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POPSWhat does it mean to be an American? This 10-year-old boy gets it More: After asking his parents whether it was against the law not to stand for the pledge, Will decided to do something. On Monday, Oct. 5, when the other kids in his class stood up to recite the pledge of allegiance, he remained sitting down…Each day, the substitute got a little more cross with him. On Thursday, it finally came to a head… Will was sent to the office… At the end of our interview, I ask young Will a question that might be a civics test nightmare for your average 10-year-old. Will's answer, though, is good enough — simple enough, true enough — to give me a little rush of goose pimples. What does being an American mean? “Freedom of speech,” Will says, without even stopping to think. “The freedom to disagree. That's what I think pretty much being an American represents.” Somewhere, Thomas Jefferson smiles.
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POPSSome of the Bay Area's best challenging hikes More: Contra Costa, cont'd: Franklin Ridge - 3-mile round trip, Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline Bay View Loop - 3 miles, Point Pinole Regional Shoreline North Peak - 4-mile round trip, Mount Diablo State Park Alameda County Volvon-Walker Ridge Loop - 5.7 miles, Morgan Territory Regional Preserve Little Yosemite Loop - 5 miles, Sunol Regional Wilderness Peak Trail - 7-mile round trip, Mission Peak Regional Preserve Rocky Ridge - 4.4-mile loop, Las Trampas Regional Wilderness High Ridge Loop - 3.3-mile round trip, Garin Regional Park Santa Cruz Mountains Skyline-to-the-Sea to Berry Creek Canyon - 12-mile loop, Big Basin Redwoods State Park Saratoga Gap-Ridge Trail Loop - 5.3 miles, Castle Rock State Park Waterfall Loop - 4.5 miles, Uvas Canyon County Park Highland Loop - 5 miles, Loch Lomond Recreation Area Fall Creek Loop - 8 miles, Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park
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POPSI like big Bundts and I cannot lie... Bundts posted so far (I'll try to remember to update this when she's done): Pumpkin Spice Bundt with Buttermilk Icing, Chocolate-Cinnamon Bundt Cake with Mocha Icing, Pumpkin-Apple Spiced Bundt, Cinnamon Ripple Sweet Potato Bundt, Chocolate Zucchini Bundt, Cardamom Vanilla Bundt, Monkey Bread in a Bundt, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt, Coconut Bundt, Sweet Potato Bundt, Mom's Apple Cake Bundt, Meyer Lemon Bundt, Candy Corn Jello Bundt, Spiced Cranberry Bundt, Blueberry-Buttermilk Bundt, Nutella Bundt, Carrot Walnut Bundt, Pear Ginger Bundt, Persimmon Bundt, Banana Chocolate Marble Bundt, Martha Stewart Chocolate Bundt, Whipped Cream Bundt, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Bundt, Brown Sugar and Chocolate Chip Pound Bundt with Maple-Espresso Glaze, My Big Fat Greek Yogurt Lemon Bundt
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POPSLee Sandlin: Losing the War Quite long – click through for the full essay. More: I figured people had to know the basics -- World War II isn't exactly easy to miss. It was the largest war ever fought, the largest single event in history. Other than the black death of the Middle Ages, it's the worst thing we know of that has ever happened to the human race. Its aftereffects surround us in countless intertwining ways… So what did the people I asked know about the war? Nobody could tell me the first thing about it. Once they got past who won they almost drew a blank. All they knew were those big totemic names -- Pearl Harbor, D day, Auschwitz, Hiroshima -- whose unfathomable reaches of experience had been boiled down to an abstract atrocity. The rest was gone… I think what my little survey really demonstrates is how vast the gap is between the experience of war and the experience of peace.
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POPSA glossary of winter squash Click through for the recipes: # Leek and Delicata Squash Soup with Caramelized Apple Croutons # Winter Squash Soup # Butternut Squash Lasagne # Squash Ravioli # Spaghetti Sauce with Chicken Sausage and Swiss Chard # Saffron Risotto with Butternut Squash # Pumpkin Bread # Pumpkin Gingersnap Pie
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POPSCory Doctorow: Follow your weird More: Did you get into that blissed-out concentration state that great athletes and musicians and artists find themselves in? Did you go to a place where your mind was able to talk to itself without the endless chatter of the million billion grocery items and nagging doubts? If you got there, you’re winning the game of life. You’ve spent your time well. You might even end up changing the world.
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POPSDear soldiers: Please come home safely - your puppies miss you As do many others. The dogs in the "I've never heard anything make a sound like this" clip are beagles, which explains the noise – that's the famed "bugling" they do. And the dog almost hurdling its owner is an Italian Greyhound: half spring, half rubber, half Mexican jumping bean. :lol:
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POPS30 things to do with a winter squash Ran out of room – click through for Lamb and butternut squash tagine; Moro's pumpkin pisto; Little pumpkin and pecan tarts; Pumpkin soup with chermoula; Roast butternut pumpkin; Honey-glazed pumpkin wedges; Roasted pumpkin crostini with pancetta; Roast pumpkin, goat cheese and walnuts; Pumpkin risotto; Pasta with pumpkin and chestnuts; and Spiced Pumpkin Cake. Yum!
