More story starter sites to inspire your students to write

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Submitted by Fiona Beal</span></em></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the most popular posts to date on this blog has been one outlining a number of sites that can be used for starting stories '</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2011/09/10-story-starter-sites-to-get-you-going.html">10 Story Starter sites to get your students writing’</a>. I</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> thought it was time to add to the list. The Internet is full of the most amazing tools to encourage our students to  write. To this end I created a Scoop.it containing the posts I find as I do research </span><a href="http://www.scoop.it/t/reading-and-writing-in-primary-school" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="http://www.scoop.it/t/reading-and-writing-in-primary-school"><span style="font-size: small;">http://www.scoop.it/t/reading-and-writing-in-primary-school</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Let’s face it, as teachers we need and LOVE ideas that can help us to get more from our students and engage them to the full. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><strong><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">1. Scholastic Story Starters</span></strong><br /><a href="http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/storystarters/storystarter1.htm" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/storystarters/storystarter1.htm</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This is for K-6th grade. Here you can choose a theme fir starting a piece of writing in one of these categories – Adventure, Sci_fi, Scrambler or Fantasy. The teeacher is given help to use the application. To me this looks like a good scaffolding application for writing. . </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKUzRY9YYWAw4d1hzt4-SWhyphenhyphengQN6bZFkyz4WjnGazNMkNSoHYQkt65JUKJcHpSVgLI1Anmo6WcSU7bi9ghOuztjW5T2_w2JFrhxjX_XIbxfE8OhNbo30xKdoJvq0CE0ireTr9RGeBdCi8/s1600-h/image%25255B27%25255D.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdQDf2qK8fMF0I_Foy5qTiMlGrP-yPpyFXloRT98MvOIBzs_7bLsyEAX-kJMRyp46m-26Qq1yTg-CS6rj7QdnmWidphJwG9ANptO8ZUKFJ2iAVo4yf6WwVcxIHA_dIOmvNaIxV-8W_D2k/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="242" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRvYjxDXHAPvPrJ8HrTZ6WFheCRA3_c7zNxjY-oHYwCPUtYuZwUHnCK5mi4a0HrHzA02DJi15jHu8oO7WqQiLmGMGZaDTfNcoDIQfdj-3hL2J5eLZFNoqT_ktY_g_WNWf0Yj4BOUq439A/s1600-h/image%25255B2%25255D.png"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></a><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></strong></span><strong><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">2. Flickr storm</span></strong><br /><a href="http://www.zoo-m.com/flickr-storm/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">http://www.zoo-m.com/flickr-storm/</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> <br /><br />Flickr is a treasure trove for a teacher. It is a collection of free photos. Flickr Storm would be a way to collect pictures and postcards on a topic of interest, save them to a tray and then write a story using them as illustrations. For example, I typed in the word ‘princess’ and was given a selection. Each one I then click on would be enlarged into the tray on the right hand side of the page. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhveKMAJsXjrbBsMqQneVrZhmfzqgbQBejFvIhorXM9FKd64-PJif11lxaTGu7DgVavAnwQbOI0E5f6sbMGqsMH0b_dxxL0-Cfe-0r3yzEDzP2rhSjqgsNxM1nIaCnsu6761ZjblEWQjrQ/s1600-h/image%25255B28%25255D.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfbEsqC5uNgN6MwcC74GpnhQGex0qCKI_21sWWnKHeZm5dIL7-yM-3uqeLEWk1Soa3dQG8RLKsFY51SZx6IQkIG5ESxxy6bV6jE38Cp3s1pKVCsxWdI3RxwzSX76wwJ1rpE9njmHZkeyQ/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="179" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn825iDeDmF_P5p2a10Jcp9T8NoL_6EHMeBYcIbM8IFGB93nBkx_xO5R7jdlQcUO07gVZgtsF2QOTujDaws2hkI47aFxUQbuRS8ohGXNzXOiQek3_C-JdHZ42x-SMuhTj9-cAhgOsMFdw/s1600-h/image%25255B5%25255D.png"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></a><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></strong></span><strong><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">3. 17 larger than life objects</span></strong><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/07/01/17-larger-than-life-giant-objects/"><span style="font-size: small;">http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/07/01/17-larger-than-life-giant-objects/</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This blog has a great number of photos with some objectos that are unusually large. This would certainly inspire a story!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4l_B0Z3BUWsuADBRMjM_9GtDDCjvjorrXpWFodJbT4xBeSn3xndALMC2d-f6ZWc5XmPR5VkoWE409MqJAGvudIlEr0cO10ZCZqUfWVqd64mYNHX1cxz0EhaPoE3SG0RHdGxpjurm1mPk/s1600-h/image%25255B29%25255D.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJbRogW9X1dyshBy8fAy_J5IMK0zOm6qlULA05mH9l0ajweP0axcXXqvSXYVj257pB8i8qa33sBukJH0sgEgeMf8tobST_DIX4YNPX7gq3pzBE33ETFUYL2KTcDwJkACGzgsD3GkiU7z8/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="242" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPMhxec_VmTcYEmGn5quB8o6pfzjQVLmZUIsJZavILpFzrqX21SOngP6l2XV9bay2zgB9T3fKHwTYdyrPKimW7sWJ6fpGIL5_AvpCTsmDtV8Qfn9B5PuNEhz-Cw2ghNzAvZ6cN5kGtkKw/s1600-h/image%25255B14%25255D.png"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></a><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">4. 5 card Flickr</span></strong><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://5card.cogdogblog.com/play.php?suit=5card" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="http://5card.cogdogblog.com/play.php?suit=5card">http://5card.cogdogblog.com/play.php?suit=5card</a></span> <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiC020Cf1LMwr-50QnPfxW0XjaJwTUs3FrQjY2AkK1_Au2B2F4BlvDqdHaSHcP9n7rkFJ68LKtugrF-whHAUC7Osrkpd74h4AmF9CUZdu14NOgR9bU3jd1RNZTFMYA_WLkiuoj5oVzzqE/s1600-h/image%25255B30%25255D.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="88" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM11BpNGyGnosPEexwuX2tPV2Z2i5dI3a80ka17R_G_fZkGTye7d_KSeYzDBXV72K16otg33ogRe3TVB62ztiY5bmTf_JRKmqRE3JWNr0PNnBl5HHhKmgYeMtnK8AhHKLQvAjC8ZL805U/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="242" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiboXWm_gsJGhXSuNmApiHLf6ah-ClJ2114x5WhdQPsqu8OLwFfjQIppYZeyRrAv8gR7_LDb9vQuTXqMMYyZszICqPykf4UtLSYQdIzlTeBO5i2or4BYWuF2rkw7zt2ccxiHi_LXgy6xVc/s1600-h/image%25255B8%25255D.png"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></a><span style="font-size: small;"></span> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">You start off by picking one of their images to add to your story. You continue in thisein till you have collected five images that you like. Then you write your story. There are a number of examples of stories previously written to look at with their selected images.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVH4mNn4-MX31MgSJsB7axnYvv3OMSCCNjsFQ5qPseTlONWs7QJY1HK4HbAe0o8JdsexSgnM_7eQwNquatoJ23UgkQ_j194x3uDV9oljqNtYJ8QrEQU2ey-0NRXYHQ-wVQ0EkAQnsYqFY/s1600-h/image%25255B31%25255D.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="63" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyjooAxdbgtOpk1n1P56CbtrtznlrpVGzXJ-4BPDDWTh2UIQsamH4EeNWwsl392p0vGamsSSS-Tmf3j5bWlVI30dpgtMwBGLDt6J3JFaZBOH2mQfS8s1yr3LD7G-NPITqMtgPruq1KrAI/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="242" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiIFX6RqQ-VfKwk7YOb342KHRTsZve6r_gizzaix70Wg1FdUWl-n3IwgvnBKTMS-52oyHfKo7HUulNK0EQ2QjWrqXS47coOmmLdNVocHIJ9AQvYegZNoAxASBrMxrApAuW2Q731nI1Vi4/s1600-h/image%25255B11%25255D.png"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></a><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>5. Wonder of the day blog</b></span><br /><a href="http://wonderopolis.org/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">http://wonderopolis.org/</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span> <br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is a site with pictures videos and words about something wondrous. The students could take a look around till they feel inspired to write. </span> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6x6K03DIYlB6Tv0se2Gz8-XwTHNZDMn32jVrZv1tTm1B9STpRhp8vqFsZswTO0b8JzNMTatfOxrmmF724Icmpnu1L5f9JAkSmpThLOrwV-inmdlBSwsQpozA6WUb5GzCwNAbAZwZTGCk/s1600-h/image%25255B32%25255D.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="61" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9rSCTp_yJ-WfOihsgcxEep3IG7d2pmpy8T7vvTujO7ol3CgVc-P92q3ObUlmVT27l3YJ5gPdUaUvl72jeyYdh-HlY55FeKhJUn6TxIhMqE5aU0vSyFBCpxzQIP9y91U_CbMQlaFH-wGM/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="242" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhbU2-doDPncyBVJBIRmTKrHQO1Bmg8OKR4yNaoA2V3ODS3c2lM2Yg1-JhqISXHgDTpBMoNruzIyV0kmpY_zE1VRNPvVaUuzmQReabNU1np30bwqcrsz_-tQ2z8-jUhRRcg6efM8JKk_I/s1600-h/image%25255B17%25255D.png"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></a><span style="font-size: small;"></span> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>6. 100 best first lines from novels</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2wlUXW/www.pantagraph.com/news/article_a125216a-649f-5414-88b5-76a688ea3b6a.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2wlUXW/www.pantagraph.com/news/article_a125216a-649f-5414-88b5-76a688ea3b6a.html</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span> <br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">In this site the students could read the first lines until an idea strikes them. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9DYCfnbnP_nDQkM4pon632-gk0gca53XTaYjhHOvsCdHoHV8FuL_1X_eIzOnMslzo3Bn6FCCakGkt74Pbpv-zI-9nlTx41MJ4ebVJOx0ZEQ9wEDtTO4OfGsed4UXIxURoWUv7VeOjFbs/s1600-h/image%25255B33%25255D.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYUb0JbBlfdot3kY1F0Woc3zx39tPVJi_c7N4jx_jUmMwGRUX6n3f-Fj2ifCZLikXJ6UP49Ywv9pa9SKaHPVZnAI7nYojxn9q2NDimsV77FLebXfIH0x-0w_nfi63d2LA2MHsnurbTQ7g/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="242" /></a></div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>7. The Newspaper Clipping Generator</b></span><br /><a href="http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" title="http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp"><span style="font-size: small;">http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp</span></a><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Your students could use this newspaper generator  to generate a story from a list of headlines that you have collected. They write in the headline of choice and then start their report. </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilLdRRcCJAbdBrtNi60feg3fToztPUBjZtdnxIwxyiDsGzRF6tOcEOqYr2migI_HqV2x87yNcp36kbfQgwiBrsY_hXDoSeaG2ZHdHz8m8L-wX_Ri6KtO_202rA4ZR20191YvANUAhyphenhyphenU-o/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="143" /></span></div><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">8. Story Starters from the Young Writer's Workshop</span></b><br /><a href="http://www.meddybemps.com/9.700.html" title="http://www.meddybemps.com/9.700.html">http://www.meddybemps.com/9.700.html</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This site is the ‘Young Writers workshop’ Ther e rae plenty of ideas for younger students on this site. When you make a topic choice it takes you a template with a starting line and this can be printed.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV0WoHnkeRPdLbh3qFeNYUkjypxmaBv5ZFPFFJg-DSKpA0tfoCFPXPG9rxDTmxbkpXSBXsXZLlBN0cgMcX6YIStrqGhejHdshZa22UFUycYIDHDO3mxqeJ28kRm49boRwv55hJjSftAYk/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="242" /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Work through these and see how your class responds to them. Our biggest challenge as teachers is to get our reluctant writers taking an interest in writing.</span></div>

