If, like me, you saw the feature on the news last night regarding heretofor undiscovered pyramids in Bosnia, and thought - WOW - I am about to burst your bubble.
The purported "archeologist" who is claiming this "discovery" is a total whack job. See for yourself.
A self-described archaeologist, who believes the Maya and others are descended from Atlanteans who came from the Pleiades, has been accepted as a legitimate researcher by many news outlets. His ideas of early pyramids in Bosnia, which is simply not possible, has been accepted as a major discovery. How could this happen?
If you want to categorize this farce, it seems a standard-issue "amateur/maverick confounds establishment with great discovery" story, which no doubt makes it appealing to uncritical reporters looking for a big story. This kind of tale is a staple of the pseudoarchaeology or fantastic archaeology genre. And the term "pyramidiot" has been applied to those obsessed with pyramids and who offer strange interpretations of them on websites and in books and televsion programs.
I'm vaguely dissapointed - it seemed pretty cool at the time.
I have the extreme fortune to have a wide variety of good friends of all ages. From their 20's to their 70's, I have people whom I find fun, interesting, inspiring, goofy and engaging regardless of their chronological age.
Last night, I accompanied three amazing women in the latter end of my friend's age spectrum to hear Cokie Roberts talk at Goucher College, and attend her book signing afterwards. These women are neighbors, feminists, activists and friends. Well read, accomplished, feisty, and a hell of a lot of fun to hang out with over a nice dinner and a bottle of wine. I may have to help them in and out of the car, do the driving, and drop them off at the handicap entrance, but I can't hold a candle to their accomplishments, talents, spirit, and experiences.
We met at b, just up the street from my house, and secured a table outside on an excruciatingly lovely spring night. It was also the day for Dining Out For Life to benefit a Moveable Feast, an organization near and dear to my heart, so we got to enjoy a nice meal and make a difference at the same time (in between schmoozing with half the neighborhood out for a stroll or walking their dog last night).
Corkie's talk was just terrific - speaking of inspiring, amazing, accomplished, feminists. She covered just about every topic in 90 minutes: Iran, Iraq, American History, New Orleans (where she grew up on Bourbon St.), motherhood, politics, feminism, media, etc... I could have listened all evening.
She was equally gracious at the book signing afterwards and would not be rushed. She took time to chat, take pictures, and really visit with people in attendance. Nice way to spend an evening....
REMINDER:Save Darfur.org :: Rally To Stop Genocide This Sunday, on the Mall in DC. I will be going down with some friends. The weather looks great, and it's an important cause. Let's shame them into action over this atrocity.
There are a lot of people hurt by this story. The student, who got in way over her head, at such a frighteningly young age, and made errors of both omission and inclusion, will obviously be irrevocably harmed by this. Meanwhile, her publisher, Little Brown, and her agent are trying to backpedal furiously. I also have to wonder where the editors fit into all this?
The publisher had announced an initial print run of 100,000 and had shipped 55,000 copies to stores. Ms. Viswanathan, 19, a Harvard sophomore, has been under scrutiny since The Harvard Crimson revealed on Sunday that she had plagiarized numerous passages from "Sloppy Firsts" and "Second Helpings," two novels by the young-adult writer Megan McCafferty.
Earlier in the week, I actually gave some credence to the Viswanathan's initial explanation that her inclusion of the elements from the other book were "unintentional and unconscious", based on her love of the novels and how they had affected her. Then I read the passages in question, and all doubt fled. Sucker.
I think it's gracious of Megan McCafferty to let the whole thing drop and not seek any retribution over an issue that would simply cause more pain.
On another note, I found this issue even more deeply disturbing in light of all the other "literary fraud" being perpetrated and uncovered recently. The James Frey Scandal, the JT Leroy scandal, and high profile cases of journalists like Jason Blair, where there seems to be no hesitation to simply write and publish falsehoods and plagiarized material with some sort of hubristic impunity. What's a person to believe anymore?
