RIO DE JANEIRO — Marcio Mello often talks of eureka moments. The veteran geo-scientist’s biggest came when he decided that his petroleum research firm should become an oil explorer, taking advantage of the rich sedimentary basins that have lured oil companies to Brazil. Read full article > >

Continued here:
Audacious engineer goes for Amazon oil

Dear Mitt Romney, Congratulations on Florida . Now that you are again the front-runner, and your campaign focus is returning to President Obama, I’d like to call attention to a line you have used repeatedly: “This is a president who fundamentally believes that this next century is the post-American century.” I leave it to the president to describe what he believes, but as the author of the book “ The Post-American World ,” let me make sure you know what exactly you are attacking. Read full article > >

Originally posted here:
The world has changed, Mr. Romney

A Spanish archaeologist has snapped the most-detailed pictures ever seen of an “uncontacted” tribe in the Amazon.

Originally posted here:
Isolated Peruvian tribe pictured

Barnes & Noble, the giant that put so many independent booksellers out of business, now finds itself locked in the fight of its life, with Amazon.com lurking in the background.

Read the rest here:
Barnes & Noble, Taking On Amazon in the Fight of Its Life

Wait, they haven’t given out the Oscars for last year’s films and we’re already talking about 2012? It’s hard to believe another movie season is upon us — and even harder, at a time when Hollywood seems more addicted than ever to sequels, prequels and reboots, that we might go to the multiplex and enjoy something genuinely original. The spring collection of films includes its share of adaptations of proven properties, but as anyone familiar with “Batman” or “The Green Lantern” knows, it’s all in the execution. Here are some opening dates to circle (and maybe one to cross off): Read full article > >

Go here to read the rest:
Spring preview — Films: ‘Hunger Games,’ ‘Moonrise Kingdom’

I miss the old Google. I miss the old Internet. I don’t miss Hamster Dance (see it once, you’ll have it stuck in your head for the next 10 years) or AOL (skreeeeee-onk, skreeeeee-onk, kcck, kssssh, kllissssh, shhhhhhs) or the dial-up speeds that required a full day to download the minute-long trailer for “ The Phantom Menace .” Read full article > >

Read more:
Alexandra Petri: Google’s no-opt-out privacy changes and the end of the anonymous Internet

I miss the old Google. I miss the old Internet. I don’t miss Hamster Dance (see it once, you’ll have it stuck in your head for the next 10 years) or AOL (skreeeeee-onk, skreeeeee-onk, kcck, kssssh, kllissssh, shhhhhhs) or the dial-up speeds that required a full day to download the minute-long trailer for “ The Phantom Menace .” Read full article > >

Read more from the original source:
Alexandra Petri: Google’s no-opt-out privacy changes and the end of the anonymous Internet

If you’re going to read James Grippando’s new financial thriller, “Need You Now,” be prepared to scatter bread crumbs. Otherwise, you’ll never find your way back home after wandering through the thicket of aliases, double crosses, back stories and red herrings that litter the narrative path. Indeed, late in the novel, one of the characters resorts to drawing a “plot map” of sorts all over the walls of his one-room New York apartment. Here’s what it looks like: Read full article > >

The rest is here:
James Grippando’s financial thriller “Need You Now”

When last we caught up with H-B Woodlawn graduate Cutter Hodierne, he was a plucky 22-year-old shooting a music video in Silver Spring, recalling with relief his decision to drop out of Emerson College after his freshman year. At that point, he’d already toured with U2, shooting and editing concert footage that would end up in the 2010 concert documentary “ U2: 360 Degrees at the Rose Bowl .” How do you follow a gig like that? By going to Utah, baby! Read full article > >

Read the original post:
Cutter Hodierne’s ‘Fishing Without Nets’ to premiere at Sundance Film Festival

My recent column about Michelle Obama , which I wrote to counter the negative responses to Jodi Kantor’s new book , “ The Obamas ,” apparently has been misinterpreted by some. I did not intend to indict Kantor, who, in fact, wrote a mostly complimentary portrait of the first couple. Nor did I intend to cast doubt on her reporting. Kantor is a thorough reporter, and she has provided a provocative, insightful peek behind the draperies at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The purpose of reporting, after all, is to tell what you have learned. Read full article > >

Original post:
Over-scrutinizing Michelle Obama

Stewart O’Nan seems incapable of writing a false line. Whether describing the unimaginable ( losing one’s child ) or the mundane ( losing one’s appetite ), his modest sentences crystallize the lives of ordinary people. His previous novel , “ Emily, Alone ,” described the daily outings of an 80-year-old widow in Pittsburgh. Emily’s pulse beat stronger than her story, but with all the novel’s insight and charm, that lack of action didn’t matter. O’Nan is a author you learn to trust, no matter what he’s writing about. Read full article > >

See the article here:
Take a chance on ‘The Odds’

Stewart O’Nan seems incapable of writing a false line. Whether describing the unimaginable ( losing one’s child ) or the mundane ( losing one’s appetite ), his modest sentences crystallize the lives of ordinary people. His previous novel , “ Emily, Alone ,” described the daily outings of an 80-year-old widow in Pittsburgh. Emily’s pulse beat stronger than her story, but with all the novel’s insight and charm, that lack of action didn’t matter. O’Nan is a author you learn to trust, no matter what he’s writing about. Read full article > >

Read more:
Take a chance on ‘The Odds’

Zappos, the Amazon-owned fashion retailer, warns its 24 million customers their information may have been exposed by a cyber-attack

The rest is here:
Hackers strike Amazon-owned site

As sprawling e-commerce companies like Amazon act more like their big-box brethren, little sites are fighting back with some tactics of their own.

Read the original:
Some Shoppers Rebel Against Giant Web Retailers

The most shocking moment in “ Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel ” isn’t a clip from a film by the documentary’s subject, director and producer Roger Corman, best known for such B-movie classics as “ Bloody Mama ,” “ Piranha ” and “ Death Race 2000 .” It comes when Jack Nicholson breaks down in tears recalling Corman’s influence on his own life and career. Read full article > >

Read more:
Roger Corman on producing 400-plus films and why the audience is always right