The Next President of the United States
Barring a major terrorist attack on the United States, my money is on Obama. Elections are decided by the independents. They will vote for him rather than the Republican candidate because they want to be part of restoring American values. Here you can hear why Obama is going to be the frontrunner for the presidency in a few days.
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How to make religious fanatics
The Economist reviews two interesting books that put Islamic fundamentalism in perspective.
Religion in Europe: The discovery of tolerance
A TYPICAL Protestant view of European religious history might go like this. In medieval times, the Roman Catholic church grew increasingly corrupt and impervious to criticism. Then came the Reformation, with its new breath of freedom and tolerance. After a brief fightback that culminated in the ghastly Thirty Years War in 1618-48, Europe moved smoothly towards the Enlightenment and today’s ideal of secular tolerance. It was all quite unlike, for example, Islam and the horrors of the Ottoman empire.
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Artistic Pepptalk for Girls
———————Girls——-
—————-are like apples——-
———-on trees. The best ones——
——-are at the top of the tree.——
—-The boys don’t want to reach—-
—for the good ones because they—
-r afraid of falling and getting hurt.-
-Instead, they get the rotten apples-
from the ground that aren’t as good,
but easy. So the apples up top think
something’s wrong w/ them when in
-reality they’re amazing. They just—
—-have to wait for the right boy to
——come along, the one who’s—
—————- brave enough to——
———————-climb all————
———————-the way———-
———————to the top———-
——————-of the tree.————
Music DVDs: Bruce, Evanescence, Rolling Stones, U2, & Dave Matthews Band
Three years ago I bought a DVD player to watch movies in the gym while burning calories on a Stairmaster. This gave me the chance to watch some music DVDs. I started off with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, then watched U2, the Rollingstones’s Slick Tour, Evanescence, and finally Dave Matthews Band Live in Central Park. The first minute of Springsteen Live in Barcelona was amazing because the sound on the DVD was far better than any sound of a live concert I had heard before. You felt as if you were right there on the concert floor with thousands of other people. Before long, however, I got t tired seeing the band go through the same motions. Watching U2’s Go Home - Live From Slane Castle was also underwhelming. You learn that The Edge and not Bono is the musical force behind the band. I am a big fan of few Rolling Stones tunes like “Ruby Tuesday.” But watching 60-year-old men behave as if they are teenagers is painful to watch. The most interesting part of the Four Licks DVD set is the part that takes you behind the scenes of preparing the concert tour. You come to appreciate the marketing and management genius of Mick Jagger. Evanescence in Anywhere But Home proves that stage presence is not easy to accomplish. It is better to simply listen to Evanescence’s one hit My Immortal. The band has no stage presence to speak of. The big surprise in my music DVD discovery tour was Dave Matthews Band’s Live in Central Park. The band members were by a long shot better musicians than the other groups I had watched on my hourly stairmaster sweat sessions. Click on “More” to see song from this free Concert in New York City.
“I Got a Crush…On Obama” By Obama Girl
When Bill Clinton first ran for office his campaign came up with the idea to appear on the Arsenio Hall Show to appeal to the young generation by playing the saxophone. Sixteen years later, the internet and now Youtube has transformed campaigns for the presidency. See for yourself.
Simply Red: Splitting up is never easy
Simply Red is a one-man outfit—so how exactly is it disbanding, asks Neil McCormick. Mick Hucknall announced on Wednesday that Simply Red are splitting up. Which rather raises the question: how does a group with only one member go their separate ways?
Hucknall has employed 27 different musicians over the band’s 25-year career, and admitted in 1991 that Simply Red was “essentially a solo project”.
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
The first 45 minutes of this sequel about the life of Queen Elizabeth are the most gratifying film opening I have experienced in months. It is not the plot that glues your eyes to the screen but the way the director shoots the scenes and moves quickly from one location to another. The camera is always in motion, filming from unexpected perspectives. You feel like being introduced to a whole new way of film-making. Unfortunately the director is not able to sustain this wonderful approach and the film settles into more familiar grooves. Since we know how the story will end (Elizabeth will not have children and she will triumph to make it her Golden Age), the second half of the film is merely good. Clive Owen as Mr. Releigh shows that he can also play a charming happy fellow. The historical setting is beautifully rendered, except for two computer generated scenes of a large forest and a battle on sea which seem—well—computer-generated rather than real.
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The latest recommenations for achieving an optimal diet
I have been improving my diet over the past five years. But the new scientific recommendations prompted me to re-evaluate my eating habits. I did not know that processed meet like salami is so bad for you while red meat properly cooked is healthy. Click on “More” to see what foods you should eat or avoid.
Are men and women different in how they chose their dates?
Ray Fisman filed this interesting report in Slate:When economists began broadly applying their theories of rational choice-making, love and marriage were among the first areas they colonized. Nobel Prize winner Gary Becker laid the foundations back in 1973 with his two-part article “A Theory of Marriage.” Becker imagined society as an immense cocktail party with rational-minded daters searching for the most desirable partner who would have them. His analysis predicted a pattern of “positive assortative matching,” where men and women of similar desirability would partner with one another.
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