Friday, March 26, 2010

WEB BOHEMIAN (Friday, March 26, 2010)
(1)- TECK NEWS -- BlackBerry users may be ready to move on to other smartphone platforms, suggesting that RIM isn't keeping up with consumer demand in its efforts to combat growing encroachment from the likes of iPhone and Android.

(2)- RIP -- Pingping, the world's shortest man, has died. He was 21. The cherub-faced, 2-foot-5-inch Guinness World Record holder was in Rome for a TV show when he complained of chest pains. He died of "heart complications."

(3)- ADDICTION -- Now comes an important and provocative book called Addiction: A Disorder of Choice by the psychologist Gene Heyman, a McLean Hospital psychologist and Harvard lecturer. Heyman attacks the brain-based model of addiction.

(4)- WHAT IS THE ARTIST? -- Theorists have taken over from critics as the master figures of the art world – taken over a cultural movement that would probably be happening even without their putting it in political context for us.

(5)- ACADEMIC SNOBBERY -- University professors are not among the most humble members of our society. Populist right-wing politicians can hardly find easier punching bags than some of the blowhards on college campuses.

(6)- RESULTS OF LOVE -- A German woman, fearful that a burglar was trying to break into her second floor apartment, called police after she heard someone climbing up to her balcony shortly after midnight. But it was romance not robbery...

(7)- VITAMIN D – It is the new magic bullet we've been looking for. A lack of this wonder nutrient can set the stage for no fewer than 33 disorders, including autism, cancer, diabetes and infertility.

(8)- RUSSIAN LUNAR ROVER FOUND -- A researcher from The University of Western Ontario solves a 37-year old space mystery using lunar images released March 15 by NASA and maps from his own atlas of the moon.

(9)- NOT GOOD -- Maple syrup producers are under fire for tapping maple trees in Central Massachusetts cemeteries. There are disturbing reports that at least two cemeteries in Lancaster and one in Petersham have sap buckets on trees.

POLITICAL COMMENTARY

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