Grady-White pioneers a whole new category of inshore/offshore boat with the introduction of the sporty 251-CE, “Coastal Explorer.” The 251-CE is the first of its kind from Grady-White, and is designed to provide peace of mind on big water and a piece of heaven for practicality, utility, ease of use and comfort around back waters, beaches, waterways, sounds and inlets. Here’s the Grady-White answer for off-the-beaten-track coastal family fun and versatility in skinnier water.

Each year around mid-August, publicists start burying everyone in the food journalizing racket with ideas for Thanksgiving coverage. Most of their emails concern ways in which a client, usually a lesser television chef or an agricultural marketing board, can enhance your stuffing with this or that upscale mushroom or obscure nutmeat. Over in our soggy corner of the booze-writing ghetto, the pitches tend to feature recipes for gibletinis and butternut squasharitas or threats of cinnamon-sage vodkas and gravy liqueurs.

Read more...

You've probably never heard of Bowling Green unless its college basketball team, the Hilltoppers of Western Kentucky, has broken your bracket, one year or another. The city sits between Louisville and Nashville, and people drive there from all over southern Kentucky to eat, to shop, and, most of all, to drink. That's the first thing to know about Bowling Green: Kentucky's counties still divide themselves into "wet" and "dry" camps, with the dry ones prohibiting the sale of alcohol. Bowling Green's county is one of those—except for the city itself, whose wetness makes it a mixed county. The technical term is "moist."

Read more...

Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones enjoying the pool at the Manger Motor Lodge in Savannah, GA

Just imagine your luck stumbling across this little gem… 23 original, never-before-seen photos of the Rolling Stones resting unmolested in an unmarked box? Yes, please. That’s exactly what Lauren White found herself staring at when a friendly, unassuming flea market dealer put them before her kindly with a wink and a nudge. Turns out they were taken (photographer unknown…) during the Rolling Stones American tour through Savannah, Georgia and Clearwater, Florida in 1965.

“He obviously didn’t know what he had. To tell the truth, I didn’t either. I obviously knew it was the Stones, but it took about a week of looking them over to realize that this was really a very unique circumstance. After extensive research, I came to find that these are unpublished, never-before-seen photos of one of the most legendary bands in rock ‘n’ roll history. Not only that, they are beautifully composed, candid, raw and perfect in every way. They really convey a band innocent to their destiny.

In a lot of the images, the guys are looking directly into the lens. It’s hard to get boys to be that vulnerable, especially in front of a camera. They are also sort of showing off. I think a girl is the only thing that could convince them to allow those kinds of shots. It’s hard to imagine a dude is evoking these intimate moments, but you never know.” –Lauren White

1965– Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones poolside in shades, Clearwater, Florida

1965– Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones enjoying a budweiser poolside, Clearwater, Florida

1965– Mick Jagger & Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones poolside in Clearwater, Florida

1965– Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones poolside in shades, Clearwater, Florida

1965– Brian Jones somewhere between Savannah, Georgia and Clearwater, Florida

1965– Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones poolside in shades

1965– Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones somewhere between Savannah, GA and Clearwater, FL

1965– Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones somewhere between Savannah, GA and Clearwater, FL

1965– Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones somewhere between Savannah, GA and Clearwater, FL

FOUND: Rolling Stones site

FOUND: Rolling Stones | Cool Hunting interview

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TSY recenty received a scan of this great old Wall of death rider, along with the below note from the sender, Brian in Kansas City, MO. Anyone with knowledge of the rider, and/or this particular Wall of Death motordrome is kindly asked to chime in:

“…I am a collector of postcards and a while back I purchased a postcard of a man on a motorcycle riding in some kind of spectator show. Your article helped clarify a lot about the photo. I have attached the photo and thought maybe you have seen it before or could provide some more info.  The back of the card is particularly interesting. It reads: ‘About 1912– Later he was killed– Someone threw a peanut at him– caused him to dodge and lose balance, falling with cycle to bottom of pit killing him.’ Sounds likes sport spectators were not much different then as they are today.  I thought maybe the motorcycle may have been a Cyclone, however I don’t think it is. The lettering on his shirt may bring some clue as well…”

