There’s this organ in the middle of my chest that obliges me every second of every day by beating. It can be wounded, disarmed and stunned, but it keeps on doing its job. And it only asks me for one thing in return: “stay open,” it whispers. “Just stay open.”
Maybe at one point in time it was a real
I don’t know about you, but bananas are a staple in my house. In fact, it’s the first thing my son asks for every day when he wakes up. (It would be wrong to leave a bunch in his crib, right?) I can’t imagine what would happen if we had no bananas, which are one of the best fruit sources of potassium (a nutrient associated with healthy blood pressure) and boast good doses of vitamin C, cell-building B6 and fiber.
Recipes to Try: Banana-Nut-Chocolate Chip Quick Bread and More Delicious Banana Recipes
Must-Read: The Best Way to Store Bananas & More Helpful Tips
But according to a new article out in The New Yorker, the Cavendish banana, which Americans eat more of than any other fresh fruit, may be in danger of being wiped out completely by a soil-borne fungus, called Tropical Race Four, that is harmful only to
From Afghanistan to Sudan, from the Philippines to the Central African Republic, there are more than 20 situations listed in the United Nations Secretary-General’s Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict detailing the use of girls and boys as soldiers — slinging AK-47s and forced to murder before they are old enough to understand death.
To make matters worse, war itself has changed and cruel tactical innovations have developed as a result. Children are made to strap suicide vests on their tiny bodies and sent into crowds where, if they falter, an adult can remotely detonate the devices. Beyond soldiering, children are often collateral damage as the result of air strikes or heavy combat amongst the civilian
The movement of tectonic plates happens so slowly that we humans barely notice the shifts. However, taken in aggregate and over time, the changes are massive and literally earth shaking.
Such is China’s currency policy. Dramatic, you say? Indulge
Punjab Governor Salman Taseer’s murder by his security guard was an obvious act of religious extremism and a clear sign that Pakistan has changed little in the more than 80 years since a carpenter killed a Hindu for allegedly publishing a book that insulted the Prophet Muhammad.
A country that was founded on the basis of religion remains in a dark morass presided over by insidious, violent ideologies.
Taseer’s murder has exposed the horrendous levels of extremism and intolerance that have engulfed the nation. And it cries out for a forceful, progressive response.
The extremist religious lobby, whose fatwas (edicts) created the incendiary environment for violence, has hailed the assassination, has come out against funeral prayers for the slain governor, and has depicted his alleged murderer as a hero.
The whole situation this week reminds me of another killing from 1927. Back then, an illiterate carpenter who was known only as Ilmuddin murdered a Hindu publisher named Raj Pal for publishing a book called Rangeela Rasool, which Ilmuddin had been told mocked the Prophet.
Sensational accounts published in the Pakistan media at the time claimed that after committing the murder, Ilmuddin fell to his knees and bowed to God, thanking Him with the words: “I have avenged my Prophet; I have avenged my Prophet.”
He was arrested and jailed. After pleading guilty, he was sentenced to
It is a very interesting question in today’s world where “brand” sometimes takes precedence over the substance behind it. The biggest brand names in an industry are constantly looking to measure up against what they stand for, how to control quality and to make sure that the brand is consistent in their messaging. As the late Joe Kennedy used to say “You Are Who You Say You Are,” and brand messaging is all about backing that line up. You want quality, you want consistency, and you want to be able to explain to your constituents both new and old exactly who you
It seemed there was nothing the Obama administration wouldn’t do to shut down WikiLeaks and shut up Julian Assange.
Today we found out there is. In a somewhat curious move, the Treasury Department declined a right-wing congressman’s request to blacklist WikiLeaks.
There already is a grand jury investigating Assange and the government has put pressure on financial institutions and Internet providers not to do business with the whistleblowers. A U.S. Army private has been held in solitary for seven months in a bid critics say is to force him to implicate Assange in the leak of military documents alleged to show war crimes.
“We do not have evidence at this time to Julian Assange or Wikileaks meeting criteria under which (Treasury) may designate persons and place them on the” sanctions list,” Treasury said in statement.
