Cyril's Gleans

gleans + 1xaddenda at 6:25 PM MT, 09/26

Book Review

In Audrey Niffenegger's new novel, a woman haunts the twin daughters of her own estranged twin.

 

U.S. Job Seekers Exceed Openings by Record Ratio

By PETER S. GOODMAN  - Unemployed Americans now confront a job market that is bleaker than ever in the current recession, and employment prospects are still getting worse.

 

 

A Burst of Technology, Helping the Blind to See

By PAM BELLUCK  - Research based on advances in technology and biology is raising hopes for progress on one of science’s holy grails.

·                                 Video: Ways of Seeing | Graphic: Artificial Retina

 

 

Afghanistan Troop Request Splits Advisers to Obama

By PETER BAKER and ELISABETH BUMILLER  - President Obama has discovered that the military is not monolithic in support of the plan and that some of the civilian advisers he respects most have deep reservations.

 

 

Magazine »  <== good issue

 

David Edmonds goes to Armenia to discover small and poor Armenia aims to beat the world at chess.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8275099.stm

 

addenda

 

Some of Cyril’s favorite action flics

 

-         Beau Geste

-         Dawn Patrol

-         Four Feathers (1939)

-         Full Metal Jacket

-         Gunga Din

-         Journey Into Fear

-         King of the Khyber Rifles

-         Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950)

-         Lives of a Bengal Lancer

-         No Highway in the Sky

-         Paths of Glory

-         Pylon

-         Sahara (1943)

-         Sergeant York

-         Shane

-         Soldiers Three

-         Star Wars (1977)

-         Swamp Water (1941)

-         The Fighting 69^th (1940)

-         The High and the Mighty

-         The Hunt for Red October

-         The Last Starfighter

-         The Motion Picture Stunt Pilot (1954)

-         The Shootist

-         The Third Man

-         The Unvanquished

-         The Wages of Fear (1953)

-         Three Days of the Condor

-         To Hell and Back

 

 

 

 

 

 

gleans + 2xaddenda at 4:30 PM MT, 09/26

 

Ghost World (Books)
The author of The Time Traveler's Wife returns with a gothic confection of identical twins and lonely spirits

 

The Other Bill Clinton
In the battle between leading the free world and raising his child, guess which won?

 

The Next Afghanistan? (The Well / World)
How Yemen has become the latest haven for al-Qaeda
 Photos: Conflict in Yemen
Videos released by the insurgents and the Yemeni government give two perspectives on a hidden war

 

 

There is no fish I can think of that doesn’t work with spinach. But where creamed spinach seems perfectly fine with a steak of halibut or haddock, the richer, oily fish such as salmon are more appropriately matched to the leaves in a simpler state.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/6222641/Nigel-Slater-recipe-salmon-steamed-spinach-and-a-lemon-salad.html

 

 

I use parsley in a pan of braised artichokes and pork sausage, whose brown depths I freshen up with Italian lemons and, at its side, some crisp and chewy greens.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/6222638/Nigel-Slater-recipe-a-casserole-of-artichokes-and-pork-for-deepest-winter.html

 

addenda #1

 

Cyril's short list of recommended kiddie movies (I am sure all of you out there in NetworkLand have been waiting for this):

 

-         Blackbeard’s Ghost

-         Both The Miracle on 34^th Street films (1947 (the better), 1994)

-        Both The Parent Trap films (1961, 1998 (the better))

-         Bridge to Terabithia

-         Candleshoe

-         Charlie Chan series

-         Explorers

-         Father Goose

-         Flight of the Navigator

-         Francis the Mule series

-         Jack Frost (1998)

-         Jumanji

-         Most Deanna Durbin

-         Most Fred Astaire musicals

-         Most of Hayao Miyazaki (other Anime too)

-         Secondhand Lions

-         Star Kid (1998)

-         The Astronaut Farmer

-         The Bishop’s Wife (1947)

-         The Canterville Ghost (1944 version – others not too bad)

-         The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Prince Caspian too)

-         The five Love Bug/Herbie flics

-         The Iron Giant

-         The Last Starfighter

-         The three George Burns “God” movies

-         Thin Man series

 

 

addenda #2

 

The US Sunday-paper supplement Parade has an article by
Nick Hornby about his favorite funny reads.  In addition to
praising the Molesworth books, he calls PGW "The best comic
prose stylist--maybe the best prose stylist--in the English
language."  I always knew he had good taste.  You can read
the story at <http://tinyurl.com/yamj237>.