Back In Dec. ’09 TSY posted what remains today one of our more popular stories– Wall of Death riders with a lion, no less. I mean, really…old photos of a lion riding the Wall of Death is damn hard to beat…unless you have a video of said lion riding the Wall of Death! At that time there wasn’t a moving image to be found, but British Pathe, an amazing archive of historic film clips, uncovered a little gem of ‘Fearless Egbert’ giving his lion named Monarch a spin back in 1934. They also uncovered incredible film footage of ‘Tornado Smith’ with his Lion, ‘Briton’. It’s definitely worth a look…

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Circa 1929, Wall of Death, Revere Beach, MA

“Fearless” Egbert of Collins Famous Death Riders & his racing lion named Monarch. via

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“Fearless” Egbert taking his five year-old lion Monarch for a ride on the Wall of Death at Mitcham fair. via

Yorkshire Evening Post on September 24, 1931, Egbert & Monarch the Lion’s special relationship: 

“It is remarkable how even lions can become civilised. Three years ago, Monarch, the lion that will ride on a baby car around a wall at Woodhouse Feast, had never seen a motor-car. His grandfather roamed the jungle and his father was captured and trained to ride a horse in an American circus. Then, just over three years ago, Monarch came along, and, on seeing a baby car which is driven by ‘Fearless Egbert’ round the Wall of Death, clambered into it. When he was given a ride he enjoyed it so much he refused to get out.”

“Obviously he was destined for a motoring career, and going one better than a mere rider of horses, Monarch was gradually introduced to the thrills in a car around a vertical wall. A ledge was fixed to the side of the car, and there was never any need to coax him to sit on it. He hopped aboard as soon as he was released from his cage, and snarled and growled if the driver had any difficulty in starting.”

“Nowadays, Monarch is driven round the miniature track at speeds that would make his more sedate father gasp. If Fearless Egbert stops the car too soon, the young lion remains on the car. There are times however, when he gets a little bored, and the driver knows it is time to stop when he realises that Monarch’s head is very close to his face.”

The report adds: “The owner of Monarch (said the) lion has never been strapped on the car. He jumped on it when he was three weeks old and now has thousands of miles of motoring to his credit.”

“Like all good people who occupy the limelight, he is rather sensitive about the way the show should be run. Fearless Egbert is the only driver who is allowed to take the wheel when Monarch is about; attempts by others arouse only growls, and Monarch’s tail whisks like a whip.”

“What is more, he is troubled like other stars, about his weight. Monarch could sit in comfort on the ledge when he joined the show, but since then his cage has twice had to be enlarged. Now he weighs about 350lb and he has to park part of himself on the bonnet of the car. Still, an attempt is being made to keep his weight down. On Sundays he dispenses with beef for dinner, and has milk and eggs.”

via the Yorkshire Evening Post

Tornado Smith, the Wall of Death rider from Southend, and his wife, Marjorie Dare, having tea with their pet lion and lamb. George “Tornado” Smith brought the Wall of Death from America to England in 1929, and featured such spectacles as”Briton the Wall-riding lion” and “Gymkhana Girls and Girl Protégées” in his billing. Check out the skull-and-crossbones badge on his beret, he’s nowhere near as mild-mannered as he looks.  –Derek Berwin/Hulton Archive via

Curious tale of the Wall-of-Death hero who buried his lion sidekick outside a rustic villa:

“YOU DO KNOW that there’s a lion buried outside, in that courtyard, don’t you?” asked one of the regulars, just as I was leaving a quiet country pub.

I didn’t. It was early on a December afternoon in Boxford, Suffolk, that I accidentally stumbled upon the story of an almost-forgotten Great British eccentric, Tornado Smith, a Thirties Wall-of-Death stunt motorcyclist.

