Cyril's Gleans

gleans at 10:20 PM EDT, 3/18

Middle America suffers social tension over Iraq

As calls to bring US troops back from Iraq mount, big cities and small town America alike are feeling growing social tension.

John Keegan: Another year of conflict ahead

Signs are good, says US general Iraq in numbers (since 2003)

 

In Race for President
Wall Street Journal - By AMY SCHATZ. WASHINGTON -- John Edwards topped the field of Democratic presidential contenders in the liberal blog DailyKos's latest straw poll. 

A mysterious, huge, dense mass of cold water is milling off the coast of Sydney, baffling researchers and delighting fishermen ... [more]

 

Pessimism 'growing among Iraqis'

 

 

  Iraqis have little confidence in their own government and the US-led coalition forces, a major survey shows.      

New world order
  Europeans grumble as US swaps old alliances for an 'open marriage'

    Inflation is eating US wage gains
  Food, housing, and healthcare costs rose at a 6 percent yearly rate in the past three months. By Mark Trumbull

Congress eyes lost billions sent to Iraq
Audits discovered $10 billion in lost or wasted funding since 2003, prompting talk of reforms to prevent war profiteering. By Peter Grier

The un-Rumsfeld: Robert Gates's way at Defense
Observers say Gates has established himself as a pragmatist and effective navigator of the Washington bureaucracy. By Gordon Lubold

Sunni Insurgents Show Resilience in Iraq
  Forbes - By STEVEN R. HURST 03.18.07, 3:54 PM ET. Sunni insurgents, resilient despite the five-week security crackdown in the capital, killed at least seven more US troops over the weekend.

Yukio Mishima was a right-wing fanatic and national embarrassment for Japan. He was also a vastly talented writer... more» 

The Victorian “crisis of faith” predates Darwin’s Origin of Species. Tennyson felt confronted by “nature red in tooth and claw” in 1850... more» 

'Marilyn given suicide drug by Rat Pack friend'

Marilyn Monroe's apparent suicide may have been the result of a plot hatched in the knowledge of Robert Kennedy, claim FBI files.

Dumbing down Latin in the classroom, ad absurdum

We should stop assuming that children need to have everything made easier, and make things more interesting instead

Partner Adopted by an Heiress Stakes Her Claim 
  By PAM BELLUCK and ALISON LEIGH COWAN  
  The former lesbian partner of the granddaughter of the founder of I.B.M. is seeking a share of an inherited fortune.  

 

         

 

World's most important crops hit by global warming effects
  Independent - By Steve Connor, Science Editor. Global warming over the past quarter century has led to a fall in the yield of some of the most important food crops in the world, according to one of the first scientific studies of how climate change has affected ...

gleans + 2xaddenda at 7:35 AM ET, 3/18

US general upbeat on Iraq 'surge'

The US commander in Iraq is hopeful over the latest security push, as four US troops are killed in Baghdad.

US plans to 'retake' Baghdad

Protesters march against war

Study: Patients who have lost ability to understand grammar can still do math

--BBC News Selling Sex in NC
Air Date: 03/16/2007
North Carolina based Adam & Eve has posted record growth in recent months. The seller of adult movies and sex aids is one of the largest employers in Orange County North Carolina. Leoneda Inge reports: more

   Lenovo computers to use Microsoft search
Canada.com BEIJING (AP) - Lenovo Group Ltd. became the first computer maker to agree to pre-load Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Live toolbar and make its search portal the main service on all new computers worldwide.

 

In Hawaii, awa makes a comeback    
    By Julia Steele   
The elixir of Oceania is a favorite at Honolulu's Diamond Head Cove Health Bar. A bowlful and kukakuka. What could be more relaxing?