Good thing things like this never happen in the blogosphere. :-)
Since the following e-mail got sent to all 13,000+ employees at my organization today, I'd thought I'd share with the internets in case you guys can help:
To: All Hospital Personnel From: Dr. Pam Anderson
Lactation Services are missing multiple hospital-grade breast pumps (Symphony Breast Pumps). These pumps are used by breastfeeding mothers to express their milk when they are separated from their babies. If you or your department has one of these pumps please return them immediately to the nurse's station, or contact Lactation Services at ext. 1234.
Finally! A guide to Cheddarhead speak! You say Wis-CON- sin, we say Wis-KAAAHN-sen . Preferably spoken through your upper nasal cavity to true authenticity.
An idea so far out - it might actually work. ABC is shooting a pilot for a serialized sitcom ala "Lost" and "24", featuring none other than aging rock legend Mick Jagger.
Quit rubbing your eyes. You read that correctly.
If successful, it would be serialized into potentially other celebs like "Let's rob Jeff Goldblum", or "Let's kidnap Tom Cruise's baby".
What passes for entertainment these days just blows my mind.
This week's Time cover story, Q: What Scares Doctors? A: Being the Patient, is well worth a read. And it's not just doctors who are scared, it's people like me and other health care professionals who know enough about the inside workings of hospitals to realize the essential, and very real shortcomings of the US healthcare system. That in a country with perhaps the highest quality of health care available, "the best" is not only hard to define or measure, it's not readily available to everyone, no matter who you are, and how much you know about it.
While there are bad doctors practicing bad medicine who go undetected, that's not what scares other physicians the most. Instead, they have watched the system become deformed over the years by fear of litigation, by insurance costs, by rising competition, by billowing bureaucracy and even by improvements in technology that introduce new risks even as they reduce old ones. So doctors resist having tests done if they aren't absolutely sure they are needed. They weigh the advantages of teaching hospitals at which you're more likely to find the genius diagnostician vs. community hospitals where you may be less likely to bring home a nasty hospital-acquired infection. They avoid having elective surgery in July, when the new doctors are just starting their internships in teaching hospitals, but recognize that older, more experienced physicians may not be up to date on the best standards of care.
Yep, that sums it up, but it only scratches the surface. Working in a hospital is kinda like working in a sausage factory. While the end product may be perfectly good, fresh, and appealing, you really don't want to know what actually went in to making it.
Perhaps the most important thing to know is that medicine is an imperfect process. People make mistakes, high tech machines, while providing us with more information, less invasively, and earlier in the course of treatment than ever before - are also fallible. Shit, unfortunately happens. There is still a very real risk to any procedure requiring general anesthesia, despite the advances in drugs and monitoring equipment. We lost a patient last week to a rare, but unavoidable side effect of anesthesia. It had nothing to do with his orthopedic surgery. He was otherwise healthy and 47. It happens. And that, is what doctors are afraid of.
I had the enormous pleasure of attending what surely has to be one of the BEST live musical performances I have ever had the pleasure of attending last night, when just two blocks from my house, Elvis Costello brought down the house playing with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for 2+ hours and more than four standing ovations.
Elvis is a musician's musician. His variety of styles and his depth both musically and lyrically leave everyone else in the dust.
He opened the evening with a 30 minute piece from a full length ballet he wrote, called Il Signo, interpreting "Mid Summer's Night Dream". In his dream, Puck is a jazz fairy who wails on a pinpoint trumpet. While the style was decidely his own, it was also very reminiscent of Henry Mancini with the brass melodies, Aron Copland with the dissonant harmonies and sharp syncopation, and even a little John Williams thrown in when the score soared into almost anthem like pieces better suited to a movie epic. Before the piece was barely over, he launched into an acoustic guitar and voice rendition of "The River in Reverse", which is a decidely anti-war, anti-administration piece from his upcoming album of the same title, which focuses on Katrina and other issues of late, and is a partnership with legendary New Orleans jazz great, Allen Toussaint.