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POPSReactionary anti-women "men's rights" groups go mainstream
More: Toward the end of her piece, Joyce makes a particularly fascinating point about MRAs' domestic violence arguments: Critics like Australian sociologist Michael Flood say that men’s rights movements reflect the tactics of domestic abusers themselves, minimizing existing violence, calling it mutual, and discrediting victims. MRA groups downplay national abuse rates, just as abusers downplay their personal battery; they wage campaigns dismissing most allegations as false, as abusers claim partners are lying about being hit; and they depict the violence as mutual—part of an epidemic of wife-on-husband abuse—as individual batterers rationalize their behavior by saying that the violence was reciprocal. Additionally, MRA groups’ predictions of future violence by fed-up men wronged by the family-law system seem an obvious additional correlation, with the threat of violence seemingly intended to intimidate a community, like a fearful spouse, into compliance.
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POPSWhy does our society hate children? As a person without kids, I agree entirely about the need for patience. Kids are part of life, and adults should not default to being nasty to or about them. More: Several folks on this and other sites pointed out how much money they would pay for a child-free flight. You know what? I'd pay just as much for a child-friendly flight - where reasonably behaved kids can fly without fear of glares from miserable old ladies, put-off hipsters, and misanthropic businessmen… Indeed, when we took our son on his first cross-country flight, he had a bad time. He screamed, he was in pain from the air pressure, and generally wasn't a happy camper. People were okay, but I still remember That Guy. He came up to me and said, "I have two kids. I've been where you are. Hang in there, it'll get better." In my life, I love my wife, my child, my family, a handful of close friends, and That Guy. I hope he's finding money or falling in love or getting elected mayor somewhere right now.
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POPSConsumer Reports finds BPA in most canned foods More: …our findings are notable because they indicate the extent of potential exposure: Consumers eating just one serving of the canned vegetable soup we tested would get about double what the FDA now considers typical average dietary daily exposure… A 165-pound adult eating one serving of canned green beans from our sample, which averaged 123.5 ppb, could ingest about 0.2 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight per day, about 80 times higher than our experts' recommended daily upper limit. And children eating multiple servings per day of canned foods with BPA levels comparable to the ones we found in some tested products could get a dose of BPA approaching levels that have caused adverse effects in several animal studies… Drinking three servings per day of canned apple juice with BPA levels comparable to the levels found in our samples could result in a dose of BPA that is more than our experts' daily upper limit.
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POPSScientology: The Truth Rundown More: Contacted by the St. Petersburg Times, Rathbun agreed to tell the story of his years in Scientology and what led to his leaving… Seeking to corroborate Rathbun's story, the newspaper contacted others who were in Scientology during the same period and have left the church: Mike Rinder, one of Rathbun's closest associates for two decades; Tom De Vocht, who Rathbun named as key to his decision to leave; and later, Amy Scobee… The reporters interviewed the four defectors multiple times, and met with church spokesmen and lawyers for 25 hours… The result of the Times' reporting is this multi-part special report, the latest in a long history of Scientology coverage by the Times…This project, as you will see, features the three days of in-depth reports from the St. Petersburg Times, as well as additional content for this Web presentation. Those additional pieces include video; a photo gallery; and links to previous coverage in the Times, including the Pulitzer-winning coverag
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POPSA second chance at life, thanks to strangers on a train More: Mr. Medaglia and Dr. Tolani rode the subway downtown together… He’d missed the 5:13 train and while he was waiting at Penn Station for the 5:59, a woman came up and said, “You did the CPR on that guy, is he really going to live?” “I said I think so,” recalled Mr. Medaglia. “She blew me a kiss. She said, ‘God bless you — you did a great thing.’ I just sat on the train home, thinking, ‘Holy Jesus.’ ” …This was Lieutenant Kelly’s fourth CPR call in 13 years. The three other aideds all died. “Best thing I ever did in my life,” he said… Having gotten a second chance, Mr. Kiernan, a lifelong bachelor, said he is trying to be a better partner to his longtime girlfriend and is trying to eat more carefully, drink less, and seize each day a little more. “I’m not religious,” he said, “but I keep thinking, ‘Who put that cardiologist on the train?’ Coming home tonight, I looked around the subway car — there wasn’t anybody who looked like a cardiologist.”
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POPSOakland's Peerless Coffee is still going strong More: Peerless' cupping room, in fact, might be the most charming around, with the same furniture that John Vukasinovich used decades ago lining its cramped quarters, along with a shiny new spittoon - essential for cupping. "We thought for hygienic purposes, we should retire the old one," jokes George Jr. Perhaps it will last into the next generation - there's already a fourth in the wings. Will Kristina's oldest son, 7-year-old John William, become the family's next great cupper? "I hope," George Jr. says with smile. "Bring him on."
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POPSBarbara Ehrenreich: The Swine Flu Vaccine Screw-up More: According to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the government was misled by these companies, which failed to report manufacturing delays as they arose. Her department, she says, was "relying on the manufacturers to give us their numbers, and as soon as we got numbers we put them out to the public. It does appear now that those numbers were overly rosy." If, in fact, there's a political parable here, it's about Big Government's sweetly trusting reliance on Big Business to safeguard the public health: Let the private insurance companies manage health financing; let profit-making hospital chains deliver health care; let Big Pharma provide safe and affordable medications. As it happens, though, all these entities have a priority that regularly overrides the public's health, and that is, of course, profit…
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POPSCapitalism isn't a love story More: Let's be clear here. What we are currently practicing isn't capitalism. It's a perversion of the original system, designed within a rigged system, set to benefit a few. And innovators like Yunus and Hertz are primed to lead us into a brave new market - or they would, if we were willing to listen.
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