Rare treat from nature:Perfect snow doughnuts   Expert says 'natural occurrence' only 2nd he's seen in 30 years

    --Seattle Times 'Crater' spied under California  

Oil exploration work in Central Valley region uncovers possible space impact

 
    --BBC News

    Family sees meteorite hit ground
'There were sparks coming out of the back. It was wild'
    --York Region Newspaper Group, Canada
   
Gold, guns, defying gravity fuel aviators with adrenaline
Bush pilots in Congo dodge militia men, thieves, cannibals every day
--Glasgow Sunday Herald, Scotland

***addenda #1*** http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-schwartz18mar18,0,7478180.story?track=ntothtml
 

Make college admissions a crapshoot

Top schools are already too selective, so why not draw names from a hat?By Barry Schwartz
Barry Schwartz is a professor of psychology at Swarthmore College. His most recent book is "The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less."

March 18, 2007

SPRING IS HERE, and along with the crocuses comes the annual admissions panic. High school kids get anxiety attacks as they approach their mailboxes. And in some parts of the U.S., parents stress as they await a phone call from their preschool of choice. The high school kids have tortured themselves to build up stunning credentials and then communicate those credentials strategically in a college application. And the parents of toddlers have struggled to find a way to distinguish their 18-month-old from all the rest.
. . . .

***addenda #2***   http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/cl-bk-price18mar18,0,3190835.story?track=ntothtml

BOOK REVIEW

'Cultural Amnesia' by Clive James

The critic ponders the fate of western liberal humanism.
By Matthew Price

March 18, 2007

Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories From History and the Arts
Clive James
W.W. Norton: 876 pp., $35

In "Cultural Amnesia," the prodigious critic Clive James succumbs to a mighty ambition: In 100-plus alphabetically arranged essays, he pays homage to the vast western humanist enterprise (writing, filmmaking, music, philosophy, theater), defending it from myriad enemies. I don't fault his intelligence or erudition: This Australian omnivore has read, traveled and thought more than perhaps any critic alive. An eclectic master of the high/low, he writes on German metaphysics as fluently as on TV sitcoms (he's a former TV critic and sometime broadcaster), swiveling from poetry to novels to history with authority and conviction.

gleans + 1xORA + 1xaddenda at 9:50 PM EDT, 3/17

'Merlot' a No - No on Utah License Plate

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Merlot can be a variety of grape or a type of red wine, but not an acceptable personalized license plate in the state of Utah.

Russian’s Account Further Clouds a Poisoning Mystery

By STEVEN LEE MYERS and ALAN COWELL

An interview with the only possible suspect in the poisoning of Alexander V. Litvinenko only deepens the mystery.

 

Free-Speech Case Divides Bush and Religious Right

By LINDA GREENHOUSE

A Supreme Court case about the free-speech rights of high school students has opened a fissure between the Bush administration and its usual allies on the religious right.

 

Coupled to Dorothy

Peter Stothard looks back on his first five years at the TLS

For publishers, every day is Mother's Day
The women who so identified with Bridget Jones a decade ago have now settled down and had children. The book industry noticed - and the current glut of 'yummy-mummy lit' is the result.

 

Gang mayhem grips Los Angeles
Conflict between Hispanic and black gangs spreading across LA.
Full US coverage

 

A meeting of great minds
Notebook: Some of our greatest mathematical minds are chatting when the topic turns to money, and Hollywood.
More on Italy

 

Iraqis: life is getting better <== whatever it is they are smoking, I want some

The survey of over 5,000 Iraqis found most optimistic despite suffering sectarian violence since the invasion four years ago

From Shock & Awe to the 'surge' without end
Independent - Four years ago this Tuesday, George Bush began his ill-fated Iraq campaign. Today's news that the US is sending an extra battalion to Baghdad will push troop levels to 160000 - 10000 more than at the time of the invasion.

***today's ORA***

Agent Zigzag (Hardcover)
by Ben Macintyre (Author)

***addenda***

March 18, 2007

Shaken And Stirred

Welcome to the Club

By JONATHAN MILES
DO not be fooled. The Poona Club is just a state of mind.

