This year, 513 climbers have trooped to the summit of Everest, but it has also claimed four lives.
All told, more than a dozen have died in the high Himalayas.
Without the broader importance of men and women extending the boundaries for all mankind, the climbers of today ... seem to be performing a more selfish, or at least a more personal act.
Yet the families carry a burden just the same.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/weekinreview/25bowley.html?ref=weekinreview
July 30, 2010
Monitoring Mom and Dad
IN the wee hours of July 14, Elizabeth Roach, a 70-year-old widow, got out of bed ...went to the kitchen, plugged in the coffee pot, showered and took her weight and blood pressure.
She opened her medicine cabinet at 12:21 and closed it at 12:22.
All this information — including her exact weight (126 pounds) and blood pressure reading (139/98) — was transmitted via the Internet to her 44-year-old son, Michael Murdock, who reviewed it from his home office in suburban Denver.
In the general scheme of life, parents are the ones who keep tabs on the children. But now, a raft of new technology is making it possible for adult children to monitor to a stunningly precise degree the daily movements and habits of their aging parents.
In the general scheme of life, parents are the ones who keep tabs on the children. But now, a raft of new technology is making it possible for adult children to monitor to a stunningly precise degree the daily movements and habits of their aging parents.
July 29, 2010
Should I be scared?
ABOUT NEW YORK: Picture This, and Risk Arrest
One afternoon, Duane P. Kerzic was arrested by the Amtrak police while taking pictures of a train pulling into Pennsylvania Station.
At first, the police asked him to delete the images from his camera, but he refused.
He ended up handcuffed to the wall of a holding cell while an officer wrote a ticket for trespassing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/nyregion/28about.html
One afternoon, Duane P. Kerzic was arrested by the Amtrak police while taking pictures of a train pulling into Pennsylvania Station.
At first, the police asked him to delete the images from his camera, but he refused.
He ended up handcuffed to the wall of a holding cell while an officer wrote a ticket for trespassing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/nyregion/28about.html
July 28, 2010
A Beloved Bollywood Extra Draws Indians
Vishal and Jagruti Purohit had traveled here from Mumbai, India, on their honeymoon, but they had a greater mission: to find the small village church that provided the backdrop for a scene in their favorite movie, a 1995 Bollywood blockbuster called “The Brave Heart Will Take the Bride.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/world/europe/12swiss.html?_r=2
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/world/europe/12swiss.html?_r=2
July 27, 2010
LETTING GO
What should medicine do when it can’t save your life?
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/02/100802fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/02/100802fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all
July 24, 2010
Don’t Write Off Men Just Yet
“What if the modern, postindustrial economy is simply more congenial to women than to men?” Ms. Rosin asked.
She adds: “The postindustrial economy is indifferent to men’s size and strength.
The attributes that are most valuable today — social intelligence, open communication, the ability to sit still and focus — are, at a minimum, not predominately male.
In fact, the opposite may be true.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/opinion/22kristof.html?src=me&ref=general
She adds: “The postindustrial economy is indifferent to men’s size and strength.
The attributes that are most valuable today — social intelligence, open communication, the ability to sit still and focus — are, at a minimum, not predominately male.
In fact, the opposite may be true.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/opinion/22kristof.html?src=me&ref=general
July 23, 2010
Shoppers on a ‘Diet’ Tame the Urge to Buy
...“It’s taken about 10 to 20 years to build up the idea that nothing is good unless it is new,” ...
Ms. Brennan... spoke of a rack of clothes in the back of her closet that still had the tags on them, and clothes that she has not worn in 15 years but that she cannot stand to part with, and her 72 pairs of “active” shoes (meaning those that she actively wears, not the ones still in the boxes), and a closet full of clothes for her 3-year-old daughter, and, lest she forget, a wardrobe of clothes for her dog.
Ms. Brennan... spoke of a rack of clothes in the back of her closet that still had the tags on them, and clothes that she has not worn in 15 years but that she cannot stand to part with, and her 72 pairs of “active” shoes (meaning those that she actively wears, not the ones still in the boxes), and a closet full of clothes for her 3-year-old daughter, and, lest she forget, a wardrobe of clothes for her dog.
