Latino Popular Culture

Warm gas escaping from the clutches of enormous black holes could be the key to a form of intergalactic 'pollution' that made life possible, according to new results from ESA's XMM-Newton space observatory.

Black holes are not quite the all-consuming monsters depicted in popular culture.

Until gas crosses the boundary of the black hole known as the Event Horizon, it can escape if heated sufficiently. For decades now, astronomers have watched warm gas from the mightiest black holes flowing away at speeds of 1000-2000 km/s and wondered just how much gas escapes this way. XMM-Newton has now made the most accurate measurements yet of the process.

The international team of astronomers, led by Yair Krongold, Instituto de Astronomia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, targeted a black hole two million times more massive than the Sun at the centre of the active galaxy NGC 4051.

'American Idol' says sayonara to Sanjaya

In this photo made available by Fox Television, Sanjaya Malakar performs Tuesday, April 17, 2007 on the set of "American Idol" in Los Angeles. Sanjaya, the under-talented but unflappable singer who horrified and captivated millions in his improbable "American Idol" run, was finally voted off the show Wednesday night, April 18, 2007. .

New Spielberg interview in Rolling Stone

Steven Spielberg is featured in a new interview with Rolling Stone on the event of the magazine's 40th anniversary. Founded in 1967, the periodical is celebrating its four decades in rock and pop culture journalism through chats with baby boomer luminaries and notables including Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Jack Nicholson, Jane Fonda, and many more musicians, writers, and artists.The Spielberg interview is a terrific read, as he touches on his life in the late 1960s (making films, avoiding the Vietnam draft), the influence of music and Rolling Stone in his life and work, his generation's influence on cinema (in which Spielberg respectfully puts the late Pauline Kael in her place for accusing Spielberg and George Lucas for infantilizing American film), politics in the 1960s and today, and the future of film production and presentation.The 40th anniversary issue of Rolling Stone is now available at local booksellers everywhere.

The secret of open marriages

Rekha (name changed to protect identity) is a pretty, outgoing, 30-year-old who works as a copywriter. She is married to 32-year-old Jai (name changed to protect identity), an investment banker, who is rather shy and an introvert. The couple, married for five years, though not regular party-goers, enjoy the occasional night out with close friends or a dinner with a movie thrown in. The five years of their married existence had seen its share of ups and downs - from cosy weekends to occasional fights, door-slamming, tantrums and all.

Things were more or less beginning to settle down in a pattern familiar to most married couples and there was even talk of planning for a family. Till one fine day when Rekha was jolted out of her routine existence by Jai, who confessed to being physically attracted to a colleague.

Test your knowledge

Okay, we've got another three days until this next series starts in New Jersey so rather than bore you to death with a detailed breakdown of which team has better secondary scoring, I figured we could have some fun for a change..

You see, in the last series against Pittsburgh, we found out that Jason Spezza could backcheck, Mike Comrie could be physical and Dean McAmmond could drop the gloves. Who knew? So it got me thinking - Do we really know anything about these players? As a result, I've invented The Ultimate Ottawa Senators Quiz. All you have to do is type in your answers in your response to this blog. (And I've made it a multiple choice quiz, but I promise you won't need a #2 HB pencil to complete this test). The person who gets the most correct answers will be dubbed the Sportsnet Senators Ultimate Fan - and I'll let you write a blog in my space after Game 3 of this series.

Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: It's Easier to Be Green

Pop Quiz! Are you a loyal "Mad Money" viewer? Take TheStreet.com's new "Mad Money" culture quiz to see how much of the show you've caught this week or just to immerse yourself in Cramer's nonfinancial madness.

Click here for an archive of Cramer's "Mad Money" recaps.

Capping off a week in which he offered at least one environmental-stock idea each day, Jim Cramer told viewers of his "Mad Money" show Friday that he had saved his two best picks for last.

Cramer's weeklong "Green Day" stock theme stems from April 2, the day of a Supreme Court ruling in Massachusetts vs. the Environmental Protection Agency. The ruling made it profitable for market players to invest in environmentally friendly companies, he said.

To round his Green Day portfolio, Cramer offered two names, the first of which is OM Group (OMG - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr).

The Rebellion of the Readers, Key to Our Century

Among the most frequented sites for tourists in Europe are the Gothic cathedrals. Gothic spaces, so different from the Romanesque of centuries before, tend to impress us through the subtlety of their aesthetic, something they share with the ancient architecture of the old Arab empire. Perhaps what is most overlooked is the reason for the reliefs on the facades. Although the Bible condemns the custom of representing human figures, these abound on the stones, on the walls and on the stained glass. The reason is, more than aesthetic, symbolic and narrative.

In a culture of illiterates, orality was the mainstay of communication, of history and of social control. Although Christianity was based on the Scriptures, writing was least abundant. Just as in our current culture, social power was constructed on the basis of written culture, while the working classes had to resign themselves to listening.

Living by the gun

If the tragic events at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, (known for short as "Virginia Tech") in the United States last Tuesday did nothing else, they certainly exposed the moral bankruptcy of both US political leadership and the countrys prevailing culture.

The local police were still unsure whether they were dealing with a single mass shooting or two separate incidents when President Bush went public reading a speech full of pious platitudes mixed with strange regrets that the massacre occurred at a "place of learning".

According to Bushs logic it would apparently have been all right or at least better if the gunman had run amok at a supermarket or a cinema, or perhaps in an office building or a factory.

Numerous commentators noted that Bush deliberately steered clear of any reference to restricting fire-arms.