Some 80s fun to brighten your Friday

Stonehenge's mystery solved

The secret of Stonehenge has apparently been solved: The mysterious circle of large stones in southern England was primarily a burial ground for almost five centuries, and the site probably holds the remains of a family that long ruled the area, new research concludes.

Based on radiocarbon dating of cremated bones up to 5,000 years old, researchers with the Stonehenge Riverside Project said they are convinced the area was built and then grew as a "domain of the ancestors."

The finding marks a significant rethinking of Stonehenge. In the past it was believed that some burials took place there for a century but that the site's significance lay in its ceremonial and religious functions, including serving as a center for healing.

Newbury Street icon Louis seeks someplace trendier

Louis Boston, a fixture on Newbury Street that helped usher luxury retail into the city, will move out of its historic building when its lease expires in 2010, opening up the marquee 40,000 square foot space for the first time in 20 years.

Owner Debi Greenberg, who took over the business in 2003 from her father, Murray Pearlstein, said the trendsetting boutique will leave Newbury Street, Boston's best-known shopping address, for the waterfront or another neighborhood.

Greenberg, who wants to add a spa and bakery to the designer emporium, said she is looking for a new site with the kind of edge Newbury Street used to have.

A bracelet that tells you if the sun is harming you?

Raise awareness about early melanoma detection & prevention by buying an "I Will Reflect" bracelet. It changes color when exposed to harmful UV rays.

SpaFinder is a proud sponsor of the Skin Cancer Foundation.

Made for hazel eyes

That's me!

A Tiny Fruit That Tricks the Tongue

CARRIE DASHOW dropped a large dollop of lemon sorbet into a glass of Guinness, stirred, drank and proclaimed that it tasted like a “chocolate shake.”

Nearby, Yuka Yoneda tilted her head back as her boyfriend, Albert Yuen, drizzled Tabasco sauce onto her tongue. She swallowed and considered the flavor: “Doughnut glaze, hot doughnut glaze!”

They were among 40 or so people who were tasting under the influence of a small red berry called miracle fruit at a rooftop party in Long Island City, Queens, last Friday night. The berry rewires the way the palate perceives sour flavors for an hour or so, rendering lemons as sweet as candy.

When 'Organic' Might Not Be

A recent investigative report found that some food at Whole Foods stores labeled "organically grown" is actually "organically grown in China."

It is often too difficult to tell if food from China is in fact organically grown.

Spinach…. sugar snap peas… and would you believe California blend vegetables?
They’re all listed under the Whole Foods brand “365 organic.” And on the back in small print: “product of China.”

Earning a $10k bond is child's play

Local chef and third- grader Sophie Philibert likes to experiment with different ingredients. And her parents - a professional artist and a science teacher - let their daughter exercise her creativity.
It didn't work out so well when she tried new measurements for pancake batter. They were deeply surprised by a batch of cookies that contained an entire bottle of vanilla extract.

Another experiment came when the 8-year-old peered out the window last winter and came up with "snowy casserolly."
Last month the recipe won her a $10,000 savings bond. Sophie won the Stop & Shop Kitch'N Kids contest, a partnership with local dairy producers, designed to promote healthy eating.

Read the story.

The recipe serves 4

The beans represent the soil, spinach is grass, rice snow, and cheese on top sheets of ice. This dish is microwaved.

• 2 1/4 cups water
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 cup brown rice
• Pinch each of ground cumin and nutmeg
• 1 can (15 ounces) black beans
• 10 ounces fresh spinach, stemmed and rinsed
• 8 ounces reduced fat cheddar cheese, sliced

1. Bring 2 cups of salted water to a boil. Add the rice, cover, and turn the heat to low. Simmer for 35 to 45 minutes or until the rice is cooked through. Add more water, if the rice has absorbed the liquid but needs more cooking. When cooked, set aside for 5 minutes. Add pepper, cumin, and nutmeg.

2. Place the spinach leaves in a saucepan. Set over medium heat. Cover and steam for 3 minutes or until the leaves wilt. Remove the spinach from the pan with tongs, leaving the liquid in the pan.

3. In a 9-inch square microwaveable safe dish, spread the black beans. Cover with the spinach, then a layer of rice, and finally the slices of cheese.

4. Microwave the dish for 3 to 6 minutes to melt the cheese.

An Easier Way Up

Hills Are Good for the Heart, but Many Hate The Effort. Here Are Some Tips to Ease the Pain.

