The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power
By all appearances, Noah Lottick of Kingston, Pa., had been a normal, happy 24-year-old who was looking for his place in the world. On the day last June when his parents drove to New York City to claim his body, they were nearly catatonic with grief. The young Russian-studies scholar had jumped from a 10th-floor window of the Milford Plaza Hotel and bounced off the hood of a stretch limousine. When the police arrived, his fingers were still clutching $171 in cash, virtually the only money he hadn’t yet turned over to the Church of Scientology, the self-help “philosophy” group he had discovered just seven months earlier. (time)
Cases of young people self-harming rise by 50%
The number of young people admitted to hospital after cutting themselves deliberately is up by more than 50% in five years, according to new figures. (bbc)
Health Reform Myths
Health reform is back from the dead. Many Democrats have realized that their electoral prospects will be better if they can point to a real accomplishment. Polling on reform — which was never as negative as portrayed — shows signs of improving. And I’ve been really impressed by the passion and energy of this guy Barack Obama. Where was he last year? (nytimes)
Lesbian teen sues to force school to hold prom
An 18-year-old lesbian student who wanted to take her girlfriend to her senior prom is asking a federal judge to force her Mississippi school district reinstate the dance it canceled rather than let the couple attend. (ap)
Poodle, Glenn Beck at center of Facebook fight
You don’t hear the words “poodle,” “tinfoil hat,” and First Amendment in the same sentence often, but they are indeed linked in a classic Facebook melodrama. (redtape/msnbc)
Heavy Rain: A Peek Into the Future of Movies and Games
Even if you don’t own a PlayStation 3, Heavy Rain is a game you should know because it re-imagines both videogames and movies, combining them into a new genre of Choose Your Own Adventure digital narrative. (Very minor spoilers ahead.) (gizmodo)
‘The Wire’ and ‘Arrested Development’ — too smart to make it?
It’s true — you need to pay attention to both series in order to absorb them fully. In “The Wire,” you’ve got multiple story lines, countless characters and a very complicated overall message. For example, in its second season, “The Wire” essentially became a completely different story, shifting from the drug-riddled Baltimore housing projects to the blue-collar shipping docks, where creator David Simon tackled “the death of the American working class.” Let’s see them do that on “The O.C.” (sfgate)