“My daughter doesn’t care what she wears, and I’m turning her into a monster,” Ms. Brennan said. “We’re ruining the next generation of girls with fashion.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/fashion/22SIXERS.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=homepage
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/fashion/22SIXERS.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=homepage
July 22, 2010
A tattoed palm
Courtesy: the New York Times
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July 18, 2010
One Bride for 2 Brothers: A Custom Fades in India
Sukh Dayal Bhagsen, 60, is from the neighboring village of Tholang.
As a young man he joined his elder brother’s marriage to a woman named Prem Dasi.
It was never discussed, but always assumed, that he would do this when he reached marriageable age, he said.
“If you marry a different woman, then there are more chances of family disputes,” Mr. Bhagsen said. “Family property is divided, and problems arise.”
Three brothers married Ms. Dasi, who bore five Children.
www.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/world/asia/17polyandry.html?src=me&ref=general
As a young man he joined his elder brother’s marriage to a woman named Prem Dasi.
It was never discussed, but always assumed, that he would do this when he reached marriageable age, he said.
“If you marry a different woman, then there are more chances of family disputes,” Mr. Bhagsen said. “Family property is divided, and problems arise.”
Three brothers married Ms. Dasi, who bore five Children.
www.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/world/asia/17polyandry.html?src=me&ref=general
July 15, 2010
Dalai Lama
"Have you ever tried on a pair of trousers?"
When it's very, very cold. And particularly in 1969, when I escaped, I wore trousers, like laypeople dressed. So I have experience.
... In an interview, Time, June 14, 2010
When it's very, very cold. And particularly in 1969, when I escaped, I wore trousers, like laypeople dressed. So I have experience.
... In an interview, Time, June 14, 2010
July 14, 2010
House Fans and Mosquitoes
Studies have found that wind is an effective method against mosquitoes and other airborne pests.
The reason seems obvious: it prevents them from circling and landing on you, like a windstorm keeping a plane from its descent.
But that is not entirely the case.
A fan dilutes and disperses the carbon dioxide you exhale.
Carbon dioxide is one of the major chemicals that attract mosquitoes. T
he wind from a fan also cools you off. Sweat, lactic acid and body heat attract mosquitoes — factors that a fan can help minimize.
Accepting That Good Parents May Plant Bad Seeds
... maybe this young man was just not a nice person.
For years, mental health professionals were trained to see children as mere products of their environment who were intrinsically good until influenced otherwise; where there is chronic bad behavior, there must be a bad parent behind it.
But while I do not mean to let bad parents off the hook — sadly, there are all too many of them, from malignant to merely apathetic — the fact remains that perfectly decent parents can produce toxic children.
We marvel at the resilient child who survives the most toxic parents and home environment and goes on to a life of success.
Yet the converse — the notion that some children might be the bad seeds of more or less decent parents — is hard to take.
Not everyone is going to turn out to be brilliant — any more than everyone will turn out nice and loving.
And that is not necessarily because of parental failure or an impoverished environment.
It is because everyday character traits, like all human behavior, have hard-wired and genetic components that cannot be molded entirely by the best environment, let alone the best psychotherapists.
July 13, 2010
Strange mothering
... His mother, Pam Kohler, has urged her son to continue to flee and fretted publicly that she hoped he would be more careful about the planes he stole — preferably avoiding single-engine aircraft.
She has told reporters that she hoped he would flee to a country that does not allow for extradition to the United States.
July 12, 2010
iPhone apps: The hottest course on campus
In most college classes, you get yelled at if you play with your cellphone.
At the University of Maryland this semester, you're in trouble if you don't.
At the University of Maryland this semester, you're in trouble if you don't.
That's because the school now dedicates an entire computer science course to iPhone programming.
The University of Maryland is one of several schools teaching apps technology.
Stanford has had oversubscribed courses since last year.
Once upon a time, if you were a computer major, you learned to program mainframes and then PCs; you aspired to be the next Bill Gates, developing code that might revolutionize an industry.
Now a single-purpose app, like a silly program that fogs up the screen like a bathroom mirror, can net the author a fortune.
Such gold rush possibilities make iPhone development a very enticing academic offering.
American made ... Chinese owned
On the outskirts of Spartanburg, S.C., USA, is a brand-new factory: the state-of-the-art American Yuncheng Gravure Cylinder plant.
Unlike its neighbors in Spartanburg, Yuncheng is a Chinese company.