The village of Boxford is chiefly known for having hosted some good jazz concerts in recent years at the Fleece, one of its two pubs. It was, however, from its other hostelry, the White Hart, that the tale of the stunt rider and his pet lion emerged. The lion, actually a 12-stone lioness named Briton, had been part of George “Tornado” Smith’s Wall-of-Death act during the Thirties. As a cub, she had initially ridden on the handlebars of his Indian Scout motorbike. Once she was fully grown, she rode in a sidecar, while he performed daring stunts for his audiences.

Nowadays, we just don’t produce eccentrics of such calibre. George Smith was born in June 1908 in the Suffolk hamlet of Newton Green, near Boxford itself. His parents, already in the pub trade, took over the White Hart in 1921, which they ran until the early Fifties. George was a nervous child, so afraid of his teachers that his concerned mother once sought help for him. Despite this, the boy reportedly got himself into trouble, performing daredevil high-speed stunts with a soapbox cart, for which he was caned. He left school at 14, having been apprenticed to a local wheelwright.”

“He didn’t settle, however. By the age of 17, he was driving a lorry for a coal merchant. Shortly afterwards he became, variously, an AA patrolman and a taxi driver. It was during the latter job that Smith, dropping off a fare in Southend, happened upon his first Wall-of-Death. It seems to have been love at first sight. The fairground amusement had been recently imported from America. It comprised a giant drum, 20-feet high, lined with short, wooden boards around which stunt motorcyclists rode at speed, almost at 90-degree angles to the floor, their exhausts roaring and popping as they did so.

Spectators who paid to stand on a parapet surrounding the top of the drum would feel the whole structure move as they looked down upon the motorcyclists racing around below them. There were occasional injuries and tumbles although, strangely, it’s now claimed that no deaths were ever attributed to the Wall-of-Death. An equal opportunities concept from the very beginning, the stars of the Wall were just as likely to be women as men.

Having become obsessed with the idea of being a stunt rider, the young Suffolk lad began applying for jobs. He was unsuccessful, until the boss of a new Wall-of-Death, at an amusement park in Whitley Bay, near Newcastle gave him a job as a mechanic. Here he gained a chance to perfect his own act. In September 1930, aged 22, George was taken on by a touring company and made his debut as “Tornado” Smith in Malmo, Sweden.”

Circa 1936, Southend-on-Sea, England — Mr. “Tornado” Smith, a stunt motorcyclist on the Wall of Death, clips the toenails of his pet lion, Briton, at home. — Image by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection

“Upon his return to Britain, during a short run of work for Bertram Mills Circus, Tornado met the woman he would eventually marry. A pretty teenager, then working as a cosmetics sales assistant, Doris Craven fell head-over-heels for the charismatic stuntman. Slim of build, with a David Niven-style pencil moustache, he wore tortoiseshell spectacles and sported a jaunty beret. Doris, his new inamorata, a feisty young woman, wasted no time and soon learned to ride the Wall herself, settling upon the stage name Marjorie Dare. Tornado, a consummate showman, was always looking for new ways to bring customers into his shows. So it was that in 1933, he purchased Briton, the lion cub, intending to train her for his act.

Just in itself this part of the story illustrates how much circumstances have changed during recent decades. It seems impossible to believe now that anyone might have been able to easily acquire something as exotic as a lion cub. Up until as late as 1976, however, when the Dangerous Wild Animals Act was passed, almost anyone with the money to do so might have placed order via the Harrod’s department store an order via the Harrod’s department store in Knightsbridge.

A short British Pathe newsreel clip from the Thirties helps illustrate the whole incredible story. The clip opens with shots of Marjorie Dare walking a large lamb (actually almost a fully grown sheep) on a lead through a busy Southend street. Subsequent footage shows her swimming in the sea with the creature.”

“There follows footage of her husband parading his lioness around on a lead. The film ends with husband and wife alongside their lioness and lamb, all sat cheerily outdoors together, at a table sharing tea and cakes. Dubbed over the film is an unintentionally hilarious commentary, in the Cholmondley-Warner style of comedian Harry Enfield. The clip allows a window into the recent past, a world so different from our own that it seems almost Monty Pythonesque.

