for moms to take action toward preserving [...]
Suffragists on the Western Frontier
August 26th was Women’s Equality Day, in commemoration of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which formally recognized women’s right to vote in the United States. This year is particularly special, as it marks 90 years of women casting their ballots. But did you know that women in many of the Western states were voting [...]
Hugh Hefner Superstar | A Review of Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel
Celebrities, here’s a tip worthy of the Playboy Advisor: If you consent to a documentary biography, make sure you hire a pal to direct. After making Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, the only remaining to-do items for director Brigitte Berman is to nominate her subject for the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of [...]
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Environment
Can We Defend Ourselves Against Particle Pollution?
Have you noticed during televised news reports on this summer’s heat wave that a haze hangs over the cities highlighted in the reports? It appears that there are not many areas of the country that are immune from that thick grey cloud. The American Lung Association of New York gave a failing grade to the air quality in Western New York in its State [...]
Literature, Media & Entertainment
The Film Inception: Architects Designing a Game
Watching the much-talked-about Inception, I couldn’t help thinking about the overlap between the movie and level design, the aspect of game development involving the creation of in-game environments. I was not the only one. Reading this very interesting take on Inception from game development blogger Kirk Hamilton’s site, I was struck again by how the role [...]
Literature, Media & Entertainment
Don’t Leave This Behind: The Kids Are More Than All Right
Movies like The Kids are All Right are usually accompanied with snow. What I mean by that is simple: Lisa Cholodenko’s film is not typical summer fair. It is a film usually destined for late December, a piece of Oscar bait meant to impress Academy voters. Thankfully, we did not have to wait until winter, and [...]
Creating Solutions
The Life, Death and Rebirth Saga: The Work of a Bereavement Specialist
Suzanne Doyle is a bereavement specialist, skilled in grief and loss work with children, adolescents and adults; and has been for four and a half years. Working at one of the largest hospices in the St. Louis metropolitan area, BJC Hospice, Doyle may work with up to 1,500 patients and their families in one year. [...]
Culture & History
Are the Democrats Really the “Party of the People?”
The following article is the first in a series that will look at the historical roots of the Democratic Party, its development as an institution over 218 years of claimed existence and whether or not the party’s reputation and mythology square with historical reality. The Democratic Party’s website claims that “Thomas Jefferson founded the party [...]
Literature, Media & Entertainment
Music Industry’s 4th Problem: Fear
For those of you who are unaware, the record industry has seen a steady decline in record sales since the year 2000.
Literature, Media & Entertainment
American Idle: Adventures in TV Land
If you want to seriously study the sick state of TV in the age of Fox News, reality shows and infomercials, spend a few days semi-conscious in a hospital bed. Some 50 years ago, Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton Minow controversially declared television to be a “vast wasteland.” That was when TV was limited to [...]
Education & Family
Hidden Summer Danger
Children tend to look forward to summer for several reasons: no school, summer vacations, and, of course, playing outside. However, that innocent trip to the playground may end in second or third degree burns. Playground equipment, including slides and the rubber mats used to prevent kids from being injured in case they fall, can burn [...]
Literature, Media & Entertainment
Music: Pricing Itself out of the Market?
This article is part three of a series outlining the current state of the music industry, and how we got here. For those of you who are unaware, the record industry has seen a steady decline in record sales since the year 2000. I previously discussed illegal downloading and the end of the replacement era, [...]
Culture & History
It’s 1984 in Italy
Italy’s parliament is currently reviewing a bill that, if signed into law, would fine journalists and bloggers up to €25,000 for publishing “incorrect facts”; taking a 1948 rectification obligation, requiring newspapers to print corrections, into the information age. The proposed bill, known as the “gag-law”, would give writers and editors of online publications 48 hours [...]
Literature, Media & Entertainment
Mad Men Under Occupation
It would seem as though Don Draper’s dalliance with a prostitute in last week’s episode, as out of character as it felt for him (or rather as an indication of how low the man has sunk over the past 11 months), was a sign of things to come in this episode. His advertising company, Sterling [...]
Literature, Media & Entertainment
What Would You Do? Television’s Bystander
Last night I had the pleasure (I think) of catching an episode of “What Would You Do?” with John Quiñones. For those who are not familiar with the show, it is a hidden camera show that investigates social phenomena using actors in public places. One segment featured a Latino man being brutally attacked on the [...]
Current Events, Politics & Economy
Wikileaks Afghanistan: Exposing the True Cost of War
Wikileaks recently released over 90,000 documents related to the war in Afghanistan. What’s in the documents? Pakistani support for the Taliban. Cover up of civilian deaths on a regular basis. Death. Destruction. Or, to put it another way: nothing to see here. That’s if you’re watching mainstream media.
Current Events, Politics & Economy
What’s Really Happening in Afghanistan
As you read this, the House of Representatives are gearing up to vote on spending another $34 Billion to fund the war on Afghanistan. Call your Representative NOW to stop funding this war, at 1-888-493-5443 (a special number set up by the Friends Committee on National Legislation to keep track of the number of calls made) and tell them to stop sending your tax money on war.
Culture & History
The Haitian Earthquake Six Months Later: One Woman’s Struggle to Save Her Homeland
When a 7.2-magnitude earthquake shook Haiti on January 12, 2010, the country not only experienced a devastating transformation of the physical landscape, but the widespread destruction would beckon the reunification of a commitment to a country that many had left or forgotten.
Literature, Media & Entertainment
Mad Men, “Public Relations”: The Rebranding of Don Draper
Last night’s Mad Men episode, which kicked off the show’s fourth season, starts with a question: “Who is Don Draper?” Isn’t that what the show’s been exploring for the past three seasons? Mad Men has always been about identity, especially from a marketing and advertising perspective, as characters struggle to shape and manipulate the way [...]
Literature, Media & Entertainment
Inception: A Thriller For Your Brain
Inception has saved the summer. No matter what happens the rest of the summer, with each film release from now until Labor Day, rest assured as moviegoers because one breathtakingly brilliant film has reached our cinemas. Some years are not treated to a film as good as Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece, a film wound so intricately [...]
English
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