Lenny (Sting)

 

Cyril thinks everyday that PGW is among the top 3 English prose writers - some days he thinks #1 - there is no question but that PGW is the #1 humorist

 

 

 

 

 

gleans + 1xaddenda at 7:40 AM MT, 09/26

 

 

Hot stuff

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall staves off those autumn blues with aubergines, peppers and chillies

 

Disclosure of Iran site raises nuclear, diplomatic tensions

By Greg Miller and Jim Tankersley - President Obama reveals the secret Iran facility at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, just days before scheduled talks with Tehran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad downplays the revelation.

Time for talk with Iran may be over

By Paul Richter and Peter Nicholas - President Obama's long-held hope of engaging Tehran about its nuclear program appears to be fading.

Islamic threat hangs over Germany's national vote  

 

11 wackiest product warnings

 

Seltzer Man Is Out of Action, and Brooklyn Thirsts  By COREY KILGANNON   Ronny Beberman picked a bad time of year for his first fall from his delivery truck in 40 years on the job.

Video: The Last of the Fizz Businesses

 

Ovens on Feet Beckon Germans to Bratwurst  By NICHOLAS KULISH   One-man mobile sausage-cooking machines are so successful in Berlin that a “War of the Wursts” is under way in the city’s busiest areas.

Video: The Grillwalker Takes Berlin

 

addenda

Cyril’s Favorite Weird Flics

-          A Boy and His Dog - A Boy and His Dog - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

-          Dr. Strangelove - Dr. Strangelove - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

-          Last Year at Marienbad - Last Year at Marienbad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

-          Sanders of the River - Sanders of the River - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

-          The Beautiful Blond from Bashful Bend - The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend - Wikipedia, the free ...

-          The Highlander - Highlander (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

-          The Man Who Would Be King - The Man Who Would Be King (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

-          The Thin Red Line (1998) - The Thin Red Line (1998 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

-          White Cargo - White Cargo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 

 

gleans at 12:30 AM MT, 09/26

 

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Black Beans and Chili Dressing

 

Scientists See Numbers Inside Peoples Heads

 

Fruit grower Ken Morrish was left stunned when he found a golden delicious apple on his tree split exactly half green, half red down the middle.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6229243/Million-to-one-apple-is-half-red-half-green.html

 

Intel, the world's biggest chip maker, says TV will soon be the key device for all entertainment and electronic commerce.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/technology/8272003.stm

 

Scientists have found out where European eels go during the early part of their mysterious migration.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8273000/8273877.stm

 

Lessons of history: Spirit of defiance lives on in a land no ...

Times Online - ‎... way of humbling the men who would be king, those who try to rule and subdue it, and Afghanistan has provided a graveyard for successive foreign armies. ...

 

US forces move into central Afghan city Newsday - ‎They spent years training foreign armies and toppled the Taliban by mentoring Northern Alliance fighters. But in the almost nine years since, Special Forces ...

Telegraph.co.uk

The Afghan Imperative - New York Times - David Brooks - ‎When you interview people who know little about Afghanistan, they describe an anarchic place that is the graveyard of empires. When you interview people who ... 

Video: General McChrystal CBS

Our Leaders Just Don't Get It OpEdNews

In Afghanistan, Downsize RealClearPolitics (blog)

all 5,905 news articles »

 

 

 

BBC News

FEER(9/4) Books: America's War In Afghanistan - Wall Street Journal - Seth G. Jones - ‎They tend to fill in the blank spots with to-be-trained Afghan National Army soldiers, but a recent mission by a Marine brigade in Helmand was accompanied ... 

 

Speed of digital era may be harming our ability to think‎ - And yet, the evidence is beginning to mount that in trying to exploit time to the utmost, and in trying to force our experience into digital patterns and ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

gleans + 1xaddenda at 5:55 PM MT, 09/25

 

5 US troops killed as debate grows over Afghan war

 

See the fall colors this weekend or forever hold your peace

 

Marfa lights - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Marfa lights or the Marfa ghost lights are unexplained lights (known as "ghost lights") usually seen near U.S. Route 67 on Mitchell Flat east of Marfa, ...