Sex-ed class designed for parents, too

Sex education has long sparked controversy, with some believing it does not belong in public school curriculums. Budget constraints, meanwhile, have recently forced some districts to drop the subject altogether.

In this environment, a nurse at a private medical practice in this area has come up with an instructional program that appears to have taken the edge off for many parents by pitching sex education to them as well as to youngsters.

The pilot Smart Sex Education Program, offered free and conducted outside of school, has drawn rave reviews from parents, who say it has made them more comfortable about discussing the awkward subject with their children.
The course is also a boon in communities where schools have had to limit sex education because of a lack of funds.

"I think it's a wonderful way to approach it," said participant Angela C. Waszak, a Westford mother of three girls, ages 4, 8, and 9. "I want to be the information source [about sex] - not have them hear it on the bus or from their friends. Once they know the facts, you can talk about values."

YUM -- McDonald's cooking fries in trans-fat-free oil

McDonald's said Thursday its french fries are now trans-fat-free in all its restaurants in the United States and Canada, catching it up with its fast-food rivals in that category.


By the way, I calculated the calories in a typical meal my husband gets -- scary:
http://app.mcdonalds.com/bagamcmeal?process=flash

Turnpike reviews who gets a free pass at tolls

Is this for real? There are people who don't have to pay tolls....even though, by nature of their job, they're probably MOST likely to be using the Pike???

Facing the prospect of new toll increases, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority is taking a fresh look at an old program that allows nearly 4,000 drivers to pass through toll booths without spending a dime.

At last, "Big-ticket schools prompt a scolding"

State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill complained yesterday that some Massachusetts communities are embarking on excessive, McMansion school construction projects that neither the towns nor the state can afford.

With taxpayer outrage already evident over Newton's proposed $197.5 million high school, Cahill expressed concern about a project in neighboring Wellesley, which is planning a $159 million school.

"I'm a big believer in local control, but if no one is going to control it at the local level, that's what we're here for," Cahill said in an interview. "There is no blank check for this school or any that would come after it."

Cahill called on local communities and their school committees to keep the cost of projects reasonable or risk losing millions of dollars in reimbursements from the state School Building Authority, which he chairs. The authority pays 40 percent to 80 percent of eligible expenses of a project, depending on the wealth of the town and other factors.

"We'll give you a gymnasium, we'll give you an auditorium, but we will not give you a fine arts academy. We will not give you a sports academy," he said. "Just because a community wants it doesn't mean they're going to get the money."

Teacher's fight ends in deportation; his safety is feared

He was a top teacher in Boston public schools. He is married to a U.S. Citizen. He came here on a valid visa, has sought asylum, and is the subject of special legislation filed by Sens. Ted Kennedy and John Kerry to grant him citizenship (the bill expired last year because Congress never acted on it, said Attouoman's lawyer, Susan Cohen.)

Yet today, Obain Attouoman was deported to the Ivory Coast, forcing him back to the very place he fled in fear of his life, after being persecuted for political activism as a member of a teacher's union there.

Chelsea going into the family business?

Is politics in Chelsea Clinton's future?

Bill Clinton says maybe.

In an interview with People Magazine, the former president said he thinks his daughter is a natural campaigner who may one day follow her parents into the family business.

"If you asked me [whether Chelsea would go into politics] before Iowa, I would have said, 'No way. She is too allergic to anything we do.' But she is really good at it," the former president said in the latest edition of the magazine

China earthquake threatens future of the Qiang

One of the many indiscriminate acts of last week's massive earthquake was the destruction of the ancestral homeland of the Qiang, one of the more mysterious of China's minorities.
Described variously as descendants of a legendary 21st century BC Chinese emperor or a lost tribe of Israelites, the Qiang number only about 300,000.

As their singular misfortune would have it, almost all lived within 100 miles of the earthquake's epicenter, mainly in Sichuan province's hardest-hit counties.

The Qiang's identity already has question marks. They have some resemblance in physical appearance and culture to Tibetans, although they practice a pre-Buddhist animism, believing everything is imbued with spirits.

Their lineage is also under debate. Qiang has various dialects and no written form. Out of 300,000 Qiang, only about 100,000 speak the language. Even many older people don't bother speaking it to their children.

Ballsy, Jeff Jacoby

"Misunderstanding marriage in California."

Here's what the Globe's Jeff Jacoby says:

Men and women are not interchangeable, and same-sex unions - no matter how devoted and enduring - cannot take the place of a married husband and wife. The essential function of marriage is to unite male and female. That is the only kind of union that can produce new life, and therefore the only kind of union in which society has a survival stake.