He did a lot of the classics, "Watching the Detectives" (which brought the house down), "Veronica", "Alison", and perhaps my alltime favorite, his take on the Charles Mingus classic "Hora Decubitus".
A totally unique voice, and a totally unique artist. His final encore was an acapella sing along with the crowd, and was a really intimate end to an already intimate evening.
I would really love for him to collaborate on more albums, or better yet a tour, with his wife, and another favorite artist of mine - Diana Krall.
Sadly, I don't have the $2,000 readily available to attend tonight's performance in Vancouver, BC, where Elvis will help his wife host a private black tie charity benefit: "An Evening with Diana Krall & Friends" with Tony Bennett, Elton John, Elvis Costello and former U.S. President Bill Clinton at The Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.
Elvis's performance last night was not over till about 10:45 PM., and today he has to travel all the way to Vancouver to perform this evening with a three hour time change? He's got to be exhausted. I'll bet it will be a terrific show.
I'm a reader. I've recently started a blog of my own, at ******.blogspot.com, and I wonder if you'd consider adding a link to me. I'll put up a reciprocal link.
You're doing a great job, by the way. Keep up the good work.
*****
Broadsheet to ******
This is the third email you've sent in as many days between 4 and 5 in the morning.
You are not a reader. No evidence of you exists on my site meter.
If you want to increase your readership, try writing an interesting blog, not trolling for sycophants with an auto emailer.
Holland, Spain, Sweden, England and Wales. Now you can add Belgium to the list of enlightened countries that allow children to be adopted by loving parents.
Exxon raped reaped a $36 million dollar record profit last year, giving its Chairman a cool $3.6 million bonus. So how to thank him properly when gas prices hit an all time high with no end in sight? Why not give him a retirement package worth $400 Million??
Exxon is giving Lee Raymond one of the most generous retirement packages in history, nearly $400 million, including pension, stock options and other perks, such as a $1 million consulting deal, two years of home security, personal security, a car and driver, and use of a corporate jet for professional purposes.
There's an urban legend internet chain email calling for a gass boycott of Exxon and Mobil. While I don't think that's going to make much of a difference in gas prices, I'd be willing to boycott Exxon on principle over this one single issue.
In this week's News of the Obvious - A new study, performed by the (get this!) Mailman School of Public Health - found that Storm Evacuees Found to Suffer Health Setbacks, including mental disorders and chronic conditions like asthma. They also lack prescription medication and their health insurance at rates are much higher than average.
For no good reason at all, I clicked on this link to a Life expectancy calculator. Even being brutally honest about all my shortcomings, it predicts I will live to be 99.
Meet my sister, Her Royal Highness, the Princess of Peeps and The Queen of Confection. Shown here summoning her peeps. What can I say? Runs in the family.
OK, beers on board, but now home safely, thanks to our permanently designated driver Zenny. The bar is a 10 minute walk from my house, but the lift home was nice. It's the first time in over a year she's dropped me off on her way home. Thanks Zen, and Snay? Thank you too! (and Viddy and Queenie by association). There were evil plans afoot involving ACW,, eebmore, and Snay when we left - stay tuned for an outcome. As always with these individuals, it involves other peoples pets', poop and 3 Stooges Humor. God - I hope it works!!
SO: I promise not to link to every single person who was there (or trash those that weren't). I don't have the time, I've had 5 beers, and it's clique-ish. Maybe tomorrow in the highlights.
To the surprisingly many that did show? - WOW - thanks guys!! I managed to distribute all the beads I earned in Mississippi, and then some. It was great to see you all, and thanks for buying my beer. (Double Dogged - thanks for dinner sweetie - I expect to return the favor sometime soon. You are a true gentleman.)
The tragedy isn't over. And neither is the complete uselessness and mismanagement of FEMA.
In October and November, the special operations team of the New Orleans Fire Department searched the Lower Ninth Ward for remains until they ran out of overtime money. Half a dozen officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency rebuffed requests to pay the bill, said Chief Steve Glynn, the team commander. When reporters inquired, FEMA officials said the required paperwork had not been filed.....
