Monday, October 5, 2009

I'm baaaaaaaacccccckkkkkkkkkkk...

After a very long break from this blog (and a much-needed vacation from my life), I am back posting again. Germany was an absolute blast; I enjoyed every single second. It was good to see old friends and meet new ones, and Wiesn (Oktoberfest) was a great deal of fun.

I'm still a little scattered in that "I just got back from a great vacation and don't really want to focus on reality" way, so I figured I'd kick off the week with a round up. I'm also very hopped up on cold medicine; a lovely co-passenger on my Lufthansa flight home gave me a cold. :-P

Below is a 20-second clip from YouTube of the only existing film of Anne Frank. In the clip she is 13 years old and peeking out her window to see a neighboring couple who just got married. The film was taken about one year before the Occupation.

The Christian Science Monitor reported on the citizens' reaction to Rio de Janeiro's winning Olympic bid. The Brazilians were overjoyed, many reduced to tears and singing. A tens-of-thousands strong samba quickly broke out after the announcement, and as the CS Monitor stringer reported, I imagine the city's reaction to winning is a microcosm of how the 2016 Olympics will go - chaotic, fun and a bit disorganized.

In another piece of typically front-page news, it was announced this morning by CNN that three Americans have won the 100th Nobel prize for medicine for their work in chromosome research. Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak will share the $1.4 million prize after looking into how chromosomes are protected against degradation.

Finally, AP (via Google News) posted a story on a sequel of Winnie-the-Pooh 81 years in the making. A.A. Milne published his last Pooh book - The House at Pooh Corner - in 1928, but the Trustees of Pooh Properties (can you imagine saying you work for them??) authorized David Benedictus to pick up where Milne and illustrator E.H. Shepard left off. Benedictus' book, "Return to the Hundred Acre Wood" is released today. There is a new friend among the bunch - Lottie the Otter, a stickler for etiquette and fierce cricket fan - but everyone else seems pretty much the same. Pooh scholars, yes there are quite a few, are split on the appropriateness of this new book, but I may just scoot over to Borders after work...

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