Of course many gay and lesbian relationships are stable, loving, and happy. But since they cannot do what marriage can - bind men and women to each other and to the children that their sexual behavior may produce - they have never been regarded in the same light as marriage. Somehow, that crucial distinction eluded a majority of the California Supreme Court. Happily, California voters will soon have the chance to make things right.

Discuss.

This is bull: American cuts flights, charges $15 for 1st bag

American said this morning that it needs to tighten the belt big time. What that means is that it will start charging $15 to most passengers to check a first bag, and it plans to cut its schedule by as much as 12 percent. American also said it would raise other fees from $5 to $50 for a range of services like reservation help to oversized bags.
The carrier's decision on baggage comes just a month after it decided to join other major carriers in charging $25 for a second checked bag.
This means if you arrive with two bags the tab will be $40 each way.

Richard Cohen: Why Clinton fights on

The New York Times recently ran down a list of women who might someday become the nation's first female president. Out of both courtesy and caution, it included Hillary Clinton, but the whole point of the exercise was that it is not going to be her. Her campaign is all but over, but that's no longer the point. She's ending it in a way to start all over.

That Clinton will lose this time is a foregone conclusion. That she deserves to lose is a widely accepted opinion, strongly held by women as well as men, which, you would think, should mute the growing chorus that Clinton is the victim of vicious misogyny.

I, too, have taken my shots at Clinton. I have done so not because of any sexism but for reasons having to do with character and, inevitably, a kind of Clinton fatigue: Eight years of her husband was enough. It was, in fact, those eight years -- a drizzle of pseudo-scandals and one genuine whopper -- that crippled Clinton's campaign right from the start. To most Americans, she ran first and foremost as the wife of the former president -- a third Clinton term for a weary nation.

A Musician Who Performs With a Scalpel

For Claudius Conrad, a 30-year-old surgeon who has played the piano seriously since he was 5, music and medicine are entwined — from the academic realm down to the level of the fine-fingered dexterity required at the piano bench and the operating table.

Like many surgeons, Dr. Conrad says he works better when he listens to music. And he cites studies, including some of his own, showing that music is helpful to patients as well — bringing relaxation and reducing blood pressure, heart rate, stress hormones, pain and the need for pain medication.

But to the extent that music heals, how does it heal? The physiological pathways responsible have remained obscure, and the search for an underlying mechanism has moved slowly.

Now Dr. Conrad is trying to change that.

He recently published a provocative paper suggesting that music may exert healing and sedative effects partly through a paradoxical stimulation of a growth hormone generally associated with stress rather than healing.

Finding the Best Way to Cook All Those Vegetables

A growing body of research shows that when it comes to vegetables, it’s not only how much we eat, but how we prepare them, that influences the amount of phytochemicals, vitamins and other nutrients that enter our body.

But how should they be served? Surprisingly, raw and plain vegetables are not always best.

In January, a report in The Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry concluded that over all, boiling was better for carrots, zucchini and broccoli than steaming, frying or serving them raw. Frying was by far the worst.

Still very much in shock

Senator Kennedy diagnosed with brain tumor; prognosis seen as poor

Decline of an Iraqi hospital

Psychiatric care in Iraqi hospitals has grown dangerously spare and, at times, near barbaric.

The Ibn Rushid psychiatric hospital in central Baghdad, once a jewel of Iraq's medical system, has been plunged into archaic conditions.

For patients who are suicidal or catatonic and do not respond to drugs, electroconvulsive therapy is administered by a 25-year-old machine.

Italy's farmers find green gold in kiwi

As unlikely as it sounds, cultivation of the kiwi is booming in Italy, with farmers lured by high profits, the ease with which it can be planted in former vineyards and the cachet of growing an exotic product.

As the name suggests, green fields stretch in every direction here in Campoverde. But where grapes once dominated, the landscape now has a new king: kiwi.

Somewhat improbably, Italy has grown to become the world's largest producer of the odd furry fruit, according to the National Institute of Agricultural Economics, surpassing even New Zealand, which coined the name for the fruit once known as the Chinese gooseberry.

A shadow is cast on a hopeful scene

When rescue workers pulled Cao Jianqiang out of the rubble, the first thing he did was cover his eyes against the sun, which he hadn't seen in 75 hours. Then, overjoyed that his life had been spared, he gave a big wave to cheering bystanders.

That joy has been tempered by news that after Cao survived three days without food or water while trapped in the wreckage of Dongqi High School, his foot will probably have to be amputated.