Creative writing More story starter sites to inspire your students to write

Submitted by Fiona Beal One of the most popular posts to date on this blog has been one outlining a number of sites that can be used for sta...

Read more »

Warnings From a Flabby Mouse - NYTimes.com

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><div class="articleSpanImage" style="width: 600px; margin-bottom: 8px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 15px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; "><span itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemid="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/01/20/sunday-review/20KRISTOFSUB/20KRISTOFSUB-articleLarge.jpg" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizKtvZ9_G_cPEfxIYQZmc62yMvA8bmtz9wMfepa4Z7Cl6C_C3pPoUs1XhO4s8IU8eCdwDgxCD5L0g9M2JReOkzQt53xIBf4lRj0pXvP4AudX_yv09JICNaDdrDsupOhaqPMt3ONhqWJ0E/s1600/20KRISTOFSUB-articleLarge-762321.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5836246213655574178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizKtvZ9_G_cPEfxIYQZmc62yMvA8bmtz9wMfepa4Z7Cl6C_C3pPoUs1XhO4s8IU8eCdwDgxCD5L0g9M2JReOkzQt53xIBf4lRj0pXvP4AudX_yv09JICNaDdrDsupOhaqPMt3ONhqWJ0E/s320/20KRISTOFSUB-articleLarge-762321.jpg" /></a><div itemprop="copyrightHolder" class="credit" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.9em; line-height: 1.223em; text-align: right; color: rgb(144, 144, 144); margin-bottom: 3px; ">Retha R. Newbold</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.2727em; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); ">The only difference between these mice: The one at the top was exposed at birth to a tiny amount of an endocrine-disrupting chemical.</div></span></div><nyt_byline style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 15px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><h6 class="byline" style="margin: 2px 0px; color: rgb(128, 128, 128); font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.2em; font-weight: normal; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; ">By <span itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemid="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/nicholasdkristof/index.html"><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/nicholasdkristof/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; "><span itemprop="name">NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF</span></a></span></h6></nyt_byline><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 15px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important; float: none; "></span><div class="articleBody" style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.7em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 15px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; "><span itemprop="copyrightHolder provider sourceOrganization" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization" itemid="http://www.nytimes.com"></span><nyt_text><nyt_correction_top></nyt_correction_top><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">ONE of the puzzles of the modern world is why we humans are growing so tubby. Maybe these two mice offer a clue.</div></nyt_text></div><div class="articleBody" style="margin-top: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.7em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 15px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; "><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">They're genetically the same, raised in the same lab and given the same food and chance to exercise. Yet the bottom one is svelte, while the other looks like, well, an American.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The only difference is that the top one was <a title="Article in Birth Defects Research Part A: Clinical and Molecular Teratology." href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bdra.20147/full" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: underline; ">exposed at birth</a> to just one part per billion of an endocrine-disrupting chemical. The brief exposure programmed the mouse to put on fat, and although there were no significant differences in caloric intake or expenditure, it continued to put on flab long after the chemical was gone.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">That experiment is one of a growing number of peer-reviewed scientific studies suggesting that one factor in the industrialized world's obesity epidemic (along with Twinkies, soda and television) may be endocrine-disrupting chemicals. These chemicals are largely unregulated — they are in food, couches, machine receipts and shampoos — and a raft of new studies suggest that they can lead to the formation of more and larger fat cells.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Before I describe some of this research, a more basic issue: Why should an op-ed columnist write about scholarship published in scientific journals? Don't pundits have better things to fret about, like the feuding between Democrats and Republicans?</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">One answer is that obesity is an important national problem, partly responsible for soaring health care costs. Yet the chemical lobby, just like the tobacco industry before it, has impeded serious regulation and is even trying to block research.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">A second is that journalists historically have done a poor job covering public health issues — we were slow on the dangers of tobacco and painfully delinquent in calling attention to the perils of lead — but these are central to our national well-being. Our lives are threatened less by the Taliban in Afghanistan than by unregulated contaminants at home.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Endocrine disruptors are a class of chemicals that mimic hormones and therefore confuse the body. Initially, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/opinion/kristof-how-chemicals-change-us.html?_r=0" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: underline; ">they provoked concern</a> because of their links to cancers and the malformation of sex organs. Those concerns continue, but the newest area of research is the impact that they have on fat storage.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><a href="http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=4539" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: underline; ">Bruce Blumberg</a>, a developmental biologist at the University of California, Irvine, coined the term "obesogen" in a <a href="http://endo.endojournals.org/content/147/6/s50" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: underline; ">2006 journal article</a> to refer to chemicals that cause animals to store fat. Initially, this concept was highly controversial among obesity experts, but a growing number of peer-reviewed studies have confirmed his finding and identified some 20 substances as obesogens.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The role of these chemicals has been acknowledged by the <a href="http://www.letsmove.gov/sites/letsmove.gov/files/TaskForce_on_Childhood_Obesity_May2010_FullReport.pdf" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: underline; ">presidential task force on childhood obesity</a>, and the National Institutes of Health has become a major funder of research on links between endocrine disruptors and both obesity and diabetes.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Among chemicals identified as obesogens are materials in plastics, canned food, agricultural chemicals, foam cushions and jet fuel. For example, a <a href="http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/ehp.1205383.pdf" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: underline; ">study in the fall</a> found that triflumizole, a fungicide used on many food crops, like leafy vegetables, causes obesity in mice.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Just this month, <a href="http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/2013/01/1205701/" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: underline; ">a new study</a> in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives found that endocrine disruptors that are sometimes added to PVC plastic cause mice to grow obese and suffer liver problems — and the effect continues with descendants of those mice, generation after generation.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Another study found that women with a pesticide residue in their blood bore babies who were more likely to be overweight at the age of 14 months.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">That's a common thread: The most important time for exposure appears to be in utero and in childhood. It's not clear whether most obesogens will do much to make an ordinary adult, even a pregnant woman, fatter (although one has been shown to do so), and the greatest impact seems to be on fetuses and on children before puberty.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The magazine Scientific American recently <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=should-doctors-warn-pregnant-women-about-environmental-risks" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: underline; ">asked whether doctors</a> should do more to warn pregnant women about certain chemicals. It cited a survey indicating that only 19 percent of doctors cautioned pregnant women about pesticides, only 8 percent about BPA (an endocrine disruptor in some plastics and receipts), and only 5 percent about phthalates (endocrine disruptors found in cosmetics and shampoos). Dr. Blumberg, the pioneer of the field, says he strongly recommends that people — especially children and women who are pregnant or may become pregnant — try to eat organic foods to reduce exposure to endocrine disruptors, and try to avoid using plastics to store food or water. "My daughter uses a stainless steel water bottle, and so do I," he said.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">For all the uncertainty, these latest studies are one more reason to worry that endocrine disruptors may be the tobacco of our time. Science-based decisions to improve public health — like the removal of lead from gasoline — have been among our government's most beneficial public policy moves. In this case, a starting point would be to boost research of endocrine disruptors and pass the Safe Chemicals Act. That measure, long stalled in Congress, would require more stringent safety testing of potentially toxic chemicals around us.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">After all, which mouse would we rather look like?</p></div></div><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/opinion/sunday/kristof-warnings-from-a-flabby-mouse.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/opinion/sunday/kristof-warnings-from-a-flabby-mouse.html</a><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Warnings From a Flabby Mouse - NYTimes.com

