Clipmarks | djenne's clips

food stamps: the economics of eating well

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:36:01 GMT

clipped by: djenne

Clip Source: roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com

Food Stamps: The Economics of Eating Well

A recent article in The Times by Jason DeParle and Robert Gebeloff detailed the effects of the soaring dependence on government food stamps in the United States. The social stigma of using them has faded, the Times writers found, yet judgments are still made.

If people buy fresh vegetables or other relatively expensive though nutritious foods, they are considered to be living high on the hog at the taxpayers’ expense. But if they buy cheap foods like hot dogs they are criticized for poor health habits.

Despite these common complaints, does the system work? Are the current rules fair in regulating what people can buy and not buy? Or should the requirements be changed? Should un-nutritious products like soda be banned? Is there a better way to distribute free food and promote nutrition in this country?

Tags: poverty, capitalism, have/havenots

why fake optimism is the worst way to deal with life's problems

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:53:40 GMT

clipped by: djenne

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Why Fake Optimism Is the Worst Way to Deal with Life's Problems

Looking at crap and calling it candy has become a growth industry. But experts say there are better ways to deal with crisis.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Barbara Ehrenreich takes a long, comprehensive look at positive thinking in her most recent book, Bright Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. Ehrenreich delves into our country's religious history, the way positive thinking has been absorbed into religion, psychology and economics, the ubiquity of motivational speakers, and why it might not be such a good thing to, say, avoid the news because it brings you down. One of the most memorable passages in the book is a call center worker who describes having to simulate happiness as "the kind of feeling you might get from getting a hand job when your soul is dying."

Tags: fake optimism

three ways the comcast-nbc merger could change television

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:12:31 GMT

clipped by: djenne
clipper's remarks: just what we need, comcast with even more power!

Clip Source: features.csmonitor.com

Three ways the Comcast-NBC merger could change television

As Americans' media habits shift toward the Internet, cable companies are being marginalized. The potential Comcast-NBC Universal deal is Comcast's bid to remain relevant.

A pending merger between cable giant Comcast and NBC Universal is a sign that media providers like Comcast are moving toward a new business model that gives them authority over content – a development that is expected to change how viewers will watch their favorite TV shows and movies in the future.

The deal would give Comcast control of several cable networks (such as CNBC, Bravo, and the USA Network), a leading Hollywood movie studio (Universal Pictures), and a major broadcast television network (NBC).

• More content, fewer subscriptions. Since NBC Universal owns the leading online video site (Hulu) and Comcast owns the third largest (Fancast), a merger would mean a boost in content, fueling this new platform for how users access shows or movies.

Tags: comcast/nbc merger

in job hunt, college degree can't close racial gap

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:17:52 GMT

clipped by: djenne
clipper's remarks: nothing new here. speak up!

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap

Johnny Williams has scrubbed his résumé of any details that might tip off his skin color.

Johnny R. Williams, 30, would appear to be an unlikely person to have to fret about the impact of race on his job search, with companies like JPMorgan Chase and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago on his résumé.

But there is ample evidence that racial inequities remain when it comes to employment. Black joblessness has long far outstripped that of whites. And strikingly, the disparity for the first 10 months of this year, as the recession has dragged on, has been even more pronounced for those with college degrees, compared with those without. Education, it seems, does not level the playing field — in fact, it appears to have made it more uneven.

A more recent study, published this year in The Journal of Labor Economics found white, Asian and Hispanic managers tended to hire more whites and fewer blacks than black managers did.

Tags: racism

disused call-box turned into world's smallest lending library

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:21:46 GMT

clipped by: djenne
clipper's remarks: very cool!

Clip Source: www.boingboing.net

Disused call-box turned into world's smallest lending library

"This facility has turned a piece of street furniture into a community service in constant use."

A resident dreamed up the idea when the village lost its phone box and mobile library in quick succession.

Users simply stock it with a book they have read, swapping it for one they have not...

Previously:

(Image: Phone box and bus stop, Cheriton, Hampshire, a Creative Commons Attribution photo from Mike Cattell's photostream)

Steve sez, "A traditional red phone box has been recycled into one of the UK's smallest lending libraries - stocking 100 books, CDs, and DVDs.

is binge eating a psychiatric disorder

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:15:22 GMT

clipped by: djenne
clipper's remarks: hmmmmmmmm

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

Is binge eating a psychiatric disorder?

As the American Psychiatrics Assn. considers including it in its diagnotic manual, skeptics object and possible treatments are debated.

Rina Silverman's refrigerator is almost always empty. She keeps it that way to avert episodes of frantic food consumption, often at night after a full meal, in which she tastes nothing and feels nothing but can polish off a party-sized bag of chips or a container of ice cream, maybe a whole box of cereal. The food she's eating at these moments hardly matters.

In short order, the nothing that Silverman feels and tastes will give way to nauseating fullness, and a bitter backwash of guilt, shame and self-reproach.

Silverman, a 43-year-old executive assistant from Sherman Oaks, is one of the 145 million Americans who are overweight or obese. But the frenzies of consumption put her in a far smaller category of Americans, not all of whom are even overweight.

