June 23, 2005
Awww, otters
i love the Shedd Aquarium. i still use Dawn dishsoap because, according to an exhibit there, it was donated for cleaning animals hurt by oil spills. |
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June 20, 2005
Bruce! Campbell!
Crap, i forgot to buy these his weekend... i hope i can get tickets tonight.Tuesday, June 21, 2005 6:00PM Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard Street
Tickets for reading: $2 available at Brookline Booksmith, 617.566.6660
Tickets for film: $12 available at Coolidge Corner Theatre, 617.734.2500
 | BRUCE CAMPBELL – Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way Bruce Campbell is the b-movie dude. As the star of the Evil Dead series, folks around the world recognize his chin that can kill. With this special event, Bruce will read from his new novel (you heard it right, a novel), Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way, and will discuss and screen his new celluloid masterpiece The Man With The Screaming Brain. Just to make things complicated, reading tickets are available from us and movie tickets are available from Coolidge Corner Theatre. |
June 16, 2005
June 07, 2005
Body Dysmorphia and Teen Suicidal Ideation
Suicide attempts linked to weight perception
By Lindsey Tanner, salon.comJune 7, 2005 | CHICAGO -- Suicidal impulses and attempts are much more common in teenagers who think they are too fat or too thin, regardless of how much they actually weigh, a study found.
Using actual body size based on teens' reports of their height and weight, the researchers found that overall, overweight or underweight teens were only slightly more likely than normal-weight teens to have suicidal tendencies.
But teens who perceived themselves at either weight extreme -- very fat or really skinny -- were more than twice as likely as normal-weight teens to attempt or think about suicide.
The study was based on a nationally representative 2001 survey involving 13,601 students in ninth through 12th grade. The findings appear in the June issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, published Monday.
About 19 percent said they had considered suicide in the previous year and about 9 percent said they had attempted it.
About 65 percent of students were in the normal-weight range, but only about 54 percent perceived themselves as "about the right weight." Some thought they weighed too much; others thought they were too thin.
"Suicide ideation was more likely even among students whose perceptions of body size deviated only slightly from `about the right weight,"' said lead author Danice Eaton, a researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Because nearly half of the students perceived themselves as too thin or too heavy, "these results suggest that a sizable proportion of students may be at increased risk" for suicide, the researchers said.
Perceptions of being very overweight were linked with an increased risk for suicide attempts among whites. But black and Hispanic students who saw themselves as being very overweight were no more likely to say they had attempted suicide than blacks and Hispanics who thought they were about the right weight.
The link between perceptions of being very underweight and an increased risk for suicide attempts existed for whites, blacks and Hispanics alike.
The study did not determine which came first -- perceptions of extreme weight or suicidal tendencies. But the results suggest that extreme weight perceptions might be a suicide warning sign, the researchers said.
In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Alain Joffe of Johns Hopkins University said widespread media images of perfect bodies might help shape adolescent perceptions of normal.
But he said it is also possible that adolescents who are already concerned with body image pay more attention to media images.
Medical Marijuana Takes a Hit
Court: Government can bar medical marijuana use
Mon Jun 6, 2005 1:19 PM ET
By James ViciniWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal government has the power to prevent sick patients from smoking home-grown marijuana that a doctor recommended to relieve chronic pain, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a setback for the medical marijuana movement.
The 6-3 ruling means the federal government can enforce a federal law prohibiting the cultivation, possession and use of medical marijuana even where it is legal under state law. At least nine states allow medical use of marijuana.
Justice John Paul Stevens said for the court majority that the federal law, the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, was a valid exercise of federal power by the U.S. Congress "even as applied to the troubling facts of this case" involving two seriously ill California women. [emphasis mine --SG]
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June 01, 2005
Bill Moyers on PBS reform
(Sorry, this is from back on May 16th. It is long, i recommend the text version, and very moving.)
In an historic speech on Sunday, legendary television journalist Bill Moyers blasted Kenneth Tomlinson of the Corporation of Public Broadcasting (CPB) for launching a partisan witch hunt at PBS and called for a series of town hall meetings across the country.
"I simply never imagined that any CPB chairman, Democrat or Republican, would cross the line from resisting White House pressure to carrying it out for the White House," Moyers told a packed room at the National Conference for Media Reform. "And that's what Kenneth Tomlinson has been doing."
You can now watch or listen to Moyers' entire speech on the Free Press Web site:
An audio recording can be downloaded at:
Or you can watch the video at:
Transcript online
In his first public statement since the controversy at PBS emerged, Moyers endorsed a call by media reform groups for a series of town hall meetings nationwide so that Americans can speak directly to station managers and policymakers about what they want and expect from public broadcasting.
More than 50,000 Americans have already signed the Free Press petition calling on Kenneth Tomlinson to resign and demanding that the public be put back into PBS.
Please add your name to the petition by clicking www.freepress.net/action/pbs.
"That great mob that is democracy is rarely heard, and that's not just the fault of the current residents of the White House and Capitol," Moyers said. "There is a great chasm between those of us in the business and those who depend on TV and radio as their window to the world. We treat them too much like audiences and not enough like citizens. They are invited to look through the window, but too infrequently to participate and make public broadcasting public."
Please support Bill Moyers, public broadcasting, quality journalism and democracy by signing the petition and passing along this message to everyone you know.
Onward,
Robert W. McChesney
www.freepress.net/conference/audio05/moyers.mp3
www.freepress.net/conference/audio05/freepress-closing40515.mov
(as soon as it's available) at www.freepress.net/conference
Free Press
www.freepress.net
Hypocrite
Umm, you are a public figure, you paranoid moron.DeLay angered by 'Law & Order' mention
Friday, May 27, 2005 Posted: 3:03 AM EDT (0703 GMT)Credit to MUGWASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay reacted angrily Thursday to this week's episode of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" for what he called a "manipulation of my name" in the show.
The show's executive producer responded by accusing DeLay of trying to change "the spotlight from his own problems to an episode of a TV show."
The controversy centers around Wednesday's episode in which a police officer investigating a murder of a federal judge suggested putting out an all points bulletin for "somebody in a Tom DeLay T-shirt." "This manipulation of my name and trivialization of the sensitive issue of judicial security represents a reckless disregard for the suffering initiated by recent tragedies and a great disservice to public discourse," DeLay wrote in a letter to NBC President Jeff Zucker.
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