From a modern health and safety viewpoint, Tornado Smith’s lifestyle represents almost a perfect storm. Consider it: two motorcycle stunt-riders with little or no safety procedures, conducting performances in an unstable wooden structure into which unprotected members of the public are invited in order to view the spectacle from a parapet.

Now throw in a lioness being walked around on a lead and a sheep swimming at a public beach. There’s even more. With regard to his lioness, who was reportedly, somewhat fierce as a cub, Smith did actually have a contingency plan. In case she should ever turn on him during a performance, he always carried a loaded pistol. During their early married life, Tornado and Marjorie lived in Feltham, Middlesex, where the stunt man was frequently to be seen in the streets walking the lioness around. In the winter, the couple returned home to rural Suffolk. Here, they had set up the Wall-of-Death in the yard of his parents’ pub and performed for the locals’ amusement. Smith would take the lioness out on her morning constitutionals around the village streets.”

Circa 1949, UK — Tornado Smith helps Maureen Swift ride a motorcycle around the “Wall of Death” to promote BSA motorcycles. — Image by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection

“Sadly, Briton’s short life ended at the outset of the Second World War. A 12-stone lioness requires a fair amount of meat. With a prevailing meat shortage and what little there was now rationed by price, feeding her would have become economically unsustainable. Smith, probably short of money at this point, was left with little option but to shoot her. He buried her in the courtyard of the White Hart, where her remains have lain for more than seven decades. Smith’s glory days too, began to tail off towards the end of the Thirties.

During the war, he applied to become a fighter pilot but, rejected because of his poor eyesight, served instead in the Navy. It was during this time that his marriage to Marjorie Dare broke up.

Having heard their story, I wondered if there was anyone alive who might remember seeing Tornado perform and was fortunate enough to meet Ken Lazell, 81, himself a former motorbike enthusiast from Benfleet, Essex. ‘Tornado Smith? Of course I remember him,’ he said. ‘I’d go and watch him in Southend. The riders came so close to the top of the parapet, that you could have leaned down and touched their heads.’

Remarkably, Smith continued to entertain spectators at Southend right up until the mid-Sixties. He retired from the Wall in 1965, having spent his last years struggling somewhat. In a new era of ever more spectacular stunts conducted by formation motorcycle teams, the heyday of the Wall-of-Death artistes had passed. Tornado retired, firstly to Spain and finally to South Africa, where he died in 1971 aged 63. He’s not entirely forgotten, however. A Suffolk micro-brewery, Mill Green, not far from Boxford, recently brewed a beer commemorating the motorcycling legend.

Tornado Smith, appropriately enough, is described as ‘an eccentric pale ale’.”

via the Express

The Greenbrier, the historic American resort in the foothills of West Virginia’s Allegheny Mountains, is known for its incredibly WASP-y decor, among other genteel appurtenances.

It’s about to become a sportsman’s paradise, however, thanks to an exclusive new partnership with the Upper Brandon Plantation, a 17th-century plantation on the James River east of Richmond, VA.

Resort guests can now sign up for world-class waterfowl-hunting excursions on the historic 2,200-acre plantation.

The next season runs from December 18 to January 25, with two-day hunts available at $2,500 per guest, inclusive of a Virginia hunting license, shotguns and ammunition, waders, guides and dogs with overnight accommodation at the plantation.

N.B.—since this is the South, you’ll want to bring bourbon instead of scotch.

Don’t say we never tell you anything useful…

therealvisually:

Think you can’t keep track of how much you’re eating without fancy gadgets and over-priced weight loss plans? All that you need to eat the right amounts is in the palm (and fingertips and fist) of your hand. http://bit.ly/1isDDfJ

Serving sizes demystified, just in time to completely ignore it for Thanksgiving. 

Thankfully, our hand looks like this.

So you want to enjoy a mature, well-aged wine without spending a bundle, but you can't afford a wine cellar? Go with Madeira. The other suggestion, Vintage Port, takes a bit more analysis. Vintage Port can last for generations. But to find a keeper requires a little knowledge and a lot of good advice.

The fine art of the reblog... via the Guardian: "Tim Hayward visits London's Billingsgate fish market, a builder's merchant, sources some electrical equipment on eBay [Amazon -ed.] ... then shows us how to combine his unusual purchases to produce the finest home-smoked salmon". Automatic reblog...




