The Fighting 44s

AICN points out a great video of actors training for the Wachowskis’ upcoming Ninja Assassin. Note the presence of RAIN.

Posted in Arts & Literature, Video | | Permalink

Many of us on this site are city dwellers. According to the latest research, city life may be taking a toll on our brains.

From The Boston Globe:

THE CITY HAS always been an engine of intellectual life, from the 18th-century coffeehouses of London, where citizens gathered to discuss chemistry and radical politics, to the Left Bank bars of modern Paris, where Pablo Picasso held forth on modern art. Without the metropolis, we might not have had the great art of Shakespeare or James Joyce; even Einstein was inspired by commuter trains.

And yet, city life isn’t easy. The same London cafes that stimulated Ben Franklin also helped spread cholera; Picasso eventually bought an estate in quiet Provence. While the modern city might be a haven for playwrights, poets, and physicists, it’s also a deeply unnatural and overwhelming place.

Now scientists have begun to examine how the city affects the brain, and the results are chastening. Just being in an urban environment, they have found, impairs our basic mental processes. After spending a few minutes on a crowded city street, the brain is less able to hold things in memory, and suffers from reduced self-control. While it’s long been recognized that city life is exhausting — that’s why Picasso left Paris — this new research suggests that cities actually dull our thinking, sometimes dramatically so.

Posted in Health & Fitness, Science & Technology | | Permalink

Yes, I realize this is old news, but I didn’t read about it until today so I thought I’d share it. Miguel Syjuco, a Filipino writer now living in Montreal, won the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize.

From The Ampersand:

Posted: November 14, 2008, 3:56 PM by Mark Medley

On Thursday, Montreal’s Miguel Syjuco won the Man Asian Literary Prize for his debut novel Ilustrado. The $10,000 U.S. award recognizes the best unpublished English-language book by an Asian author. The 31-year-old Syjuco — who was born in Manilla, spent a decade of his childhood in Vancouver, and now lives in Montreal, where he works as a copy editor at the Gazette — spoke to Mark Medley on the phone from Hong Kong.

Congratulations, again. I’m sure you’ve heard that a hundred times by now.

I have, I have. The thing is, I still can’t get over it. I still can’t believe this is all happening.

Take me through the past few days.

Posted in Opinion | | Permalink

I don’t know about you all, but there’s nothing like 9 chicks to get my new year going, and in about 6 days, So Nyeo Shi Dae [Girls' Generation] will be making their comeback debut on stage for the release of their new mini album Gee. Apparently this will mark the showing of a more mature stage presence and improved dancing skills. The album itself drops Jan. 7th.

Credits: CoolSmurf

Posted in Entertainment & Media, Video | | Permalink

Merry Christmas, 44s! And a Happy New Year as well!

Posted in Opinion | | Permalink

It’s all over the news that Obama has picked Rick Warren, the evangelical pastor of the southern California megachurch Saddleback, to give the invocation when he takes office in January.

Those few members who are familiar with my thinking (specifically, the “integral” developmental perspective) probably wouldn’t be surprised that I think this is fantastic news. It gives a strong indication that Obama is thinking at a level few liberal elites currently appreciate.

(The standard pre-emptive defense: no, I am not anti-gay, I support gay rights and gay marriage, I support a woman’s right to control her own body and have an abortion — at least for the first two trimesters of pregnancy — and I am socially liberal, but I take these positions in the context of political, techno-economic, cultural, and moral development.)

Posted in Opinion | | Permalink

I was looking at Malcolm Gladwell’s website, and discovered this New Yorker article from 1996. I think it addresses a lot of issues similar to what that we discuss on the forums.

You can download the PDF here.

Black Like Them
By Malcolm Gladwell
April 29, 1996
PERSONAL HISTORY

Through the lens of his own family’s experience,
the author explores why West Indians and American
blacks are perceived differently.

1.

My cousin Rosie and her husband, Noel, live in a two-bedroom bungalow on Argyle Avenue, in Uniondale, on the west end of Long Island. When they came to America, twelve years ago, they lived in a basement apartment a dozen or so blocks away, next to their church. At the time, they were both taking classes at the New York Institute of Technology, which was right nearby. But after they graduated, and Rosie got a job managing a fast-food place and Noel got a job in asbestos removal, they managed to save a little money and bought the house on Argyle Avenue.

Posted in Arts & Literature, History, Social Issues | | Permalink

(Originally posted on bigWOWO.)

If anyone does not know the Minority Militant, go over to his blog right now and check him out. Or, you can check out my interview with him here. He’s had an interesting life as a Laotian immigrant who joined the U.S. Navy right after college, and he runs a great blog. I read it every day.

Most of you have probably already heard about the Korean American family killed by the crashing military plane. It was a terrible tragedy. Nothing, of course, can bring the family back, but for whatever reason, there seems to be a lack of media attention given to them. Three generations of women wiped out in a matter of seconds, and there isn’t any inquiry or questions about them? I just checked CNN.com, and the story is tucked away on the bottom of the page. Keep in mind that this isn’t just a case of friendly fire in Iraq; these are American civilians who were living in their own home in the United States.

Anyway, TMM has posted about his outrage on his blog. I’ve copied the letter in its entirety below.

http://minoritymilitant.blogspot.com/2008/12/call-for-answers.html

Posted in Advocacy & Activism | | Permalink

Obama starts filling his energy and environmental team, from Reuters.

Wed Dec 10, 2008 5:39pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama will appoint former Environmental Protection Agency chief Carol Browner to a new position coordinating White House policy on energy, climate and environmental issues, a Democratic aide said on Wednesday.

Obama will also nominate Steven Chu, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as his energy secretary, a Democratic Party official said.

Obama, who has said energy and environment matters would be important to his administration, is closing in on choosing the team that will oversee them.

He wants to spend billions of dollars to promote alternative energy sources and create millions of green energy jobs.

Earlier, a Democratic official said Obama had chosen Nancy Sutley, a deputy mayor of Los Angeles, to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Browner, a principal at global strategy firm The Albright Group LLC, heads Obama’s advisory team on energy and the environment. During President Bill Clinton’s administration, she became the longest-serving EPA administrator.

Chu shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics and is a former chairman of the physics department at Stanford University in California and head of the electronics research laboratory at Bell Labs.

Posted in Politics | | Permalink

The Washington Post offers a good summary of Gen. Erik K Shinseki’s credentials and history with the Bush administration.

Obama Picks Shinseki to Lead Veterans Affairs

By Philip Rucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 7, 2008; 2:42 PM

President-elect Barack introduced retired Army Gen. Eric K. Shinseki as his nominee to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, bringing to his Cabinet a career military officer best known for running afoul of the Bush administration by questioning the Pentagon’s Iraq war strategy.

Shinseki, a four-star general and 38-year veteran who retired shortly after the fall of Baghdad in 2003, appeared with Obama in Chicago at a news conference today commemorating the 67th anniversary of the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor. Obama said Shinseki agreed to join the incoming administration because “both he and I share a reverence for those who serve.”

“When I reflect on the sacrifices that have been made by our veterans and I think about how so many veterans around the country are struggling even more than those who have not served — higher unemployment rates, higher homeless rates, higher substance-abuse rates, medical care that is inadequate — it breaks my heart, and I think that General Shinseki is exactly the right person who is going to be able to make sure that we honor our troops when they come home,” Obama told NBC News’ Tom Brokaw in a interview taped for broadcast today on “Meet the Press.”
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Posted in Politics | | Permalink