Retha R. Newbold The only difference between these mice: The one at the top was exposed at birth to a tiny amount of an endocrine-disrupting...

Read more »

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 01/22/2013

<ul class="diigo-linkroll"> <li> <p class="diigo-link"> <a href="http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com">http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/</a> </p> <p class="diigo-description">Aaron Maurer, a Flat Classroom Certified teacher, has started the Bald Eagle project that we are incubating. At Flat Classroom, our goal is to help foster and create powerful online learning projects. While our premier projects are run by teachers and require a small fee, the incubation projects are being incubated and supported by our other projects and efforts,so you can apply and join in. Here's information on the project. Aaron is top notch.</p> <p class="diigo-tags"> <span>tags:</span> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/education">education</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/history_teacher">history_teacher</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/edtech">edtech</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/elemchat">elemchat</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/news">news</a> <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher/flatclass">flatclass</a></p> </li> </ul><p class="diigo-ps">Posted from <a href='http://www.diigo.com'>Diigo</a>. The rest of my favorite links are <a href='http://www.diigo.com/user/coolcatteacher'>here</a>.</p>

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 01/22/2013

http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/ Aaron Maurer, a Flat Classroom Certified teacher, has started ...

Read more »

Jay's Hillbilly Neighbor Speaks!

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />Hola! Did I do that right? I don’t speak Mexican and don’t think they should be allowed to in this country either. But, whatever. Anyway, this Jayman’s loud Hillbilly neighbor Shastina! Jay thought it would be great if I guest blogged for him and this Matt-Man fella.<br /><br />Of course, I didn’t know what a blog was. Jay seemed kind of surprised which surprises me cause that’s more credit than I thought he gave me. Anyway, he told me there’s like a billion blogs out there and I was like “Yeah, well if one shits on my car, there’ll be nine-hundred ninety-nine million nine-hundred ninety-nine.” Then I counted on my fingers and giggled and said “Well, you know what I mean!”<br /><br />Anyhoodle It’s 7 pm and I’ve only been drinking vodka since 8 this morning, so I’m not really drunk enough to be funny, but I’ll give it a try. Am I allowed to say “fuck” on here? Cause if I’m not I might not be able to artic .. arctic … hell I won’t say what I mean. Shit, I gotta go outside and have a cigarette and call my mom. I’ll be back.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir2q1vwQuFmuPnlXL6Q1hONiKAu6gjbTUV5E8ZLv5bPkXDMLjVyLMo-qGQdyMHdKc5EuMlV_u7hb7TQ0rnFALc_Jg_xz0hHCO49NCSFiTHxHHmhx4kEEcEA-xacab3zi_hd63LUUVSGOA/s1600/Sexy+Girl+Gun+Hot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir2q1vwQuFmuPnlXL6Q1hONiKAu6gjbTUV5E8ZLv5bPkXDMLjVyLMo-qGQdyMHdKc5EuMlV_u7hb7TQ0rnFALc_Jg_xz0hHCO49NCSFiTHxHHmhx4kEEcEA-xacab3zi_hd63LUUVSGOA/s400/Sexy+Girl+Gun+Hot.jpg" width="231" /></a>Hahaha … My fucking mother is so damn funny. She was slurring all over the place. Woman is 74 years old and she can still put it away with the best of them. You better not saying anything bad about her though or I’ll fuck you up. I’m not fucking kidding. I’m not afraid to cut a fucking bitch.<br /><br />I heard that Jayman thought maybe I was stealing his paper for a while. That’s pretty fucking funny. What the fuck would I do with a newspaper? I ain’t got no birdcage to line with it. I’m sure as shit not gonna fucking read it either. It’s full of all kinds of bullshit and I don’t give a damn about the news. And I definitely don’t wanna hear about our <i>HNIC</i> WHO-SANE Obama or whatever. Besides, I ain’t even registered to vote or nothing.<br /><br />I asked Jay, who is a sweetheart, what to write about and he said anything I want. Well, shit I don’t have no idea what that might be. I’m just a simple girl from Newton County, Arkansas who likes to smoke and drink and fuck and have a good time. I’m really loud too. I should have done this in all caps so you would know I was yelling what writing this, but Jay said that was “rude.” What the fuck to I care about being rude? What’s anybody gonna do about it?<br /><br />I’ll tell you about my weekend cause Jay already heard about it. He didn’t have a choice cause I was standing outside his door talking as loud as I can to my friend. I met a really hot guy on Match.com and had a great time talking to him. We were gonna fuck but we both gotta get tested first cause we ain’t been tested in a while. Once we do that, it’s fucking on bitches. So, instead we just drank all day today.<br /><br />Also, this damn bitch who lives here in Redneckville better stop talking shit about me. I’m gonna fuck her up if she doesn’t. She thinks she’s so much better than me since she grew up here in the big town and I’m from the country. Well bitch, I’ll show you some of the shit I learned down on the fucking farm if you don’t shut your fucking pie hole. You ain’t no better than me you cunt.<br /><br />Well, I think I’m about to pass out. What a fucking pussy I am. Only twelve straight hours of drinking and I’m done. My momma would be ashamed of me for giving in so fast. Whatever. I’m horny but can’t do nothing about cause I haven’t been tested. I asked Jay if he had been tested and he said “for what?” Hahaha … He’s so fucking cute.<br /><br />Well, that’s it. I hope you like my little blog post thingy. If not, I don’t fucking care. What are you go do about it? I’ll fuck you up! You just email Jay if you have something to say to me cause I don’t do computers and shit. God bless y'all!<br /><br /><b><i>Shastina </i></b><br /><br /><a href="mailto:Jayman3768@gmail.com">Jayman3768@gmail.com</a><br /><a href="http://www.twitter.com/jayman_iws" target="_blank">@Jayman_IWS </a><br /><br /></div>

Jay's Hillbilly Neighbor Speaks!

Hola! Did I do that right? I don’t speak Mexican and don’t think they should be allowed to in this country either. But, whatever. Anyway, th...

Read more »

Jennifer Lawrence on ‘SNL’: The ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ star trashes her Oscar rivals