If it had blacklisted Assange, as
As we zoom toward seven billion, population growth is looking ever more hairy and daunting. The big-picture solution is empowering women everywhere and making sure they have the tools, knowledge, and support to control the size of their families, but that’s not something an average person can tackle on a lunch break. Of course you can (and you should) badger your congresspeople to fund family planning, both abroad and at home, and donate to nonprofits that work on these issues.
But what can we do ourselves, in our own lives and communities? Here are a few ideas. Add your own below in comments.
The regime, U.S.-backed Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has been the target of a nationwide popular uprising in recent weeks, which neither shooting into crowds of unarmed demonstrators nor promised reforms has thus far quelled. Whether this unarmed revolt results in the regime’s downfall remains to be seen. In recent decades, largely nonviolent insurrections such as this have toppled corrupt authoritarian rulers in the Philippines, Serbia, Bolivia, Ukraine, the Maldives, Georgia, Mali, Nepal and scores of other countries and have seriously challenged repressive regimes in Iran, Burma and elsewhere.
On the one hand, the Tunisian opposition seems rather disorganized and the protests largely
Shared by food. curated.
“I think a lot of Asian restaurants actually cook with not the best quality tofu. The reason for that is, people don’t understand tofu and therefore are not willing to pay the premium for it.”
Meet Minh Tsai, the founder & tofu master behind Hodo Soy Beanery in Oakland, California. Minh is a self-titled “Tofu Ambassador”, a man on a mission to re-educate Americans on the taste and texture of real, authentic, traditional tofu from Asia – not the chalky, tasteless tofu many of us are accustomed to (people like myself).
When I traveled to San Francisco a few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be introduced to Hodo Soy through a food loving friend of
I am the Afghanistan Blogging Fellow for Brave New Foundation. You can read my work onFiredoglake or atRethink Afghanistan. The views expressed below are my own.
Something very interesting has been happening with conservatives lately. They’re turning against the war in Afghanistan.
Sure, the majority of Americans have been opposed to the war for some time now, predominantly made up of Democrats and
On a recent visit to Los Angeles I was overjoyed at the creativity, ingenuity, business savvy and pure chutzpah of a green service project presented on the streets, a Green Aid Initiative by the Common Studio called Seed Bombs!
I was drawn immediately to the strangely out-of-place green painted gumball machine outside a popular restaurant in the Fairfax district, clad with a stencil of a hand grenade with a flowering plant growing out of it. I was already fishing into my wallet for a couple of quarters before I even knew what I was going to get.
I was thrilled to see this inscription next to the price tag of 50 cents:
Seed Bombs
Combat the forgotten grey spaces you encounter every day.
Simply throw them into sidewalk cracks, vacant lots and parking meridians,
even your own backyard.
Seed Bombs are a great way temporarily reclaim and transform these derelict
urban sites into places worth looking at and caring for.
Yes indeed, a ball of various seeds and soil, mashed together into something just about the size of an ‘Everlasting Gobstopper’ and dispensed for your planting
The embattled chairman of the Republican Party has withdrawn his bid for re-election to the post.
Michael Steele, the party's first black chairman, was criticised for gaffes and mismanagement of party finances.
He trailed in balloting under way at the Republican Party's winter meeting.
Four other Republicans are vying to lead the party into the 2012 presidential election. Wisconsin state party chairman Reince Priebus held a narrow lead as voting
If someone gave you a $50 bill, you probably wouldn’t just stick it in a drawer and forget about it. But that’s essentially what happens to billions of dollars worth of gift cards people receive each year — they either lose or forget about them, or never use up their balances.
Final 2010 holiday sales numbers aren’t in yet, but the National Retail Federation expected a 4 percent increase in 2010 over 2009, so chances are you got more gift cards in your stocking than in the past.
Here’s a basic primer on how gift cards work. There are two basic types:
Retail gift cards, which can be used to buy goods or services at a single merchant or affiliated group of merchants.Network-branded gift cards, which are issued by a bank and carry the logo of a payment card network (like Visa, MasterCard or American Express) and can be used at any location accepting cards from that
The Green Hornet, which originally debuted in 1936 as a popular radio serial, has received its 21st century 3D makeover, with Seth Rogen as publisher turned crimefighter Britt Reid and Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou as Reid’s enforcer and partner, Kato. Together, they don masks and pose as gangsters to infiltrate the criminal underworld. Cameron Diaz is Lenore, a secretary turned reporter who helps Reid and Kato understand the criminal mind, and Christolph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) plays a crime boss with an inferiority complex looking to take the Green Hornet out.