 

Army inventions, by air and by land The U.S. Army pays tribute to the ingenuity of soldiers and support staff through its "Top 10 Greatest Inventions of 2008" awards.

Pataphysics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

According to Warren Motte, noted members of the college have included Noël Arnaud (Regent of General 'Pataphysics and Clinic of ...

 

A flying car has been a dream for decades but the SkyCar is a proven quantity, having crossed the Straits of Gibraltar en route from London to Timbuktu.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/6230090/SkyCar-magnificent-flying-car.html

 

 

addenda

 

Cyril likes newspapers.  He prefers a print edition but takes what he can get.  Some of his favorites are

 

-         The Wall Street Journal

-         The Financial Times

-         The New York Times

-         The London Times

-         The Los Angeles Times

-         The Daily Telegraph

-         The Guardian

-         The Houston Chronicle

-         The Christian Science Monitor (now in print only as a weekly)

 

 

 

 

 

 

gleans + 1xaddenda at 10:05 AM MT, 09/25

 

Fanged frog, 162 other new species found in Mekong

 

Why Karzai May Still Be Obama's Best Bet in Afghanistan

By TIM MCGIRK / KABUL - Despite the flaws of the incumbent and the questionable legitimacy of his possible reelection, the U.S. may have no better alternative

 

The grandiose Victorian country house is back in vogue

Times Online - ‎Against the odds the grandiose Victorian country house is back in fashion. By the 1950s, indeed the 1930s, most of these mighty piles of masonry were deemed ...

 

High & Low | St. Simons Island, Ga.

 

Southern Coastal Comfort

By BETHANY LYTTLE

St. Simons, a barrier island on the Georgia coast, is about 95 minutes from Savannah and about the same distance from Jacksonville, Fla.

 

Pretty soon we'll be able to "e-member" anything (for better or worse).
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/09/25/total.recall.microsoft.bell/index.html

 

addenda

 

Much good poetry has been written in English over the past 110 years, and much is still being written – a good bit outside of North America.

 

A baker's dozen modern poets Cyril likes follow:

 

-         Philip Larkin

-         W. H. Auden

-         Robert Frost

-         Edna St. Vincent Millay

-         Marianne Moore

-         E. E. Cummings

-         Turner Cassity

-         T. S. Elliot

-         Seamus Heaney

-         Les Murray

-         Simon Armitage

-         Stephen Edgar

-    A. D. Hope

 

 

 

 

 

 

gleans + 1xlagniappe at 2:55 AM MT, 09/25

 

Arthur Guinness Birthday Celebrated

Associated Content - ‎Today, September 24 th , is the 284 th birthday of Arthur Guinness, a man celebrated by beer lovers around the globe. December 31 st , 1759, 250 years ago, ...

Happy 250th birthday, Guinness: America's microbrewers salute you Daily Finance (blog)

Happy Guinness Day! The Jersey Journal - NJ.com

Guinness celebrates 250th birthday Philadelphia Inquirer

 

California, fresh, lively, and forever oriented toward the future, has for more than a century been a model for the rest of America. So who killed it?... more»

 

http://www.appscout.com/2009/09/google_wikis_the_whole_web.php <== recommended

 

Major-General Andrew Mackay, a general who led the Afghanistan campaign has resigned over his disillusion in the direction of the Government’s strategy.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/6228725/Afghanistan-general-quits-over-disillusionment-with-government-strategy.html

 

Xanthe Clay cooks a speedy bean soup packed full of goodness and flavour - no excuses for a take-away!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/five-minute-food/6228755/Video-Beetroot-soup-with-horseradish-cream-Five-Minute-Food.html

 

 

lagniappe

 

anyone lived in a pretty how town by E. E. Cummings

anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his did

Women and men(both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain

children guessed(but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more

when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone's any was all to her

someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then)they
said their nevers they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)

one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by april
wish by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men(both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
sun moon stars rain

 

 

 

 

 

gleans at 8:20 PM MT, 09/24

 

Left-handed children are more likely to enjoy school and get on with their teachers ... [more]

 

Young children still need adults around to help them learn from educational television ... [more]

 

Where will synthetic biology lead us? ... [more]

 

Evolution can never go backwards, because the paths to the genes once present in our ancestors are forever blocked ... [more]

 

Successful dieters may have different brains ... [more]

 

Lights let us keep an eye on economic development from space ... [more]

 

Dinosaur mass extinction event was muted in Europe ... [more]

 

A New News Site in San Francisco 

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA - The Bay Area news project says it wants to fill some of the vacuum left by the downsizing of the local newspapers.