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px;">Lawrence calls out Streep again, but this time also goes after Quvenzhane Wallis, Jessica Chastain and others competing for the Best Actress Oscar.</span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><br /><img src="http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1243567.1358802915!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/snl-8-0120.jpg" /></span><br /><span style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: white;">Jennifer Lawrence giving her opening monologue while hosting 'Saturday Night Live.'</span><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span><br /><div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><br /><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Continuing her week in the spotlight, <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Jennifer+Lawrence" style="border: 0px; color: #015fb6; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none !important; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Jennifer Lawrence">Jennifer Lawrence</a> tried her hand at hosting "Saturday Night Live," and the comedic odds were certainly in her favor.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The quirky "Silver Linings Playbook" starlet began her opening monologue addressing the Meryl Streep comment once again, but also playfully bashed all of the other Oscar contenders in her category.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"I would never trash-talk any of my fellow nominees at the Golden Globes," she said, "but the Oscars are another story."</div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/jennifer-lawrence-defends-meryl-streep-comment-article-1.1241245" style="border: 0px; color: #015fb6; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none !important; vertical-align: baseline;">RELATED: JENNIFER LAWRENCE RESPONDS TO 'I BEAT MERYL' BACKLASH</a></strong></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Well, well, well. Look who it is," she said. "Jessica Chastain. More like, Jessica Chas-ain’t winning no Oscar on my watch!"</div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And on Naomi Watts, she added, <span id="intelliTXT" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"You were in 'The Impossible'. You know what else is impossible? You beating me on Oscar night.”</span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/golden-globes-2013-gallery-1.1239475" style="border: 0px; color: #015fb6; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none !important; vertical-align: baseline;">PHOTOS: GOLDEN GLOBES RED CARPET WINNERS AND LOSERS</a></strong></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Even little Quvenzhane Wallis wasn't spared.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"You think you can beat me?" she joked. "What you talkin' bout, Wallis? ... The alphabet called. They want their letters back."</div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lawrence went on to participate in several hilarious skits, including a spoof of her own movie "The Hunger Games," reprising her role as Katniss Everdeen.</div><span style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div><span style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="SNL_1_0120" src="http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1243484!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/snl-1-0120.jpg" /><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">Jennifer Lawrence participates in a 'Hunger Games' skit on 'SNL.'</span><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><iframe frameborder="0" height="357" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://widget.newsinc.com/single.html?WID=1&VID=24253465&freewheel=69016&sitesection=nydailynews&w=635&h=357" width="635"></iframe></div>

Jennifer Lawrence Oscar The ‘Silver Linings Playbook Jennifer Lawrence on ‘SNL’: The ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ star trashes her Oscar rivals

Lawrence calls out Streep again, but this time also goes after Quvenzhane Wallis, Jessica Chastain and others competing for the Best Actress...

Read more »

Nation honors Martin Luther King Jr. as first black president is inaugurated for 2nd term

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="wp-column ten margin-right main-content" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 610px;"><div class="flipper-wrap relative large padding-top border-top photo-wrapper" style="border-top-color: rgb(228, 228, 228); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; position: relative;"><div class="flipper-main relative" style="background-color: black; height: 404px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 610px;"><div class="flipper-inner relative" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"></div><div class="flipper-float deactivated" style="background-color: white; cursor: pointer; height: 404px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 305px; z-index: 11;"></div><div class="flipper-float" style="background-color: white; cursor: pointer; height: 404px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; width: 305px; z-index: 11;"></div><div class="flipper-caption" style="bottom: 35px; color: white; height: 72px; left: 2px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0; overflow: hidden; padding: 10px; position: absolute; top: 332px; width: 588px; z-index: 10;"><div style="font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.6em; padding: 0px;">(The News & Observer, Travis Long/ Associated Press ) - Participants march down Fayetteville Street in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, Jan. 21, 2013, during the 33rd annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. parade.</div></div><img src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/Wires/Online/2013-01-22/AP/Images/MLK%20Holiday.JPEG-0d686.jpg" style="border: 0px; left: 50%; margin-left: -303px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 19.5px;" /><img style="border: 0px; opacity: 0; position: absolute;" /><img src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_404h/2010-2019/Wires/Online/2013-01-22/AP/Images/MLK%20Holiday%20Tennessee.JPEG-09c24.jpg" style="border: 0px; left: 50%; margin-left: -269.5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 0px;" /><img style="border: 0px; opacity: 0; position: absolute;" /><img style="border: 0px; opacity: 0; position: absolute;" /><img style="border: 0px; opacity: 0; position: absolute;" /><img style="border: 0px; opacity: 0; position: absolute;" /><img style="border: 0px; opacity: 0; position: absolute;" /><img style="border: 0px; opacity: 0; position: absolute;" /><img style="border: 0px; opacity: 0; position: absolute;" /><img src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/Wires/Online/2013-01-22/AP/Images/MLK%20Holiday.JPEG-0fbd1.jpg" style="border: 0px; left: 50%; margin-left: -303px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 0px;" /><img style="border: 0px; opacity: 0; position: absolute;" /><a class="text-size-control" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/nation-honors-martin-luther-king-jr-as-first-black-president-is-inaugurated-for-2nd-term/2013/01/21/a2707214-6432-11e2-889b-f23c246aa446_story.html#" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: none; color: black; display: inline-block; min-height: 11px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Smaller Text" class="text-size-control-smaller" src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/sites/twpweb/img/icons/icon-minus.png" style="border: 0px;" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span><a class="text-size-control" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/nation-honors-martin-luther-king-jr-as-first-black-president-is-inaugurated-for-2nd-term/2013/01/21/a2707214-6432-11e2-889b-f23c246aa446_story.html#" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: none; color: black; display: inline-block; min-height: 11px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Larger Text" class="text-size-control-larger" src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/sites/twpweb/img/icons/icon-plus.png" style="border: 0px;" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; padding: 0px 5px; vertical-align: 5px;">Text Size</span></div></div><div class="module byline" style="border-bottom-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><h3 property="dc.creator" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: normal; margin: 17px 0px; padding: 0px;">By <span class="author vcard" style="color: #666666;">Associated Press</span>, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/nation-honors-martin-luther-king-jr-as-first-black-president-is-inaugurated-for-2nd-term/2013/01/21/a2707214-6432-11e2-889b-f23c246aa446_story.html#license-a2707214-6432-11e2-889b-f23c246aa446" id="license-a2707214-6432-11e2-889b-f23c246aa446" rel="item-license" style="color: black; text-decoration: none;"></a><span class="timestamp updated processed" contenttype="article" datetitle="published" epochtime="1358817944000" pagetype="leaf" style="color: #6e6e6e;">Monday, January 21, <span class="time special" style="color: #cc131e;">5:25 PM</span></span></h3></div><div class="relative" id="article" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div id="article_body" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="article_body entry-content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><br /><article><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span class="dateline"></span>ATLANTA — Commemorative events for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. slid seamlessly into celebrations of the swearing-in Monday of the nation’s first black president, with many Americans moved by the reminder of how far the country has come since the 1960s.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">“This is the dream that Dr. King talked about in his speech. We see history in the making,” said Joyce Oliver, who observed King Day by visiting the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn., built on the site of the old Lorraine Motel, where King was assassinated in 1968.</div></article></div><div class="article_body entry-content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /><br /><article><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;"><br />In Atlanta, at the 45th annual service for the civil rights leader at the church where he was pastor, those gathered in the sanctuary were invited to stay to watch President Barack Obama’s second inauguration on a big-screen TV.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">As the nearly three-hour service closed at Ebenezer Baptist Church, organizers suggested forgoing the traditional singing of “We Shall Overcome” because the inauguration would begin. But the crowd shouted protests, so the choir and congregation sang the civil rights anthem before settling in to watch the events in Washington.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">In the nation’s capital, dozens took pictures of the King statue before walking to the National Mall for the inauguration.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Nicole Hailey, 34, drove all night with her family from Monroe, N.C. She attended Obama’s first inauguration four years ago and was carrying a commemorative Metro ticket from that day with Obama’s face on it.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">She and her family visited the King memorial before the swearing-in.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">“It’s Martin Luther King’s special day,” she said. “We’re just celebrating freedom.”</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">At the ceremonial inauguration, Obama took the oath on a Bible once owned by King. He called it “a great privilege.” The King Bible was one of two used; the other had belonged to Abraham Lincoln.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">In Columbia, S.C., civil rights leaders paused during their annual King Day rally to watch the inauguration on a big screen. Most of the crowd of several hundred stayed to watch Obama’s address.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">“You feel like anything is possible,” Jelin Cunningham, a 15-year-old black girl, said of Obama’s presidency. “I’ve learned words alone can’t hurt or stop you, because there have been so many hateful things said about him over the past four years.”</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">At the Atlanta service, King’s youngest daughter, Bernice King, said the country had been through a difficult year, with divisive elections, military conflicts and natural disasters.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">“We pray that this day will be the beginning of a new day in America,” she said. “It will be a day when people draw inspiration from the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. It will be a day when people realize and recognize that if it were not for Dr. King and those who fought the fight fought in that movement, we would not be celebrating this presidency.”</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">She stressed her father’s commitment to nonviolence, saying that after the 1956 bombing of the family’s home in Montgomery, Ala., her father stood on the porch and urged an angry, armed crowd to fight with Christian love — not guns.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">“This apostle of nonviolence perhaps introduced one of the bravest experiences of gun control that we’ve ever heard of in the history of our nation,” she said.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">The service also kicked off a year of celebrations of the 50th anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered Aug. 28, 1963, in Washington. Students led by King’s great-niece Farris Christine Watkins delivered sections of the speech in turn.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">By the end, the crowd was on its feet, shouting, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">The keynote speaker was the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, a socially conservative evangelical association. It marked the first time a Latino had been invited to deliver the King Day address at Ebenezer Baptist.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">He urged the audience to complete King’s dream.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">“Silence is not an option when 30 million of our brothers and sisters live in poverty,” he said. “Silence is not an option when 11 million undocumented individuals continue to live in the shadows.”</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Around the country, parades, service projects and memorials marked the holiday.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Visitors from as far as Europe thronged the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. In Detroit, students beautified schools. Others painted murals honoring King in Arkansas, donated items to a food bank in Texas, and conducted a community health fair in Pennsylvania.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">More than 500 people rallied outside the Alabama Capitol in Montgomery, where state employee Jessie Harris declared Obama’s presidency was a sign of progress in “living the dream” that King spoke about.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">“We have come far, but the struggle is not over,” Harris said.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">From: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/">http://www.washingtonpost.com</a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div></article></div></div></div><div class="echo_container_lite stream submitbox comment-vars" data="guid=http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/nation-honors-martin-luther-king-jr-as-first-black-president-is-inaugurated-for-2nd-term/2013/01/21/a2707214-6432-11e2-889b-f23c246aa446_story.html&allow_comments=true&moderationrequired=false&primaryNode=national&sectionId=&usermarkers=top_commenter,staff,default,post_contributor&usermarkersall=&markers=post_recommended&markersall=&display_ugc_photos=false&allow_photos=false&allow_videos=false&isAllComments=false&maxItems=3&webtype=article_story&articleURLFacet=http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/nation-honors-martin-luther-king-jr-as-first-black-president-is-inaugurated-for-2nd-term/2013/01/21/a2707214-6432-11e2-889b-f23c246aa446_allComments.html&commentsSource=washpost.com&maxItemsTop=3&defaultSort=&defaultTab=all&markerDisplay='top_commenter':'Post Forum','top_local':'Washingtologist','top_sports':'SuperFan','staff':'Post Writer','fact_checker':'Fact Checker','post_recommended':'Post Recommended','world_watcher':'World Watcher','culture_connoisseur':'Culture Connoisseur','weather_watcher':'Capital Weather Watcher','post_contributor':'Post Contributor'&streamid=&commentpermalinkurlfacet=http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/nation-honors-martin-luther-king-jr-as-first-black-president-is-inaugurated-for-2nd-term/2013/01/21/a2707214-6432-11e2-889b-f23c246aa446_comment.html&includebadges=true&includepause=true&includepermalink=true&includerecommend=true&includereport=true&includereply=true&includeshare=true&includesorts=true&includetabs=true&tabs={}&includepermalink=true" id="echo_container_a" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div id="echo-tip-text-container" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></div></div></div></div>

