21st Century

After nearly a year of cancer treatment that has forced President Hugo Chavez to step back from the spotlight, a burly former bus driver with a dark mustache and affable smile is emerging more than ever as the president's stand-in. In recent weeks, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro has led news conferences, touted a new labor law and criticized the U.S. government with gusto. He even rallied a crowd of supporters while wearing a track suit emblazoned with the yellow, blue and red of Venezuela's flag, just like one Chavez sometimes wears.

After nearly a year of cancer treatment that has forced President Hugo Chavez to step back from the spotlight, a burly former bus driver with a dark mustache and affable smile is emerging more than ever as the president's stand-in. In recent weeks, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro has led news conferences, touted a new labor law and criticized the U.S. government with gusto. He even rallied a crowd of supporters while wearing a track suit emblazoned with the yellow, blue and red of Venezuela's flag, just like one Chavez sometimes wears.

During the opening scenes of Ralph Fiennes's scalding new adaptation of Shakespeare's "Coriolanus," you may look around in shock: Is this the evening news or what? Furious crowds surge through graffitied European streets burning cars and protesting austerity measures; riot squads wield deadly force with shield and truncheon; a cold-eyed strongman named Caius Martius (Fiennes) tells the mob they all can go to hell. This is not Greece, nor Egypt, nor Syria, but "a place called Rome. " Not coincidentally, that rhymes with "home," which is where this movie thunderingly brings the play's concerns.

Like the inventors of the vibrator it depicts, "Hysteria" really aims to please. And like an inattentive lover displaced by the sexual aid, the film never quite satisfies. True to the title, there are a few hysterically funny moments as a couple of Victorian-era British doctors and an amateur inventor stumble into the creation of a mechanical device to pleasure women. Yet despite the novel premise, "Hysteria" feels as though it's going through the motions as the filmmakers strain to deliver one of those blithe little costume charmers that can rouse art-house audiences to ecstasy.

Welcome to 2012! OK, pop quiz: When you silently read that opening sentence to yourself, how did you pronounce the name of the year? Did you a) think "two thousand twelve," b) think "twenty-twelve," or c) stop, paralyzed with uncertainty? If you chose option c, you're like a lot of English speakers, who seem profoundly unresolved on something that might seem very basic: what the year is called. If all we cared about were ease of pronunciation, then the quick "twenty-twelve" would be the obvious choice.

Like the inventors of the vibrator it depicts, "Hysteria" really aims to please. And like an inattentive lover displaced by the sexual aid, the film never quite satisfies. True to the title, there are a few hysterically funny moments as a couple of Victorian-era British doctors and an amateur inventor stumble into the creation of a mechanical device to pleasure women. Yet despite the novel premise, "Hysteria" feels as though it's going through the motions as the filmmakers strain to deliver one of those blithe little costume charmers that can rouse art-house audiences...

One need not subscribe to all of the Left's grandiose ideas for remaking America to grant that it has been largely responsible for much of what is actually best about the United States of the 21st Century (civil rights laws, universal suffrage, environmental protection, the 40-hour work week, food safety). And despite the rhetoric one hears too often, this has not been the work of "Kenyan socialists" (who would have thought Kenya would replace France as the great bugaboo of the right!

In English, we use certain words to describe our inner lives -- we talk about minds, thoughts, feelings, decisions, and memories. Those words have an inevitable effect on the science of psychology. Writing at their blog, Psych Science Notes, the psychologists Andrew D. Wilson and Sabrina Golonka ask how speakers of other languages think about the inner life. How would psychology be different, they wonder, if it had been developed in Japan, or Russia? Other languages, they point out, have other words for "mind.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It's official. Tom Brady follows Joe Montana into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The University of Belichick takes its rightful place alongside Harvard and MIT. And the New England Patriots of the 21st century are established as an NFL dynasty on par with the Packers of the 1960s, the Steelers of the '70s, the 49ers of the '80s, and the Cowboys of the '90s. The Patriots last night won their second consecutive Super Bowl, and their third in four years, beating the Philadelphia Eagles, 24-21, by the banks of the...

Jordan Drouin (right) of Westford, a preschooler at Nashoba Brooks School in Concord, shows her Grade 3 "buddies" Rowan Crowley of Still River and Claire Stoddard of Littleton the e-book her class created on their iPads. The preschoolers made the e-book during their "We are all alike, We are all different" unit of study. The school has brought technology into the classroom by incorporating the use of iPads into their interdisciplinary curriculum. The apps on the iPad expand the learning experience by providing interactive lessons that engage students, making learning...

