Things too good to pass up:
- The Ken Burns special, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea begins on PBS tonight. The libertarian forces are already out, accusing Burns of socialist propaganda.
- Karl Martino from Paradox1x links three stories related to the healthcare debate. Included is the story of a 22 year old woman who died because she didn’t seek medical care early enough—she didn’t have health insurance, and was worried about the cost. There was a rumor that she died of H1N1, but later reports state that she died of pneumonia. Regardless, if she had received medical care in time, she’d probably still be alive.
- Via 3QuarksDaily, an interview with the author of “Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society”. Women are more empathetic than men, dogs yawn when their owners yawn, and we’re not the selfish prigs we think we are—it’s an interesting sounding book, and have placed it on my wish list.
- Another from 3QuarksDaily: Harvard is publishing Michael J. Sandel’s Justice class, online. Like the National Parks, these videos will be telecast on PBS via Boston’s WGBH, and are also hosted at Harvard. I watched the first class in the series, and it’s excellent. I can’t recommend strongly enough. (Speaking of which, if you haven’t made your annual donation to PBS, now would be a good time.)
- Oh hey, the Harvard web site is hosted on Drupal.
- All that is good is not video, sometimes there’s still room for static images and writing. Sheila Lennon points out that all of Life Magazine, text, ads, and photos, are now online at Google Books. I decided to check out the issue closest to my birth.
The Life Issue I checked out featured some fun ads, including one for a portable TV that looked like a tank, and one in the back by the American Petroleum Industry about the cheap cost of gas. The issue also featured stories of the time, including the recovery of a kitten washed out by a ocean wave, and the explosion of the world’s fastest seaplane.
The main focus of the issue, though, was on a story and photos of the beautiful Gina Lollobrigida, still considered one of the sexiest women of all time. The magazine covered her extensive wardrobe, and described how she created a catalog of our her outfits in order to make it simpler for her maid to fetch the correct one. She even drew pencil sketches of the outfits, annotating them with numbers so she could call and ask for the outfit by number.
The magazine described Ms. Lollobrigida as a perfect size 12. I choked at that, because in a recent discussion about “plus-size” models, several people accused a size 12 model of being “obese”. Something for James Fallows to consider in his ongoing series about obesity and America.
