Saturday, October 20, 2012

As CNN’s Candy Crowley


As CNN’s Candy Crowley, the debate moderator, was delivering
her opening remarks, a dark blue strip at screen bottom
displayed the question: “Should the electoral college be
abolished?” and displayed live, shifting percentile results
as viewers clicked “Yes,” “No” or “Don’t Know.” A
moment later, another question: “Do you think journalists
are generally biased?”


Taste of AmericaWhat Happened to the American Middle-Class
Meal?
Wither goes our economy, so too goes our cuisine
By Josh Ozersky | @OzerskyTV | October 17, 2012 |
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Steven Valenti / Waterbury Republican-American / APOzersky's
latest book, Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, was
published in May 2012. His videos about food and gastronomy
can be seen on Ozersky.TV.
Living in a big city, as I do, it isn’t hard for me to spend
a lot on dinner. One big meal, and you can find yourself over
$200 poorer, just for two people. Of course, it isn’t hard
for me to spend very little on dinner either. I got fried
pork chops and pork fried rice sent to me from the local
Chinese takeout last night, and the whole meal cost me
something like nine dollars. What is hard to get is a meal
for $50 or so, and that seemingly innocuous fact speaks to an
insidious trend not just in the food world.
(MORE: The Myth of Bootstrapping)
Michael Whiteman, the restaurant industry guru who sends out
a list of coming restaurant trends each year, calls this
“dumbelling.” When Whiteman (whom I know well) first wrote
about the trend, he had fast food in mind – in particular
the simultaneous drift towards “premium” items on one side
of the menu, and ultra-cheap “value” items on the other. At
McDonalds and other burger chains, the marquee burgers are
edging upward to $6 or even more; meanwhile, unspeakably
gnarly, $1 burgers occupy the bargain basement. It’s not
just at McDonalds that this sinister tendency plays out;
dumbelling is happening in the culture as a whole, with a
Funyun economy existing for the poor, and an heirloom tomato
one for the prosperous.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

a source reveals


A source said, "It was an emotional moment for Bebo. She
choked with emotion while thanking her mother Babita for
organising the wedding." Priyanka Chopra has been signed for
Ali Abbas Zafar's Gunday, starring Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer
Singh. The film was initially offered to Katrina Kaif. But,
the news, a source reveals, has miffed Katrina since it is
being touted that Priyanka was the first choice for the film.
In truth, it was Katrina who was approached first.
"News of PC bagging the film right under her nose is not
true. Katrina loved the script of Gunday, but she had given
her dates for the Hindi remake of the Hollywood film Knight
And Day with Hrithik Roshan already. And that's why she
couldn't do the film. She wanted to be part of the film. Kat
has worked with Ali in Mere Brother Ki Dulhan and the two get
along very well. She is also a close friend of Arjun
(Kapoor), who's in the film. Even though she let go of the
film, she hangs out with Ali Abbas and the gang. News of
Priyanka being the first choice is not true."
Evan Rachel Wood is supposedly all set to get married to beau
Jamie Bell, as she was spotted with him picking up their
marriage license.
The Hollywood couple, who were said to be engaged last year
but never confirmed it publicly, were recently seen at the
Beverly Hills City marriage licence office.
"Evan and Jamie were at the Beverly Hills City marriage
license office around lunchtime today," Radar Online quoted
an eyewitness as saying.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

and even replicate

michael kors handbag

After the bird's death, tissues were taken from the bird and grown out--not easy to do with bird cells--but scientists did manage to obtain fresh cells that had grown and divided and that contain the entire genetic code for the bird. Cryopreserved in the Frozen Zoo, these cells might someday be thawed and reconstituted. We may yet be able to imitate--and even replicate--the world we drove away far more than Audubon ever imagined. It is hard to conceive of the bird flapping out of extinction, but it is certainly a step beyond holding Martha the passenger pigeon by the feet upside-down in a tank of water. Likewise, breeding in zoos is going to be, and already has proven, the salvation of a number of species already gone from the wild.


Questions about extinction and conservation stir complex human questions that are difficult to answer but important to frame. What do we owe the natural world and why? Is it pure self-interest--the need to maintain biodiversity in order to maintain healthy balance in the world we draw food and medicine from? Or is there a deeper, transcendent sense of obligation, even in a post- Darwinian world? Are we still biblical stewards of the earth? And what would we sacrifice to save a bird, or an animal lower on the evolutionary ladder?