Duly forewarned, you may now peruse the newly added cocktail menu at Fatty Crab on Hudson Street, which recently received its liquor license and has this to say about its Poona Club cocktail: “Back in the days of British India, the Poona Club was famous for its — well, you’ll have to look it up.”

. . . .

gleans + 2xaddenda at 4:05 PM EDT, 3/17

Sunni Militants Disrupt Plan to Calm Baghdad

By MICHAEL R. GORDON
Shiite militias had been seen as the main worry in bringing security to the Iraqi capital, but American military officials now say raids are required in Sunni areas on the city’s outskirts. 

New Technology Transforms Slots

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. (AP) -- Engineers at PureDepth Inc. spent years developing tools for helping the military plot 3-D maps of war zones, eventually licensing top-secret technology to the U.S. Air Force and Navy.

Uproar Hits Fla. Confederate Flag Show

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- When artist John Sims sees the Confederate flag, he sees ''visual terrorism,'' and a symbol of a racist past. When Robert Hurst sees the flag, he is filled with pride as the descendant of a soldier who fought for the South during the Civil War.

21st century homesteading: Free land in Alaska Anderson, a little town in Alaska's interior, has no gas station, no grocery store and no traffic lights, but it does have plenty of woodsy land -- and it's free to anyone willing to put down roots in the often-frozen ground.
FULL STORY

***addenda #1***

Bison Once Again Roam Eastern Colorado

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 3:28 p.m. ET

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. (AP) -- After an absence of more than a century, wild bison were returned to Colorado's Front Range on Saturday in full view of Denver's skyline.

4xitems from the 3/17 issue of the WSJ

GNB (Goober Nota Bene):  the 3/17 issue of the WSJ is unusually good - I am just sending a sample of the good stuff

1. 

Fred R. Shapiro Sets the Record Straight

How 'The Yale Book of Quotations' was researched on the Web

By TERRY TEACHOUT
March 17, 2007; Page P18; WSJ

'It ain't what you don't know that gets you, it's the things you know that ain't so." Thus spake Anon., or maybe Mark Twain, and that celebrated piece of folk wisdom can easily be applied to apocryphal quotations. From "Elementary, my dear Watson" to "Play it again, Sam," most of us know our fair share of sayings that didn't actually get said the way we recall them, more than a few of which are commonly attributed to famous people who never said them in the first place.
. . . .

2. 

Lives of Noisy Desperation

By TERRY TEACHOUT
March 16, 2007; Page W7; WSJ

New York

Twenty years ago, Eric Bogosian was one of the hottest young guns in American theater, a performance artist whose blisteringly intense one-man shows were must-see events. Now he's a regular on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." Was he really as good as he seemed back in the days when "Drinking in America" and "Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll" were the talk of the town? Second Stage's wan revival of "subUrbia," Mr. Bogosian's 1994 play about life among the slackers, heightened my retrospective suspicion that he was more a magnetic performer than a convincing writer, and so I've been anxiously awaiting the Broadway revival of "Talk Radio," whose original Public Theater production remains one of my most vivid theatergoing memories. Now that I've seen it, I can report that "Talk Radio" makes the same impression today that it did in 1987 -- which isn't entirely good news.

3. 

Spanning the Impossible

The building of the Golden Gate Bridge defied the odds

By BRIAN M. SOBEL
March 17, 2007; Page P18; WSJ

For 70 years the soaring magnificence of the Golden Gate Bridge has captivated millions world-wide as one of the so-called seven wonders of the modern world. The building of the bridge is a story of mathematics and engineering genius combined with the fearlessness of those who braved the elements and danger to construct what many deemed impossible to build.

That such an audacious project could be envisioned and then built is a testament to a Chicago engineer named Joseph Strauss.
. . . .

also from the March 17 "Wall Street Journal"

A Hacienda of Your Own

In a corner of the Yucatán, luxury resorts rise -- but so far, go unnoticed

By JOEL MILLMAN
March 17, 2007

MÉRIDA, Mexico -- When Susan Graham-Bond and her fiancé eloped to Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula this year, they spent two weeks traveling between five lavishly restored old estates. At one, they had a private candlelit wedding ceremony in the shell of an old vine-covered chapel. At others, they swam in huge pools within ruins and were greeted every night by flowers strewn in their room.

