Buzz

Baltimore is replete with independent theaters that offer theater lovers a wide range of choices from the well-known to the avant garde. The Strand, in the city's Station North neighborhood, recently launched a four-pack of short works written by company members. If you've been wondering what they're all about...take a gander at this brief review.

Here's an excerpt:

"On Saturday evening at the Strand Theater, Playwrights Group of Baltimore presented "Skin in the Game," an anthology of short plays written by members of the Group. Different in style, each play pivots around the phrase "Skin in the Game," apparently coined by Warren Buffet to indicate passionate investment. A packed audience at the Strand witnessed staged readings of plays ranging from the melodramatic to the romantic to the fantasist."

Read the entire post here.

Check out more about Baltimore's arts scene or Station North!

"Inner-city Baltimore is a 'food desert" with many fast food restaurants and corner stores, but few supermarkets," said lead author Hee-Jung Song, Ph.D., a researcher in the School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. "These food environments result in less availability of and accessibility to healthy food and impact on the kinds of food consumed by low-income residents."

The study appears online in the journal Health Promotion Practice.

The Baltimore Healthy Store program provided monetary incentives or free food to store owners, coordinated education about nutrition and developed guidelines for the owners to follow to help overcome language and cultural barriers. This is important, since most corner storeowners in Baltimore are Korean-American, while the customers largely are African-American."

Read the entire article here.

More than 80 percent of crashes involve some type of distracted driving, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. And although many states now require drivers to use hands-free devices, using a cell phone in any context while driving is distracting -- period, Joana Tsinonis said.

The Maryland General Assembly's recent ban on using a cell phone while driving highlights how serious the problem is, John Tsinonis said. The law goes into effect Oct. 1.

The development of proTextor has a personal side to it. The Tsinonis have six children and the thought of a texting-while-driving accident strengthened their quest to find a solution."

Read the entire article here.

Although you might not be able to see the difference, the air quality in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. corrider has made some improvements over the past 24 months.

Here's an excerpt:

"The Baltimore-Washington doesn't have the cleanest air in the nation, but made some improvements since last year, according to new rankings from the American Lung Association's State of the Air 2010 report.

The rankings find that a decade's worth of clean-up efforts, which include emissions reductions at coal-fired plants and a transition to cleaner diesel fuels, have made the nation's air better in general. That helped this area reduce its levels of smog and soot.

The report says, however, that more than half the U.S. population suffers pollution levels that are often dangerous. Some cities, mostly in California, had dirtier air than in last year's report.

"State of the Air 2010 proves with hard data that cleaning up air pollution produces healthier air," said Mary H. Partridge, the American Lung Association's national board chair, in a statement. "However, more needs to be done. We are working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on additional measures that will require even greater clean up of power plants. We are also calling for additional funding to install equipment to clean up the 20 million dirty diesel vehicles currently on the road polluting U.S. cities every day."

The Baltimore-Washington area had the 16th worst air by ozone, or smog. And it had the 18th worst by short-term particle pollution, or soot. Air pollution data was collected in 2006-2008 around the nation."

Read the entire blog post here.

Carin and Scott Clingan will have a newborn baby book that will be the envy of all their friends. The Reisterstown couple, their son and three daughters are featured in "Making Room for Multiples" a new series airing on TLC.

Here's an excerpt

Three of Reisterstowns newest and youngest residents will make their national television debut later this month when Making Room For Multiples airs on TLC. Teegan, Jordyn, and Rileigh Clingan were born to parents Carin and Scott Clingan February 17th in a planned Caesarean section at Greater Baltimore Medical Center.

The births were captured by a TLC film crew, who followed Carin Clingan toward the end of her pregnancy, at the hospital during various checks and procedures leading up to the C-section, in the operating room as clinical teams attended to mom and babies during delivery, and upon being discharged from the hospital. The couple was also given a camcorder by TLC producers to help document the first few weeks of the triplets lives.

The segment featuring the Clingans will debut Tuesday, April 27th at 2 p.m. and will also air in repeats. A number of GBMC maternal/newborn health staff members are shown during the show, including Victor Khouzami, M.D., the hospitals chairman of obstetrics and the lead doctor for the Clingan triplets.

Our life is definitely not the same, said Carin Clingan said. Its much more chaotic, we cant do anything spur of the moment, and it takes much more planning to do anything, even as simple as going to the park and going to Grandmas house. The Clingans also have an older child, son Truhn who turned two in March, who demands his own share of attention."

Watch the video clip:

Could you put down or iPhone or Blackbery? Could you turn off your laptop, netbook, desktop, TV, Wii, PS3 or Xbox? And then go 24 hours before you picked them up or hit the power button? A new study conducted by College Park researchers found that students at the university are addicted to their media devices.

Here's an excerpt:

"What is is like to go without media? What if you had to give up your cell phone, iPod, television, car radio, magazines, newspapers and computer (i.e. no texting, no Facebook or IM-ing)?

