"I think we'd do best to remember that Baba Yaga may hide herself in the woods, but she is watching and she is remembering"
Over 1 billion people believe in witchcraft — especially in places with weak institutions ZME Scienc
For the first time in its history, Bondi was today transformed into a nudist beach.
Thousands strip off at Bondi Beach for renowned photographer
Doctors believe Bruce Lee may have died from drinking too much water The Hill
GOOD, I LIKE THEM ANYWAY: Study: Eating a serving of dark, leafy greens daily may slow memory decline.
Though preferably slathered with Caesar or Bleu Cheese dressing.
SCIENCE, UNSETTLED: Study raises doubts about role of ‘good’ cholesterol in heart health.
Pig-Pen, who first appeared in Peanuts in 1954, represents nothing less than the enigma of human personality. Elif Batuman explains Pig- Pen »
Colette has never been more popular with Americans. Is it the sensuality of her writing? The scandalousness of her own story? Colette »
To comprehend the difference between smell and flavor, plug your nose and taste a jelly bean Senses »
The author is John Higgs, and the subtitle is Bond, the Beatles and the British Psyche. I loved this book, and reading it induced me to order the author’s other books, the ultimate compliment. It is not for everyone, nor is it easy to describe, but imagine the stories of The Beatles and James Bond films told as “parallel careers.” After all, “Love Me Do” and Dr. No were released on the same day in 1962.
It is striking that they have been making James Bond films for sixty years now, and every single one of them has made money. We are still talking about the Beatles too. Will anything from current Britain have such staying power?
From the book here is one excerpt:
Had Paul not then finally found success outside the band, it is possible they may have agreed to a reunion. The success of ‘Live and Let Die’, followed by the album Band on the Run, made Paul McCartney and Wings a going concern at exactly the point when a Beatles reunion looked most plausible. Bond didn’t kill the Beatles, but it is a strange irony that once they had split , he kept them dead.
I hadn’t known that the Soviet edition of the Band on the Run album replaced the title track with “Silly Love Songs” as the lead song, as the lyrics to the “Band on the Run” song were considered too subversive. There is for instance talk of a prison break in the song. And when Paul much later performed a short solo concert for Vladimir Putin, he chose to play “Let It Be.”
The book excels in its portraits of George Harrison, especially in his solo career. I enjoyed this tidbit about the Harrison family:
In 1978, George married Olivia Arias and in the same year they had a son, Dhani. Dhani only discovered his father’s past when he was at school. ‘I came home one day from school after being chased by kids singing “Yellow Submarine”, and I didn’t understand why,’ he has said. ‘It just seemed surreal: why are they singing that song to me? I came home and freaked out to my dad: “Why didn’t you tell me you were in the Beatles?” And he said: “Oh, sorry. Probably should have told you that.” It’s impossible to imagine, John, Paul or Ringo neglecting to mention they were in the Beatles to their children.
She is an early motorhome gypsy."
She's a reminder that freedom lies a little beyond the border of social norms, and that we can learn as much from the dark as the light – Lindy Ryan
How the forest dies - Washington Post: “The Amazon is going dry. In one parched corner, a desperate wait for water is only just beginning. For years, scientists have been warning that the Amazon is speeding toward a tipping point — the moment when deforestation and global warming would trigger an irreversible cascade of climatic forces, killing large swaths of what remained.
If somewhere between 20 and 25 percent of the forest were lost, models suggested, much of the Amazon would perish. About 18 percent of the rainforest is now gone, and the evidence increasingly supports the warnings. Whether or not the tipping point has arrived — and some scientists think it has — the Amazon is beginning to collapse.
More than three-quarters of the rainforest, research indicates, is showing signs of lost resilience. In fire-scorched areas of the Rio Negro floodplains, one research group noted a “drastic ecosystem shift” that has reduced jungle to savanna. In the southeastern Amazon, which has been assaulted by rapacious cattle ranching, trees are dying off and being pushed aside by species better acclimated to drier climes.
In the southwestern Amazon, fast-growing bamboo is overtaking lands ravaged by fire and drought. And in the devastated transitional forests of Mato Grosso state, researchers believe a local tipping point is imminent. The rainforest has never been closer to what scientists predict would be a global calamity. Because it storesan estimated 123 billion tons of carbon, the Amazon is seen as vital to forestalling catastrophic global warming.”