Tags: binge eating

surgery for mental ills offers both hope and risk

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:20:52 GMT

clipped by: djenne
clipper's remarks: hmmmmm

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Surgery for Mental Ills Offers Both Hope and Risk

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Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times

Karen Quintal, with a Leksell frame screwed into her skull before surgery for a tumor.

The New Psychosurgery

For all that scientists have studied it, the brain remains the most complex and mysterious human organ — and, now, the focus of billions of dollars’ worth of research to penetrate its secrets.

This is the fifth article in a series that is looking in depth at some of the insights these projects are producing.

Previous Articles in the Series »

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Graphic

Psychiatric Neurosurgery

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Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

Before Ross, 21, had brain surgery two years ago, his obsessive-compulsive disorder kept him from leaving the house. “It saved my life,” he said.

shaking off the shame

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:07:21 GMT

clipped by: djenne

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Shaking Off the Shame

By SARAH KERSHAW

“It’s wrong, it’s taboo, nobody does that,” she recalled her mother saying.

But shortly after the conversation, Ms. Spring-Winters, 29, decided to marry the man she loved: her first cousin.

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Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

FAMILY TIES Shane Winters and Kimberly Spring-Winters, first cousins, married this year despite her mother’s concerns.

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Graphic

The Laws, State by State

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Erik S. Lesser for The New York Times

TOGETHER Kathy and Dale Hollenbach, first cousins, hardly knew each other until his wife died in 2007 and she sent her condolences. “What I tell everyone is that you don’t choose who you fall in love with,” she said.

In the United States, the percentage is thought to be much smaller, although it is difficult to estimate, since such marriages have long been an underground phenomenon, because of laws forbidding them and because of the lingering incest-related stigma.

Tags: marrying first cousins

from footnote to fame in civil rights history

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:01:26 GMT

clipped by: djenne

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

From Footnote to Fame in Civil Rights History

By BROOKS BARNES

On that supercharged day in 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Ala., she rode her way into history books, credited with helping to ignite the civil rights movement.

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Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times (left), The Montgomery Advertiser, via Melanie Kroupa Books/Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Claudette Colvin in a portrait taken in November (left) and as a child around 1953.

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Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

Claudette Colvin's historic stand preceded that of Rosa Parks.

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Michael Appleton for The New York Times

Phillip Hoose, with Claudette Colvin, accepting a National Book Award last week for “Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice.”

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The Montgomery Advertiser, via Melanie Kroupa Books/Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Ms. Colvin around 1953.

Tags: claudette colvin

intimate ella fitzgerald, rediscovered

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:50:42 GMT

clipped by: djenne
clipper's remarks: yes!

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Intimate Ella Fitzgerald, Rediscovered

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Herman Leonard Photography L.L.C./CTSimages.com

A Herman Leonard photograph of Ella Fitzgerald performing at the New York nightclub Downbeat in 1948. Watching rapturously are Duke Ellington, center, and Benny Goodman, in glasses behind Ellington.

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ArtsBeat

The latest on the arts, coverage of live events, critical reviews, multimedia extravaganzas and much more. Join the discussion.

More Arts News

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Yale Joel/Life Magazine/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Ella Fitzgerald performing in Chicago in 1958. A new four-disc boxed set on Verve captures her onstage in a small club setting.

Why these tapes stayed locked in the vault for nearly half a century — and what it took to set them free — is a tale of a producer’s neglect, a jazz sleuth’s obsession and a string of happy coincidences.

Tags: ella fitzgerald, jazz

poetry series spurs debate on the use of an old slur against latinos

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:41:33 GMT

clipped by: djenne

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Poetry Series Spurs Debate on the Use of an Old Slur Against Latinos

By DAVID GONZALEZ

The word sounds retro, but its corrosive power lingers. Once a cruelly common taunt that mocked the way Spanish speakers pronounced “speak,” it set off fights, shattered friendships and trampled feelings.

Now that word forms the title of a poetry series — “Spic Up/Speak Out” — at, of all places, El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem, on Saturday.

Sandra María Estevez is participating in El Museo's poetry series, although she dislikes its title.

In the weeks since Ms. Girmay declined to take part in the series, she has discussed her concerns with other poets. She was especially concerned about how the word could be used by the young people she encounters in her after-school workshops in the Bronx.

chicken soup for the soul

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:34:33 GMT

clipped by: djenne

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

For the Soul

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Readers’ Opinions

What's Your Favorite Chicken Soup?

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

RUSS & DAUGHTERS (179 East Houston Street ), makes chicken soup with carrots, celery, dill and egg noodles from a century-old family recipe ($4.95).

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

GRAND SICHUAN (229 Ninth Avenue) has shredded chicken and pea-shoot soup ($9.50).

Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

YUEN YUEN (61-A Bayard Street) offers black chicken soup with ginseng ($7.95).

Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

PYLOS (128 East Seventh Street) makes avgolemono, Greek egg-lemon soup ($6, or $5 at lunch).

Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

EL MALECÓN (4141 Broadway, at 175th Street) offers sopa de pollo ($4.50).

Tags: chicken soup

there once lived woman who tried to kill her neighbor's baby-ludmilla petrushevskaya

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:17:13 GMT

clipped by: djenne

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Disturbing the Comfortable

By LIESL SCHILLINGER

THERE ONCE LIVED A WOMAN WHO TRIED TO KILL HER NEIGHBOR’S BABY

Scary Fairy Tales

By Ludmilla Petrushevskaya

Selected and translated by Keith Gessen and Anna Summers

206 pp. Penguin Books. Paper, $15

Every one of the 19 stories in Petrushevskaya’s “There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby” presents an arresting parable of this kind. Timeless and troubling, these “scary fairy tales” grapple with accidents of fate and weaknesses of human nature that exact a heavy penance. While each story seizes the imagination in its own manner, one called “Revenge” features a woman who could be the double of Grushenka’s spiteful peasant. Jealous of her neighbor in a communal apartment — an unmarried woman, like herself, whose pregnancy has disrupted their friendship — she booby-traps their common space with boxes of needles and buckets of bleach and

Tags: ludmilla petrushevskys

'fela' broadway? dance!

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:41:20 GMT

clipped by: djenne
clipper's remarks: fela ransome-kuti, baby!

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

‘Fela!’ Broadway? Dance!

Sahr Ngaujah, one of the alternating leads, in a scene from the musical “Fela!,” drawn from the life of the bandleader Fela Anikulapo Kuti. More Photos >

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Slide Show

The King of Afrobeat

Music and Videos From 'Fela!' (YouTube.com)

Theater Review | 'Fela!': Afrobeat’s King, Recrowned (September 5, 2008)

Summoning Afrobeat’s Rhythmic, Rebellious Force to the Stage (August 6, 2008)

Leon Morris/Redferns, via Getty Images

Mr. Kuti performing in 1990. More Photos »

Fela was defiant by both instinct and ideology, and he was repeatedly arrested, beaten and imprisoned for his opposition to a succession of Nigerian regimes. In 1977 soldiers burned down the compound where he lived with his wives, musicians and entourage — a pivotal episode in the Broadway show. Afterward Fela changed his name from Fela Ransome Kuti to Fela Anikulapo Kuti; “Anikulapo” means “he who carries death in his pouch.”

Tags: fela ransome-kuti, african music, nigeria

fire + fire: hungarian gypsy and black american music

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:46:30 GMT

clipped by: djenne

Clip Source: extremelyhungary.org

Fire + Fire: Hungarian Gypsy and Black American Music — Peter Norton Symphony Space — 11/19/2009
NOVEMBER 19th & 21st Please Click Here to See the Fire+Fire Website, Complete with Artist Bios, Music Clips, and Videos. FIRE + FIRE is a collaborative and conceptual music-theatre work that...
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From Budapest to the Bauhaus — Hungarian Cultural Center — 11/12/2009
OPENING RECEPTION: November 12 from 6:00-8:00 pm A selection of prints, drawings, illustrated books and photographs from the collections of Gallery Erdész in Szentendre, Hungary. From...
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THE HUNGARIAN CULTURAL CENTER 447 BROADWAY, NYC 10013 TEL 212.750.4450

Clipmarks | djenne's clips

food stamps: the economics of eating well

Food Stamps: The Economics of Eating Well

why fake optimism is the worst way to deal with life's problems

three ways the comcast-nbc merger could change television

Three ways the Comcast-NBC merger could change television

in job hunt, college degree can't close racial gap

disused call-box turned into world's smallest lending library

Disused call-box turned into world's smallest lending library

is binge eating a psychiatric disorder

Is binge eating a psychiatric disorder?

As the American Psychiatrics Assn. considers including it in its diagnotic manual, skeptics object and possible treatments are debated.

surgery for mental ills offers both hope and risk

Brain Power

Multimedia

Psychiatric Neurosurgery

shaking off the shame

Multimedia

The Laws, State by State

from footnote to fame in civil rights history

intimate ella fitzgerald, rediscovered

Multimedia

Blog

ArtsBeat

poetry series spurs debate on the use of an old slur against latinos

Poetry Series Spurs Debate on the Use of an Old Slur Against Latinos

chicken soup for the soul

Readers’ Opinions

What's Your Favorite Chicken Soup?

there once lived woman who tried to kill her neighbor's baby-ludmilla petrushevskaya

Disturbing the Comfortable

THERE ONCE LIVED A WOMAN WHO TRIED TO KILL HER NEIGHBOR’S BABY

Scary Fairy Tales

'fela' broadway? dance!

‘Fela!’ Broadway? Dance!

Multimedia

The King of Afrobeat

Related

Theater Review | 'Fela!': Afrobeat’s King, Recrowned (September 5, 2008)

Summoning Afrobeat’s Rhythmic, Rebellious Force to the Stage (August 6, 2008)

fire + fire: hungarian gypsy and black american music