Mentioned this guy Tim Hayward a few times before (start here); he is a British foodwriter/do-er, and along with his wife has revitalized an old bakery in Cambridge, England called Fitzbillies. As well as writing for the Guardian and FT he has a book out called Food DIY (easier to get in UK). As he says in the clip below "not suggesting you do it every week... just do it once, understand how it operates, how it works and reconnect...". Beyond just smoking a bit of salmon, I'd suggest the "it" he means here is our relation to food in general. Good stuff. He also does a solid line in twitter chat - especially when on the late-train back from London... @timhayward.

Rodeo Clown Leads Voting For Town's 'Person Of Year'...


(First column, 14th story, link)

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A few years ago I was asked to write a guest post on another website listing my Top 10 Favorite blogs about barbecue. I re-visited these blogs tonight to make sure I still agree with my original list. I guess my Top 10 List is now technically a Top 9, because Martin's BBQ Blog is not longer being updated, but I want to leave it on my list as a reference for others thinking about starting a bbq restaurant. Pat Martin, the proprietor shared a lot of insightful information from "behind the scenes" that's worth reading.

All Things Barbeque

One might assume that the “progressive” think tank The Center for American Progress is funded solely by George Soros (The organization was founded by Soros and he does fund part of CAP) and companies like Ben and Jerry’s and Patagonia, but one would be wrong. Turns out this bastion of statist thinking is funded by a who’s who of big time corporate America.

Now that the CAP head, John Podesta is headed over to the White House (again) to help salvage the disaster that has been Obama’s 2nd term, the Center felt the need to disclose its donors. (For some reason.)

Here’s the list:

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
The Albright Stonebridge Group
American Beverage Association
American Iron and Steel Institute
America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)
Apple Inc.
AT&T
Bank of America
Blackstone
Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
Blue Engine Message & Media
Blue Shield of California
BMW of North America
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield
Citigroup
The Coca-Cola Company
Comcast NBCUniversal
Covanta Energy
CVS Caremark Inc.
Daimler
Monitor Deloitte
DeVry Education Group
Dewey Square Group
Discovery
DISH Network
Downey, McGrath Group, Inc.
DRS Technologies
Eli Lilly and Company
Facebook
Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas
GE
Genworth Financial
The Glover Park Group LLC
Goldman Sachs
Google
Health Care Service Corporation
The Ickes and Enright Group
Japan Bank for International Cooperation
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
Livingston Group
McLarty Associates
Microsoft Corporation
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)
MyWireless.org
Northrop Grumman
Pearson
PepsiCo
PG&E Corporation
Quest Diagnostics
Samsung
Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO)
Tata Sons Limited
Time Warner Inc.
T-Mobile
Toyota Motor North America
Visa Inc.
Walmart
Wells Fargo

Next time someone talks about how The Chamber of Commerce’s organization ALEC is a crony vehicle send them this list.

Please take particular note of the 5th organization on the list, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). Why on earth would those nasty health insurance companies fund an organization which was supposed to be taking on the insurance companies? That, doesn’t, make, sense…

Oh wait. I’m sorry. It makes perfect sense.

Click here for the article.

Unbelievable… Via NY Post: After the 9/11 attacks, the public was told al Qaeda acted alone, with no state sponsors. But the White House never let it see an entire section of Congress’ investigative report on 9/11 dealing with “specific sources of foreign support” for the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi nationals. It […]

Google Spreadsheet, the spreadsheet app of what was formerly Google Docs and is now Google Drive, already lets you do pretty cool things, including making your own RSS reader. Well, Google’s now amped it up with more functionality, including offline support and some cool features. Google Docs and Slides have worked offline for some time and Google Spreadsheet is now getting the same treatment, provided you’re running Chrome. While you can’t create new spreadsheets, you can edit existing ones offline, which will be synced when you reconnect to the Internet. It’s a one-time setup. Of course, if you aren’t yet...

