President Obama: Remarks by the President at the Acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize
I receive this honor with deep gratitude and great humility. It is an award that speaks to our highest aspirations -- that for all the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not mere prisoners of fate. Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice.
DAVID BROOKS: The Hanukkah Story (nytimes.com)
Hanukkah is the most adult of holidays. Its lesson is that even the struggles that saved a people are dappled with tragic irony, complexity and unattractive choices.
"Lost Girls" by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie: A review by Eric Lorberer
Measure this truly graphic novel's success not in how hard or how wet you get while you read it, but in how "found," how self-aware, you, like Dorothy, Wendy, and Alice, feel by its end. If it's done its job as literature, and I think it has, you'll feel your whole being and not just your sex organs enlarged.
Making a revolution with Cory Doctorow (guardian.co.uk)
Michelle Pauli takes a rollercoaster ride with the writer and activist Cory Doctorow as they discuss his new novel, 'Makers,' and how DIY technology will transform the world.
zEN mAN (observing the birth of a new calf to "Fuzzy" the cow in a small farm in Connecticut...with a cross on his head...the lord works in mysterious ways! hey Ebay here comes a Holy Cow for sale)
Greece has by far the largest per capita consumption of olive oil worldwide, over 26 liters per year; Spain and Italy, around 14 l; Tunisia, Portugal and Lebanon, around 8 l.
Source
Marian the teacher was first, and correct, with:
Greece
mj replied:
Since they named Athens
After the goddess who gave them olives over the god who gave them the horse, I'm going to say that the Greeks use the most per capita. That, and a former co-worker claimed that the Greeks were the olive oil deities. (She used to threaten her grand parents, who owned an olive oil producing grove that she was thinking of buying a bottle of the Italian stuff.)
Sally said:
The temp has finally fallen into the 20s here in northern Jersey, and I love it!!
As for the question dejour, Greece has the largest per capita consumption of olive oil. I have never acquired a taste for the stuff myself, wonder if it's the Nordic DNA...
PS: My son and gf are coming in from San Francisco next week for our Hanukkahmas. She is originally from Florida - bet she will freeze here. She thinks a long-sleeved top is "bringing winter stuff..." Wonder if she has ever seen a pair of warm gloves. We'll see...
MAM wrote:
Greece has the largest per capita consumption of olive oil.
And, Joe S replied:
This is an easy one for me. The answer is Greece, they're literally swimming in it. When my son and his family came to visit three years ago they brought two three liter cans of olive oil. When they left a week later Sia had used up all but about a cup from one can and we used the other can over the next year. I admit we did skimp a little with the can they left for us because it was soooo good we wanted to last. I just love fresh bread dipped in olive oil.
Google says the average consumption is 26 liters per year, my god, for a family of four that's like 2 gallons a month!
Here's two beautiful little Greek girls who just happen to be my granddaughters.
PS Sally, the roast was so tender you could cut it with a fork. It simmered for 6 hours.
AMC offers the movie 'Last Of The Dogmen', followed by the movie 'Jeremiah Johnson', then the movie 'Rio Bravo'.
BBC -
[12:00 PM] You Are What You Eat - Episode 6
[1:00 PM] You Are What You Eat - Episode 4
[1:30 PM] You Are What You Eat - Episode 5
[2:00 PM] Gordon Ramsay's F Word - Episode 4
[3:00 PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares Revisited - Ep 2 Walnut Tree
[4:00 PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares - Ep 2 The Dovecote
[5:00 PM] Top Gear - Episode 7
[6:00 PM] Top Gear - Episode 6
[7:00 PM] Doctor Who - Ep 13- Journey's End
[8:00 PM] Doctor Who: The Next Doctor (60)
[9:00 PM] Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead (60)
[10:00 PM] The Graham Norton Show - Ep 10 50 Cent, Catherine Tate, Jimmy Carr
[11:00 PM] Doctor Who: The Next Doctor (60)
[12:00 AM] Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead (60)
[1:00 AM] The Graham Norton Show - Ep 10 50 Cent, Catherine Tate, Jimmy Carr
[2:00 AM] Doctor Who: The Next Doctor (60)
[3:00 AM] Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead (60)
[4:00 AM] The Graham Norton Show - Ep 10 50 Cent, Catherine Tate, Jimmy Carr
[5:00 AM] Cash in the Attic - Episode 8
[5:30 AM] Cash in the Attic - Episode 9
[6:00 AM] Cash in the Attic - Ep 8 Excell (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'America's Next Top Model', 'Real Housewives Of OC', followed by the movie 'Fight Club'.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Scary Movie 3', followed by 'Chris Rock: Never Scared', and 'Dane Cook: Vicious Circle'.