Could you do it? Is it even possible?

Well, not really, if you are an American college student today.

According to a new ICMPA study, most college students are not just unwilling, but functionally unable to be without their media links to the world.

"I clearly am addicted and the dependency is sickening," said one student in the study. "I feel like most people these days are in a similar situation, for between having a Blackberry, a laptop, a television, and an iPod, people have become unable to shed their media skin."

This new study conducted by the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda (ICMPA) asked 200 students at the University of Maryland, College Park to abstain from using all media for 24 hours. After their 24 hours of abstinence, the students were then asked to blog on private class websites about their experiences: to report their successes and admit to any failures. The 200 students wrote over 110,000 words: in aggregate, about the same number of words as a 400-page novel."

Read the blog post here.

If the Kentucy Derby, Preakness or Belmont Stakes seem a bit tame, check out their their cousin the Maryland Hunt Cup. Timber racing is  one of the most dangerous forms of horse racing. The Maryland Hunt Cup is the prima donna of timber racing and dates back 114 years.

Here's an excerpt:

"On New Year's Day Jason Griswold, a 36-year-old owner of a Boston aviation leasing company, weighed his customary 200 pounds. The next day that started to change. For the better part of the last four months the 5-foot-11 Griswold has restricted his daily diet to 800 calories. He's jogged 3 miles a day and endured three "hot" yoga classes a week, during which he's worn a sweat suit "to make it hotter," he says. Griswold now weighs 160. "I have to be careful these days," he admits. "If I stand up too fast I'll pass out."

Griswold goes through this process so he can take a Thoroughbred over 5-foot fences at speeds of up to 35mph. Griswold is a timber racer, a member of a small, blue-blooded band of obsessive amateur jockeys who compete in races across grass fields and up and over post-and-rail wooden fences. The competitions are held on the estates of the landed gentry in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania."

Read the entire article here.

Going vegetarian, if only for a day, is a growing trend not just in Baltimore, but around the U.S. Johns Hopkins Hospital recently joined the meatless movement, following in the footsteps of Baltimore City Public Schools.

Here's an excerpt:

"The campaign started in 2003 as a nonprofit public health initiative of The Monday Campaigns, in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future in Baltimore, Maryland.

But aside from the alliteration, why meatless and why Monday?

"Studies suggest we are more likely to maintain behaviors begun on Monday throughout the week," according to the Healthy Monday public health campaign.

Research compiled by the initiative suggests going meatless conserves water, reduces carbon footprints and lowers intake of saturated fats.

"You certainly don't need to eat meat to get protein. Meat is an important part of your diet, but you don't need to eat it every day of the week," Ralph Logiscli, director of the Healthy Monday Project, told CNN.

On April 12, Johns Hopkins Hospital's cafeteria began offering only vegetarian options in its Wellness Corner on Mondays. "If you think chili needs meat, you don't know beans," touts a promotional poster featuring the cafeteria's chef, Shawn Fields.

There are vocal critics.

When Baltimore City Public Schools adopted Meatless Mondays last year as a way to cut costs, conservative commentator Glenn Beck deemed it an indoctrination of children to vegetarianism and veganism and decried it as an over-extension of governmental control."

Read the entire article here.

Twitter was abuzz this week. Here are a few tweets that we thought deserved a RT!

We're so with @lelandstrott who says, "FACT: Baltimore is the best city in the world. I am so so in love with this place."

This sounds like its worth a try...@ElizabethBastos tried this nifty trick, "When I made dinner tonight I said The Foodie's Prayer, and my macs and cheese turned out cheesier. Thanks, Lard. http://bit.ly/dnyR2V"

@pomofit says, "http://twitpic.com/1hlyar - Not sure why my dog thinks watering can = water bowl" At least its better than the toilet = water bowl!

@BaltimoreMD's tweet hd us laughing out load. "At our #BuzzBrigade event I just overheard, "I'll be spending the weekend in the Hampdens."

We love a mayor who knows her Ravens! @MayorSRB says, "If Taylor Mays is not available the Ravens should select Kyle Wilson CB Boise State or the best cornerback available."

@rlibby01 says, "I am kind of obsessed with #Baltimore. It may be a problem.bmoreconnected: @rlibby01 Baltimore is its own country. Even if you are ex-pat it is hard to leave. Long live the country of Baltimore." You are not alone!

@lilasc wonders, "@rlibby01 why a problem? This is a good place to be obsessed with!nerdywritergrl: Romping around in Hampden=excellent way to spend an afternoon."

@lovelyarns says, "Tree sweater has to come off for Summer. Knitting a pair of acrylic "tree trunks" now,hibiscus flowers n all.What to do w tree's THIRD leg?" Seems logical, you wouldn't want the tree to be overdressed for Baltimore's HOT summers!

Don't see your tweet? Follow us @bmoremediame and @bmoremedia and you might just see your tweet here!