 

This Week’s Recipes

Coconut Barley Pilaf With Corn, Chicken and Cashews

Chicken With Herbs

Tteokbokki — Korean Rice Cakes with Red Chili Sauce

Soba Salad With Spinach, Edamame and Miso Dressing

Smoky Pork Burgers With Fennel and Red Cabbage Slaw

 

 

 

 

 

gleans + 1xlagniappe at 7:15 PM MT, 09/24

 

Magritte painting stolen at gunpoint

guardian.co.uk - ‎Maja Pertot Bernard of the Art Loss Register said Magritte was not a painter whose works were often stolen and there were very few missing Magrittes. ...

 

“Web-bot” technology has moved apocalyptic prophecy into the internet age, predicting that the world will end on 21 December 2012.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/6227357/Web-bot-project-makes-prophecy-of-2012-apocalypse.html

 

Spain is sliding into a full-blown economic depression with unemployment approaching levels not seen since the Second Republic of the 1930s and little chance of recovery until well into the next decade, according to a clutch of reports over recent days.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/6228390/Spain-tips-into-depression.html

 

The Daily Telegraph’s investigation into MPs’ expenses, which dominated the headlines for six solid weeks this summer, unearthed what Gordon Brown later described as: “The biggest parliamentary scandal for two centuries.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/6226839/No-Expenses-Spared-the-inside-story-of-the-Telegraphs-MPs-expenses-investigation.html

 

 

lagniappe

 

(Oh friends, .. don't matter if you're a man or a woman. If you're in love
with somebody, these are the words that you got to learn to say. Now
listen carefully. Here it comes...)

I'll be loving you always
with a love that's true, always
When the thing you've planned
needs my helping hand,
I will understand, always, always

Days may not be fair, always
Yeah but that's when I'll be there, always
Not for just an hour,
Not for just a day,
Not for just a year, but always.

I said that I'll be loving you, always
with a love that's true, always.
When the thing you've planned
needs my helping hand,
I will, I will understand, always, always

(Oh that's pretty ... that's pretty too ... Oh darling)

The days may not be fair, always
Yeah but that's when I'll be there, always
Not for just a second, or a minute, or an hour,
Not for just a weekend and a shake down in the shower,
Not for just the summer and the winter going sour,
But always, always, always

(Ok if you don't want to quit, let's try it one more time)

I'll be loving you, always
with a love that's true, always.
When the thing you've planned
needs my helping hand,
I will understand, I will, I will understand, always, always

The days may not be fair, always
(Don't worry, baby)
That's when I'll be there, always
Not for just an hour,
Not for just a day,
Not for just a year, but always.

Leonard Cohen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 

 

 

 

gleans at 5:20 PM MT, 09/24

 

Spacecraft spies frozen water in Martian craters

 

Planned emission cuts still mean far hotter Earth

 

Butterfly antennas key to navigating in migration

 

The unseen bias in Middle East reporting

 

Are there too many charities in America?

 

Bode Miller to compete in World Cup

 

Cypress Gardens theme park in Fla. closes doors

 

 

Analysis: Obama presidency at pivotal moment

 

Video: Obama Pushes for Nuke-Free World

 

Public Wary of Obama on War and Health Care, Poll Finds

By ADAM NAGOURNEY and DALIA SUSSMAN

President Obama is confronting tepid support for his handling of the war in Afghanistan and an electorate confused about the proposed health care overhaul, according to the latest Times/CBS News poll.

 

Experts Awed by Anglo-Saxon Treasure

By JOHN F. BURNS

An amateur treasure hunter prowling English farmland with a metal detector found a massive collection of gold and silver.

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