The documentary "Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey" opens this week, about every toddler's favorite red monster and the man who brings him to life, Kevin Clash.
One of the joys of watching Clash in action -- besides marveling at how effortless he makes it all look -- is seeing how seamlessly he relates to both children and adults. And the segments he does with celebrities, as Elmo learns a lesson or explains a new word, are among his best. So here's a look at five of the greatest celebrity appearances over the four-plus decades "Sesame Street" has been on air.
Stevie Wonder - Superstition
Paul Simon - Me & Julio
Saturday, January 07, 2012
world more peaceful?
It seems as if violence is everywhere, but it's really on the run.
Yes, thousands of people have died in bloody unrest from Africa to Pakistan, while terrorists plot bombings and kidnappings. Wars remain in Iraq and Afghanistan. In peaceful Norway, a man massacred 69 youths in July. In Mexico, headless bodies are found, victims of drug cartels. This month, eight people died in a shooting in a Southern California hair salon.
Yet, historically, we've never had it this peaceful.
That's the thesis of three new books, including one by prominent Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker. Statistics reveal dramatic reductions in war deaths, family violence, racism, rape, murder and all sorts of mayhem.
In his book, Pinker writes: "The decline of violence may be the most significant and least appreciated development in the history of our species."
It runs counter to what the mass media is reporting and essentially what we feel in our guts.
Pinker and other experts say the reality is not painted in bloody anecdotes, but demonstrated in the black and white of spreadsheets and historical documents. They tell a story of a world moving away from violence.
In his new book, "The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined," Pinker makes the case that a smarter, more educated world is becoming more peaceful in several statistically significant ways. His findings are based on peer-reviewed studies published by other academics using examinations of graveyards, surveys and historical records:
-- The number of people killed in battle - calculated per 100,000 population - has dropped by 1,000-fold over the centuries as civilizations evolved.
-- The rate of genocide deaths per world population was 1,400 times higher in 1942 than in 2008.
-- There were fewer than 20 democracies in 1946. Now there are close to 100. Meanwhile, the number of authoritarian countries has dropped from a high of almost 90 in 1976 to about 25 now.
Pinker says one of the main reasons for the drop in violence is that we are smarter. IQ tests show that the average teenager is smarter with each generation. The tests are constantly adjusted to keep average at 100, and a teenager who now would score a 100 would have scored a 118 in 1950 and a 130 in 1910. So this year's average kid would have been a near-genius a century ago. And that increase in intelligence translates into a kinder, gentler world, Pinker says.
-- staradvertiser, 10/23/11, A21
Yes, thousands of people have died in bloody unrest from Africa to Pakistan, while terrorists plot bombings and kidnappings. Wars remain in Iraq and Afghanistan. In peaceful Norway, a man massacred 69 youths in July. In Mexico, headless bodies are found, victims of drug cartels. This month, eight people died in a shooting in a Southern California hair salon.
Yet, historically, we've never had it this peaceful.
That's the thesis of three new books, including one by prominent Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker. Statistics reveal dramatic reductions in war deaths, family violence, racism, rape, murder and all sorts of mayhem.
In his book, Pinker writes: "The decline of violence may be the most significant and least appreciated development in the history of our species."
It runs counter to what the mass media is reporting and essentially what we feel in our guts.
Pinker and other experts say the reality is not painted in bloody anecdotes, but demonstrated in the black and white of spreadsheets and historical documents. They tell a story of a world moving away from violence.
In his new book, "The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined," Pinker makes the case that a smarter, more educated world is becoming more peaceful in several statistically significant ways. His findings are based on peer-reviewed studies published by other academics using examinations of graveyards, surveys and historical records:
-- The number of people killed in battle - calculated per 100,000 population - has dropped by 1,000-fold over the centuries as civilizations evolved.
-- The rate of genocide deaths per world population was 1,400 times higher in 1942 than in 2008.
-- There were fewer than 20 democracies in 1946. Now there are close to 100. Meanwhile, the number of authoritarian countries has dropped from a high of almost 90 in 1976 to about 25 now.