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday Nation honors Martin Luther King Jr. as first black president is inaugurated for 2nd term

(The News & Observer, Travis Long/ Associated Press ) - Participants march down Fayetteville Street in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, Jan. 21, 2...

Read more »

Will Joe Biden run for president in 2016?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="asset-metabar-wrap" style="clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 20px 0px 23px 70px;"><div class="asset-metabar" itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(230, 230, 230); display: table-cell; margin: 20px 0px 0px; width: 888px;"><span class="asset-metabar-author asset-metabar-item" itemprop="name" style="float: left; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 14px; margin: 6px 0px 5px; padding: 2px 10px; position: relative;">Nicole Gaudiano, Gannett Washington Bureau</span><span class="asset-metabar-time asset-metabar-item " style="border-left-color: rgb(225, 225, 225); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; color: #999999; float: left; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 14px; margin: 6px 0px 5px; padding: 2px 10px; position: relative;">8:32p.m. EST January 21, 2013</span></div></div><div class="double-wide" itemprop="articleBody" role="main" style="color: #222222; float: left; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative; width: 600px;"><h2 class="lead-in" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-left: 60px; margin-top: -2px;">People attending President Barack Obama's second inauguration expressed varying opinions on whether Vice President Joe Biden would make a capable president himself, should be decide to run in 2016.</h2><div class="article-metadata-wrap" style="float: left; height: auto; margin: 0px 30px 0px 60px; position: relative;"><br /><aside class="single-photo expandable-collapsed" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 20px; position: relative; width: 180px; z-index: 100;"><div class="image-wrap" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; box-shadow: rgb(200, 200, 200) 1px 1px 5px; cursor: pointer; padding: 3px; position: relative;"><img alt="biden" class="expand-img-horiz" itemprop="url" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2013/01/21/biden-4_3_r536_c534.jpg?1b79b3da202957124496e3768cfb7b67cdb10c81" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 131px; vertical-align: middle;" /><span class="toggle" style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/sprites/asset-sprite.png); background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; bottom: 0px; height: 21px; position: absolute; right: 0px; width: 21px; z-index: 200;"></span></div><div class="image-credit-wrap" style="color: #646464; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 16px; margin-top: 6px; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px;"><span class="credit" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: 400;">(Photo: H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY)</span></div></aside><br /><div class="article-metadata" style="position: relative;"><br /><aside class="comp story-highlights " style="clear: left; float: left; margin: 0px 0px 20px; min-height: 60px; width: 180px;"><h3 style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #999999; font-family: 'Futura Today Bold', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px auto; text-transform: uppercase;">STORY HIGHLIGHTS</h3><ul style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; left: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><li style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/components/story_highlights_bullets.png); background-position: 0px 17px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #646464; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; padding: 12px 0px 12px 15px;">Biden has run for president twice</li><li style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/components/story_highlights_bullets.png); background-position: 0px 17px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #646464; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; padding: 12px 0px 12px 15px;">VP is prone to verbal gaffes</li><li style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/components/story_highlights_bullets.png); background-position: 0px 17px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #646464; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; padding: 12px 0px 12px 15px;">Biden credited with negotiating tough deals</li></ul></aside></div></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">WASHINGTON — Vice President Biden unintentionally promoted himself Saturday night, telling a group of Iowans visiting Washington that he was "proud to be president of the United States."</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">The crowd, attending a party for President Obama's second inauguration, laughed and applauded as Biden tried to correct himself and then began chuckling.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><b>FULL COVERAGE: </b>The presidential inauguration</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"Well, there goes that," he said.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Just another blooper for the gaffe-prone veep? Or a more revealing Freudian slip?</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Biden has tried for the top job twice but failed to win his party's nomination in 1988 and 2008. If he runs and wins in 2016, he will be 74 on Inauguration Day, making him the oldest man to be inaugurated president.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Even so, he hasn't ruled it out.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"There's a whole lot of reasons why I wouldn't run," he told CNN. "I haven't made that decision. And I don't have to make that decision for a while."</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">People attending inaugural festivities Monday differed on whether Biden is presidential material.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"I just think that would kind of revert us back to the norm, which was old white guys" running the country, said Robert Thead, 30, a freelance author in Washington, D.C., writing about the millennial generation. "How old is he?"</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Pete Epanchin, 40, a fellow at the Environmental Protection Agency, said Biden is "absolutely" presidential. He was pleased to see Biden take a leading role in the administration's efforts to halt gun violence and said it might be easier for Biden to sell that policy than Obama.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"He's a less divisive figure," Epanchin said.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Kisha Webster, 41, a teacher in Baltimore County, Md., said she'd vote for Biden for president. She liked that he reached a compromise with Republicans in December on the "fiscal cliff."</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"That's what people want," Webster said. "They want to see a leader be able to work with both sides to help the greater good."</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Biden has developed a reputation as a deal maker after 36 years representing Delaware in the Senate, but voters tired of establishment politicians may not view that as an asset.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><img src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/v2/brightcove/videos.usatoday.net/Brightcove2/29906170001/2013/01/29906170001_2109482996001_thumb-96c8c04b8c864002270f6a7067000d60_r542_c540x304.jpg?436a289f03cde4e0ed45f12ec0d66270cf41bc9a" /></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Gaffes are another issue for Biden, who makes frequent verbal missteps to the delight of late-night talk show comedians.</div><div class="clearfix"></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"He probably wouldn't be diplomatic enough to perform that duty," Jermaine Barnes, 42, a corrections officer from Baltimore, Md., said of Biden's potential to be president.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Some Democrats who watched Monday's inaugural parade said they're waiting to see whether Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton runs for the White House, even though she has said she won't.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Biden "doesn't really energize the base as much as Hillary," said Bridget O'Loughlin, 23, a Georgetown University graduate student from Boston. "Hillary has become a celebrity. Biden is kind of off on his own, being the elder statesman."</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Forty-two percent of people have a favorable impression of Biden, and 42% have an unfavorable impression of him, according to a recent survey by Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">That's lower than the favorability ratings for other recent vice presidents around the time they started their second terms. Dick Cheney's favorability rating was 48 percent in March 2005. Al Gore's rating was 65 percent in January 1997.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Biden's rating is affected by increasing partisanship, said Michael Dimock, director of the Pew center.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">And all the jokes about his verbal gaffes may contribute to a perception that he's not a serious person, Dimock said, even though Biden chaired the Foreign Relations Committee and the Judiciary Committee in the Senate.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">It's not an "unrecoverable" situation, but turning around public opinion could be difficult for Biden, especially as he continues to play a highly visible role in selling the administration's gun-control policy, Dimock said. The issue is so contentious it may hamper Biden's efforts to expand his appeal to a broader audience, he said.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"It's not like being in this position today is a situation you can't turn around as a public figure," Dimock said. "But certainly, you'd rather have people like you than have people feel split about you, and that's where Biden's been for some time now."</div></div></div>

Joe Biden president Will Joe Biden run for president in 2016?

