The nation has been well served by President Obama’s steady leadership. And Mitt Romney has demonstrated clearly that he’s the wrong choice.
Actor duped into appearing in ‘Innocence of Muslims’ explains: “Innocence of Muslims” was described to actors as a movie called “Desert Warrior.” One actor says the script he saw didn’t mention Muhammad or Islam. When he saw the finished movie, he was horrified.
A year earlier, I had done two days of acting in a film I’d been told would be called “Desert Warrior.” The images were clearly from that film, but my words had been replaced by words I would have never uttered, and the resulting film was something I would never have agreed to participate in. Here’s how it happened.
When my scenes were completed, I found Jeffrey, the assistant director, to ask for my payment. Jeffrey said they needed me the next week, and that they’d pay me in cash then. I told him I would be traveling and wouldn’t be available. He said that was OK; they would send the check. It never arrived.
Photo: A year ago, Myles Crawley, right, acted in a film he’d been told would be called “Desert Warrior.” It turned out to be “Innocence of Muslims,” left, which has been blamed for inciting violence in Libya, Egypt and Yemen.Credit: Myles Crawley / For The Times
Women in academia lose faith in having it all: More female doctoral students are backing away from the high-pressure academia race at the starting line, trading career ambitions for having a family, writes Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, an associate professor at USC.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about “having it all.” What do you think?
Related: Motherhood plus paid work equals better health at 40, study suggests
Illustration credit: Bonnie Dain / For The Times
“On Aug. 5, I was among those who witnessed the rover Curiosity landing on Mars in real time at NASA’s Caltech-managed Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The excitement was overwhelming: The one-ton Mars Science Laboratory broke through the Red Planet’s atmosphere, slowed its speed from 13,000 mph to almost zero and touched down. One glimpse of those first images from more than 100 million miles away demonstrated America’s leadership in innovation.
Curiosity — the rover and the concept — is what science is all about: the quest to reveal the unknown. America’s past investment in basic science and engineering, and its skill at nurturing the quest, is what led to the Mars triumph, and it is what undergirds U.S. leadership in today’s world. But now, decreases in science funding and increases in its bureaucracy threaten that leadership position.
After World War II, scientific research in the U.S. was well supported. In the 1960s, when I came to America, the sky was the limit, and this conducive atmosphere enabled many of us to pursue esoteric research that resulted in breakthroughs and Nobel prizes. American universities were magnets to young scientists and engineers from around the globe. The truth is that no one knew then what the effect of that research would be; no one could have predicted and promised all that resulted. After all, it is unpredictability that is the fabric of discovery.
In much of academia today, however, curiosity-driven research is no longer looked on favorably. Research proposals must specifically address the work’s “broad relevance to society” and provide “transformative solutions” even before research begins. Professors are writing more proposals chasing less research money, which reduces the time available for creative thinking. And with universities facing rising costs generally, professors are more and more involved in commercial enterprises, which may not always push basic research forward. Even faculty tenure may be driven less by how good one is at science than how good one is at fundraising.
These constraints and practices raise the question: Would a young Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman or Linus Pauling be attracted to science today? Would they be able to pursue their inquiries into fundamental questions?”
test reblogged from kateoplis
Tracing a line from the first black slave to the first black president.
“Two of the most historically significant African Americans in the history of our country are amazingly directly related,” declared genealogist Joseph Shumway. “John Punch was more than likely the genesis of legalized slavery in America. But after centuries of suffering, the Civil War and decades of civil rights efforts, his 11th great-grandson became the leader of the free world and the ultimate realization of the American dream.”
America’s prosperity requires a level playing field: To fix the economy, we must boost demand. To do that, we have to address inequality.
Illustration credit: Wes Bausmith / For The Times
L.A. — transit’s promised land: Which major U.S. city is at the cutting edge of forward-thinking transportation planning? Surprise: It’s Los Angeles.
L.A. transit has a long way to go, but Taras Grescoe’s op-ed is worth a read. What do you think?
Photo credit: Los Angeles Times
Our 20s are life’s developmental sweet spot. They matter. A lot.
President, to president, to president: POTUS’ best confidant may be his predecessors.
This is a pretty fascinating op-ed if you’re into history, politics and/or nonpartisanship.
“You will be our president when you read this note,” George Herbert Walker Bush wrote to Bill Clinton, the man who defeated him in the 1992 campaign, denying Bush the provisional vindication that reelection provides until history has its chance to judge from a distance. Nonetheless, in Oval Office tradition, Bush left a note for Clinton to read on taking office, and it echoed the message of transitions past, even between bitter political rivals: “I am rooting hard for you.”
Photo: President Obama, right, and former President Bill Clinton talk during a game of golf at Andrews Air Force Base. Credit: Evan Vucci / Associated Press
“I asked what party Nixon was from. Artie [my liberal friend] said he was an imbecile Republican. “Then I will be an imbecile Republican,” I said.”
— Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s GOP should take down its small tent - latimes.com
test reblogged from brooklynmutt
Although low administrative costs could indicate prudence and sound judgment at a charity, but it could just as easily indicate inadequate staffing, insufficient salaries or, shall we say, fudging.
Donating to charity is a worthy action. But which charity? Would it surprise you to know that the criterion that is most often used to decide that question is also the most unreliable? Would it surprise you more to know that many charities are aware of how flawed the criterion is and play it like a violin?
Asian identity crisis fades to worries of everyday life: For one reporter, fear of being mistaken for Korean yields to concerns about gray hair and household finances. But tensions between older and newer immigrants are a lingering challenge.
Recently, I was jarred to read an essay that ran on the front page of this newspaper two decades ago. “Suddenly, I am scared to be Asian,” the author wrote. “More specifically, I am afraid of being mistaken for Korean.”
Those words were mine, a fourth-generation Chinese American, written as large swaths of L.A. were smoldering. I’m sure my remarks made some readers suspect I had slept through Political Correctness 101. Had the violence racking the city really rubbed me so raw?
It’s easy to forget how confounding the events of that spring were for Los Angeles.
Photo: In Koreatown, a security guard waits for trouble. Credit: Hyungwon Kang / Los Angeles Times
Another city, not our own: To live in Los Angeles during the riots was like waking up and seeing your own room through a distorting lens. Now L.A. has changed. We build and tear down and rebuild and glory in the forgetting.
Photo: National Guardsmen patrol near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Vermont Avenue as the ruins of stores smolder. Credit: Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times
Then-staff cartoonist Paul Conrad’s assessment of the verdict in the Rodney King case that led to rioting in Los Angeles.