Pinker says one of the main reasons for the drop in violence is that we are smarter. IQ tests show that the average teenager is smarter with each generation. The tests are constantly adjusted to keep average at 100, and a teenager who now would score a 100 would have scored a 118 in 1950 and a 130 in 1910. So this year's average kid would have been a near-genius a century ago. And that increase in intelligence translates into a kinder, gentler world, Pinker says.
-- staradvertiser, 10/23/11, A21
Friday, January 06, 2012
George Yuzawa
HACKENSACK, N.J. -- George Yuzawa's social activism was rooted in a shameful chapter in U.S. history.
Months after Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Mr. Yuzawa and his wife, Kimiko -- both Nisei, or American-born offspring of Japanese immigrants -- were sent to a Colorado internment camp along with their families. They were among the 120,000 West Coast residents of Japanese descent, the majority born in the United States, incarcerated in World War II by order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The Yuzawas lost their Los Angeles home and the flower business that George, who was named after George Washington, ran with his father.
"I was born in this country, an American citizen, educated here with a thriving business," the longtime Dumont resident told The Record in 1981.
"I never thought about being evacuated ... never. Then, suddenly, we were prisoners.
"We were put in these wooden structures with tar paper on the roof. My wife and I had a space maybe 8 feet wide and 20 feet long, which we curtained off with blankets. ... And the latrines would run over and flood the camp all the time. The stench and the sickness. ..."
Mr. Yuzawa's ticket out of the Amache Japanese Internment Camp came in September 1943 with the promise of a job at a New York flower shop. Once settled, he arranged for his wife and their families to join him. At 29, he volunteered to join the Army -- an act showing he was a "true American," his daughter, Pat Yuzawa-Rubin said. He was with a military intelligence unit stationed in Tokyo.
After his discharge in 1946, Mr. Yuzawa rebuilt his life. He operated an import and export business before resuming his former livelihood as proprietor of a shop his father had started, Park Central Florist on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The Yuzawas started a family and, in the late '50s, settled in suburban Dumont, N.J.
Mr. Yuzawa became involved in causes combating racial discrimination against Asians. He helped lead the successful 1971-72 backlash against Kenzo, a Japanese-born designer of French fashions, who printed the derogatory word "JAP" on clothing labels. Soon after, he targeted the International Ladies Garment Workers Union over a "Buy American" campaign that included subway posters asking, "Has your job been exported to Japan yet?"
Those efforts prompted Mr. Yuzawa and other Nisei to organize Asian Americans for Fair Media, which monitored print and broadcast media for racial slurs and negative Asian stereotypes.
Revisiting the difficult time his family spent in Amache, Mr. Yuzawa helped organize federal hearings that paved the way for the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which granted $20,000 to every living Japanese-American interned during the war. Mr. Yuzawa received his reparations check with a letter of apology signed by President Bill Clinton.
Gary Moriwaki, president of the Japanese American Association of New York, a community service group in which Mr. Yuzawa was long active, said Mr. Yuzawa was a "walking history book."
"His generation went through amazing ups and downs, but George persevered, and I never saw him bitter," Moriwaki said.
"My father was a man of peace," Yuzawa-Rubin said. "You could imagine how angry he could have been, but he wasn't. That wasn't his thing, and that's why people loved him."
Mr. Yuzawa spent a good part of his retirement helping elderly Japanese in New York.
"Here he was, 90 years old, delivering food to the elderly," Moriwaki said. "I'd say, 'George, what are you doing?' And he'd say, 'I'm helping old people!' He inspired others to be like him."
For years, Mr. Yuzawa enjoyed downhill skiing, and he swore by what he called the "three G's" _ gingko, garlic and ginseng supplements. Those habits and his serene nature saw him into his 97th year.
George Yuzawa died Oct. 8.
Months after Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Mr. Yuzawa and his wife, Kimiko -- both Nisei, or American-born offspring of Japanese immigrants -- were sent to a Colorado internment camp along with their families. They were among the 120,000 West Coast residents of Japanese descent, the majority born in the United States, incarcerated in World War II by order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The Yuzawas lost their Los Angeles home and the flower business that George, who was named after George Washington, ran with his father.
"I was born in this country, an American citizen, educated here with a thriving business," the longtime Dumont resident told The Record in 1981.
