My sainted grandmother, whose memory I reconstruct in a thousand unrealistic ways, turned on the televisions in her apartment first thing each morning and off last thing at night. This seemed counterintuitive in a woman famous for focusing all her attention on the child in front of her. But she liked voices in the background.

We would sit at the table in her fragrant kitchen chatting, while weeping women vied for a crown, a dishwasher, and the distinction of most miserable life. In one direction, we could hear the portable set on a countertop next to the refrigerator; in the other direction, there was the mahogany living room console. Sometimes the soundtracks were slightly out of sync. It didn't bother us, because we weren't really listening. We weren't watching, either.

Voices of comfort - International Herald Tribune

"Howard Tayler, the webcomic artist of Schlock Mercenary fame, is calling on people not to donate money during the latest Wikimedia Foundation fund-raiser. This is to protest the 'notability purges' taking place throughout Wikipedia, where articles are being removed en-masse by what many see as overzealous admins.

Apparently people around here aren't the only ones grumbling about deletionism.

Slashdot | Call For Halt To Wikipedia Webcomic Deletions

Taking up the sci-fi staple of "tractor beams," scientists have developed a way to use light to grab and move minuscule particles on a microchip

The work by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers could extend the possibilities for "optical tweezers" — super-focused beams of light that have been used for years to study and manipulate tiny biological structures or even individual atoms.

Lang and Appleyard proved their technique by getting 16 live E. coli cells to spell out "MIT" on a [microchip surface].

MIT researchers improve `tractor beam' - Yahoo! News

The letter to George C. Tyler, a theatrical producer in New York, suggests a young actress that he “might keep in mind” for a part. “She has had a variety of experience,” it says, and “she comes from a good family.”

The well-bred lady was Katharine Hepburn, and the undated letter, from a family friend, is part of a cache of theater-related photographs, scrapbooks, journals, scripts and more. Four years after Hepburn’s death, the material forms a gift from her estate to the New York Public Library that is to be announced today. The documents, all related to Hepburn’s stage career, offer a revealing glance at her personality, profession and obsessions.

The Theatrical Katharine Hepburn, in Journals and Letters - New York Times

People still speak of the Buddhas as if they were there. The Buddhas are visited and debated. A “Buddha road” just opened. It boasts the first paved surface in Afghanistan’s majestic central highlands and stretches all of a half-mile.

But the 1,500-year-old Buddhas of Bamiyan are gone, of course, replaced by two gashes in the reddish-brown cliff. They were destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban in their quest to rid the country of the “gods of the infidels.” The fanatical soldiers of Islam blasted the ancient treasures to fragments.

Return to Bamiyan - New York Times

After Vladimir Putin's announcement that he would not be averse to becoming the next prime minister, the prevailing guess is that after the March 2 presidential election he will head the Russian government under a new president. Yet before anyone begins to design a Russia policy based on this, its plausibility has to be examined. In the light of what we know about Putin and the political and economic system he has forged, he is more likely to find a way to continue in office as President Putin.

pretty much the conclusion we agreed on memestreams here Dec 2006

We'll always have Putin - International Herald Tribune

We live in a society saturated with sex, but disabled people can often feel they've not been invited to the party. Some feel prostitution might provide the answer. But is visiting a brothel the right thing to do?

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oh for an ideal world

BBC NEWS | Magazine | Is it OK for disabled people to go to brothels?

I am kneeling in the silt at the edge of the Madison River, halfway down the Madison Valley north of Yellowstone Park. The afternoon light is dropping, and the clouds hover just above the asphalt on the highway across the river. Snow is coming down hard, skidding upstream as if it were falling in horizontal threads. I am casting a trout fly no bigger than a snowflake, letting the wind carry it above the fish - rainbows and browns - that are feeding in the shallows in front of me.

lovely

Fishing is never simple - International Herald Tribune

Harry Potter fans, the rumors are true: Albus Dumbledore, master wizard and Headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay. J.K. Rowling, author of the mega-selling fantasy series that ended last summer, outed the beloved character Friday night while appearing before a full house at Carnegie Hall.
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After reading briefly from the final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," she took questions from audience members.

She was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds "true love."

"Dumbledore is gay," the author responded to gasps and applause.

...
"Oh, my god," Rowling concluded with a laugh, "the fan fiction."

JK respect is due

J.K. Rowling outs Hogwarts character - Yahoo! News

i woke up suddenly, quite early for me, from a dream

there was a riddle, it was all — Left or Right?

But the underlying riddle was:–

What is the ultimate goal of any quest or adventure?

the answer in the dream was HOME and therefore right

it may seem a little trite but I still like it as apart from anything else it reminds me of The Odyssey - Ithaca - or win the girl, the gold, slay Grendel et al and go home — maybe the quest is for a better home like pioneers - in Lord of the Rings Frodo leaves as the hero but it is really Sam who left as a comic fool who changes, returns home a hero, and finds home