Nice LA Times story about a ghastly issue

Troubles with the $5.7 billion in bond money being spent to revamp the LA Community College system. Graft, nepotism, duplicity, hypocrisy... it's got it all. Sure a few tens of millions in waste isn't much out of $5.7 billion, but the cavalier see-no-evil attitude is appalling.

Meditations on Meditations

I finished reading the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius on the kindle [a few OCR problems, with "he" and "be" being often interchanged - and any use of the original Greek was converted into gibberish - but hey, it was free.]. Anyway, dude was not content to be the emperor of Rome, but managed to write one of the major epitomes of Stoic philosophy while simultaneously smiting the Germanic tribes. The Meditations range from mere sentences, to much lengthier passages, all apparently written as part of Aurelius' personal diary and not really intended for wider consumption.
I'm not ready to sign on as a Stoic, but plenty of wisdom is to be found here. I used the highlight feature of the kindle to grab a few passages. Sillily, you can only post them one at a time to your facebook page. Should be able to email them all to yourself or something. Anyway, if you hardwire it to the puter, you can download the snippet file. So here's a few things I found interesting.
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essentialsaltes sifts through the Hollywood Bowl season

June 3/4 - Star Wars in Concert

June 14 - Mötley Crüe & Poison

July 12/14 - Lang Lang - Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3 & Pictures at an Exhibition

July 28 - New World Symphony

August 2 - Nice Rachmaninoff/Tchaikovsky pairing

August 12/13 - Rodrigo y Gabriela y Fireworks

August 18 - Beethoven's 9th

August 19/20/21 - Disney's Fantasia with Fireworks

August 26/27 - John Williams

September 9/10 - Tchaikovsky with Fireworks

September 13 - Mozart's Requiem

September 15 - Surprise Symphony and Handel's Royal Fireworks Music with Fireworks

Also appearing in this Bowl: West Side Story, Turandot, Dolly Parton, Wynton Marsalis, Powaqqatsi, Gladys Knight, Hairspray! (Broadway style), Itzhak Perlman, Sing-Along Sound of Music