"I never thought about being evacuated ... never. Then, suddenly, we were prisoners.
"We were put in these wooden structures with tar paper on the roof. My wife and I had a space maybe 8 feet wide and 20 feet long, which we curtained off with blankets. ... And the latrines would run over and flood the camp all the time. The stench and the sickness. ..."
Mr. Yuzawa's ticket out of the Amache Japanese Internment Camp came in September 1943 with the promise of a job at a New York flower shop. Once settled, he arranged for his wife and their families to join him. At 29, he volunteered to join the Army -- an act showing he was a "true American," his daughter, Pat Yuzawa-Rubin said. He was with a military intelligence unit stationed in Tokyo.
After his discharge in 1946, Mr. Yuzawa rebuilt his life. He operated an import and export business before resuming his former livelihood as proprietor of a shop his father had started, Park Central Florist on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The Yuzawas started a family and, in the late '50s, settled in suburban Dumont, N.J.
Mr. Yuzawa became involved in causes combating racial discrimination against Asians. He helped lead the successful 1971-72 backlash against Kenzo, a Japanese-born designer of French fashions, who printed the derogatory word "JAP" on clothing labels. Soon after, he targeted the International Ladies Garment Workers Union over a "Buy American" campaign that included subway posters asking, "Has your job been exported to Japan yet?"
Those efforts prompted Mr. Yuzawa and other Nisei to organize Asian Americans for Fair Media, which monitored print and broadcast media for racial slurs and negative Asian stereotypes.
Revisiting the difficult time his family spent in Amache, Mr. Yuzawa helped organize federal hearings that paved the way for the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which granted $20,000 to every living Japanese-American interned during the war. Mr. Yuzawa received his reparations check with a letter of apology signed by President Bill Clinton.
Gary Moriwaki, president of the Japanese American Association of New York, a community service group in which Mr. Yuzawa was long active, said Mr. Yuzawa was a "walking history book."
"His generation went through amazing ups and downs, but George persevered, and I never saw him bitter," Moriwaki said.
"My father was a man of peace," Yuzawa-Rubin said. "You could imagine how angry he could have been, but he wasn't. That wasn't his thing, and that's why people loved him."
Mr. Yuzawa spent a good part of his retirement helping elderly Japanese in New York.
"Here he was, 90 years old, delivering food to the elderly," Moriwaki said. "I'd say, 'George, what are you doing?' And he'd say, 'I'm helping old people!' He inspired others to be like him."
For years, Mr. Yuzawa enjoyed downhill skiing, and he swore by what he called the "three G's" _ gingko, garlic and ginseng supplements. Those habits and his serene nature saw him into his 97th year.
George Yuzawa died Oct. 8.
Thursday, January 05, 2012
17 spiritual lessons
while searching for dog whisperer on ebay, I came across somebody selling this for 99 cents. Googling, I see that it is available for free.
17 Spiritual Lessons from The Dog Whisperer and The Tao Te Ching.
Haven't read it yet, but here's the first paragraph.
"A few days ago one of my students from Florida told me about this unusual TV program they are showing on the Discovery Channel called The Dog Whisperer! Do you know what it’s about? If not I’ll tell you about it in just a short while but before that I want to tell you something on a little different tangent."
Well, for one thing, it's not on the Discovery Channel, it's on National Geographic Channel (and now National Geographic Wild)... So it's off to a bad start. But take it for what it's worth..
So the first lesson might be, you get what you pay for.
Then again, the best things in life are free...
17 Spiritual Lessons from The Dog Whisperer and The Tao Te Ching.
Haven't read it yet, but here's the first paragraph.
"A few days ago one of my students from Florida told me about this unusual TV program they are showing on the Discovery Channel called The Dog Whisperer! Do you know what it’s about? If not I’ll tell you about it in just a short while but before that I want to tell you something on a little different tangent."
Well, for one thing, it's not on the Discovery Channel, it's on National Geographic Channel (and now National Geographic Wild)... So it's off to a bad start. But take it for what it's worth..
So the first lesson might be, you get what you pay for.
Then again, the best things in life are free...
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