For a poor farm family with only one son, this is devastating news, particularly in a country where prestige and earning power still rest with the male line and being disabled carries a huge stigma. A single well-educated male offspring with a good job can raise a family's standing and fortunes. But most universities won't even accept applicants with disabilities.

"In the future, not only won't the young boy support us, but we old men will have to support him," said Cao's uncle, Cao Biyun, 53, crying.

'Children of no one'

It's the 1968 revolution you never heard of. Forty years ago today, tucked in between the assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling repudiated centuries of settled law by granting constitutional recognition and protection to a previously outcast group: children born outside of marriage and their parents.

The cases arose out of two private tragedies in Louisiana. Minnie Glona's 19-year-old son was killed in a car accident. Louise Levy, a mother of five who worked as a domestic, died after a doctor failed to diagnose her hypertension uremia. Glona sued for wrongful death; so did Levy's children.

But lower courts threw out their cases. Why? Because Louisiana law specifically blocked a parent's recovery for the death of a child, or a child's recovery for the death of a parent, if the child was born outside marriage. Both Glona and Levy were unmarried.

This article offers an interesting perspective on the sexual revolution and how it helped bring about change for children born out of wedlock; I disagree with the larger point the author makes at the end, however, saying that affording certain rights based on marital status -- to make medical or financial decisions, for example -- is in itself wrong, whether pertaining to straight or gay couples. There is a difference between being married or not, whether or not children are involved, and I don't think society stands to benefit from changing that.

Ruling may force hundreds out of Cape Cod motels

Yesterday, the Board of Health in Yarmouth, citing a year-old law that prohibits motel owners from renting units beyond 30 consecutive days to customers without a permanent address, voted to suspend the motel's license, potentially forcing 250 low-income people from the Cavalier and two other motels in town. Town officials acknowledged there had been no health violation at any of the three motels.

Harry Miller, owner of the three properties, said his motels should be exempt from the new law, because he received town approval to renovate them in order to provide affordable housing to those who need a place to say for several months. He said that he has appeared before numerous town boards over the years and that everyone knew he was allowing guests to stay longer than 30 days.

"There should be a better place for us to live, but we can't afford the first month, last month, and security deposit to get in. Or the utilities. The rents we've seen are up to 2,000 a month," said motel resident Kerri Blackwell, 37, who works at a nearby Dunkin' Donuts shop and says she cannot find a more affordable apartment in the area.

Those who supported Miller said local officials were acting because they wanted to raise more money from the motels, which do not have to pay taxes for guests who stay longer than 90 days.

"What they're trying to do is unjust. It's all about money," said Ann Rebello, a Yarmouth resident at the meeting. "They would rather have tourists."

Beantown is bad news for Times

The New York Times is getting dragged down again by declining business at its Boston Globe group, which Wall Street investors want the Times to dump to protect the mother ship.

The Globe unit's ad revenue in April tumbled 12 percent in the widening economic slump, while the Times withstood serious declines with just a 0.7 percent drop in its ad revenue. Its 16 other regional papers suffered a 16.4 percent drop in ad business.

Honestly

Probably the most gorgeous beach towel I've ever seen.

Send in the Latrines

It's the rainy season in Myanmar. It’s also cholera season. When Cyclone Nargis arrived two weeks ago, the waters it unleashed destroyed houses and killed people and livestock. The storm also devastated other things that haven’t made the headlines, but that can mean the difference between life and death: toilets.
Even before the cyclone, 75 percent of Burmese had no latrines. Like some 2.6 billion other people worldwide, they do their business by roadsides, on train tracks or wherever they can.
But the few latrines that did exist in the Irrawaddy Delta are now flooded or flattened, and their contents have seeped into already filthy waters.

So what? There are other priorities, aren’t there? Food, shelter and clean water are what aid agencies emphasize. But human excrement is a weapon of mass destruction.

A gram of human feces can contain up to 10 million viruses. At least 50 communicable diseases — including cholera, meningitis and typhoid — travel from host to host in human excrement. It doesn’t take much: a small child, maybe, who plays in soil where people have been defecating, then dips his fingers in the family rice pot.

The aftermath of a disaster like Cyclone Nargis — with masses of weakened people on the move — is a communicable disease paradise.

"Stranded in Suburbia"

Despite the gentrification that has taken place in some inner cities, and the plunge in national crime rates to levels not seen in decades, it will be hard to shake the longstanding American association of higher-density living with poverty and personal danger.

Still, if we’re heading for a prolonged era of scarce, expensive oil, Americans will face increasingly strong incentives to start living like Europeans — maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of our lives.