...Of the 14 bodies found since mid-February, none have been definitively identified and released for burial, partly because FEMA closed a $17 million morgue built to handle the dead from Hurricane Katrina. The morgue was used for eight weeks, and agency officials said there was no longer enough volume to justify keeping it open.
FEMA declined to allow the New Orleans coroner, whose own office and morgue were ruined in the storm, to continue to use the autopsy site.
Can I get a do over? I am a walking disaster this morning:
1. Putting on my makeup in a hurry as usual - a huge glob of mascara lands in the corner of my eye. Instead of dabbing it off, I manage to wipe it into a big, black schmear all over the place. Wash face and start all over.
2. Grab a pair of navy blue trouser socks. Yank them on, and get to work, only to discover that (a) I have a big run in one of them, and the other one has no elastic of any use left in the band which is giving me a really ugly case of granny ankles. You know, the little old ladies in the grocery store with their knee highs in a bunch on their ankles? Yeah - that would be me. Oh, so attractive.
3. See #1. I forgot to put lipstick on in my rush to get out the door after the mascara debacle. Luckily, I keep a small makeup bag in my desk drawer at work for touch ups. Grab the lipstick, and manage to slip while applying it, giving me Joker lips which took another trip to the restroom and half washing my face - AGAIN - to remove. It's still a little reddish plum colored.
It's true. I was surprised by the audience make up at Paul Rusesabagina's talk at Enoch Pratt the other day. Despite a very prominent African author, speaking in a predominantly black American city, in an inner city library, the audience was still more than 60% white.
The article provides a few possible explanations:
1. An overall lack of news media attention. True enough, sadly.
2. Black leaders' are too busy focusing on surviving critical domestic problems like crime, jobs, education, HIV, etc. Yep, that's certainly a very real problem.
3. The black community has a lack of focus on international issues. Ehh, I'm not so sure about this one, unless it's directly related to #1 and #2.
4. "The perception that the Darfur campaign is largely the province of the Jewish community." WTF??!!!! Do they really think that?? How could I have been completely and totally sidestruck by this. How can ANY ethnic or religious group "claim" a holocaust?? Sympathetic? Hell, yes, but to claim that the Jewish community "owns" this as "their" issue? Sorry - I ain't buying. And if that in fact is a reason why the black community isn't more involved in the Darfur issue? Then shame on them. Seriously. But I still don't buy it.
The article also points out that there was more of an awareness and involvement of the US black community when South African Apartheid was an issue 15 years ago. They may be right, but let's not forget that apartheidism in its most severe form - slavery - is an issue that only goes back in this country some 140 years, and many would argue (justifiably so), that apartheidism, albeit not government sanctioned, still exists in the US today in many respects, and they would not be wrong.
While I agree that the African American community is not as engaged in the Darfur crisis as I would imagine they would be, I'm still ashamed of my country as a whole for not being as outraged and engaged as they should be either. Let's not pick on an already unrepresented, and many times, underrespected group for not being more aware.
This is an issue that rises above race - it's genocide. And if you're not concerned, offended, and sickened by its implication, and the fact that nearly a half a million innocent people have been eliminated from the earth with no cause, other than their ethnic origin or the color of their skin, you should be. Everyone should be.
Hey kids - come have some Rosemary / Garlic Fries, Resurrection Ale(s), Ozzie(s), and some laughs with Broadsheet on Tuesday. Or, just laugh at Broadsheet - she's gettin old(er).
Grotto bar at Brewer's Art. I'll be there between 5:30 and 6:00 and hopefully we'll be able to snag a table in the catacombs and hang out on a weeknight when it's not too crowded.
If y'all come - it'll be cozy. I think we can make the place ours if we want to.
Making good use of their power plays, and taking advantage of the fact that the Milwaukee arena was awash in red and white, the Badgers brought it home with a 2-1 win over the BC Eagles. There were perhaps 250 BC fans in the audience of more than 17,800, and 50 of them were in their band.
