Preface: A Handwritten Life Since I first picked up a pen, I have been under the spell of handwriting. I’ve experimented endlessly with different scripts: straight up, right-slanting, left-slanting, print-like, florid, spare, minimalist, maximalist, round, spiky, highly legible, insouciantly scrawled. I can’t make a list or write a check without scrutinizing my rushed, ugly F’s [...]
Archive for January, 2009
Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting
Posted in Living on January 25, 2009 | Comments Off
Iran Is the Terrorist ‘Mother Regime’
Posted in Conflicts and wars, Politics, tagged Israel, Netanyahu on January 25, 2009 | Comments Off
Israel’s would-be prime minister says he was mocked for warning of the Gaza rocket threat. It’s Sunday morning, and I’ve been trying for days to get an interview with former — and, if his poll numbers hold up through the Feb. 10 election, soon-to-be — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But it’s a political season, [...]
Gov Blagojevich is quite a character – several in fact
Posted in Law, Other, Politics, tagged Blagojevich on January 25, 2009 | Comments Off
Too bad he’s boycotting trial, it would have been a real show Gov. Blagojevich started Friday on WLS radio portraying himself as Jimmy Stewart in the role of the idealistic Sen. Jefferson Smith who battles the crooked political establishment in the Capra classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” By his next appearance in the afternoon, [...]
Sri Lanka captures last rebel stronghold
Posted in Conflicts and wars, Politics, tagged Sri Lanka on January 25, 2009 | Comments Off
In this undated handout photo made available earlier this month by the Sri Lanka Defence Ministry, Sri Lankan soldiers run in Vaddakachchi area, about 210 kilometres northeast of Colombo. Sri Lankan forces captured the Tamil Tigers’ last major stronghold of Mullaittivu on Sunday, confining the rebels to a narrow slice of jungle and ending their [...]
Hallelujah! The recession has come
Posted in Economy and business, Religion on January 25, 2009 | Comments Off
When bad things happen, Judy Shierman sees the silver lining. And in the case of the economic downturn, it is this: Attendance has shot up at the First Baptist Church in downtown Calgary, where she is the associate pastor. “I love to see new people,” she says. She began noticing the increase in September – [...]
I just received a brand-new computer that has, in addition to bells and whistles the names of which I can barely pronounce, a super-ginormous amount of memory. I suspect my old computer was built back in the days when Pong was all the rage, and it’s been slipping up in the memory department lately. I’ve [...]
Websites ‘must be saved for history’
Posted in Computers, History on January 25, 2009 | Comments Off
The British Library’s head says that deleting websites will make job of historians harder Historians face a “black hole” of lost material unless urgent action is taken to preserve websites and other digital records, the head of the British Library has warned. Just as families store digital photos on computers which might never be passed [...]
The intimate footage of the inauguration told us a great deal about the first couple.
Posted in Living, Politics on January 25, 2009 | Comments Off
It could have been champagne and canapés, but I sat down to watch Barack Obama’s inauguration with tea and biscuits. It turned out that my homely choice of snack couldn’t have been more appropriate: despite the momentous magnitude of the occasion, the inauguration, thanks to access-all-areas camera work, was an extraordinarily intimate affair. What we [...]
Charm school
Posted in Living on January 25, 2009 | Comments Off
Scholars unpack the secrets of charisma, and suggest the elusive quality can be taught EVEN DIEHARD REPUBLICANS can’t deny that Barack Obama is the more charismatic candidate for president this year. He has shown unprecedented power to raise money and to draw crowds – from Oregon to Pennsylvania, tens of thousands have turned out to [...]
Mystical power
Posted in Politics, Religion, tagged Sufism on January 25, 2009 | Comments Off
Why Sufi Muslims, for centuries the most ferocious soldiers of Islam, could be our most valuable allies in the fight against extremism THIRTY YEARS AGO this month, the collapse of the Shah’s government marked the launch of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, and since that point the topic of Islam has rarely been out of the headlines. [...]
Of Berries and Coffee
Posted in Health on January 25, 2009 | Comments Off
Studies show that many berries, including these Olallie blackberries, are packed with nutrients and may be a weapon against cancer. The Power of Berries Several studies show that people who eat diets high in fruits and vegetables have lower cancer rates. Now a large body of research suggests that berries may be among the most [...]
The Talented Mr. Madoff
Posted in Law, tagged Madoff on January 25, 2009 | Comments Off
TO some, Bernard L. Madoff was an affable, charismatic man who moved comfortably among power brokers on Wall Street and in Washington, a winning financier who had all the toys: the penthouse apartment in Manhattan, the shares in two private jets, the yacht moored off the French Riviera. Although hardly a household name, he secured [...]
Arctic challenges may prompt US to ratify UN Convention on Law of Sea – The Northwest Passage
Posted in Energy and Environment, Law, Politics, tagged Arctic, Law of the Sea on January 25, 2009 | Comments Off
In 1969, an American tanker, the S.S. Manhattan, made a voyage through the Northwest Passage without asking Canada’s permission. It was an attempt to prove the passage was a viable route for shipping oil. The Arctic region is thought to contain huge energy resources, perhaps as much as 20 per cent of the world’s undiscovered, technically [...]
Scandal Sentenced Ted Haggard to a New Life
Posted in Religion, tagged Haggard on January 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Two years ago Ted Haggard vanished into the gap that separates righteous, evangelical America from righteous, liberal America. By chance this cultural divide was defined to a large extent by attitudes about gay sex even before a male prostitute announced he had been sleeping with the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and had [...]