FX has the movie 'X-Men: The Last Stand', followed by the movie 'Live Free Or Die Hard'.
History has 'Modern Marvels', 'Manson', and 'Beatles On Record'.
IFC -
[6:05 AM] It's My Party
[8:00 AM] The 47 Ronin, Part II
[10:00 AM] Broadway Danny Rose
[11:30 AM] All Over Me
[1:05 PM] It's My Party
[3:00 PM] IFC News Special
[3:30 PM] Broadway Danny Rose
[5:00 PM] All Over Me
[6:30 PM] Dinner With the Band
[7:00 PM] The Jon Dore Television Show
[7:30 PM] Arrested Development
[8:00 PM] Gangs of New York
[10:50 PM] Trout
[11:00 PM] Mad Max
[12:35 AM] 11:14
[2:05 AM] Gangs of New York
[5:00 AM] The Seventh Seal (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[06:00 AM] Opening Night
[08:30 AM] Garage
[11:00 AM] Bono & The Edge
[12:00 PM] Live From Abbey Road - Season 2: Panic at the Disco, David Gray & Suzanne Vega
[01:00 PM] The Duchess Of Langleais
[03:20 PM] The Tonto Woman
[04:00 PM] Lemon Sky
[05:40 PM] 13 Tzameti
[07:15 PM] Three Blind Mice
[09:00 PM] Iconoclasts - Season 3: Mike Myers + Deepak Chopra
[10:00 PM] Another Day In Paradise
[11:45 PM] Tanghi Argentini
[12:00 AM] Gummo
[01:30 AM] Thumbsucker
[03:15 AM] Man Shops Globe: Man Shops Globe - 102
[03:45 AM] 13 Tzameti (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Ice Twisters', followed by the movie 'Annihilation Earth'.
TCM:
[6:00 AM] The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm (1962)
[8:30 AM] Destination Moon (1950)
[10:30 AM] Alias Boston Blackie (1942)
[12:00 PM] A Christmas Carol (1938)
[1:15 PM] 3 Godfathers (1948)
[3:15 PM] The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
[5:30 PM] The Lion In Winter (1968)
[8:00 PM] The Mouse That Roared (1959)
[9:30 PM] The Mouse On The Moon (1963)
[11:00 PM] Father Of The Bride (1950)
[12:45 AM] Father's Little Dividend (1951)
[2:15 AM] The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975)
[4:00 AM] The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (1979)
[5:30 AM] Short Film: Now Playing December (2009) (2009) (ALL TIMES EST)
Sunday - 12/13/09
TCM:
[6:00 AM] Penny Serenade (1941)
[8:00 AM] Theodora Goes Wild (1936)
[10:00 AM] The Secret Garden (1949)
[12:00 PM] In The Good Old Summertime (1949)
[2:00 PM] Susan Slept Here (1954)
[4:00 PM] The Philadelphia Story (1940)
[6:00 PM] Travels With My Aunt (1972)
[8:00 PM] Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945)
[10:00 PM] Johnny Got His Gun (1971)
[12:00 AM] Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ (1925)
[2:30 AM] Ordet (1955)
[4:45 AM] Private Potter (1962) (ALL TIMES EST)
Former boxer Muhammad Ali surprises producer Jerry Weintrab at the podium at UNICEF Ball honoring Weintraub in Beverly Hills, California December 10, 2009.