So, what to do on a cold, rainy Saturday? Well, after laying around all morning, calling a good friend in London to check in, and tidying up the house a little, I got an email from this character, informing me that none other than Paul Rusesabagina, the man whose character Don Cheadle portrayed in Hotel Rwanda was speaking at Enoch Pratt Library this afternoon at 3:00 as part of the City Lit Festival to promote his new book, An Ordinary Man.
Jwer: Wanna Go?
Broadsheet: Um, yes please sir!! (I think the real answer was - HELL, Yeah!!)
So we met at City Cafe for brunch / lunch beforehand and wandered on down to the library from there. At the library, we ran into friend and writer/publisher extraodinaire, the beautiful Jen of Litesthesia, who was promoting her Quarterly Journal as part of the festival.
Needless to say, it was standing room only in the auditorium. In fact, a lot of people couldn't get in because there just wasn't any more room. Mr. Rusesabagina was given a huge standing ovation just for coming on stage, where Library director Dr. Carla Hayden proceeded to introduce him. It was then that we learned that this was his first stop on the publicity tour for the book.
His speech was amazing. Such a slight, graceful man, who underwent such unspeakable horrors and saw so much death, violence and destruction in a country to which he can no longer return. He described the deaths of his brother and sister in law, whose bodies were never found, and the fact that Tatiana's father, his father in law, died in the genocide. He actually paid the soldiers to be executed so he would not die a more painful death by being hacked apart by a machete. Her mother, sister and 6 children were all massacred and their bodies were thrown into a banana pit and burned.
At the end of the movie, you are lead to believe that he and his family fled to Tanzania. This is not true. They remained in Rwanda for two more years after the genocide, but then were forced to flee. This time, they fled to Belgium, where, because he could not find other work, he bought a cab, and became a cab driver. He eventually bought a fleet of cabs, and now owns a successful trucking company.
We stood in line for the book signing afterwards. He is just a remarkably humble man, and anything but ordinary.
Is there anything better after a particularly long week at work, than being able to sleep in as long as you like on a rainy Saturday morning, and then lie around with a cup of good coffee, the NYT, and surf the net/blog a little?
So, I was paying bills last night, and I opened a credit card statement. Last Christmas, or maybe two years ago now, I signed up for an Amazon.com credit card because you got all kinds of free shipping, discounts, and for every $xx dollars you spent, you got credit towards Amazon.com. Hey, some people collect airline miles, I put it towards my book habit. Like a responsible person, I was careful to make sure the balance was paid in full every month, so I never really paid attention to the interest rate.
So, this month's statement had a big CONGRATULATIONS across the top of it that informed me that they were raising my credit limit to something ridiculously high, like $20,000. Well, how nice of them to trust me, since my balance is like $250. Then I finally looked at the APR, and nearly choked. It's 21.49%!!!!
I immediately called them and said, "Listen, I appreciate the credit line increase, but (a) I don't want/need it, and (b) even if I did, I'm not insane enough to pay this rate - so why don't we lower both?? What do you say?"
She was very nice and asked what my lowest rate was on another card, and I told her it was less than 8%.
Silence.
"Well, ma'am, the best I can do at this time is lower it to 18%."
"Well ma'am", I replied, "then this will be my last payment in full - please close the account".
I guess if they aren't raping reaping huge amounts of interest off of you, they aren't very incentivized to treat you well.
God, I hate credit card companies, and it's no wonder America is up to its eyeballs in debt.
I got a friendly email from an old flame (who is now happily married) this morning, and realized we hadn't caught up on some mutual friends in a while, so I asked about a couple of them. Sometimes you shouldn't ask questions you don't want answers to. That, or he needs his own blog. Here's the response:
Oh my, we are so out of touch.