Nicole Gaudiano, Gannett Washington Bureau 8:32p.m. EST January 21, 2013 People attending President Barack Obama's second inauguration e...

Read more »

Super Bowl 2013 Ticket Mania Kicks Off

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><img alt="ap superbowl harbaugh kb 130121 wblog Super Bowl 2013 Ticket Mania Kicks Off" height="269" src="http://abcnews.go.com/images/Business/ap_superbowl_harbaugh_kb_130121_wblog.jpg" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;" title="Super Bowl 2013 Ticket Mania Kicks Off" width="478" /><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; text-align: center;">(Image credit: Mark Humphrey, Matt Slocum/AP Photo)</span><br /><br /><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Now that the two teams for Super Bowl 2013 are known,  fans of the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens who don’t have tickets are off to the secondary market, where the average price of a ticket is about $3,195.14.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As of Monday morning, the lowest price for resale tickets was $2,168, according to ticket tracker TiqIQ.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Last year, the average price on Jan. 21 was $3,678.12, with the lowest price, $2,037.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Even before Sunday’s playoff games that determined who would compete in Super Bowl 2013, marketers and others in the industry were watching with anticipation who would be competing in one of the most-watched sporting events of the year.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Chris Matcovich, director of data and communications at TiqIQ, said the National Football Conference’s San Francisco 49ers and American Football Conference’s Baltimore Ravens going head to head would be the “golden game” for ticket sales for two reasons.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">First, advertisers and the media have already become excited about the match-up between coaching brothers Jim Harbaugh, 49, of the 49ers, and John Harbaugh, 50, of the Ravens.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Second, the 49ers have a large market in San Francisco, meaning a large fan base that might  be willing to travel to New Orleans. Plus, the 49ers  haven’t won a Super Bowl since 1994.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><iframe height="221" id="kaltura_player_1358828078" src="http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/1_6kdsfz7s/uiconf_id/3775332/st_cache/39253?referer=http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/super-bowl-2013-harbaugh-brothers-face-off-18269972&autoPlay=false&addThis.playerSize=392x221&freeWheel.siteSectionId=nws_offsite&closedCaptionActive=true&addThis.playerSize=392x221&closedCaptionsOverPlayer.fontsize=12" style="border: 0px solid #ffffff;" width="392">Unfortunately your browser does not support IFrames.</iframe> <br /><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“At the end of the day, marketers and ticket sellers are hoping for a good game and praying for the right teams,” Matcovich said.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tim Nelson, president of Chicago-based advertising agency Trisect, said a match between the 49ers and Patriots may have been a favorite among other advertisers.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“I think some of the appeal in the games is the quality of the franchises, plus their heritage and history in the game,” said Nelson, who  grew up in New England and admitted he was  a Pats fan.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For any fan, getting a ticket to Super Bowl XLVII will cost a pretty penny.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The National Football League held a fan drawing of about 1,000 tickets last year.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In the past two weeks, the NFL began distributing tickets to its teams to sell to fans through drawings, or to distribute to sponsors. The NFL give out  17.5 percent of tickets to the AFC team and 17.5 percent go to the NFC team. The host of the 2013 Super Bowl game on Feb. 3, the New Orleans Saints, received 5 percent of tickets. Each of the remaining 29 NFL teams receives 1.2 percent of the tickets.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The official list prices for the Super Bowl’s upper bowl, lower bowl and club seats are $850, $950 and $1,250 for 2013, according to Brian McCarthy, an NFL spokesman.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McCarthy cautioned that the only guaranteed secondary ticket seller of the NFL is the NFL Ticketmaster Ticket Exchange.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Buyer beware beyond that,” McCarthy said.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font: inherit; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">From: <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/" style="background-color: transparent;">http://abcnews.go.com</a></div><br /><div style="font-size: x-small; margin-top: 0; text-align: left;"><br /></div></div>

Super Bowl Super Bowl 2013 Ticket Mania Kicks Off

(Image credit: Mark Humphrey, Matt Slocum/AP Photo) Now that the two teams for Super Bowl 2013 are known,  fans of the San Francisco 49ers a...

Read more »

The Lupe Fiasco Fiasco

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 1.5em;">FROM: </span><a href="http://www.slate.com/">http://www.slate.com</a> <span style="color: #006699; font-family: georgia, serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.5px;">By</span><span style="color: #006699; font-family: georgia, serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.5px;"> </span><a href="http://www.slate.com/authors.david_weigel.html" rel="author" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(255, 255, 153); color: #006699; font-family: georgia, serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 19.5px; outline: none;">David Weigel</a><br /><div class="slb-post-dateline" style="border: 0px; color: #666666; float: left; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-top: 1px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 1.5em;">The good people at HyperVocal were kind enough to invite me to their pre-inaugural party. The big star: Lupe Fiasco, the rapper who put out "Kick Push" a few years ago. The problem: Getting around D.C. was impossible, and I needed to rise early to get to the inauguration itself. So I skipped it, and regretted it immediately. Late Sunday evening, my</span><em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Foreign Policy</em><span style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span><a href="https://twitter.com/joshrogin" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(255, 255, 153); color: #006699; font-size: small; line-height: 1.5em; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">colleague Josh Rogin</a><span style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 1.5em;"> started tweeting about a mounting disaster.</span><br /><div class="text parbase section" style="border: 0px; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><blockquote style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em auto; padding: 0px 40px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Lupe Fiasco just got thrown off stage here at the Hamilton Live after he went on an anti-Obama diatribe mid set.</span></blockquote></div><div class="text parbase section" style="border: 0px; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><blockquote style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em auto; padding: 0px 40px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">So Lupe played one anti-war song for 30 min and said he didn't vote for Obama and eventually was told to move on to the next song.</span></blockquote></div><div class="text parbase section" style="border: 0px; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><blockquote style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em auto; padding: 0px 40px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Lupe refused to move to the next song so a team of security guards came on stage and told him to go.</span></blockquote></div><div class="text parbase section" style="border: 0px; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Rogin later filled me in. Fiasco read the lyrics to <a href="http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/lupefiasco/wordsineversaid.html" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(255, 255, 153); color: #006699; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">"Words I Never Said,"</a> a 2011 track that got some attention then but wasn't much of a hit. The key part:</span></div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="border: 0px; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><blockquote style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em auto; padding: 0px 40px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Gaza strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shit<br />That's why I ain't vote for him, next one either<br />I’m a part of the problem, my problem is I’m peaceful<br />And I believe in the people.</span></blockquote></div><div class="text parbase section" style="border: 0px; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Also:</span></div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="border: 0px; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><blockquote style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em auto; padding: 0px 40px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I really think the war on terror is a bunch of bullshit<br />Just a poor excuse for you to use up all your bullets<br />How much money does it take to really make a full clip<br />9/11 building 7 did they really pull it<br />Uhh, And a bunch of other cover ups</span></blockquote></div><div class="text parbase section" style="border: 0px; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Again, the song is nearly two years old. "If they wanted to censor Lupe Fiasco's political views," said Rogin, "they could<em style="border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> not </em>book Lupe Fiasco. It's obvious what he thinks." But Hypervocal let Fiasco play and play and play. "Some people were having a good timee," said Rogin. "Some people were annoyed that the song was not ending." He saw organizers talk to Fiasco, who... started playing the song again. And then this happened. (Apologies for linking a rip-off version of the NowThis News video.)</span></div></div></div><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tLs8myFAKDs?feature=player_embedded" width="640"></iframe><br /><br /><div class="text parbase section" style="border: 0px; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"He kept playing the same song again and again for half an hour," said Rogin. "They asked him to play another song, and he refused." So they yanked him. "An organizer came on the PA, and he said something to the effect of" 'Not everyone has their best night all the time. Let's keep the party going, we've got a great DJ.'"</span></div></div><div class="text parbase section" style="border: 0px; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font: inherit; line-height: 18px; margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Fiasco^2 has engendered the expected angry reactions, both trollish (from Obama haters who will give one cheer to a Truther, if it looks like he was punished for offending Dear Leader) and earnest. I vividly remember the reaction when Jeezy "thanked that motherf**ker overseas that threw two shoes at George Bush."</span></div><div style="border: 0px; font: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div></div></div><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/aapM-u_cOuc?feature=player_embedded" width="640"></iframe></div>

Lupe Fiasco Fiasco The Lupe Fiasco Fiasco

FROM:  http://www.slate.com   By   David Weigel The good people at HyperVocal were kind enough to invite me to their pre-inaugural party. Th...