Photo by Fred Prouser
Singer Michael Jackson next month will receive a posthumous Grammy for lifetime achievement, along with six other artists, organizers of the music industry's top awards said.
The others honored with the annual award are Canadian singer Leonard Cohen, blues musician David "Honeyboy" Edwards, country star Loretta Lynn, pianist Andre Previn, fluegelhorn player Clark Terry and the late singer Bobby Darin.
The Recording Academy, the organization behind the Grammys, will honor the lifetime achievement winners at an invitation-only event on January 30, the day before the Grammy Awards are handed out in Los Angeles.
Separately, the Recording Academy said on Friday that "The Climb," by 17 year-old Disney star Miley Cyrus, has been withdrawn from the Grammy category of Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media.
The academy said Walt Disney Records informed them that "The Climb," written by Jessi Alexander and Jon Mabe, was not written specifically for Cyrus' star vehicle "Hannah Montana: The Movie," as the academy had previously thought.
U.S. actor Don Cheadle, views records of legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis as he visits the exhibition 'We want Miles', dedicated to Miles Davis, in Paris, Friday, Dec. 11, 2009.
Photo by Christophe Ena
Fox News' Bill O'Reilly lashed out at "Law & Order" franchise creator/executive producer Dick Wolf Thursday night. The bombastic host, upset over how he was recently characterized on the long-running NBC drama, called the "far left" Wolf a "despicable human being" whose show is "out of control."
Sparking O'Reilly's ire was an episode of "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit" that aired earlier in the week, in which a crazed anti-immigration activist set out to murder the children of illegal immigrants. In one scene, a character named Randall Carver, played by veteran actor John Larroquette, is sitting on a park bench talking to Fin, the detective played by Ice-T. In defending the actions of the man who killed the immigrants' children, Larroquette's character says, "Limbaugh, Beck, O'Reilly, all of 'em, they are like a cancer spreading ignorance and hate...They've convinced folks that immigrants are the problem, not corporations that fail to pay a living wage or a broken health care system..."
After playing the clip of the "defamatory and outrageous" scene, O'Reilly slammed Dick Wolf as a "coward" and a "liar" before playing a montage of clips demonstrating his past defenses of "poor people who only want a better life." O'Reilly went on to explain that his "beef" isn't with illegal immigrants themselves, but rather with the federal government for doing little to control immigration and the "violent aliens who wreak havoc once they get here." He concluded by chastising Wolf for "distorting and exploiting" the issue of illegal immigration.
With the year-end holiday television advertising blitz in full swing and political pitches set to swamp US airwaves in 2010, US lawmakers were taking aim Friday at loud commercials.
Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has unveiled separate legislation that would require television advertisements to be no louder than the programs during which they appear, and a similar proposal is pending in the House.
"The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act of 2009" would require the US Federal Communications Commission to regulate the ads' volume.
The legislation, which would require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to set new rules, was unveiled with year-end holiday advertising booming and with campaign commercials ahead of the November 2010 US mid-term elections set to launch in earnest.
Singer songwriter Elton John (R) and David Furnish pose for photographers as they open charity store 'Out the Closet' in Covent Garden in London, December 11, 2009. Clothes from the pair's wardrobe went on sale to raise money for charity.
Photo by Luke MacGregor
Quirky HBO comedy series" The Flight of the Conchords" will not return for third season.
After months of speculation, co-creators Bret McKenzie, Jemaine Clement and James Bobin broke the news on their Web site.
"We've noticed the less we say about the future of the show, the more people want to talk about it, so in an effort to reverse this trend we are today announcing that we won't be returning for a third season," they wrote. "We're very proud of the two seasons we made, and we like the way the show ended."
The show's combination of story line and original songs, and the fact that the trio continue to reside in their native New Zealand, are factors that have made "Conchords" difficult to produce, prompting speculation over the past few months that McKenzie, Clement and Bobin would not return for a third season.
