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Theatre: 5 February 2010
San Diego, California
Whisper House: Murmurs of Something Great

All the ingredients are there, but before Whisper House can find success, some serious tinkering with the recipe is needed.

Tech: 29 January 2010
Washington, DC
How To Create Green Jobs in America?
Bring Back the Bidet

Once reserved for Europeans, bidets are now popular all over the world — except in North America.

Comment: 28 January 2010
Montreal

The Frye-ku Folio: 9, 10, 11
Humorist and illustrator Arcangelo Frye offers up pages from his folio of Haiku for the age of Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

News Analysis: 24 January 2010
San Francisco

Environmental Concerns After Haiti's Earthquake
The lack of trees because of deforestation in Haiti causes huge soil erosion problems, threatening both food and clean water sources in this country of 9.7 million people that is the poorest in the Western hemisphere.

Film Reivew: 12 January 2010
London

Avatar
In director James Cameron’s mega-marketed Hollywood hoop-de-doo, we ar e presented with a wild blue yonder that is depressingly constrained by Earth-bound conventions.

Comment: 11 January 2010
Montreal
The Frye-ku Folio: 5, 6, 7
Humorist and illustrator Arcangelo Frye offers up pages from his folio of Haiku for the age of Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. 

Comment: 6 January 2010
Montreal
Frye-ku Folio: 2, 3,
4

Tech: 25 December 2009
New York

One Laptop Per Child Drives Breakthrough in New XO Design for Children’s Laptop.
OLPC chairman Nicholas Negroponte and MIT Media Lab announce new designs for children's laptop.

Books: 15 December 2009
Los Angeles

A Book by its Cover 2: Tap-Tap Island
In the latest of his "Imagined Dénouement" humor series, O. Tyrone Shulaise proposes what the final page of a book might be, based solely on the appearance of its cover.

News Analysis: 12 December 2009
San Francisco

What Does COP15 Hope to Achieve?
International organizers, delegates and others attending the upcoming COP15 climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark are hoping for the establishment of an ambitious, legally binding global emissions reduction agreement to take effect beginning in 2012. That is when initial commitments made under the Kyoto Protocol, an earlier international climate treaty that the U.S. refused to join, expire.

Books: 3 November 2009
Los Angeles

A Book by its Cover
In the first of a series of humor essays, O. Tyrone Shulaise imagines what the final page of a particularly torrid (and actual!) 1960s pulp novel might be, based solely on the appearance of its cover.

Style: 31 October 2009
New York

Real Men Don't Shop (at least not for fashion)
The average man’s attention span and patience for clothes shopping is notoriously brief. Are retailers to blame?

News: 6 October 2009
Paris

Life Quality Quantified: The Brutality of Happenstance
In one moment, two babies – one born in Norway and the other in Niger – largely have their fates sealed, as demonstrated by the 2009 Human Development Index.

Cinema / Style: 25 September 2009
New York

The September Issue, or Grace Under Pressure
As seen in R.J. Cutler’s new documentary, if Anna Wintour reigns as the seated monarch at Vogue, it is Grace Coddington, the magazine’s Creative Director, who might just be considered its éminence grise.

News Editorial: 19 Septembre 2009
Paris
L
es 101 Gestes du Président Américain
No. 24: L'Appel Direct au Peuple: Exercice Périlleux

Comment: 8 September 2009
New York

Time for a "Fourth Estate" Tax?
Are the titans of "real" journalism — the type that is expensive, exhaustive, essential to a functioning Democracy and not terribly Internet friendly — a doomed group? Would Americans pay a tax to keep them from dying out? Alan Behr offers his perspective.

Comment: 19 August 2009
New York

Is "Clean Coal" Really Clean?
Coal wreaks environmental havoc, from the coal mining that pollutes rivers and streams, to the premature deaths of coal miners from accidents and lung diseases, to the release of greenhouse gases, mercury and other toxins at power plants.

Book Review: 21 July 2009
New York

The Inner World of Farm Animals
In her fascinating, good-for-all-ages book, Amy Hatkoff not only re-introduces us to familiar farm animals, but makes their lives and characters sweetly compelling.

Comment: 7 July 2009
New York

Hippocratic or Hypocritical? When Medical Information is Flawed, Who is Responsible?
In the wake of the Dalkon Shield and Vioxx, is it any wonder that patients, in an effort to educate themselves, are seduced by the slick marketing efforts of everyone from Big Pharma to late night snake oil salesmen?

Book Review: 30 June 2009
New York

Hiding in Plain Sight: The Secret World of Raymond Burr
That the film and television actor was in a long-term, same-sex relationship is scarcely enough to sustain the salaciously titled new biography by Michael Seth Starr.

News Editorial: 5 June 2009
Paris

Tiananmen, Twenty Years Hence: What France has Forgotten
For a brief moment in history, it seemed that Paris might emerge as the capital of a Free China. How did France’s courageous initial reactions to the Tiananmen massacre wither and fade into amnesia and apathy?