US envoy Richard Holbrooke should tread carefully in Afghanistan
Posted in Conflicts and wars, Politics, tagged Afghanistan on January 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Hamid Karzai would have been well-advised to stay up until the early hours of this morning to watch the televised appointment at the US State Department of Richard Holbrooke as Barack Obama’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Afghan President has survived assassination attempts, pressure to accept a “super envoy” to take charge of [...]
Somali pirates may soon face trials outside homeland
Posted in Law, tagged Piracy on January 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Pirates who have been holding the Ukrainian MV Faina for two weeks have threatened to destroy the vessel unless a ransom is paid. Six U.S. warships are surrounding the Faina and a Russian frigate was heading toward the scene, raising the stakes for a possible commando-style raid on the ship. Captured Somali pirates could soon [...]
Guantánamo detainee resurfaces in terrorist group
Posted in Law, Politics, tagged Guantanamo on January 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Camp Delta detention center on Guantánamo Bay detention center The emergence of a former Guantánamo Bay detainee as the deputy leader of Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch has underscored the potential complications in carrying out the executive order that President Barack Obama signed that the detention center be shut down within a year. The militant, Said [...]
George Mitchell’s patient diplomacy shepherded Northern Ireland to peace. Now for the Middle East …
Posted in Politics, tagged Middle East on January 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Palestinian and Israeli leaders will, over the coming months, be spending a great deal of time with a remarkable man who possesses the essential qualities if a real push for peace is to be made in the Middle East. George Mitchell – the former Democratic Senate majority leader who has been appointed by Barack Obama [...]
Sarkozy the westerner
Posted in Politics, tagged Sarkozy on January 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Mr. Sarkozy and Mr. Chirac Nicolas Sarkozy’s hyperactive diplomatic efforts reflect France’s new self-image: less European, more ‘western’ From the Caucasus in August 2008 to the Middle East in January 2009, is France under President Nicolas Sarkozy attempting to incarnate what might be called “the west by default”, making maximum use of the window of [...]
Working Hard to Look Busy: Writing, Posting or Reading an Article on Idleness, Why Not?
Posted in Living on January 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Refile papers back to 1980. Give telemarketers work number and pick up every time. Fold and pile merchandise into sculpture of Chrysler Building. TO a passer-by, the chic clothing store on Mott Street in Manhattan looked like a tumult of activity. On a recent weekday afternoon, Carolyn Bailey, a supervisor, was fussing with the window [...]
“Here I was, blessed with renewed vigor and life and health and energy and joy. I mean, it’s an extraordinary experience,” said Edwin Cameron. EDWIN CAMERON, appointed a High Court judge by Nelson Mandela soon after apartheid ended in 1994, pulled to the side of the road, leaned his head on the steering wheel and [...]
Ice hotel looks cool, feels frigid
Posted in Popular culture on January 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Earlier this month, a new hotel opened near here. In less than three months, it will close down. Don’t blame the economy. Blame the weather. A short operating season — Jan. 4 to March 29 — is the cold reality for Canada’s equally cold lodging, Hotel de Glace (or Ice Hotel, for those of [...]
Magazine Faces Legal Action over Third Reich Reprints
Posted in History, Law, tagged Germany on January 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Reprinting original Nazi texts is always controversial in Germany — the original text of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” for example, cannot be printed here because its copyright is held by the state of Bavaria, which quickly gets litigious if anyone attempts to reproduce the work. Now a new magazine has run into trouble for reprinting [...]
Greatest Internet threat to teens may be teens themselves
Posted in Computers, Living on January 24, 2009 | Comments Off
Since emerging from the primordial ooze, parents have wrung their evolving appendages over ways to shield their offspring from hungry predators, lurking maniacs and strangers from without. Again and again, they’ve learned, the threat to their children lies uncomfortably closer to home: lion fathers would sooner eat their unprotected young than hunt wilier quarry; children [...]
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said he would skip his impeachment trial next week because the proceedings would not allow him to have a fair trial. In a televised news conference, Blagojevich argued that the state Senate trial scheduled to begin Monday would “trample on my constitutional rights.” The governor, who faces federal corruption charges, tried [...]
Google ready to pursue its agenda in Washington
Posted in Politics on January 24, 2009 | Comments Off
_____ Another inauguration took place in Washington this week — Google Inc. officially became a political power player.In October, Google was only hours from being sued by the Justice Department as a Web-search monopolist. Today, less than three years after it made its first Washington hire, the Internet giant is poised to capitalize on its [...]
President-elect Barack Obama paid a relaxed, pre-inaugural visit to the Supreme Court Wednesday at the invitation of the man whose confirmation he opposed. Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden sat in front of a fire on a cold January day in a court conference room with Chief Justice John Roberts and seven other justices. They [...]
Mendelssohn’s present for his 200th birthday
Posted in Arts and Entertainment, History, tagged Mendelssohn on January 24, 2009 | Comments Off
This undated image provided by The Mendelssohn Project shows manuscript pages in Felix Mendelssohn’s hand of Song Without Words for Piano in D major, one of the German composer’s compositions that will be premiered on Wednesday at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City, six days before Mendelssohn’s 200th birthday. The world is [...]
They comb through patent filings, scour securities documents and hit up suppliers. All to get the inside scoop first. Welcome to the cutthroat world of Apple bloggers Steve Jobs may be on a medical leave of absence from his role as chief executive officer of Apple Inc., but this is one birthday celebration he won’t [...]