When it comes to peddling porn, Larry Flynt wants you to know his videos of people having sex are a cut above other smut on the rack.
So when a pair of nephews Flynt personally groomed for the porn business decided to launch their own company last year and use the family name, the creator of "Barely Legal," "Busty Beauties" and "Daddy Gets Lucky" wasted no time suing the upstarts for trademark infringement.
Flynt accused his brother Jimmy Flynt's sons in federal court of tarnishing his image by launching Flynt Media Corp. and producing a series of videos he says are nothing but cheap knockoffs.
"The junk they publish hurts my reputation, which in turn hurts my revenue," the gruff, gravelly voiced porn king testified in U.S. District Court this week, where a Flynt family feud is playing out before a stone-faced jury and a no-nonsense judge.
Singer Tony Bennett (R) and Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone arrive at the UNICEF Ball honoring producer Jerry Weintraub in Beverly Hills, California December 10, 2009.
Photo by Fred Prouser
Privacy advocates slammed revamped Facebook privacy controls on Thursday, saying the change masks a move to get members to expose more information online.
"These new privacy changes aren't so great for privacy," said Nicole Ozer, northern California technology and civil liberties policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) rights group.
Online rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) labeled aspects of Facebook's privacy change "downright ugly."
The controversy came a day after Facebook began requiring users to refine settings with a new software tool that lets them specify who gets to be privy to each piece of content uploaded to the website.
A photographer accused of being a gold digger after he received a billion euros in gifts from France's richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt, will face trial in April, a court ruled on Friday.
Bettencourt's daughter filed a suit in court, arguing that her mother, the 87-year-old billionaire heiress to the L'Oreal cosmetics fortune, was mentally incompetent.
The court in Nanterre, near Paris, ruled on Friday that writer and photographer Francois-Marie Banier should face trial on April 15 and 16 on a charge of abusing the vulnerability of the old woman.
It also ordered that Liliane Bettencourt be examined by doctors to establish her state of health -- a move that she has so far refused.
The three medics are set to report back on March 10, 2010 with their assessment of Bettencourt's mental health.
From left to right, model Karissa Shannon, model Kristina Shannon, Hugh Hefner, and model Crystal Harris arrive at a party celebrating the release of the book 'Hugh Hefner's Playboy' a limited edition anthology by Taschen in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009.
Photo by Dan Steinberg
Police say an 18-foot-tall totem pole stolen from a West Seattle park has been found about 200 miles away in Oregon.
The Seattle Times reports a 69-year-old West Seattle man led investigators to the pole. Police say he apparently had a crew with a crane help move the totem, but it's unclear if the crew knew the man didn't have permission to take the landmark.
The totem pole was noticed missing last week. The Rotary Club of West Seattle donated the pole to the city in 1976 and estimates it would have cost about $75,000 to replace.
At the request of Seattle investigators, authorities in Oregon went to an address provided by the 69-year-old man and found the pole on a boat trailer in a Salem-area parking lot.
Inuit communities need funds to adapt to climate change in the Arctic, including measures to build communal deep freezers to store game because warming is reducing their hunting season, an Inuit leader said on Friday.
The Inuit, the indigenous people of Greenland, Canada, Alaska and Russia, have traditionally hunted for Arctic species from seal to polar bear, whale to caribou.
"In Canada we see climate changes on a day to day basis," said Violet Ford, a Canadian official of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC).
Ford, who was born and raised in the Inuit community of Makkovik, Labrador, said more funds are needed for adaptation and response to climate change in the Arctic and in developing countries.
A sun dog forms above the desert dome at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, in Omaha, Neb., Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2009. Wind gusts of 50 mph whipping the 10-plus inches of snow around in eastern Nebraska, as residents dig out from the storm. Overnight snowfall reports of 12 inches were common across the eastern half of Nebraska, with drifts up to 4 feet.
Photo by Nati Harnik
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