Dirt. It’s all around you. You wash it off your car. You run and hike on it. You buy it to plant your new roses in. And yet, according to an amazing Boston Herald story titled The Future of Dirt, soil scientists are only now beginning to understand how it really works. And given that the global population is expected to rise by about 50% in the next 50 years, we’re going to need to figure out ways to keep what soil we have from degrading and even improve the fertility of our dirt if possible. Full story »

First of all, I recall to your attention the extraordinary fact with which I began. To wit, that the human being, like the immortals, naturally places sexual intercourse far and away above all other joys — yet he has left it out of his heaven! The very thought of it excites him; opportunity sets him wild; in this state he will risk life, reputation, everything — even his queer heaven itself — to make good that opportunity and ride it to the overwhelming climax. From youth to middle age all men and all women prize copulation above all other pleasures combined, yet it is actually as I have said: it is not in their heaven; prayer takes its place. – Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth Full story »

“In a campaign of surprises,” writes Daniel Henninger in a recent Wall Street Journal column, “none has been more breathtaking than the falling away of Clinton supporters, loyalists [and] friends. Why?”

The answer, of course — after all, this is the WSJ — is “Money.”

Henninger explains. “Once Barack proved conclusively that he could raise big-time cash, the Clintons’ strongest tie to their machine began to unravel.”

Not the clearest writer, what he seems to mean is that big-money Democrats no longer feel compelled to donate large sums to the Clintons. Full story »

One of my favorite musical sub-genres is sort of an off-shoot of trip-hop, a sultry urban electropop district where the downbeat influence of Portishead meets up with all kinds of interesting characters dressed like David Bowie in the ’70s. California pure pop a la Burt Bacharach, for instance, which we find in the likes of Saint Etienne (and the solo work of singer Sarah Cracknell), Mono and Hooverphonic.

These groups are almost always fronted by female vocalists, and every year or two I trip across another one that just blows me away. Full story »

It’s often difficult to get the attention of my students. But when I told them that it’s possible that a few of them would see the year 2100, and that most of their children surely would, they stopped furtively texting under their desks and began paying attention.

When I was born just after World War II, I told them, the population of the United States was about 141 million; of the world, about 2.7 billion. Now, 62 years later, Americans tip the scale at about 303 million; the world’s population has grown to about 6.6 billion.

A little extrapolation of U.S. Census data, I told them, shows the American population hitting 518 million at mid-century and 758 million in 2100. The world’s population is likely to grow to 14 billion at century’s end. Imagine what that world — their world — would be like, I challenged them.

But I was too optimistic. In a report to be released today, a Virginia Tech professor estimates that between 2100 and 2120 the population of the United States will reach one billion people.
Full story »

Got hot links if you want ‘em!

Headline of the week: CLINTON CHALKS UP KEY MEANINGLESS VICTORY. At Asia Times Online courtesy of Muhammad Cohen. (Yes, that’s his real name.)

In her Los Angeles Times column, “My Winning Strategy,” Rosa Brooks writes of Hillary Clinton: “But they said I had to win by double digits to keep my campaign alive. . . . And I am alive! And kicking! And punching and biting and kneeing my opponent in the groin!” Full story »

by Josh Nelson

In what will perhaps become Chris Wallace’s proudest moment, yesterday’s interview of Barack Obama offers a glimpse into the subtle efforts FOX makes to frame the debate.

In the first 9 minutes all of Wallace’s questions and comments were about race.

9:03 A.M EST: WALLACE: But some observers, and some liberal observers say is that part of your problem is you come off as a former law professor who talks about transforming politics when the lunch bucket crowd really wants to know what youre going to do for them. Bob Herbert, columnist for the New York Times, happens to be a black man, says that Hillary Clinton seems tougher than you do. Full story »

Most art students learn to appreciate art by studying its history. Thus they’re usually exposed to the figurative art of past centuries before they are to twentieth-century art, with its effusion of styles.

But some have a natural inclination for the avant garde. For example, jazz, with the homage it paid to old standards and show tunes, seemed too, well, straight, for this author when he was young. His gateway to its wonders, current and past, was John Coltrane. Full story »

Don’t tell me you haven’t fantasized about it. HilRod. BaRock. John Dubya McCain (one-half of the Double Talk Express). Three-way dance inside a STEEL CAGE for the USA Heavyweight Title. Yeah, I’m feeling ya. We’re getting there, too. This past Monday night on WWE Raw, all three candidates ran some lame smack for the national cable audience. In case you missed it:

Full story »

Since we appear to be celebrating educational idiocy lately, here’s a contribution from Don McLeroy, chairman of the Texas State Board of Education, which is currently embroiled in the hair-tearing, gut-wrenching, eyeball-poking process of adopting a new English Language Arts curriculum. Actual teachers and former teachers (not consultants, so who cares) raised concerns that the proposed reading list contained very few (4 out of 150, to be exact) books concerning Hispanic culture. The student population in Texas is approximately 49% Hispanic, which (because there are other races here, too, believe it or not) makes them… the majority. Yep.

Full story »

I predicted three weeks ago that the cops who killed Sean Bell and wounded his friends in a 50-shot barrage would be acquitted.  Given the burden of proof on the prosecution and the testimony presented in court, I just didn’t see a way the judge would find the accused guilty. 

