Virginia Prescott

From this year’s popular revival of Jim Henson’s Muppets in a new film starring Jason Segal, to our recent coverage of Wakka Wakka’s production, Baby Universe, an interplanetary puppet odyssey that took the stage in Hanover, it seems like puppets are popping up just about everywhere. 

Sweden is trying something new these days. Each week, the Swedish government’s twitter account, “At Sweden,” is being handed over to a Swedish citizen. And for seven days, that person can say anything they want to the account’s 25,000 plus followers. The government calls it “the world’s most democratic twitter account.” J.

This segment begins with a recording of a 26-year-old Gustavo Dudamel conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar in Leonard Bernstein’s Arrangement of Mambo. Dudamel is the most energetic young thing on the podium. Before being named music director of Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and principal conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony in Sweden, he was a violinist in the Bolivar Youth Orchestra in Caracas, Venezuela.

This weekend, newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary by a two digit margin over Mitt Romney. Or, in the words of the gamer generation, Mitt Romney got “pwned”. Political rhetoric has been forever imbued with fierce competitive language – so it’s only natural that today’s campaigns would borrow psychology and strategy not only from war and sport, but also from the emerging power of games.

The alarming spike in type-1 diabetes. Though type-2, commonly known as adult-onset diabetes, has been in the spotlight recently with Food Network star and butter-abuser Paula Deen's announcement that she is living with the condition, type-1 is also on the rise. The worldwide annual growth rate has climbed past three-percent. With its serious health risks and lack of a cure, public health researchers are scrambling to find the cause of type-1's recent spike.

Part 1: Revenge of the Web-nerds

The “string-rock” quintet Darlingside is based in New England, but its lineage includes California pop harmonies, Appalachian root riffs, and classical arrangements all shadowing that full-on American mongrel we call rock music.  After earning high praise and an eager following for a self-produced EP, Darlingside is rolling out a new subscription album, called Pilot Machines, throughout 2012. Darlinsgide

Without using Wikipedia (now that you’ve made it through the one-day withdrawal) tell me: who was America’s 7th president? Stumped? I’ll give you a hint. He’s on the twenty-dollar bill. Still not sure? Then I’ve got the musical for you. Expressed through the angsty tones of emo and punk-rock, structured like skit comedy, and shorter than the shortest harry potter film – Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson is a lesson in American history built for a post-MTV generation.

As news broke that Mitt Romney might not have been the victor in Iowa after all, his campaign reacted diplomatically, with a statement acknowledging a virtual tie between him and rick Santorum. But diplomacy, especially when it comes to pledges on foreign policy, has been one of the things found lacking in Romney’s campaign messaging, especially from the point of view of the global press.

 The Stop Online Piracy Act now in front of Congress – and its Senate counterpart bill, the Protect IP Act, or PIPA, are both stirring up vigorous debates in political, media and  IT circles.

Rap mogul Jay-Z and his pop star wife Beyonce welcomed a baby girl at Lenox Hill hospital two weeks ago. The news quickly outpaced other top stories on Twitter, helped along by the announcement of her name: Blue Ivy Carter, just the latest celebrity moniker to inspire a collective groan and the Twitter hashtag #NamesBetterThanBlueIvy.

Archie Bunker wouldn’t recognize the Queens of today, where cultures normally  thousands of miles apart live on the same block, and 138 languages can come together in a classroom. On the streets of Queens, passers by might hear Albanian hip-hop wafting from a market stall, or a  gypsy punk riff sill out of a café.  The diverse colors, accents and clothing illustrate “globalization” and “multiculturalism” in a way that corporate strategists cannot. Judith Sloan and Warren Lehrer are finely attuned to these sounds.

In the world of weight loss programs, Weight Watchers rules, with more than a million members worldwide. New CEO David Kirchoff is credited with increasing meeting attendance in North America by fourteen percent, and upping online membership by 64%. Those numbers mean money, of course. Weigh Watchers is valued at an estimated at five billion dollars…double that of a year ago.

 A warning to vegetarians and vegans, this segment is about meat. And fish. And foul. Take coffee-crusted elkstrap, pheasant marsala, or country-fried antelope...yup, gourmet game.

Colin Kearns is deputy editor of Field and Stream Magazine, and editor of the Wild Chef column and blog, where such recipes are shared with hunters and consumers of all things hunted. 

Part 1: Political Red Herrings

Absent tight races or sex scandals, pundits, op-eds and media-makers occasionally flirt with tantalizing uncertainties to liven things up. Salon news editor Steve Kornacki wrote about five of the biggest non-stories you’ll hear far too much of during campaign 2012 - none of which (he says) will amount to a hill of beans.

Part 2: Ten Revolutionary Tea-Parties you weren’t invited to