"Dancing the night away, with a higher purpose."

The New York Times has an interesting story on so-called Purity Balls this week. I had read about this in Glamour last year, and I do find them both interesting and troubling.

The idea of fathers taking their daughters to prom-like events where they pledge their purity until marriage is slightly creepy to me, but not in the sense that I don't think fathers should be involved in this arena of teens lives. Having been raised Christian, I definitely knew where my parents stood on such things and it made me feel secure to be raised with a definite compass, whether or not I rebelled or agreed.

I like what it says here about the role fathers play -- I think it's true that a healthy father-daughter relationship can prevent what one girl interviewed in the story describes as teens "searching for love elsewhere," and ending up hurt or, worse, pregnant or infected with an STD.

What I DON'T agree with about this notion is the onus always being on the young woman to stay pure for her future husband in Christian circles.
How often it's drilled into girls to stay "pure," while Christian parents turn a blind eye to their sons dating, and/or sleeping with, non-believing teenage girls. It's almost like they see it as unavoidable in teen boys, and they see those non-Christian girls they fool around with as expendable. I applaud fathers -- who already have a difficult, challenging job raising daughters -- for trying to set a protective example, and to let their children know they're valued and worth waiting for. But the so-called "hook up culture" goes both ways, and it's time Christian families raised their boys with the same standards!

Big Brown leaves Pimlico for New York

Big Brown is led to his trailer at Pimlico Race Course by groom Herasmo Gonzalez, before departing for New York. The colt won Saturday's Preakness by 5 1/4 lengths and is 5-0 in five career races, winning by a combined 39 lengths.


"I am feeling pretty confident about things," trainer Rick Dutrow said. "I can see that he is sharp. Yesterday he was bouncing and today the same thing. He is doing good and that makes everything so much easier."

Of the thirty-one other horses that have left Pimlico with a chance at the Triple Crown, including six since 1997, only 11 have completed the feat by winning the Belmont Stakes.

The Old Titans All Collapsed. Is the U.S. Next?

More than 80 percent of Americans now say that we are on the wrong track, but many if not most still believe that the history of other nations is irrelevant -- that the United States is unique, chosen by God.

So did all the previous world economic powers: Rome, Spain, the Netherlands (in the maritime glory days of the 17th century, when New York was New Amsterdam) and 19th-century Britain. Their early strength was also their later weakness, not unlike the United States since the 1980s.

There is a considerable literature on these earlier illusions and declines. Reading it, one can argue that imperial Spain, maritime Holland and industrial Britain shared a half-dozen vulnerabilities as they peaked and declined: a sense of things no longer being on the right track, intolerant or missionary religion, military or imperial overreach, economic polarization, the rise of finance (displacing industry) and excessive debt.

So too for today's United States.

Nooooooooo

Anything but tolls on 93.

Gov. Deval Patrick's top transportation official signaled today that he wants to take a closer look at adding tolls on Interstate 93, but stopped well short of endorsing that method for raising more money for the state.

Things you think make you cool, but don't.

Ironic belts. Blue tooth headsets. Stupid ringtones. The list goes on.

Daniel Day-Lewis is in talks to star in "Nine," the musical Rob Marshall is directing for the Weinstein Co.

Day-Lewis would play the role of Guido Contini, replacing Javier Bardem, who dropped out of a planned fall start, stating he was exhausted from work and awards season. The role is a famous film director who experiences personal and creative crisis while trying to balance all the women in his life.

Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren, Nicole Kidman and Judi Dench will play the women.

Movie I can't wait for

Photo (obvi) courtesy of PerezHilton.

Meryl Streep plays legendary chef Julia Child in the upcoming film, Julie and Julia.

The project centers on a frustrated temp secretary who embarks on a yearlong culinary quest to cook all 524 recipes in Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." She chronicles her trials and tribulations in a blog that catches on with the food crowd.

Nora Ephron, who is adapting the screenplay from Julie Powell's book "Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen," is attached to direct.

'Delivered out of the mouth of the lion.'

Anne Hjelle rides her mountain bike up the Cholla Trail in the Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park as Nicholls follows. Four years ago, a mountain lion attacked Hjelle as she rode in Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park and Nicholls helped save her.
Audio Slideshow.

It's official: polar bear is 'threatened' species

From the Press Conference On Polar Bear Listing by U.S. Dept. of the Interior Secretary Kempthorne:

Today’s decision is based on three findings. First, sea ice is vital to polar bear survival. Second, the polar bear’s sea-ice habitat has dramatically melted in recent decades. Third, computer models suggest sea ice is likely to further recede in the future.