Read the full article: Google Spreadsheet Gets Offline Support, Speed-up and Bunch of Features

Every time we decide to post something about Instagram, we go through a bit of an internal dilemma. On the one hand, it’s the most popular photo sharing app in the world, and many photographers have used it to great effect — for those reasons alone we can’t exactly ignore it. On the other hand, a solid percentage, perhaps even a majority, of you guys hate the app with a passion that defies our collective vocabulary to describe.

So we’ve come up with a solution. In a second we’re going to tell you what the most Instagrammed locations and cities, as well as the most-liked photo, of 2013 were, and if you hate Instagram we’re going to suggest that you (get this) don’t read on… crazy, we know. So here goes.

As it did last year, Instagram took some time today to dig through its statistics and pull out some trivia facts for 2013 that you can bring up at parties if you run out of literally everything else you have to talk about: The most Instagrammed locations of 2013, the most Instagrammed Cities of 2013, and the most-liked picture of 2013.

Here’s a look at both of the aforementioned lists:

Like last year, Bangkok made a strong showing in the stats, claiming two spots on the most Instagrammed locations list with its photogenic mall and airport, and the title of second-most Instagrammed city. Other locations that made it on the list again this year include Disneyland, Times Square, the Staples Center and Dodger Stadium. Newcomers include Disney World, The Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas, and Central Park and The High Line in NYC.

Meanwhile the most Instagrammed cities were also tallied this year, to show off how much the service has grown. According to the Instagram Blog, over 60% of photos are now being uploaded from outside the US, with the cities of Bangkok, Thailand, London, UK, São Paulo, Brazil, Moscow, Russia and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil leading the charge.

And, last but not least (actually… maybe least) for the Instagram news is the announcement that none other than Justin Bieber was responsible for the most-liked photo of 2013. The photo above of the Biebs with Will Smith has garnered over 1.5 million likes… we’ll let you decide what kind of statement that makes about the current state of popular culture.

For more info or if you’d like to see the info from the company itself, head over to the Instagram blog by clicking here.

(via PopPhoto)

Backyard treehouse in Richmond, VA.

60 sq. meter prefab cabin assembled on the island of Aspö in the Stockholm Archipelago, Sweden.

Contributed by Don Langford.

Read more on his blog.

Filed under: Classics, Convertible, Videos, Ford

As Ford celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Mustang with the unveiling of the all-new sixth-gen design, one Chicago women can lay claim to a piece of Mustang history. According to CBS Chicago, Gail Wise was the first person in the US to buy a Mustang in 1964, and she did so two days before the car was even unveiled to the public.

Wise, then a 22-year-old teacher, went into the Chicago Ford dealership wanting to buy a convertible, and a salesperson ushered her over to car covered by a tarp. That car was a baby blue Mustang convertible, which she still owns today - along with the documentation. After sitting for almost 30 years and undergoing a full restoration, the car now looks to be in original condition. The report says that this $3,400 purchase could be worth anywhere between $100,000 and $250,000. While this worked out well for Mrs. Wise, we wouldn't recommend anyone going into a dark, back room of a dealership hoping to get a jump on the purchase of a 2015 Mustang.

Scroll down to watch the video report.

Continue reading This woman owns the first Ford Mustang sold in the US

This woman owns the first Ford Mustang sold in the US originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 11 Dec 2013 11:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As the college football season comes to a close, so too does the Bowl Championship Series era. With a freshly minted playoff system kicking off next year, college football will undergo its first major change in decades, a move that will no doubt garner its fair share of proponents and detractors alike. As college football drives onward into this new era, it’s worth looking back at the sports early years, when everything was smaller and just simpler.

Though, simple hardly means that the game was lacking in substance. Back in the early twentieth century there were fewer teams, but the rivalries were ferocious, extending far beyond the gridiron. On the field players wore stripped down uniforms, while in the stands students and alumni dressed extravagantly in garish items like raccoon coats, large lettered sweaters, and striped suits. College Football during this era was at times quaint and at times grand, an amalgam that’s encapsulated in the hand-drawn covers on the programs that were handed out in advance of each game. -JG

When I saw this image, I had to do a doubletake.  Surely this can’t be real, right?  Turns out, it’s completely legitimate.  The ominous octopus consuming the earth with the slogan “Northing is Beyond Our Reach” emblazons the...