 Today, all three accused officers were found not guilty on all charges.

As I’ve posted before, Bell was killed not because the police did anything criminal, but because they royally screwed up.  They may have been cowards, they may have been trying to make a bust, any bust, to put a period on the end of their last night as a unit, but they were certainly incompetent.

Full story »

Finally, an American corporation is getting serious about supporting our troops and their families.

You get used to listening to that Alvin and the Chipmunks voice.

— New York state Gov. David Paterson, who is legally blind, on the special tape recorder he uses to listen to long articles or books played “at speeds so fast, it is difficult for others to comprehend”; April 21.

We shouldn’t have to give employers complete control over our private life so they can save a few dollars on medical care.

— Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, which advocates for employee privacy, on a report that Whirlpool Inc. “suspended 39 workers who signed insurance paperwork claiming they don’t use tobacco and then were seen smoking or chewing tobacco on company property”; April 23.
Full story »

As we watch gas prices surge past $4 per gallon many places in the country and we receive ever more alarming reports of the self-destructive effects of our war on nature, it behooves us to indulge in what John Stuart Mill might have called the consolation of poetry. First, we look at Wordsworth’s warning to us in “The World is too much with Us”:

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not…. Full story »

Administrators at West Virginia University have demonstrated, both by their actions and their words, exactly what’s wrong with higher education in the US.  In case you missed it, here’s the story. 

Heather Bresch is the chief operating officer (COO) of Pittsburgh-based Mylan, Inc.  She is also West Virginia governor Joe Manchin’s daughter.  The CEO of Mylan is a longtime contributor to Machin’s political war chest.  So far, it’s a pretty familiar story.  A child of a close friend and associate is promoted to a top executive job.

But wait!  There’s more!

Ms. Bresch published a biography claiming an MBA from West Virginia University.  As a routine check, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called WVU and, ding-ding-ding-ding-ding, there was no record of Ms. Bresch’s MBA award anywhere.  Ms.  Bresch protested that she had an agreement to substitute work experience for the final 22 (out of 48) hours she needed for an MBA, and that it was a records issue.  A WVU committee found that it was, indeed, a records issue, and gave MS Bresch her MBA 10-years after she walked away from Morgantown. Full story »

 Is legislation the answer to ending anorexia in the fashion industry?

“Project Runway” has been a mixed blessing for the fashion industry. On one hand, it’s given us the chance to become acquainted with some of its leading lights, such as designer Michael Kors and everybody’s favorite dominatrix, Heidi Klum. Not to mention the beloved Tim Gunn. (Can he be Secretary of Design in Obama’s administration?) Also, it helps you appreciate how hard aspiring designers work.

On the other hand, seldom before has the public gotten a good, long look at models. Not the slender, but still curvy, women who strut and preen through a Victoria’s Secret TV special or who grace the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, but your standard runway model. Full story »

The jet stream has been described by many as a river of air in the atmosphere. It’s similar in that respect to the Gulf Stream in the ocean, and both serve similar climate functions – the distribution of hot air (or water) from the tropics toward the poles. In the case of the jet stream, however, it also moves around high and low pressure systems and is thus one of the more significant controls over global weather. So when something happens to the jet stream, it matters. And according to MSNBC, a paper from the Carnegie Institution shows that the jet streams in both the northern and southern hemispheres have been migrating toward their respective poles. Full story »

While Rep. Bruce Douglas of the state legislature makes comments that make all thinking Coloradans squirm, back here in the Old Dominion, we’re hard at work trying to create our own crowds of illiterate peasants, thanks so much for caring.

The Pittsylvania County (VA) Board of Supervisors has just voted to cut the school system budget for per pupil expenditures for the county’s school system by $686,000.

This in and of itself might not raise your eyebrows, hard hearted/hard headed pragmatists that all you readers are – we’re in tough economic times after all. But, as those classic commercials say, wait – there’s more…. Full story »

by Rich Herschlag

Senator Barack Obama’s recent comments regarding bitter Pennsylvanians clinging to guns and religion were personally offensive to me, even before I took the time to consider how spot on they really were. My first instinct was to hunt him down, but I was fresh out of ammo and late to church. This is particularly vexing for Jews who don’t own a gun.
Upon deeper reflection, however, I realized my personal holy war was actually the result of Senator Obama’s flagrant omissions. Truth is, there are many other things we Pennsylvanians cling to. Some of us cling to crystal meth.

Unfortunately, there was recently a massive raid in the Lehigh Valley on a sprawling crystal meth ring, and now the stuff is harder to get around here than 87 gasoline for under 3.26 a gallon. Full story »

Luke Haines isn’t very well known in America, and that’s a damned shame. He got a little attention here back in the early ’90s when his first band, The Auteurs, released their fantastic debut, New Wave. And then – it was like he never existed. Maybe this is because his music is so quintessentially English – after all, he was arguably a significant influence on the Britpop movement, and even the most popular of those bands – Blur, Oasis, Supergrass – never made much noise on this side of the Atlantic.

Nonetheless, he’s made a living for himself Over There, and has done so in a number of incarnations: The Auteurs, Baader-Meinhof, Black Box Recorder, and now simply as Luke Haines. Full story »