E. couldn't come to last years' Easter party because he had to have dinner with the vegan GF and some of her friends who were in town and take in the sight seeing. A week later, she summoned him to Cleveland to say she was quite distressed he did not go up to Rochester the month before to attend her father's funeral. (couldn't have done that on the phone?) So, they broke up and he's been doing the bar scene since.
I'm guessing I didn't tell you about the fall Gold Cup. E., B. and I went. You can imagine the rest. By 5 o'clock when it was time to get back on the bus, E could barely walk. He spilled red wine all over his white pants. Then somewhere on I-66 sitting next to me on the bus he just fell off his seat into the aisle. When we got back to the Clarendon Grill, it was dark and he was still wearing his sunglasses. Of course the bouncer had the good sense to refuse to let him in, so we went across the street to Whitlow's where E. started talking to some girl while I talked to her husband, who was quite close to putting E. out of his misery. We metro back to our stop, when E. discovers he doesn't have his jacket, which means he doesn't have his car keys (which is a good thing in retrospect). We call the Clarendon Grill and when they swept the bus they found them. So we all metro back, collect his stuff and metro back AGAIN. They slept over, but E. got up at 4 and drove home. He called me several days later complaining of a pain in his side -- turns out he broke a rib falling in the bus.
L., S. and the baby are fine. S.'s step mother died last month so they are flying to Jamaica this weekend to scatter the ashes. Obviously distraught.
the weather was so nice this past weekend that I turned off my heat. Period. Done. End of Winter. So, despite the white shit atmospheric dandruff that was blowing around this morning, Spring Is In The House! I don't care if I have to chip ice out of the toilet bowl tomorrow morning - I am damned sure not turning on the freakin heat again. Done!
Six Degrees of Separation:
So: I call my neighbor across the alleyway for a reference on a contractor I'm considering to hire for some brickwork: Good contractor reference = 5 seconds of conversation.
The rest: His son is graduating as an undergrad in my field of graduate study out in the Midwest = One of my earlier mentors is now COO of Northwestern Hospital where his son is studying = hook up for interview. Neighbor is in charge of elite and expensive swim club (with waiting list) on my corner, but might be able to "get me in" (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). I calculated the cost per swim, assuming I would go there 3 times a week this summer, and it's still more expensive than yoga classes or a private trainer. And If I have to get the garden wall replaced? So much for the corner Country Club.
This would be a Godsend! I'm so sick of pulling these out of my doorway, back gate, bushes, etc... Chinese restaurants, pizza joints, realtors, all of them. They are the physical equivalent of spam mail. A lot of these rulings have been struck down in court as a hindrance to free speech, but there has to be a way to stop this unwanted littering and harassment.
If you thought the NCAA Final Four was over - THINK AGAIN!!!
After beating Cornell last weekend in a triple overtime nail biter, The might Wisconsin Badgers go at it against Maine this Thursday in the Frozen Four NCAA Men's Hockey Championships. By the way, the Lady Badgers have already clinched this year's Women's NCAA Hockey Championship.
OK. See? I was working up to a post on this exact topic, using these two NYT articles from yesterday as a basis for an example of painfully stating the obvious in a way that was almost patronizing, but once again Wonkette beats me to it, and does a far snarkier job than I am capable of.
I mean, really, a high schooler can reach these profound conclusions.
Hmmmm, seems like replacing the FEMA Director is a job no "American is willing to do". Hell, given the lousy job done by the last guy, it seems they were scraping the bottom of the barrel then too.
Thanks to a tip from his mother in law, I discovered that my buddy Bob, currently serving at the US Embassy in Baghdad, hosted last week's interactive web feature for the White House called "Ask the White House". A full transcript of his interview regarding the current situation in Iraq can be found here.
If it hadn't been for this article in this morning's New York Times, I never would have discovered the wonderful world of Manufactum. Pretentious? Perhaps. OK, OK - yes. But cool? Oh - sooooo - very, very, very cool.
The Manufactum world... is one that harks back to grand country houses, with chambermaids and butlers and laundresses and gardeners, and therefore requires Japanese pruning saws and twine in a tin.
