This mess is China's problem, not ours, yes? Indeed, it is the problem of China, where a fifth of the arable land has been tainted by the production and demolition of electronics. Sadly, the lead particulates fly into the clouds and come down on our side of the Pacific, like a ghost of that machine you threw away. There is some hope. In one interview, Paul Maher of Ireland's iameco, touts his company's repairable, wooden-framed, and good-looking computer built without carcinogenic PVCs or heavy metals. It is designed to last at least twice as long as the current lifespan of the average computer--which is only three or four years. » Read More

Locals are well primed to admire the heroism of firefighters. Their jobs only get more difficult each year, and no praise is worthy enough for them. Sadly, along comes Only the Brave, with its unimaginative title--a true story of loss, easily predictable from seeing the name Jennifer Connelly in the credits. As the actress Sylvia Sidney once said about the weepy parts she had, Connelly should have been paid by the tear. It's the story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a team dropped in to dig firebreaks and set off controlled burns in the Arizona hills near Prescott. » Read More

Tourists crowded the Monterey Peninsula this weekend. Unloosed from their large buses, they strode down Ocean Avenue to take photographs of themselves on Carmel Beach. They stood in pairs and quartets indecisively weighing the imperfections of one restaurant before moving on to disparage another. Without asking permission, one woman plucked leaves and flowers from a local's verdant garden. Beads of sweat ran down one man's neck while he smoked a cigarette in the hot sunshine. He flicked the ash and then the butt onto the immaculate sidewalk. Scenes like these don't appear in the paintings of Pedro Joseph de Lemos (1882-1954). » Read More

In September 2009, Amir Rao found himself packing up his desk at Electronic Arts. He was leaving his prized position as a game designer at one of America's biggest video game developers to move back into the house where he grew up--but he wasn't bummed about it. Rao hadn't been sacked. Rather, he had made the weighty decision to return to the suburbs of South San Jose to create something of his own. With the help of his EA colleague Gavin Simon, he would set up camp in his father's house and get to work building a game called Bastion. » Read More

One of the artists most prominently featured in (Re)Writing the Narrative is making a valiant attempt to speak up for the disenfranchised. Ana Teresa Fernández describes her work as "trying to highlight either some event or a people or a place that has dealt with tension or aggression." In this exhibit, all three of her short video narratives address particular political tensions and aggressive stances toward women and minorities--with Fernandez as the star. What's most astonishing about her work, apart from the ravishing imagery, is her ability to feature herself in a scenario without drawing attention to an invented persona or character. » Read More

Maurice Carrubba checks his fitted black tuxedo one last time before the doors of the GrandView Restaurant swing open. He glides through the dimly lit foyer as a grand piano in the corner plays "Hotel California," and he stops to speak with a hostess in a natty blue dress, before leaning over the polished wooden bar behind her to greet the barkeep with a tap on the shoulder and a few words of encouragement. He continues on his route. Moving through the restaurant, whose walls are lined with portraits of old-time Hollywood stars such as Sofia Loren, Sinatra and The Rat Pack, the affable Carrubba makes sure to greet every employee by name and with a handshake. After a quick check of the kitchen and its staff, he makes his way to the patio » Read More

From day one, San Jose has channeled a diverse set of muses via the written word, which is why History San Jose at Kelley Park seems like a perfect destination for the third annual San Jose Poetry Festival this weekend. "The diversity of literary traditions [in San Jose] is remarkable," says Robert Pesich, president of Poetry Center San Jose. "You have writers writing in Vietnamese traditions, Chinese, Hindi, people from Mexico, El Salvador, all coming together at times to share their work at various events. There's a tremendous richness and we'd like to see that cultivated and advanced in the context of the festival." » Read More

Welcome to the "never say never" school of hope. There are some asymmetries between men and women in the effort required to get some action out of the opposite sex. Some men will engineer elaborate plots to try to wear a woman's "nuh-uh, never gonna happen" into a "maybe just this once." A woman, on the other hand, doesn't have to plot. Assuming she's reasonably attractive, she can probably just make extended eye contact with a man while eating a banana. This difference reflects what evolutionary psychologist David Buss explains as men's and women's conflicting evolutionary goals. It's in a man's evolutionary interest to, as they say, shoot and scoot (possibly passing on his genes without putting out any further time, energy or resources). » Read More

Conceptual artist Jonathon Keats likes to play along with the music of nature. On one occasion he collaborated with Mandeville Creek in Montana. He listened and studied the melodies that emanated from its flowing current. Then he moved around some of the underwater rocks, subtly changing the creek's song. Your assignment, Aries, is to experiment with equally imaginative and exotic collaborations. The coming weeks will be a time when you can make beautiful music together with anyone or anything that tickles your imagination. » Read More