Directed by Michel Gondry, the indie darling behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the screenplay by Rogen and Evan Goldberg achieves something many superhero films have tried but failed to deliver — how a person with enthusiasm but no special abilities and, to be honest, sub-average intelligence and courage would act if they tried to be a superhero, which Rogen handles with the bravado of a slacker manchild who’s finally found something to get excited
A year ago, Haiti was struck with one of the worst earthquakes in history. The 7.0 magnitude quake killed an estimated 212,000 people and tore apart a country already in shambles. People around the world quickly responded using social media and their mobile phones to raise money, spread the word and activate volunteers on the ground. The devastation continues to break records in terms of donations, with over 1.4 billion raised over one year.
According to a survey by the Chronicle of Philanthropy of 60 major relief organizations, only 38 percent of that money has been spent to provide recovery and rebuilding
It’s not yet February and the biggest climate change story of the year may already be written. The story is simple enough–as the U.S. drags its heels on clean energy, China marches ahead.
China’s leaders may be concerned less by global warming itself than by the economic consequences of suffocating air pollution in its major cities, but they are nonetheless launching dozens of new clean energy projects this year in the electricity generation, transportation, and manufacturing sectors. The country’s twelfth Five Year Plan, to be formally adopted in March, sets out ambitious benchmarks for increasing renewable energy and efficiency while reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the mass deployment of wind turbines, solar panels and other green
We are a nation deeply divided, at times unable to agree about anything from the role of government, to the rights of citizens to even whether our president is a US citizen.
But for one brief moment on Saturday, it seemed as if we came together to condemn the violence that took six lives and severely wounded 14 others, including the target, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
And then the toxic talk
Attitudes to drunk driving have changed our behavior. So it’s routine now: the designated driver, the understanding that you won’t let your friends, colleagues, spouses drive home drunk. If they try, you stop them. You certainly don’t get in the car with
Winning her record breaking third Breeders’ Cup Mile, Goldikova is the long shot, behind Zenyatta and Blame, for winning the 2010 Eclipse Award Horse of the Year title. Currently, Goldikova remains in training and there is great anticipation that she will venture to Churchill Downs in November 2011 looking to win her fourth Breeders’ Cup Mile.
Photo courtesy of Photos by Z
The Thoroughbred racing community is in the final moments of debating the merits of Zenyatta, Blame and Goldikova (IRE) as finalists for the Eclipse Horse of the Year Award that crowns the MVP of horseracing in the United States. All 2010 Eclipse Award winners will be revealed at the annual awards ceremony on Monday January 17, in Miami Beach.
Named after the prepotent Thoroughbred foundation sire Eclipse (1764-1789), the Eclipse Awards are awarded annually and are a joint undertaking of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), the Daily Racing Form (DRF) and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters Association
LAS VEGAS — The success of 3-D TV in the near-term could be determined by the number of theatrical films released. Andy Parsons, Chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association tells Beet.TV that the industry will release 70, 3-D Blu-ray discs in 2011.
In this interview at the CES show, he says that Blu-ray is growing so quickly that “it will be difficult to find a standard DVD player in a year or two.”
You can find this interview and more CES 2011 coverage at Beet.TV.
read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com
As a kid at my local county fair, I used to ride a roller coaster that rumbled around a circular track as songs like Foreigner’s “Urgent” blasted through a set of giant speakers. Every few times around the track, the guy running the ride would pause the music long enough to bellow out one loud question:
Do you wanna go faster?
It didn’t really matter how you answered. The ride got faster. I could hear that roller coaster guy’s voice echoing in my head in the minutes following the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona.
I happened to be online as the story
Despite their unrelenting hunger for man-meat and unshakable goal of eradicating us from the planet, there are those among us who bemoan the passage of another year with polar bears still absent from the Endangered Species List. Compassion was never more misplaced. Among nature’s deadliest con artists, the polar bear stands supreme. Pandas, raccoons, chimps, flat worms — adorable killers all, but none can compete in deception and slaughter with he whom the Inuits long ago dubbed “Big Bad Whitey.” His cryogenically calculated cuteness hides a heart that beats solely for murder, the bloodier the
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