It has come to South Carolina because by Chinese standards, America is darn cheap.
It has come to South Carolina because by Chinese standards, America is darn cheap.
Yes, you read that right.
The land Yuncheng purchased in Spartanburg, at $350,000 for 6.5 acres, cost one-fourth the price of land back in Shanghai or Dongguan, a gritty city near Hong Kong where the company already runs three plants.
The land Yuncheng purchased in Spartanburg, at $350,000 for 6.5 acres, cost one-fourth the price of land back in Shanghai or Dongguan, a gritty city near Hong Kong where the company already runs three plants.
Electricity is cheaper too: Yungcheng pays up to 14¢ per kilowatt-hour in China at peak usage, and just 4¢ in South Carolina.
For hundreds of Chinese companies like Yuncheng, the U.S. has become a better, less expensive place to set up shop.
Today some 33 American states, ports, and municipalities have sent representatives like Ling to China to lure jobs once lost to China back to the U.S.: Besides affordable land and reliable power, states and cities are offering tax credits and other incentives to woo Chinese manufacturers.
Beijing, meanwhile, which has mandated that Chinese companies globalize by expanding to key markets around the world, is chipping in by offering to finance up to 30% of the initial investment costs.
July 10, 2010
Time & Joel Stein apologize for racist article on Edison
And, some reactions...
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kal-penn/the-hilarious-xenophobia_b_634264.html
- http://www.race-talk.org/?p=5025
- http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2010/06/post-17.html
- http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2010/06/29/indians-unamused-by-times-edison/
- http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/scocca/archive/2010/07/06/joel-stein-s-immigrant-problem.aspx
- http://www.usmagazine.com/celebritynews/news/actor-kal-penn-forces-time-magazine-to-apologize-for-racist-article-201087
- http://twitter.com/thejoelstein
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/01/indians-shocked-offended_n_632483.html
- http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/07/kal_penn_gives.php
- http://twitter.com/ishaantharoor/status/17320570043
July 9, 2010
Cary in the Sky with Diamonds
THE ELECTRIC BEVERLY HILLS
Before Timothy Leary and the Beatles, LSD was largely unknown and unregulated.
But in the 1950s, as many as 100 Hollywood luminaries—Cary Grant and Esther Williams among them—began taking the drug as part of psychotherapy.
With LSD research beginning a comeback, the authors recount how two Beverly Hills doctors promoted a new “wonder drug,” at $100 a session, profoundly altering the lives of their glamorous patients, Balaban included.
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/features/2010/08/drugs-in-hollywood-201008
Me and Mrs. Palin
When his (pregnant) girlfriend’s mom ran for vice president and he was thrust into the national spotlight, Levi Johnston found his life spinning out of control.
In an exclusive look back, the author tells editors at Vanity Fair about everyday life chez Palin—where the kids are in charge, Dad is threatening divorce, and Sarah the moose-hunting, stew-cooking hockey mom of legend is nowhere to be found.
He also offers some eye-opening scenes from the campaign trail and the birth of his and Bristol’s baby.
'मधू'ची मटार उसळ
टिळक रस्त्यावर एसपी कॉलेज पोस्ट ऑफिसजवळ मधूचा स्टॉल आहे. मधू प्रभाकर शानभाग, असं त्याचं नाव. कोकणी माणसाच्या हाताला किती चव असते, हे मधूकडे मिळणारे पदार्थ खाल्ल्यावर कळतं. आठवड्यातून दोन दिवस मधूकडं मटार उसळ मिळते, मंगळवारी आणि शुक्रवारी.
मधूच्या स्टॉलचं वैशिष्टय म्हणजे रोज बदलता मेन्यू. न्याहारीसाठी रोज एकच पदार्थ खाऊन कोणी कंटाळू नये, म्हणून त्यानं डोकं लढवून रोज बदलता मेन्यू ठेवलाय. सोमवार, गुरुवार आणि शनिवार इडली, उडीद वडा सांबार-चटणी, खिचडी काकडी, उपवास भेळ असा मेन्यू असतो. बुधवार आणि रविवार मिसळ आणि भजी तर मंगळवार आणि शुक्रवार आधी म्हटल्याप्रमाणं मटार उसळ, भजी आणि अननस शिरा. आठवडाभर पोहे मिळतातच. मधूकडे मिळणाऱया पोह्यांवर सॅम्पल किंबा सांबार टाकून दिलं जातं. त्यामुळं कांदा पोह्याला वेगळीच चव लागते. अननस शिरा ही देखील मधूची खासियत. पल्प न वापरता ताजा अननस वापरून हा शिरा केला जातो. साध्या तुपात केलेला हा मऊसूत शिरा खायला मधुर लागतो. उन्हाळ्याच्या दिवसांत आब्यांचा शिरा केला जातो.
