Big Sole Blog (BSB)

Nintendo is warning buyers of its new 3DS that exposure to 3D gaming could stunt eye development in children under six years old. I saw this story at CNN, where the writer says it's possible to switch off the 3D functionality. Nintendo further warns:"... everyone who plays the 3-D gaming system to take periodic breaks from the games as often as every hour or 30 minutes."It seems all visual 3D

Updated January 1, 2011: ABC News has published an article indicating Gov. Barbour may have broken transplant laws with this deal:Ethicists say suspending a prison sentence on the condition that one sister give the other a kidney is a "quid pro quo" and threatens the ethical underpinnings of living donation laws. ... Dr. William Hurlburt, a Stanford neurologist who sat on the President's Council

In this 2010 Year in Wayward Gators video, you'll see a cat take on two alligators. That would not be my cat. She runs from the sweater shaver.

CNN is reporting that R&B singer Teena Marie, known for singing with the late Rick James and also having a powerhouse voice, has died in her sleep at age 54. Her manager says she suffered a grand mal seizure earlier this year. The video below is the original recording of "Fire and Desire," her most famous duet with James and the version I bought when I was a 19 or 20 and it was new. I bought it

Coldplay's "Fix You" was playing last night in my dream, and that's probably because I heard it recently during NBC's Sing Off! finale last Monday night. The exceptionally talented Street Corner Symphony performed it with other contestants. I will buy their first CD, and I will also joyfully buy Committed's first CD. They are the group of church boys from Alabama who won the $100,000 prize and

According to CNN:The Supreme Court has again cast aside an appeal that raised doubts about President Barack Obama's U.S. citizenship, a grass-roots legal issue that has gained little legal or political footing, but continues to persist in the courts. ... The justices without comment Monday rejected a challenge from Charles Kerchner Jr., a Pennsylvania man who sought a trial in federal court

Just when I thought some Tea Party leaders could sink no lower, I learn that one of its most prominent leaders, according to the Huffington Post, is calling for the United Methodist Church to be disbanded. I take this personally since I grew up in the UMC.My grandfather and great-grandfather were UMC ministers and many of my family members are still on its rolls. In fact, I've been thinking about

Last year I wrote "The Grim Sleeper: Death and Racial Politics," a post about the California case involving a serial killer who murders poor, black women and the investigation's slow progress. Fellow blogger MsLadyDeborah alerted me to an update. Per the LA Times, the Los Angeles Police Department is "seeking the public's aid in identifying about 160 women whose images were found on the property

Is this controversy with boycott the same as objections to The Last Airbender casting? As Rosanna Rosanna Danna would say, "It's always something!"I just read at The Root and the U.K. Guardian that a white supremacist group in the U.S.A. is boycotting the superhero movie Thor because British black actor Idris Elba has been cast as the Norse god Heimdall. Wikipedia says Heimdall is called "the

Years ago, when I first heard Gerald Levert's "Your Smile," I loved the song, but that was partly because it sampled Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's "Your Precious Love." When he talks in the opening of "Your Smile" he makes no mention of the classic by name, but he does say we should "remember this one from way back." Here's Marvin and Tammi singing "Your Precious Love."

Remember the old saying, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean nobody's following you"? Well, now, given the many security cameras in stores, RFID tags in clothing, trackers attached to shopping carts, the next time you get that creepy feeling that someone's watching, you'll probably be right.

I had to post this Digital Story of the Nativity, especially since my final pedagogy project for a rhetoric and composition class was on social media and composition in the digital age. It begins with Mary hearing from Gabriel, the arch angel, on her iPhone. I hope readers enjoy it.

I saw this on a friend's Facebook page (before CNN picked it up), YouTube video of the University of Hawaii marching band formation of a ball being kicked. Whoever mapped this one out was really thinking and from now on, everybody else's traditional formations may look amateurish. I had to show it to both my adult children, both former band geeks.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economyWikileaks founder Julian Assange says he designed the website exposing government "secrets" so that he would not know the identities of people who leak information to the site. Consequently, he tells NBC's Today show that he does not know Army Specialist Bradley Manning, 22, (pictured) the U.S. private who's been accused of

Did you recognize the image Clay Duke painted on the wall from the movie V for Vendetta?When I saw this story about the Florida school board shooting yesterday, I got a chill, not just because the video was scary either. I used to cover school board meetings in other parts of the country and sometimes the people coming in to protest budget cuts or ask for school board backing on some project did

Even though Hugh Jackman crashed and hurt his eye doing a zip-line stunt for Oprah Winfrey in Australia, the Queen of Talk's ultimate Australian adventure is a hit down under. The BBC's Nick Bryant in Sydney said her visit feels like a "presidential, papal and royal visit all rolled into one."I saw the show yesterday when she told her "ultimate viewers" that she was taking them, the entire

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, 39, who is receiving a flood of support from around the world, has been released on bail with tight restrictions, report news sources. Per Sky.com:He was granted conditional bail for £240,000, thanks in large part to an address being put forward where the Australian national could reside. ... Vaughn Smith, a former Army captain who founded and runs the journalist

I knew I had forgotten something in my Aretha Franklin tribute. Tonight I was listening to Aretha's "Chain of Fools" and then remembered this entertaining dance scene with John Travolta and ladies in the movie Michael.