Books we love:

The Stars by H. A. Rey ($12)

Who, upon leaving the city on a dark, clear night hasn’t been suddenly struck by the intensity and intricacy of the rural sky?  And who hasn’t wished they knew more about what’s up there?  

Lovingly devised & illustrated by the creator of Curious George, The Stars is easily the most accessible and enjoyable guide we’ve found for developing a casual & practical familiarity with the celestial world. 

Vice.com's Charles Davis takes a brutal look at the hypocrisy of a left-wing media that privately exploits its own unpaid interns while publicly championing a "living wage" and trashing retailers like Walmart. Even if you don't agree with Davis that all interns should be paid a living wage, there is no question that the hypocrisy being practice by the likes of Mother Jones, Robert Reich's The American Prospect, Salon, and The New Republic is breathtaking.

Former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich, a far-left economic proponent of the "living wage," who just two weeks ago blasted Walmart for paying some of its workers $8.80 an hour, founded The American Prospect, a left-wing magazine that makes Walmart look generous by comparison.   Full-time interns are paid a stipend of $100 a week. At 40 hours, that is $2.50 an hour, well below the minimum wage.

Mother Jones only recently agreed to start paying its interns. As of now, its interns still only receive a stipend of $1000 month, which works out to less than $6 an hour. According to Mother Jones' own living wage calculator, that is $900 less than what is necessary to enjoy" a secure yet modest living.”

According to one source, Mother Jones advises its interns to sign up for food stamps.

Salon's hypocrisy is especially notable. The same left-wing outlet that has written stories titled “Intern Nation”: Are we exploiting a generation of workers? doesn't pay its interns anything.

The New Republic was recently purchased by a left-wing Internet tycoon worth over $600 million. The outlet still refuses to pay its full-time interns anything.

Democracy Now!, a left-wing hour-long newscast, pays its interns only $15 a day and treats them like kitchen servants:

In 2011, Democracy Now! asked its $15-a-day employees to work the program’s 15th anniversary gala, a major fundraiser. Interns were asked to “greet and thank guests, check their coats, make sure the event goes smoothly, and help clean up,” according to an email obtained by VICE. “We will provide you with a delicious pizza dinner, but ask that you refrain from eating the catered dinner at the event.”

The fact that the leaders of left-wing thought in America see themselves as above their own rules, should not be at all surprising. The left always believes that their punishing ideas and laws are for little people, not the overlords in charge of the social engineering. There is a reason why the first person to sign up for ObamaCare was not Barack Obama and probably some poor working class dad who just had the affordable insurance he liked canceled.

Switching gears for a moment, this rampage against interns is not a smart idea. While it is fun to point out  legitimate hypocrisy from the left, the loss of internship programs would be a loss for those looking to break into any glamorous profession.

In both Hollywood and in media, I worked my butt off for free for years, and it was the smartest move I ever made. Opportunities came my way I never would have been offered had I stupidly demanded a job instead of a chance to prove myself. And I was married, pushing the age of forty, and working full-time. Not exactly the best time to do this. But I wanted to change my life and was willing to pay the price.

If you want to work in any profession in Hollywood, get your butt on a film set or in a production office, and be the best damn unpaid latte fetcher in the history of Tinseltown. If you want to work in media, do the same. Do everything that is asked of you and more. Worse case, you will make contacts and learn a profession at a price far cheaper than any college education.

One thing you should not do, though, is puff yourself up as a left-wing champion of the little guy via sanctimonious articles that have been researched and proofed by those you refuse to pay.

 

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC       

Recently, a perfect example came to light of the propensity of the Common Core curriculum to teach to a test instead of teaching to comprehend. 

It was revealed that a teaching unit on Lincoln's famed Gettysburg Address instructs that students read the text but warns teachers not to inform kids what the speech was for, when it was made, or tell them about the Civil War that spawned the famed presidential message.