Last Sunday'S featured article in the Money & Careers section ("Why I stayed," April 29) is an integral part of the narrative in understanding Boston and race in the 21st century. As you note, there are many people of color who decided to stay and proudly call Boston home. I came to Boston in 1999 for graduate school and made the decision to pursue my career in education in this city. As an African-American, I was well aware of Boston's racist past, but I soon discovered that this was just like every other city in America, dealing with its past while trying to forge a new identity of tolerance...

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — George Zimmerman, who slipped out of jail on $150,000 bail in the early morning darkness, went back into hiding Monday and likely fled to another state to avoid threats as he awaits his second-degree murder trial for the killing of Trayvon Martin. His release from jail came less than a day before the Sanford City Commission rejected by a 3-2 vote the resignation of Police Chief Bill Lee, who was roundly criticized for not initially charging Zimmerman. Even though authorities can pinpoint Zimmerman's location with a GPS ankle bracelet, that...

Marty Stuart tells the world about his mission every chance he gets — which is, after all, what you expect from a man with a mission. So it's no surprise to find that another statement serves as the liner notes to his new release. "When I reconnected with country music," Stuart concludes, "I found myself, my calling . . . to champion it, love it, protect it . . . and to make sure that everybody understands that it's alive and well in the 21st century. " He walks the walk in many ways, including the albums he makes.

One need not subscribe to all of the Left's grandiose ideas for remaking America to grant that it has been largely responsible for much of what is actually best about the United States of the 21st Century (civil rights laws, universal suffrage, environmental protection, the 40-hour work week, food safety). And despite the rhetoric one hears too often, this has not been the work of "Kenyan socialists" (who would have thought Kenya would replace France as the great bugaboo of the right!

It was all great . . . until the game started. No organization serves history and tradition better than the Red Sox. The Olde Towne Team treated an ever-loyal constituency to a boffo bash on Friday, celebrating the 100th birthday of Fenway Park. No less than 212 former Red Sox players, coaches, and managers emerged from every corner of the ancient ballfield in a cornball, cornfield pregame ceremony that raised hair on forearms and sparked memories of 10 decades of hardball heartaches and triumph.

"Art in the 21st Century" is an excellent PBS series on contemporary art now entering its sixth season. It has found a winning formula, which it sticks to here. Each episode features three segments on individual contemporary artists. In this new season, the first episode begins with a piece about the prominent Los Angeles-based photographer Catherine Opie. It moves on to a piece about one of the world's most acclaimed living artists, El Anatsui, a Ghanaian based in Nigeria, and concludes with a piece on an even bigger name, the Chinese artist...

We move fast in our 21st century, but in the 16th and 17th centuries there was plenty of wonder, confusion, and curiosity among Africans, Native Americans, and Europeans. New navigational technologies created global travel which introduced folks to other cultures. The exhibit “Translating Encounters: Travel and Transformation in the Early Seventeenth Century’’ challenges the assumption of European superiority in the 17th century. March 25, 5-7 p.m. (through Dec. 2011 )

AS A faith-filled member of the Catholic Church for almost 80 years, I am deeply embarrassed by the action of the Worcester bishop in urging the ban of Victoria Reggie Kennedy from speaking at Anna Maria College's commencement ("Bowing to bishop, college cancels Kennedy speech," Page A1, March 31). Alas, it is but another example of the increasing irrelevance of the bishops as serious leaders of those Catholics who believe, along with the apostles, that being a good Christian involves being a contributing part of the real world.

AS A faith-filled member of the Catholic Church for almost 80 years, I am deeply embarrassed by the action of the Worcester bishop in urging the ban of Victoria Reggie Kennedy from speaking at Anna Maria College's commencement ("Bowing to bishop, college cancels Kennedy speech," Page A1, March 31). Alas, it is but another example of the increasing irrelevance of the bishops as serious leaders of those Catholics who believe, along with the apostles, that being a good Christian involves being a contributing part of the real world.

THERE IS little question that health care reform is America's most important domestic issue in generations. Should the Supreme Court vote to strike down the Affordable Care Act, or the core piece of it, the mandate to be insured, then the effect on the American people would be momentous. Pre-existing conditions would become giant barriers to affordable, quality health care services, and people who become very ill or lose their jobs would be dropped from coverage and forced to make decisions concerning buying food or medicine.