“You get a husband and wife in a room, and one is overweight and one of them is not, and the other starts saying, ‘See, I told you so,’ if you talk about weight.”
Author: SeniorWomenWeb
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Women of Note – WASPs, a missing chapter in the history of the Air Force
Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have passed bill S. 614, awarding a gold medal to the members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) of WWII; the legislation now awaits President Obama’s signature. The bill’s language lays out their history, service and losses as well as the pathways they forged for the women pilots of today.
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Lunch With a Legend
Editor’s Note: Recently, The New York Times ran an article on Ray Bradbury and his lifelong enthusiasm for “halls of books.” We thought that peg enough of a reason to reprise an article by a departed and enthusiastic supporter of seniorwomen.com, Jean Pond, Lunch With a Legend.
The last time we met was the annual dinner meeting of the Long Beach Chapter of the American Association of University Women. Ray was being honored as Senior of the Year and I was Senior of the Year for 2001. At our original meeting part of the evening’s business was amending the bylaws. Ray was fascinated. I was sure that anybody who was that interested in bylaw amendment would be interested in everything. He was and still is.
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The Disturbing Afterlife of Discarded Digital Devices
The nation of Ghana is the repository for many of the digital devices that are cast off by millions of people from other countries:
“In Digital Dumping Ground, airing on PBS (check local listings), [Frontline] producer/correspondent Peter Klein and a team of his graduate journalism students from the University of British Columbia fan out around the world to track “e-waste” to the notorious Sodom and Gomorrah slum of Accra, Ghana, and to the city of Guiyu, China, the largest e-waste dump in the world. Along the way, Klein and his team discover a shadowy industry that is polluting the environment and poisoning the people who live and work among the waste, scavenging for scrap metals. They also find a potentially serious data security threat, as criminal gangs attempt to harvest data from the West’s old computers and cell phones and exploit it.”
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Browsing a Collection of Decorative Objects & Tattooing
The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London, England possesses the type of objects beloved by those who admire seamanship and jewelry.
For example, a deck watch, part of a collection of chronometers, precision watches and timekeepers is “Cased in silver, with inner dome, the movements were extensively jewelled. The metal dial was a military specification, with enamel dials believed to be at risk of error owing to creep during firing. The watches were additionally housed in wooden deck watch boxes manufactured by the Admiralty chronometer workshops.”
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How To … ?
Joan L. Cannon writes: Have you noticed the upswing in the numbers of books on how to live well, richly, generously, spiritually, fulfilled … and on and on? I wouldn’t dare to presume to know what would be useful for strangers. I’d make a terrible missionary.
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Does It Pay to Be Smart, Attractive, or Confident (or All Three)? A study explores “Relationships Among General Mental Ability, Physical Attractiveness, Core Self-Evaluations, and Income”
A new study from Timothy A. Judge, Charlice Hurst and Lauren S. Simon of the University of Florida explores the age-old issue of attractiveness and its impact on career success. The study appeared in the Journal of Applied Psychology.
“Few personal characteristics are more associated with success in
life than brains and beauty. Although the raw materials of neither
seem particularly manipulable (both are heritable and relatively
stable across the lifespan), the benefits of being beautiful — and the penalties for homeliness — seem particularly unfair. Countless parents have assured their children that it is “the inside that counts,” with the “inside” presumably including one’s intelligence and personality. Indeed, these characteristics do influence career success. Yet, although the inside clearly counts, a plethora of empirical research has demonstrated that when it comes to income, attractiveness makes a difference too.” -
Liz Lerman’s Dance Exchange
While looking at a previous newsletter of the Howard Hughes Medical Center, we came across an article on Liz Lerman’s dance, Ferocious Beauty: Genome. Still being performed today, we went to Liz Lerman’s Dance Exchange, only to find that much of her company’s choreography centers on contemporary issues.
“Commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Local Dance Commissioning Project in 2008, Drift is an original work by company member Cassie Meador. The initial concept for the piece was inspired by Meador’s visits to her hometown of Augusta, Georgia. Over time, a nearby plot of land was transformed from rich farmland to a strip mall, to the site of a Piggly Wiggly supermarket, and finally to what now is a place of worship – complete with the leftover electronic swinging doors from the Piggly Wiggly.”
“Ferocious Beauty: Genome investigates the startling realities of how knowledge of the genome will change the way we think about aging, perfection, ancestry, and evolution. The company developed the piece through collaborations with thirty-four genetic scientists and researchers from leading universities and government agencies across the country.”
“The result of an unprecedented partnership with Harvard Law School and commissioned by the Seevak Fund for The Harvard Law School/Facing History and Ourselves Program, Small Dances About Big Ideas premiered in November 2005, at Pursuing Human Dignity: The Legacies of Nuremberg for International Law, Human Rights and Education, an international conference that commemorated the 60th Anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials.”
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The Art of Babbling
“ArtBabble was conceived, initiated, designed, built, sculpted, programmed, shot, edited, painted and launched by a cross-departmental collection of individuals at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA). It is intended to showcase video art content in high quality format from a variety of sources and perspectives.”