This unit on the Gettysburg Address was written by three educators who are chief authors of many Common Core policies: David Coleman, Jason Zimba, and Susan Pimental. The instruction can be found on the education website AchieveTheCore.org.

Early in the unit package informing teachers how to proceed, educators are instructed to avoid "giving background context" on the history of the Gettysburg Address.

The idea here is to plunge students into an independent encounter with this short text. Refrain from giving background context or substantial instructional guidance at the outset. It may make sense to notify students that the short text is thought to be difficult and they are not expected to understand it fully on a first reading--that they can expect to struggle. Some students may be frustrated, but all students need practice in doing their best to stay with something they do not initially understand. This close reading approach forces students to rely exclusively on the text instead of privileging background knowledge, and levels the playing field for all students as they seek to comprehend Lincoln’s address.

Valerie Strauss identified the main problem with this approach in a piece for the Washington Post in November.

"Such pedagogy makes school wildly boring," Strauss quotes an English teacher as saying. "Students are not asked to connect what they read yesterday to what they are reading today, or what they read in English to what they read in science."

Even educator Diane Ravitch finds this Common Core approach to be a major mistake. Ravitch, an appointee by Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and an advocate of teachers unions, tweeted on November 28 that the whole idea of teaching the Gettysburg Address without teaching its context is a "travesty."

In an entry on her blog Ravitch asked, "How is it possible for any student to understand the meaning of the Gettysburg Address without knowing the historical context in which it was delivered?"

To teach the Gettysburg Address without teaching why it was given and what it means to our history and culture denudes the speech of all importance and makes of it a mere rhetorical exercise. This is not teaching.

GRAMMY-winning conjunto musicians Flaco Jimenez and Max Baca of Los Texmaniacs have recorded and will release an album of duets on Smithsonian Folkways in 2013 (specific release date to be determined). The currently untitled release features two songs—“Cada vez que cae la tarde” and “Margarita, Margarita”—from their recent NPR Tiny Desk Concert. Both musicians have garnered praise for expanding the conjunto tradition to include influences from country and western, jazz, and rock. Jimenez received a 2012 NEA National Heritage Fellowship and has performed with diverse musicians such as Bob Dylan, Dr. John, and Ry Cooder. Baca’s Smithsonian Folkways album with Los Texmaniacs, Borders y Bailes, won the 2010 GRAMMY Award for best Tejano recording. The group’s second Smithsonian Folkways album, Texas Towns and Tex-Mex Sounds, was released earlier this year.

 

We’ve written about this in the past. The most important industry in the USA, also the least regulated (go figure) is tech. Technology companies thrive on innovation and beating each other to market. Historically tech, based on the other side of the country from Washington DC, has been a fairly free market.  There is a reason why the price of computing comes down every single month and the quality goes up.. The power the average person holds in his or her hand when they glance down at their iPhone is well beyond what a computer the size of a city block could do a generation ago. This is because of a relatively free market and very limited government influence.

But those days began to end in the wake of September 11th 2001. The government descended on the tech with a vengeance and it has burrowed itself further and further into the industry with each passing year.

To be fair most companies likely had no choice but to go along with the government over the last decade. But technology customers are not interested in government spyware embedded in their tools. Many countries and companies are starting to pass on American tech as it is widely believed (whether true or not) that the US government has back door access to these products.

That is not good news for the American economy.

Of course it could all be solved simply if the 4th Amendment was adhered to. You know the 4th Amendment of the Constitution.

(From EFF.org)

It is hard for civil libertarians to shed tears over AT&T losing business because of NSA spying, considering the company allowed the NSA to directly tap into its fiber optic cables to copy vast amounts of innocent Americans’ Internet traffic.  AT&T was also recently revealed as having partnered with both the DEA and the CIA on separate mass surveillance programs. It is also hard to feel sorry for Cisco, which stands accused of helping China spy on dissidents and religious minorities. But the fact that the spying is hurting these major companies is indicative of the size of the problem.

Click here for the article.

Krauthammer: Outbreak of Lawlessness...


(Third column, 3rd story, link)

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