. . . . .

from the March 17 "Wall Street Journal"

City of Dreams

By ZACHARY KARABELL
March 17, 2007; Page A9

In a surprise announcement on Monday, Halliburton revealed plans to move its corporate headquarters from the U.S. to Dubai. And in a less momentous event last week, Madame Tussaud's chain of wax museums, of which Dubai was the majority owner, was sold to the U.S. private-equity group Blackstone.
. . . .

gleans + 1xaddenda at 11:35 AM EDT, 3/17

Amazon diary
Marathon swimmer on the verge of setting a new world record

Smart fabrics to take the pulse Advanced textiles that record data about the wearer - on display at Cebit - could soon be used by US soldiers.

DIA still feels a wisp of winter chill
Rocky Mountain News -Frank Franklin Ii © AP. Plow crews help clear snow at LaGuardia Airport on Friday in New York. Snow and sleet forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights across the Northeast, including more than two dozen to and from Denver International Airport.

Iran Is Playing a Growing Role in Iraq Economy
By EDWARD WONG
Iranian goods are flooding Iraqi markets and Iraqi cities are looking to Iran for basic services.

Chlorine Gas Sickens 356 in Iraq Bombing BAGHDAD (AP) -- Three suicide bombers driving chlorine-laden trucks struck in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, killing two policemen and forcing about 350 Iraqi civilians and six U.S. troops to seek treatment for exposure to the gas, the military said Saturday.

Suicide Bomber Kills 6 in Fallujah

BAGHDAD (AP) -- A suicide bomber driving a tanker truck detonated his explosives in a line of cars waiting to enter Fallujah, killing at least six people and wounding dozens, police said Saturday.

***addenda***

Communing With Irish Spirits

By ERIC FELTEN
March 17, 2007; Page P10; WSJ

In November 1960, a few weeks after John F. Kennedy won the presidential election, celebrated Irish novelist and critic Frank O'Connor came to Washington and blasted the millions of Irish-Americans who "do absolutely nothing for Ireland." Not only didn't they support foreign aid, but "they don't even drink Irish whiskey," O'Connor lamented.

gleans + 1xaddenda at 2:25 AM EDT, 3/17

Licklider's vision of the Digital Age
A scholarly essay in 1947, says CNET News.com's Charles Cooper, had an awful lot to say about how we live with computers today. Read Full Story

Commentary

'Bong' Case Tests Students' Free Speech 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The message connected drug use and religion in a nonsensical phrase that was designed to provoke, and it got Joseph Frederick in a heap of trouble.

 

FBI: Extremists Driving School Buses 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Suspected members of extremist groups have signed up as school bus drivers in the United States, counterterror officials said Friday, in a cautionary bulletin to police. An FBI spokesman said, ''Parents and children have nothing to fear.''. <== hmmm

 

Judge Blocks Sale of Escort Client List 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge ordered a former escort business owner on Friday not to sell phone records and other documents that could identify her estimated 15,000 clients.

 

Analysis: Clinton Talks About Dark Times 

NEW YORK (AP) -- The vast right-wing conspiracy. Evil and bad men. Sticking with people who stick with you.

 

More video games, fewer books at schools? 

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Of all of the proposals aimed at improving America's failing schools, there's one idea kids will really like: More video games and fewer books.

 

 

***addenda***

http://en.planet.wikimedia.org

http://ficlets.com/

      

gleans + 2xaddenda at 4:30 PM EDT, 3/16

NASA Chief Says China May Make It To the Moon
Washington Post, DC - By Marc Kaufman. The next humans to walk on the moon may well be Chinese, NASA's administrator told Congress yesterday. He said that the combination of ...
China Could Beat US Back to Moon, NASA Chief Says Canton Repository (subscription)
all 11 news articles »