Because polar bears are vulnerable to this loss of habitat, they are, in my judgment, likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future - in this case 45 years.

Three graphics tell the story. These graphics are based on actual satellite photos taken over the past three decades.

The first graphic shows the extent of arctic sea ice in September 1979, then 1989 and Sept. 2007.

Whitney wins!

I'll be checking this place out

(Of course, now that I've moved from Inman):

Benatti opened in January on the stretch of Cambridge Street exiting Inman Square, home to many excellent Portuguese and Brazilian restaurants ... It deserves to be much loved. It earns it with its elegantly laconic menu: three antipasti, seven pasta dishes (and one exquisite risotto), five well-turned entrees, and six desserts that are far better than anyone disillusioned by the average Italian-restaurant dolci has hope to expect.

Pictured, a dessert of roasted apple ravioli is served with a honey-ginger sauce at Benatti.

Read the Globe Review here.

Hillary Clinton may need Barack Obama's help with her campaign debt

She owes $21 million, more than half of which she borrowed from herself.
Historically, winners have helped their rivals repay their debts.

and the nominees....

For the 2008 Tony Awards are: here.

Find reactions here.

Read the Times coverage with slideshows and analysis.

Penmanship reflects personality of candidates

Now that the presidential contest is looking ever more like a two-man race, the country can't help but marvel: John McCain, once a longshot, wouldn't lie down. Barack Obama, the new kid, charmed voters. And Hillary Rodham Clinton, an early favorite, has yet to surrender.

But Arlyn J. Imberman would say clues to the nomination fight were in plain sight, every time a candidate wrote a thank-you note, inscribed a memoir or autographed a pair of boxing gloves.

Study Says Foreigners In U.S. Adapt Quickly

Immigrants of the past quarter-century have been assimilating in the United States at a notably faster rate than did previous generations, according to a study released today.

Modern-day immigrants arrive with substantially lower levels of English ability and earning power than those who entered during the last great immigration wave at the turn of the 20th century.

The gap between today's foreign-born and native populations remains far wider than it was in the early 1900s and is particularly large in the case of Mexican immigrants, the report said.

In general, the longer an immigrant lives in the United States, the more characteristics of native citizens he or she tends to take on, said Jacob L. Vigdor, a professor at Duke University and author of the study.

Boston may actually add bike lanes?

In July, the city plans to unveil its first designated bike lanes, on Commonwealth Avenue between the Boston University Bridge and Kenmore Square. The city may also add bike lanes to Massachusetts Avenue between Albany Street and Huntington Avenue, Tremont Street along Boston Common, and on American Legion Highway, which runs past Franklin Park.

By year's end, officials plan to install 250 bike racks across the city and 750 over the next three years.

Longtime cyclists hope it happens. Boston is known far and wide as one of the most inhospitable cities for bikers, an obstacle course of gaping construction sites, tire-popping potholes, and lead-footed drivers.

Are polar bears headed for endangered list?

A federal judge in California has ordered the Bush administration to decide by May 15 whether the polar bear deserves protection under the Endangered Species Act.

If the polar bear is labeled as threatened, it would be the first species to be listed because of the threat of global warming.

As temperatures warm, the Arctic sea ice that supports the polar bear shrinks, leaving the animals to drown as they are forced to swim long distances between the ice, or simply starve to death.

There are groups that say placing the polar bear on the endangered species list will increase oil prices because it will shut down any possibility of further oil exploration in Alaska. Many Native American groups and the Alaskan government oppose the listing.

More superdelegates go Obama's way

He might get blown out today in West Virginia's primary, but Barack Obama has already added two more superdelegates, as more and more of the party leaders decide that he will be the Democratic nominee.

A natural bug repellent?

Some bugs are good for the garden. Not many are good for the skin.
Beekman1802 Bug Repellent Bars are made of goat milk, naturally scented with Citronella, Eucalyptus and other essential oils shown to help keep bugs away.
For long days outdoors, shower with one of the small squares.
For shorter exposures, rub the square on your pulse points.
Body heat will release the scent from the oils into the air.
They're chemical free and come with a carrying pouch. Only $14 - smart, eh?

The mayor shows a little leg

...for Bay State Bike Week.
No, I haven't participated in biking to work yet. My bike needs a tuneup in a major way, and also it was pretty windy out there today. I and my bike would have been blustered away.

But it's a worthy cause.

There are breakfast pit stops, prizes and more.