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February 24, 2009
The San Francisco Chronicle to suffer deep cuts and possibly closure. Noting an acceleration of long-standing losses, Hearst is taking drastic steps with the
Chronicle, without (in its announcement, at least) any of the brave promises of perseverance which often accompany such news. Sale or (failing that) closure will ensue if the cuts don't work fast enough. Fallen into bankruptcy in the past two months have been publishers of four major newspapers (LA
Times, Chicago
Tribune, Philadelphia
Inquirer and Minneapolis
Star-Tribune) -- but so far none of those papers appears in any risk of folding.
posted by MattD at 6:21 PM PST - 44 comments
Due to
“credible death and kidnapping threats”, T-Pain has cancelled a concert in Guyana for
Mashramani, the festival that marks the anniversary of Guyana’s independence from Great Britain.
Last years, celebration was soured by a
killing spree perpetrated by a heavily armed gang led by man known as “Fine Man”. Because the 23 victims were mainly of East Indian descent, the massacre was a powder keg issue for the tiny South American nation. With a population of 44% East Indian and 30% African ancestries, Guyana tends to be socially and politically divided along ethnic identity lines.
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posted by Stu-Pendous at 3:45 PM PST - 12 comments
A single nutrient may have turned early humans into civilized man. Has stripping it from our diet given rise to cancer, diabetes, and other civilized diseases? "There has been a thousandfold increase in the consumption of soybean oil over the past hundred years. The result is an unplanned experiment in brain and heart chemistry, one whose subject is the entire population of the developed world." A
series of epidemiological studies showed that populations that consume high levels of
omega-3s in the form of seafood are the least afflicted by the major diseases associated with the Western diet. (
via)
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posted by netbros at 2:03 PM PST - 66 comments
Poaching – not pears, not birds, but plants. In the feed-me-Seymour vein of green and growing things, these are the
plants that eat things – too bad they aren’t able to defend themselves from people and habitat loss. But wait! There’s help on the way.
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posted by mightshould at 1:03 PM PST - 9 comments
29 year old
Hiromi Uehara first mesmerized the jazz community with her 2003 Telarc debut, Another Mind. 4 albums later she continues to astonish and inspire. On February 3rd, she released the album
Duet, a collaboration with Chick Corea, having first played with Corea at age 17. A graduate of the
Berklee School of Music, Hiromi
tours relentlessly with her crack band. I defy your jaw not to drop at their performances
here,
here, and
here.
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posted by Roach at 11:49 AM PST - 85 comments
"Iran is dying.
The collapse of Iran's birth rate during the past 20 years is the fastest recorded in any country, ever. Demographers have sought in vain to explain Iran's population implosion through family planning policies, or through social factors such as the rise of female literacy. But quantifiable factors do not explain the sudden collapse of fertility. It seems that a spiritual decay has overcome Iran, despite best efforts of a totalitarian theocracy.
Second, according to a recent report from the US Council on Foreign Relations, "Iran serves as the major transport hub for opiates produced by [Afghanistan], and the UN Office of Drugs and Crime estimates that Iran has as many as 1.7 million opiate addicts." That is, 5% of Iran's adult, non-elderly population of 35 million is addicted to opiates. That is an astonishing number, unseen since the peak of Chinese addiction during the 19th century."
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posted by 445supermag at 6:18 AM PST - 72 comments
