Tuesday, February 3, 2009

WEB BOHEMIAN (Tuesday, February 3, 2009)
(1)- COFFEE-TABLE BOOK -- The Complete Centerfolds is a coffee-table book compiling every Playboy centerfold published from the magazine's inception in 1953 until 2007. Six short essays preface the decades, but there is no other text. As you might expect, the pleasures of the book are instant and visual.

(2)- DIFFERENT OPINIONS -- Clearly the Palins can teach us an interesting lesson about modern marriage. Journalist Megan Basham, though, is having none of it. According to her new book, Beside Every Successful Man, Sarah Palin would have had a much better partnership if she had thrown her managerial and public relations talents into building up Todd’s career instead of her own.

(3)- THE END OF SOLITUDE -- What does the contemporary self want? The camera has created a culture of celebrity; the computer is creating a culture of connectivity. As the two technologies converge — broadband tipping the Web from text to image, social-networking sites spreading the mesh of interconnection ever wider — the two cultures betray a common impulse.

(4)-DIGITAL UTOPIA -- How can we navigate through the information landscape that is only beginning to come into view? The question is more urgent than ever following the recent settlement between Google and the authors and publishers who were suing it for alleged breach of copyright.

(5)-LOVE PROCASTINATION – To some there is nothing so urgent that it cannot be postponed in favor of a cup of tea. Such procrastination is a mystery to psychologists, who wonder why people would sabotage themselves in this way. A team of researchers led by Sean McCrea of the University of Konstanz, in Germany, reckon they have found a piece of the puzzle.

(6)- SAY NOT SO -- The somber, elegiac tones before President Obama’s oath of office at the inauguration on Tuesday came from the instruments of Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and two colleagues. But what the millions on the Mall and watching on television heard was in fact a recording, made two days earlier by the quartet and matched tone for tone by the musicians playing along.

(7)- PECULIAR LAWS -- Minnesota law requires all bathtubs have feet. It is also illegal to sleep naked, tease a skunk or cross state lines with a duck on your head. They may sound absurd, but these are actual laws on the books in Minnesota. Well, mostly. Others include one that says it is illegal to trap, kill or molest squirrels in any way.

(8)-NEXT ABU GHRAIB -- The C.I.A is again demonstrating its capacity to be its own worst enemy. The attached search warrant, filed in federal court, describes the narrative of a sexual-assault investigation involving the agency’s station chief in Algiers, Algeria, where an Al Qaeda affiliate operates and where U.S relations with the host government and population are vital but rocky.

(9)- NEARLY RECONCILED – A 47-year-old woman from a small town in northern Sweden has been arrested after stabbing her partner during a romantic get-together designed to repair their rocky relationship. The 39-year-old victim of the stabbing was taken to Sunderbyn Hospital where his condition is reported to be stable.

POLITICAL COMMENTARY

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