Read more »

Poet, priest give OPoet, priest give Obama’s inauguration a Cuban touch Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/21/3193855/an-inauguration-with-a-cuban-touch.html#storylink=cpybama’s inauguration a Cuban touch

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><h2 class="subheadline" style="background-color: white; color: #58595b; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: lighter; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;">A pair of Cuban-Americans took center stage at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration.</h2><h2 class="subheadline" style="background-color: white; color: #58595b; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: lighter; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><img src="http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2013/01/21/15/52/823-hDcDH.St.55.jpeg" /></h2><h2 class="subheadline" style="background-color: white; color: #58595b; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: lighter; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"></h2><h3 class="byline" style="font-size: 10px; line-height: 11px; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">BY ANNA EDGERTON</h3><h3 class="credit_line" style="font-size: 10px; line-height: 11px; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;"><a href="mailto:aedgerton@MiamiHerald.com" style="color: #58595b; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">AEDGERTON@MIAMIHERALD.COM</a></h3><div class="entry-content" id="storyBodyContent" style="color: #1a2732; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Both men shared a stage Monday with President Barack Obama for his second inauguration. Both spoke before hundreds of thousands of people on the National Mall and millions more online and on television. And both have proud ties to Miami’s Cuban community.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">A child of Cuban exiles who was raised in Miami, Richard Blanco recited his poem, <span class="italic" style="font-style: italic; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">One Today</span>, before a frigid but festive inauguration crowd.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">“One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores, peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth across the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies,” Blanco began.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Joining Blanco: Cuban-born Luis Leon, an Operation Pedro Pan veteran, who delivered the final benediction.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">“Gracious and eternal God, as we conclude the second inauguration of President Obama, we ask for your blessings as we seek to become, in the words of Martin Luther King, citizens of a beloved community, loving you and loving our neighbors as ourselves,” said Leon, who spoke briefly in Spanish toward the end of his remarks.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Blanco is the youngest inaugural poet at 44, the first Hispanic (he was born in Madrid to Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami) and the first gay person to be chosen (he lives with his partner of 12 years in rural Maine). Other inaugural poets include Robert Frost and Maya Angelou.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">In his 583-word poem, one of three poems he offered for the ceremony, Blanco weaved in thoughts about his mother, his immigrant experience and the beauty of America.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">“Hear: the doors we open for each other all day, saying: hello, shalom, buon giorno, howdy, namaste, or buenos días in the language my mother taught me — in every language spoken into one wind carrying our lives without prejudice, as these words break from my lips,” Blanco said.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">In a telephone interview with The Miami Herald after the ceremony, Blanco said the central message of unity came from growing up in Miami in the 1970s, which he described as “an urban village.”</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">“There was a feeling that everybody is essential, and that’s how we get things done,” Blanco said. “There is a sense of <span class="italic" style="font-style: italic; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">comunidad</span>, and that’s what I wanted to communicate in the poem but on a larger scale for the whole country.”</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Many people watching from South Florida were moved by Blanco’s eloquent words.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">“I thought it was very unifying, but still personal,” said Liz Buzone, who was in Blanco’s elementary and middle school class at St. Brendan in Miami. “It was so beautiful the way he described day-to-day simple things.”</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Readers told The Miami Herald the most striking images were Blanco’s description of his father working in sugarcane fields and his mother ringing up groceries to provide for him and his brother.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Bill DelGrosso, a credit manager who grew up in Miami and now lives in New York City, said he was impressed with Blanco’s ability to use rich imagery of scenes that were both common and unique to Miami.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">“There were so many tones that were remarkable,” DelGrosso said. “It’s odd that a poet can write something that’s so reflective and at the same time so universal.”</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Blanco made what appeared to be a Miami reference when he spoke about the “Freedom Tower,” but he told the Herald in an interview Monday night that the reference was a nod to the new building rising from the site of the World Trade Center.</div><div style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">He decided to use “Freedom Tower” instead of the official One World Trade Center because he was thinking about “our Freedom Tower in Miami, which is its own symbol.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">He reached for the plurality of American experiences: painting scenes both urban and rural — mentioning “one sun,” at the beginning, and later describing “one ground.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Blanco concluded the poem with the image of “home/always under one sky, our sky,” and the task of naming new constellations “together.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Just after Blanco finished his poem, the Rev. Leon gave a final benediction.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Leon, born in Guantánamo, replaced Atlanta-based Episcopalian priest Louie Giglio who backed out over controversy surrounding anti-gay comments he made in a sermon 15 years ago.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Leon is a priest at St. John’s Church, an Episcopal church near the White House that is known for accepting gay members and priests.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Nury Perez, 37, a medical assistant clerical coordinator who was born and raised in Miami by Cuban parents, said the “multicultural” showing at the inauguration was inspiring, and an indication of how the country has changed.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">“What I was looking at the most was the diversity of all types of people,” Perez said. “It was very moving.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">Blanco said the whole inaugural experience was “more intimate than you would imagine,” because for two hours all the leaders of the United States shared the same stage.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 12px; padding: 0px;">“It felt like the fundamental idea of the American sense of democracy,” Blanco said. “There was a sense of camaraderie that was pretty amazing; it was truly a beautiful moment.”</div><div style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; height: 1px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; width: 1px;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/21/3193855_p2/an-inauguration-with-a-cuban-touch.html#storylink=cpy</div><br /><br /><div style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; height: 1px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; width: 1px;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/21/3193855/an-inauguration-with-a-cuban-touch.html#storylink=cpy</div></div><div style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; height: 1px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; width: 1px;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/21/3193855/an-inauguration-with-a-cuban-touch.html#storylink=cpy</div></div>

Obama Poet, priest give OPoet, priest give Obama’s inauguration a Cuban touch Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/21/3193855/an-inauguration-with-a-cuban-touch.html#storylink=cpybama’s inauguration a Cuban touch

A pair of Cuban-Americans took center stage at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration. BY ANNA EDGERTON AEDGERTON@MIAMIHERALD.COM Both...

Read more »

You decide: Is Tony Gonzalez a Hall of Famer?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="thumbnail" style="background-color: #f2f2f2; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding: 13px 8px 8px; position: relative; text-align: center; width: 600px; z-index: 1000;"><div class="holder" style="display: inline-block; margin: 0px auto 5px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><table cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px auto; width: 1px;"><tbody><tr><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Tony Gonzalez" border="0" height="426" src="http://www.trbimg.com/img-50fd8fc8/turbine/la-sp-sn-tony-gonzalez-20130121-001/600" style="border: 0px; display: block; margin: 0px auto;" title="Tony Gonzalez" width="580" /><div class="small" style="font-size: 11px; margin-top: 6px; padding: 0px;">Tony Gonzalez walks off the field for perhaps the final time. <span class="credit">(<span class="photographer">John Bazemore / Associated Press</span>)</span></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><span class="toolSet" style="background-color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-right: -50px; margin-top: 6px; width: 335px;"><div class="byline" style="color: #292727; float: left; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px;"></div></span><span class="toolSet" style="background-color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-right: -50px; margin-top: 6px; width: 335px;"><div class="byline" style="color: #292727; float: left; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px;"><span class="byline" style="display: block;">By Houston Mitchell</span><div class="date" style="color: #930000; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; margin-top: 3px; padding: 0px;"><span class="dateString" style="display: inline;">January 21, 2013</span><span class="dateTimeSeparator" style="border-left-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; color: white; display: inline; font-size: 10px; letter-spacing: -1px; margin-left: 6px;">, </span><span class="timeString" style="display: inline; text-transform: lowercase;">11:14 a.m.</span></div></div><div class="clear" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></div></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><div id="story-body-text" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.43; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;"><a class="taxInlineTagLink" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/sports/football/atlanta-falcons-ORSPT000032.topic" id="ORSPT000032" style="color: #666666; text-decoration: none;" title="Atlanta Falcons">Atlanta Falcons</a> tight end <a class="taxInlineTagLink" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/sports/football/tony-gonzalez-PESPT002661.topic" id="PESPT002661" style="color: #666666; text-decoration: none;" title="Tony Gonzalez">Tony Gonzalez</a> might have played in his final game Sunday. His team lost to the <a class="taxInlineTagLink" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/sports/football/san-francisco-49ers-ORSPT000057.topic" id="ORSPT000057" style="color: #666666; text-decoration: none;" title="San Francisco 49ers">San Francisco 49ers</a> in the <a class="taxInlineTagLink" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/sports/football/national-football-league-ORSPT000007.topic" id="ORSPT000007" style="color: #666666; text-decoration: none;" title="National Football League">NFL</a> championship game, and many are expecting him to call it a career.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">"It's probably the last time I'm going to wear that uniform," Gonzalez said after the Falcons' 28-24 loss. "I didn't want to take it off, to tell you the truth. All good things come to an end, and like I said all season long, this is probably my last one. What an unbelievable ride."</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">Gonzalez said throughout the season that he was 95% sure this would be it for him.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">He said he will discuss his plans with his family before making his final decision on retirement.<br /><br />"I'm not going to cry about it," Gonzalez said after the conclusion of his 16th season. "I walk away with the satisfaction I left everything, absolutely everything, every time I was on the field. I wish it would have culminated with the <a class="taxInlineTagLink" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/sports/football/super-bowl-EVSPR000004.topic" id="EVSPR000004" style="color: #666666; text-decoration: none;" title="Super Bowl">Super Bowl</a>, but it didn't."<br /><br />Gonzalez is second on the career receptions list with 1,242 and is the most decorated tight end in NFL history, ranking first at the position in catches, yards and touchdowns. Overall, he is sixth with 103 touchdown catches and seventh with 14,268 yards receiving yards.</div></div><script src="http://player.espn.com/player.js?&playerBrandingId=4ef8000cbaf34c1687a7d9a26fe0e89e&pcode=1kNG061cgaoolOncv54OAO1ceO-I&width=576&height=324&externalId=espn:8864908&thruParam_espn-ui[autoPlay]=false&thruParam_espn-ui[playRelatedExternally]=true"></script></div>

Tony Gonzalez You decide: Is Tony Gonzalez a Hall of Famer?

