Movie: Chef

Jon Favreau wrote the script and heads a scintillating cast in Chef. Carl Casper suddenly quits his job at a prominent Los Angeles restaurant after refusing to compromise his creative integrity for its controlling owner (Dustin Hoffman). In Miami, he teams up with his ex-wife (Sofia Vergara), his friend (John Leguizamo) and his son to launch a food truck. Taking to the road, Chef Carl goes back to his roots to reignite his passion for the kitchen—and zest for life and love. (Correction: an earlier version incorrectly identified the scriptwriter Jon Favreau as the same Jon Favreau who was a White House speechwriter. -- moderator.)

The Teen Brain: Under Construction

When does a person really become a 'grown up?' Surely age can't be the only determining factor. Laci Green looks at how the brain matures and what it means- from a scientific perspective- to be an adult.

Contextualizing the Hobbits

Jyoti Madhusoodanan PLOS One
While very little in paleoanthropology is ever “settled,” a new study represents an important step forward in terms of settling that the "Hobbit" people were really a different human species, and not pathological individuals of Homo sapiens. The question that remains to be answered definitively is which species of archaic Homo is the most likely ancestor of Homo floresiensis.

Still Separate and Unequal

Jamelle Bouie Slate
School segregation doesn’t happen by accident; it flows inexorably from housing segregation. If most black Americans live near other blacks and in a level of neighborhood poverty unseen by the vast majority of white Americans, then in the same way, their children attend schools that are poorer and more segregated than anything experienced by their white peers.

Greek Bailout Is No Success Story, EU Candidate Tsipras Says

Harry Papachristou Reuters
While the leading candidates for the Presidency of the European Commission tout the Greek bailout as a success story, the candidate of the European Left Party, Alexis Tsipras, says the imposed austerity is a tragedy for the Greek people, and it should not be repeated in any other country.

Chiquita's Abandonment of Gulfport for New Orleans

Joseph B. Atkins Labor South
After receiving major bribes from Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindall, Chiquita is abandoning Gulfport Miss. for New Orleans. This is another chapter in United Fruit/Chiquita's sorid anti-union history.

How Fast Food Worker Strikes Ignited Across the Country

Alan Pyke and Adam Peck ThinkProgress
Today is the biggest strike in fast food history and it's phenomenal. Actions in support of $15/hour wages and the right to form a union without retaliation have spread across the globe. Workers went on strike in 158 American cities, according to FastFoodGlobal.org, including in 56 U.S. cities where there had not been a strike previously, International worker solidarity actions are taking place in 93 international cities spread across 36 countries.

Behind the Rise of Boko Haram

Nafeez Ahmed The Guardian
Islamist militancy in Nigeria is being strengthened by western and regional fossil fuel interests. The roots of the country's security and instability go back to its formation by the British during colonial times: the Muslims in the North, the Christians and animists in the South. The country's Civil War/Biafran War, from 1967 to 1970, was the first rupture because of ethnicity.

Tidbits - May 15, 2014

Portside
Reader Comments-Fast-food strikes; Cecily McMillan; Campus Unions; Vietnam War; Farley Mowat; Ukraine; Power of Imagination; Filipino Americans and Farm Labor Movement; BDS; Food; William Worthy - R.I.P Announcements - Strike! & New Forms of Worker Struggle -May 28; Bold New Era or Hard Times for Organized Labor? -June 4; Organizing 2.0 Conference -June 6-7; The Origins of Inequality: Grassroots Economics Training for Understanding & Power -June 14 (all New York)