http://72.78.249.124/esakal/20100705/5470340725089418295.htm
मधूच्या स्टॉलचं वैशिष्टय म्हणजे रोज बदलता मेन्यू. न्याहारीसाठी रोज एकच पदार्थ खाऊन कोणी कंटाळू नये, म्हणून त्यानं डोकं लढवून रोज बदलता मेन्यू ठेवलाय. सोमवार, गुरुवार आणि शनिवार इडली, उडीद वडा सांबार-चटणी, खिचडी काकडी, उपवास भेळ असा मेन्यू असतो. बुधवार आणि रविवार मिसळ आणि भजी तर मंगळवार आणि शुक्रवार आधी म्हटल्याप्रमाणं मटार उसळ, भजी आणि अननस शिरा. आठवडाभर पोहे मिळतातच. मधूकडे मिळणाऱया पोह्यांवर सॅम्पल किंबा सांबार टाकून दिलं जातं. त्यामुळं कांदा पोह्याला वेगळीच चव लागते. अननस शिरा ही देखील मधूची खासियत. पल्प न वापरता ताजा अननस वापरून हा शिरा केला जातो. साध्या तुपात केलेला हा मऊसूत शिरा खायला मधुर लागतो. उन्हाळ्याच्या दिवसांत आब्यांचा शिरा केला जातो.
http://72.78.249.124/esakal/20100705/5470340725089418295.htm
Only in (rural) India
वार्धक्याने चालू न शकणाऱ्या आईला (वय 106 वर्षे) विठ्ठलाच्या ओढीची आस लागल्याने शिरवळ (जि. सातारा) येथील शिवाजी जावळीकर यांनी खांद्यांवर बसवून गुरुवारी दिवे घाटातून सासवड येथे आणले.
गेली सहा वर्षे ते आईला वारी घडवत आहेत.
July 8, 2010
Parenting: The Case for Keeping Out
Mine is famously a generation of worrisome and worrying parents, fearful for our children's futures and so obsessed with safety that we soak them in antibacterial soaps from birth.
We seat-belt and helmet them, childproof and V-chip them, buy whole-grain cupcakes and hypoallergenic sheets and instruct them in stranger danger.
Except now we know that our obsessions may have made them more vulnerable, that a little dirt is a good thing, that kids may be developing more allergies because we've raised them too clean.
They get older and smarter and restless and start poking around in the wider world.
And now the challenge to us is both technological and philosophical.
In how many ways can we continue to watch over them?
July 6, 2010
Salt in Detroit
A giant salt mine tunnel
In 1906, a group of investors formed the Detroit Salt Co., which today manages some 5 miles of tunnels beneath the city.
Typically, miners work nearly 1,200 ft. beneath the city, in 10-hour shifts, using a machine called a continuous miner to scrape salt off the walls into bins.
The salt is hauled away for processing and sold to local governments for snow removal.
Salt isn't a high-profit industry.
But history and faith link it to good luck, something this city could always use.
Typically, miners work nearly 1,200 ft. beneath the city, in 10-hour shifts, using a machine called a continuous miner to scrape salt off the walls into bins.
The salt is hauled away for processing and sold to local governments for snow removal.
Salt isn't a high-profit industry.
But history and faith link it to good luck, something this city could always use.
At 11, Turning a Love of Animals Into a Job
"If I feed a cat once a day, and change the litter and do fresh water, it’s $8. If they want me to do it twice a day, the same thing, it’s $6 for each visit. For dogs, for a 15-minute walk, it’s $8."
Sean Dewhurst, 11, a New York City pet-sitter, will enter sixth grade in the fall, at St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn Heights.
He started a dog-walking and cat-sitting service last year in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn, where he lives with his parents, his three siblings and his cat, Jackie Robinson. Sean has earned $750 so far.
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