Comment: 25 May 2009
Kuala Lampur, Malaysia
Missing Link: (Too) Much Ado About Ida
Despite all the media hyperbole about "missing links," it may turn out that all the scientific claims and ejaculations are a bit, in a word, premature. Dr. Anton Espira offers his perspective.

Comment: 24 April 2009
San Francisco

Tortures Taint: Waterboarding Sean Hannity for Charity
Yes, imagining that this scenario could take place is a guilty pleasure. But only with emphasis on the word "guilty.

Seen: 16 April 2009
Zermatt, Switzerland

Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Hotel: A Design Fiasco’s Lasting Legacy
Form may follow Function, but if they both are being led by Folly, the result is usually disaster. Unable to live with his Swiss hotel’s failure, Heinz Julen sees to it that its controversy lives on.

Book Review: 23 March 2009
New York
Barney Kilgore: The Man Who Made The Wall Street Journal
At America's economic nadir, a cub reporter joined a foundering business publication and – over the course of a remarkable career – molded The Wall Street Journal into the model of modern journalism. A new biography chronicles his remarkable legacy.

Film Review: 16 March 2009
New York
Auf der Strecke (On the Line)

Alan Behr on the short film from Germany and Switzerland, nominated for Best Short Film at The Academy Awards 2009.

Comment: 9 March 2009
New York

Taking Government Out of the "Marriage" Business: (Another) Reconciliation on Gay Marriage
Wherein Sam Singer offers a response to the recent, middle-ground-seeking New York Times editorial co-authored by Jonathan Rausch and David Blankenhorn.

Film Review: 2 March 2009
Paris

To Sir: But Without the Love
Laurent Cantet’s "Entre les Murs" may have garnered the 2008 Palme d’Or, but it owes a debt of gratitude (and perhaps an apology) to its predecessor films in the "troubled school kids" oeuvre.

News: 2 March 2009
San Francisco

Endangered Species: The Plight of the Cheetah
The cheetah, which can reach speeds of 70 miles per hour, is considered one of the world’s most endangered species.

Style: 23 February 2009
New York

Dress Up: Choosing the Perfectly Appropriate Party Dress
The Party Dress, Alexandra Black's voluminous and jumbled retrospective of fine fashion, illustrates the pitfalls of dressing of an age vs. dressing for the ages. Commentary by Alan and Julie Behr.

Tips for Evening Dress
"Many American women have one idea what evening clothes are: it’s based loosely on what they wore to the prom," writes New York style consultant Julie Hackett Behr. 

Film Review: 20 February 2009
New York

Vicky Cristina Barcelona
"Taken out of his native Manhattan, Woody Allen seems incapable of finding an alternative voice," writes Andrew Jack on a trans-atlantic flight from London to Washington, DC.  

Comment: 13 February 2009
Kuala Lampur, Malaysia
The Evolution of Charles Darwin's Reputation
Not since Copernicus were such fiery passions stirred by scientific theory as by those of Charles Darwin. On the 200th anniversary of his birth, world wide commemorations of the man and his works reveal the intelligent design behind his efforts to shape his own legacy.

Tech: 12 February 2009
New York

ROFLcon: The Love Song of Amber Lee Ettinger
It's only at a confab of geekdom that Sockington the Cat, Chuck Norris and the lovely Obama girl could synthesize so effortlessly. (It's a nerd thing – you wouldn't understand.)

Calendar: 7 February 2009
San Francissco
Barack Obama: Year of the Ox
Yoked with a burden not of his making, President Obama will need an Ox's methodical, steadfast and imperturbable strength to acheive the great goals he has set out for his administration and his country.

Books: 19 January 2009
New York
From King to President in Just a Few Decades
Editors pick best books about the civil rights movement in the United States.

Books: 16 January 2009
San Francisco
Methods and Motives of a Muckraker: A Biography of Jacob Riis
With a first-generation American ascending to the Presidency of a nation of immigrants, Tom Buk-Swienty’s new biography shines a fresh light on an unsavory aspect of "the American Dream."

Sports
New York
Designer Steroids: Speeding Evolution
(And Filling Stadium Seats)

American research chemist Jason S. Thomas explains cutting edge steroids and why the Olympic Committee hasn't got a chance in its ongoing battle against performance-enhancing drugs

Seen
Palo Alto, California
Hyperion Nuclear Batteries: Clean Power from Underground
Otis Peterson is no Tony Stark, but his innovative, idiot-proof nuclear battery will surely beat Iron Man's arc reactor to market and bring (relatively) green power to remote locations.

News
Paris
Obituary: Yves Saint Laurent
The undisputed king of fashion during the 1960s and 70s, Saint Laurent introduced le smoking, bare breasts and masculine glamour to the storied world of haute couture.

Style :
London
Karl Lagerfeld: "Confidential" or Just Plain Confusing?
Shine Anthony-Dharan weighs in on the up-close documentary and haute gossip about the life and times of fashion designer, Karl Lagerfeld.