Tony Gonzalez walks off the field for perhaps the final time.  ( John Bazemore / Associated Press ) By Houston Mitchell January 21, 2013 ,  ...

Read more »

Monday, Monday

<span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.archidose.org/wp/">A Weekly Dose of Architecture</a> Updates:</span><br /><br />This week's dose features the <a href="http://archidose.org/wp/2013/01/21/malopolska-garden-of-arts/">Małopolska Garden of Arts</a> in Krakow, Poland, by Ingarden & Ewý Architects:<br /><a href="http://archidose.org/wp/2013/01/21/malopolska-garden-of-arts/"><img alt="this week's dose" src="http://archidose.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Jan13-21.jpg" title="This week's dose" width="640" /></a><br /><br />The featured past dose is the <a href="http://archidose.org/wp/2012/02/13/a-b-c-lecture-halls/">A, B, C Lecture Halls at Silesian University of Technology</a> in Gliwice, Poland by Zalewski Architecture Group:<br /><a href="http://archidose.org/wp/2012/02/13/a-b-c-lecture-halls/"><img alt="this week's dose" src="http://www.archidose.org/Feb12/13/image01.jpg" title="featured past dose" width="640" /></a><br /><br />This week's book review is <a href="http://archidose.org/wp/2013/01/21/ezra-stoller-photographer/"><i>Ezra Stoller, Photographer</i></a> by Nina Rappaport and Erica Stoller:<br /><a href="http://archidose.org/wp/2013/01/21/ezra-stoller-photographer/"><img alt="this week's book review" height="300" src="http://archidose.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/stoller.jpg" title="This week's book review" /></a> <a href="http://archidose.org/wp/2011/08/01/erieta-attali-in-extremis/"><img alt="this week's book review" src="http://archidose.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/attali.jpg" title="This week's book review" width="300" /></a><br />(R): The featured past book review is <a href="http://archidose.org/wp/2011/08/01/erieta-attali-in-extremis/"><i>Erieta Attali: In Extremis: Landscape into Architecture</i></a> by Erieta Attali.<br /><br />: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">World-Architects.com U.S. <a href="http://www.american-architects.com/projects/reviews/41">Building of the Week</a>:</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.world-architects.com/projects/projects_detail/39575">South Mountain Community Library</a> in Phoenix, Arizone, by Richärd+Bauer Architecture:<br /><a href="http://www.world-architects.com/projects/projects_detail/39575"><img alt="this week's Building of the Week" src="http://c214210.r10.cf3.rackcdn.com/files/projects/39575/images/900:w/southmountaincommunitylibrary1.jpg" title="Current Building of the Week on american-architects.com" width="640" /></a>

Monday, Monday

A Weekly Dose of Architecture Updates: This week's dose features the Małopolska Garden of Arts in Krakow, Poland, by Ingarden & Ew...

Read more »

First lady Michelle Obama serves as fashion icon

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><img src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2013/01/21/Production/Daily/Style/Images/2013-01-21T165012Z_01_WAS222_RTRIDSP_3_USA-INAUGURATION.jpg" /><br /><span class="photo-credit credit" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline-block; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px; margin-right: 9px; text-align: right;">Kevin Lamarque/Reuters -</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.78333282470703px;"> First lady Michelle Obama and her daughters, Sasha and Malia, arrive for inauguration ceremonies in Washington Jan. 21. The first lady’s fashion sense has been credited with pushing the American fashion industry into the international spotlight.</span><br /><br /><div class="module byline" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 10px; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><h3 property="dc.creator" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: normal; margin: 17px 0px; padding: 0px;">By <span class="author vcard" style="color: #666666;"><span class="fn"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/robin-givhan/2011/03/09/ABjWOnP_page.html" rel="author" style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Robin Givhan</a></span></span>, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/first-lady-michelle-obama-serves-as-fashion-icon/2013/01/21/655215dc-6413-11e2-85f5-a8a9228e55e7_story.html#license-655215dc-6413-11e2-85f5-a8a9228e55e7" id="license-655215dc-6413-11e2-85f5-a8a9228e55e7" rel="item-license" style="color: black; text-decoration: none;"></a><span class="timestamp updated processed" contenttype="article" datetitle="published" epochtime="1358817277000" pagetype="leaf" style="color: #6e6e6e;">Monday, January 21, <span class="time special" style="color: #cc131e;">5:14 PM</span></span></h3></div><div class="relative" id="article" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; line-height: 10px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div id="article_body" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="article_body entry-content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="font-size: 12px;"></div><article><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span class="dateline"></span>First lady Michelle Obama stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol during President Obama’s second-term swearing-in, holding the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s black leather Bible in her magenta-gloved hands. The smaller Lincoln Bible rested atop it. Michelle Obama said nothing during the hour-long inaugural ceremony. But in the sea of black topcoats and C-SPAN stodginess, she stood out — statuesque bearing, new bangs accentuating her cheekbones and grooming attuned to both the history books and high-definition TV.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">After rallying the country to fight childhood obesity, speaking to the value of mentoring and championing the contributions of military families, she was once again in the spot where she had stood four years ago: A silent symbol of an administration’s mood and manner, a template of patriotism, a standard-bearer for femininity.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 1.5em;"><img src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_296w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2013/01/21/Others/Images/2013-01-21/_SM41489cropped1358788753.jpg" /></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Wearing a navy Thom Browne coat cut from custom-made jacquard and a coordinating dress, she was a more subdued, more reserved presence than in 2009. She had traded in the bright, idealistic sheen of the lemongrass Isabel Toledo ensemble for one that was structured, relatively spare and unadorned except for the black, bejeweled J. Crew belt she added after the morning’s prayer service.</span><br /><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">In four years, her style had shifted from fizzy hope to glimmering pragmatism.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Her clothes, in fact, mimicked her husband’s. The Thom Browne coat was created from tie silk and echoed his discreet blue neckwear. As expected, the president wore a sober black overcoat, dark suit and black gloves, with a tiny American flag pin dotting his lapel. Their daughters, Sasha and Malia, finished the family portrait wearing coats in shades of lilac and violet. The elegant silhouettes underscored their new maturity.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Still, the first lady’s clothes stand apart. Observers obsess about Michelle Obama’s wardrobe because it offers clues to the personality of a public woman — a historic woman — who remains a resolutely private person. In an era of televised confessionals, she has never laid herself bare. But thankfully, her clothes, with their quirks and eccentric embellishments, do not adhere to unwritten protocol or dowdy traditions that have so often left first ladies little more than beige cyphers.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">For four years, Obama’s clothes have connected with the public in contemporary terms, in the language of Hollywood’s progressive glamour, Seventh Avenue’s bold entrepreneurship and the democracy of the mass market.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">In the constant tug of war between style and substance, Obama has proven they can be one and the same.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">More than any other first lady in history, Michelle Obama has pushed the American fashion industry into the international spotlight. With a global reach unlike any actor or musician — and an authenticity untouched by endorsement deals or fealty to a single brand — she carried the creative skills, the technical wizardry and the earnest ambitions of Seventh Avenue stalwarts and upstarts into Buckingham Palace, the center of the Holy See, the neighborhoods of Ghana and into fashion’s very heart of darkness . . . Paris.</div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">From: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/" style="line-height: 1.5em;">http://www.washingtonpost.com</a></div></div></article><div style="font-size: 12px;"></div></div></div></div></div>

Fashion First lady Michelle Obama First lady Michelle Obama serves as fashion icon

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters -  First lady Michelle Obama and her daughters, Sasha and Malia, arrive for inauguration ceremonies in Washington Jan...

Read more »