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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.

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.)

Wealth Inequality In America

A must see video reveals staggering wealth inequality in the United States, and also how far we, the public, are from understanding just how unequal we are. 

Muscle Shoals: The Movie and the Music

This movie  transports us to the Tennessee River, Muscle Shoals, Alabama, the unlikely breeding ground for some of America's most creative and defiant music. Muscle Shoals has inspired some of the most important and resonant songs of all time. At its heart is Rick Hall, who founded FAME Studios. Overcoming crushing poverty and staggering tragedies, Hall brought black and white together in Alabama's cauldron of racial hostility to create music for the generations. Greg Allman, Bono, Clarence Carter, Mick Jagger, Etta James, Alicia Keys, Keith Richards, Percy Sledge and others bear witness to Muscle Shoals' magnetism and mystery.

Friday Nite Videos -- May 16, 2014

Portside
Alabama Shakes - I Ain't the Same. Muscle Shoals: The Movie and the Music. Wealth Inequality In America. Movie: Chef. The Teen Brain: Under Construction.

Global Strike Hits Fast Food Industry as Turkish Workers Demand Justice

Fast food workers from around the world participated in a strike against McDonalds and other low-wage employers in an ongoing struggle to demand a living wage. Meanwhile, strikes erupted in Turkey in reaction to government inaction and possible complicity in a disastrous coal mine explosion that has left hundreds of miners dead.

Jackson Rising: An Electoral Battle Unleashes a Merger of Black Power, the Solidarity Economy and Wider Democracy

Carl Davidson Keep on Keepin' On
500 peopled attended the weekend Jackson Rising conference earlier this month, conceived of by Chokwe Lumumba. Making use of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to run as an independent in the Democratic primary, he defeated the incumbent and forced a runoff. Given that Jackson is an 80% Black city, he then won overwhelmingly. So when he died suddenly and his supporters in a state of shock, the opposition moved quickly to counterattack.

The Ukraine - Two Counterpoints

Roger Annis; Anatol Lieven
Yesterday Portside ran Timothy Snyder's "The Battle in Ukraine Means Everything." Many readers responded (see today's Tidbits post). Anatol Lieven in the New York Review of Books and Roger Annis in an original Op-Ed for Truthout here present very different views.

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)