Style
Paris
Fashion Collections: Fall 2008
"As talk of recession, global warming and terrorism buzzed around the front rows, the fashion pack were expecting more than usual from the designers this season", writes Shine Anthony-Dharan from Paris and London.

 


François-Dominique Toussaint L'Ouverture (1743 - 1803)
Égalité For All: Toussaint L'Ouverture
and the Haitian Revolution
Photo courtesy of PBS Television

 

Time for a "Fourth Estate" Tax?
 
Tips for Evening Dress


From King to President in Just a Few Decades

Interview: 3 August 2009
Tokyo

Hammer (and Sickle) Time for Japan?
Periods of global financial turmoil provide fertile ground for Communist movements, even in the least likely places. C.B. Liddel profiles the head of the Japan Communist Party, Kazuo Shii.

Film Review: 27 July 2009
London

Afghan Star
Can an "American Idol"-type contest succeed where the Russians, the Taliban and the United States have failed? Havana Marking’s new film sheds light on that unlikeliest of likely possibilities.

Books, DVD
New York
Dying Darfur: Sudan Genocide Subject of New DVD, Book
Sudan coverage may be missing from American news these days, but Janjaweed ethnic cleansing, financed by Chinese oil money, goes on every day. A new film on DVD and a book of photographs call us to remember those dying in Darfur.

Comment
San Francisco
Barack Obama: The New Caesar Africanus? Or, What the hell is Chris Matthews Talking About?
Barack Obama blows away his audience at the Democratic National Convention. But Chris Matthews is a little too carried away by his enthusiasm. Also, Keith Olbermann takes on the AP's Charles Babington.

Comment
San Francisco
Sarah Palin: A Six-Point Plan for Her Debate with Joseph Biden
Build your own igloo! That's Sarah Palin's modest proposal to clean up the mess the Democrat congress created over the last eight years! The plan will help ordinary Americans, veterans, gun lovers, the obese and foreclosure victims! And it will even stop the Russians!

Comment
Cambridge, Massachusetts
The Commercialization of Race: Science, Technology and Medicine
Do medical and commercial products targeted by race re-energize the idea of race as a biological category just when scientists thought they had laid it to rest? MIT research scientist and physician Dr. David S. Jones weighs in on the controversy before an upcoming conference on race, medicine and the social sciences.

Comment
San Francisco
Obama Super Bowl Ad and "Yes We Can Song" Show Campaign's Media 2.0 Savvy
C. Antonio Romero on the political implications of the viral Internet & YouTube phenomenon with over 12 million views in 72 hours.

Comment
San Francisco
Mitt Romney: Faith, Freedom, and Mormonism Unseen
Willard M. Romney pulls the Constitution, religious freedom, and tolerance (rather than the Book of Mormon) out of his hat, and may have distracted his audience long enough to "disappear" the more bizarre and controversial doctrines of his religion.

Sports
Tokyo
Soccer: High Price of Being a Fan
Pricey new book weighs in on history of England’s most storied football club.

Commen t
La Paz, Bolivia
Race and Images in Bolivia
"If popular media offer ideal social images, the Bolivian model is assimilation (and exclusion for those who refuse it),"  writes Alexander Provan from La Paz.

News
London
The Perfect Storm: Iran Sits in Eye of Political Hurricane
Swirling in wake of hostage crises, White House pressure and Russian influence, Iran sits in eye of political hurricane. An editorial by Andrew Jack.

Commen t:
San Francisco
Iraq: Would It Be So Wrong to Get Out?
Adolescent right-wing ideology, miscalculations, incompetence and pathological lying from the Bush administration have left America pursuing unachievable goals and Iraq drifting toward civil war. Is there still time to get it right in Iraq? And if not, would it be so wrong to get out?

News Feature
Paris
Days of Glory: Valor, Racism and the Ingratitude of the French Republic
Cannes Film Festival sensation Days of Glory is set during World War II, and is the compelling tale of four brave North African soldiers and forgotten heroes who assist in liberating France from Hitler’s Nazi oppression. 

Comment: 19 Mai 2008
Paris
Nicolas Sarkozy est-il le John McCain francais?
John McCain et Nicolas Sarkozy se ressemblent étrangement : ils s’en prennent à l’immigration, ils ont un parti démoralisé et intellectuellement exsangue, et ils sont esclaves des sondages. En cette fin de première année de pouvoir, Sarkozy peut constater que les stratégies électorales ne servent pas à gouverner. Néanmoins, ce président pseudo-gaulliste et ce candidat républicain se livrent à une certaine émulation stratégique réciproque. Harold Hyman, à Paris, nous livre ce commentaire.

News Archives
Paris
Pardon My French
Bloggers Debate France's Presidential Candidates
"Political videos are much in demand, a phenomenon that is indicative of what is happening on French blogs," says Marion Lagardère.

Comment
New York
The Plague: Racism and the Swiss Elections

Point de vue
New-York
La Peste : Le Racisme et Les Elections Suisses

Pop Culture Archives
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