I took these photos last year during the 2009 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Actually, I shot video that was too crowded with tourists walking in front of my view to post online. More photos are posted on my Facebook page. I probably need to check this with Kalamu ya Salaam, but I think these two black Mardi Gras Indians in the first two photos both serve as the wild man that clears the

This slide show at The Root captivated me this morning.The Talented Tenth in PicturesTo counter the negative images of African Americans in the late 19th century, W.E.B. Du Bois displayed portraits of middle-class blacks at the Paris Exposition of 1900. The Root has published some images from this act of defiance.The photos are courtesy of the prints and photographs division of the Library of

Thank you to Elisa at BlogHer.com, I learned that I can watch NBC's Sing Off! on Hulu as well as at NBC. I saw the opening episode, but apparently this second one got away from me. I didn't realize that it comes on twice weekly, Mondays and Wednesdays at 8 eastern/7 central.To me, this show is much better in its second season than it was in its first season. I think they realized with Glee's

I was working on something else, when I glimpsed the headlines for Metrodome's roof collapse. I thought I was misreading the news, but it's true. With the blizzard sacking the Midwest, so much snow has fallen in Minneapolis that the stadium's Teflon roof caved in. As a result, the Vikings/Giants game will be Detroit tomorrow night. Gee, I hope Prince is nice and warm. Here's Fox Sports video of

CNN's John Sutter defines the term "cyber attack" in the video above and says a cyber attack is an attack that takes place online, in cyberspace, and not in the real world. He also says the term "cyber war" regarding the attacks in support of Wikileaks and Julian Assange is an exaggeration.These attacks generally involve bombarding a website's servers with request that cause its actual customers

Thinking about Aretha Franklin's diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and writing my Aretha Franklin tribute for BlogHer.com, I mentioned Luther Vandross but not the feud he had with the diva. I just learned about that through Google Books. There you can read old issues of Jet Magazine like the one below. (click the picture to read the old Jet article.) You can also read my full post at BlogHer

The news about Aretha Franklin is not good, not good at all. Reports from her family earlier this week say the 68-year-old singer, pop culture icon, Detroit resident, and first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has pancreatic cancer. The illness has a high incidence rate among African-Americans, according to John Hopkins University researchers, but it's also the illness that

I've decided to make another comment trapper like the one I had years ago at my old blog. That way, I don't have to maintain any special comment software for posts I create on my WritingJunkie website. Now, if I can remember to add this link to quickie pages created at WJ, then maybe I'll hear from people who pop over there.

Julian Assange has been arrested on those Swedish rape charges. Does this mean we can expect him to release that "poison pill"? The Daily Mail reported days ago that Assange would "release poison pill of damaging secrets if killed or arrested." CNN says it's been called a "doomsday file," and Assange calls it his insurance. It's an encrypted file that you need a password to open, and Wikileaks

Is it really news news that Bill Maher thinks Glenn Beck wants to be a religious leader? I'm not sure Beck wants to be a preacher the way Maher thinks he does, complete with cathedral and tax exemption, but I do think Beck wants his true believers to think he may be some kind of prophet. That's part of Beck schtick, his gimmick. He says in one of the clips below, "I'm turning into a fricking

It's unlikely that I will be getting a job with the Federal Government, given my age and disposition these days, and so, despite warnings to people to not comment on Wikileaks if they hope to get a Federal job in the future, I can make a statement: This week's Saturday Night Live opening skit of Wikileaks as TMZ is hilarious!I started laughing as soon as the actor playing Julian Assange came on.

Over the years, a few rappers and Hip Hop stars (such as IceCube) have complained that Oprah doesn't have them on her show or tell their rags-to-riches stories to America. I've said before that they aren't really paying attention. Oprah's has the Hip Hop performers on that she likes. She plugged Jay-Z's new book on her show, has had Beyonce on more than once, and during the Don Imus controversy,

What happens when a woman questions the status quo? Could it be that she can change the concept of life as we know it? It's possible. Recent NASA news shook the web with the announcement that lead scientist and geomicrobilogist Felisa Wolfe-Simon of NASA’s Astrobiology Program has made a discovery that will cause textbooks to be rewritten. She found an organism at California's Mono Lake Research

Apparently, I just don't spend enough time on YouTube, which is why my son, who knows I did not sleep much last night, decided to show me this hilarious Google Maps is Evil video aka The Googling Part I by the Vacationeers. And that after I stayed up too late again because I couldn't tear myself away from watching one of my favorite classic horror flicks, The Haunting (1963) starring Julie Harris