Paradise Lost

As the United States moves its military toward a possible war with Afghanistan, bombers are gathering on a lush island south of India that has a dark history. Diego Garcia, a U-shaped island 37 miles long that was once a British coconut plantation, was secretly emptied of its native population by the British from 1966 to 1971 so the United States could build a military base there. The British government, which owns the island, transplanted thousands of natives more than 1,200 miles, dumping them in the slums of Mauritius, an island east of Africa.

When Metallica decided to record its first album of new material in five years ("St. Anger"), the band invited filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky to document the process. From 2001-2003, they were given unlimited access, capturing group therapy sessions and angry outbursts on film, resulting in an honest and intimate portrait of the band and its members. Sinofsky and Berlinger also directed 1992's critically acclaimed "Brother's Keeper" and 1996's "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hills," which featured Metallica on its soundtrack.

"Paradise Lost: California's Experience, America's Future," by Peter Schrag. 344 pages. The New Press. $25. California's at it again: another citizens' initiative, another end run around the state's legislature, another can of worms.The story, which made the front page of the New York Times recently, must have forced a sigh of resignation from Peter Schrag. His new book, "Paradise Lost," is all about California's initiative process. It's his contention that initiatives, not earthquakes, are driving California into the sea.California's initiative law was written into the state constitution in 1911.

Peiter Mudge Zatko is giving up. Zatko is the legendary computer cracker who cofounded Lopht Heavy Industries, a Boston hacker collective that proudly shattered computer security systems and then announced its achievements to the world. Long ago, Zatko went straight, using his skills to build digital moats and barricades around corporate and government computer systems. The work is interesting, and the pay is good. And yet Zatko's efforts have achieved little: No matter how good the defenses he builds are, the bad guys find a way in. That's why Intrusic Inc., the Waltham, Mass.

The Orpheum, Baltimore's premiere revival cinema in Fells Point, will pay tribute to the late, great Akira Kurosawa starting Monday with a weeklong double feature of two of the director's classic films: "Ikiru" (1952), about a dying man's last splendid gesture, and "Rashomon" (1951), the film Kurosawa is best-known for, about a murder in 12th-century Japan and the differing perceptions of its witnesses.He loves 'true crime'Director Joe Berlinger, who with Bruce Sinofsky created the award-winning documentaries "Brother's Keeper" and "Paradise Lost," was in Baltimore this week observing the production of "Homicide" in anticipation of landing a directing gig on the series later in the season.

There's trouble in Paradise.Residents of a winding street in the small community near Catonsville say they are besieged by drivers who speed past their homes each day, using Paradise Avenue as a shortcut between Frederick Road and Wilkens Avenue.And one house -- at Paradise Avenue and Maiden Choice Lane -- seems to be Paradise Lost."The house has been hit a total of 24 times as far as I can count," said Al Scholz, who lives in a two-story colonial at a sharp turn on Paradise Avenue. He has become accustomed to the sound of screeching tires and car crashes.

RAIN forests are hot.Hardly a day goes by at my office without the mail bringing new resources for rain forest education and the telephone ringing with requests from teachers, students, museums and zoos.But what is being taught?Most often, tropical rain forests are pictured as Paradise Lost -- natural wonders being destroyed by humankind.Teachers and their students receive extensive information about the diversity and interdependence of plant and animal species, the threat that deforestation poses to the global environment and actual and potential rain forest contributions to modern Western diets and health care.

When Metallica decided to record its first album of new material in five years ("St. Anger"), the band invited filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky to document the process. From 2001-2003, they were given unlimited access, capturing group therapy sessions and angry outbursts on film, resulting in an honest and intimate portrait of the band and its members. Sinofsky and Berlinger also directed 1992's critically acclaimed "Brother's Keeper" and 1996's "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hills," which featured Metallica on its soundtrack.

Fall housecleaning and winter preparation have begun, a time to discard old clothes, inspect the roof and remove the clutter that accumulates in almost everyone's house over the months and years. Time, too, to examine the dusty chambers of our minds for outdated artifacts, worn-out ideas and inherited words that clutter our common language. "Race" is one. It is a tainted term inherited from 18th- and 19th-century colonialism. The word has no objective meaning; it refers to myth, not to fact, and has distorted our public dialogues far too long.

BOSTON - They looked over their shoulders when the occasional ambulance siren wailed in the distance. Bought colorful flowers from street vendors to chase away the blahs. Sat at their desks staring at computer screens and doing what one businessman called "make-do" work. And on park benches they read books titled - coincidentally - Paradise Lost and Global Transformations. Spared the carnage of New York and Washington, downtown Boston looked normal yesterday, at least outwardly. But nobody, from the normally upbeat mayor to the casual tourist to the office worker on lunch break, tried to pretend that was really the case.

Fall housecleaning and winter preparation have begun, a time to discard old clothes, inspect the roof and remove the clutter that accumulates in almost everyone's house over the months and years. Time, too, to examine the dusty chambers of our minds for outdated artifacts, worn-out ideas and inherited words that clutter our common language. "Race" is one. It is a tainted term inherited from 18th- and 19th-century colonialism. The word has no objective meaning; it refers to myth, not to fact, and has distorted our public dialogues far too long.

As the United States moves its military toward a possible war with Afghanistan, bombers are gathering on a lush island south of India that has a dark history. Diego Garcia, a U-shaped island 37 miles long that was once a British coconut plantation, was secretly emptied of its native population by the British from 1966 to 1971 so the United States could build a military base there. The British government, which owns the island, transplanted thousands of natives more than 1,200 miles, dumping them in the slums of Mauritius, an island east of Africa.

BOSTON - They looked over their shoulders when the occasional ambulance siren wailed in the distance. Bought colorful flowers from street vendors to chase away the blahs. Sat at their desks staring at computer screens and doing what one businessman called "make-do" work. And on park benches they read books titled - coincidentally - Paradise Lost and Global Transformations. Spared the carnage of New York and Washington, downtown Boston looked normal yesterday, at least outwardly. But nobody, from the normally upbeat mayor to the casual tourist to the office worker on lunch break, tried to pretend that was really the case.

Her love of beauty led Frances W. Haussner to buy art for the walls of her Highlandtown restaurant. Sometimes she bought for beauty, and sometimes she bought for investment. Always she loved a bargain. Once, finding a sale, she presented her granddaughter with 12 toilet bowl brushes. Thirty-five years ago, she bought another bargain: 77 acres of woods with a tiny overnight cottage and some of the prettiest landscape in northern Baltimore County. Over the years, Mrs. Haussner rejected numerous offers to sell the land.

Look for powerful music on MPT this weekend, as some of London's finest musicians take on one of the greatest oratorios of western music. Franz Joseph Haydn's "The Creation," as performed by the Philharmonia and Chorus of London under Gilbert Levine's baton, airs at 9 p.m. Sunday on MPT, Channels 22 and 67. The performance, dubbed "The Jubilee Creation Concert" and taped March 26 at Baltimore's Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the...

An abundance of big, provocative novels has burst forth this spring and while one could save them for summer doldrums, this critic advises: Don't wait. It's difficult to conceive "In the Fall"(Atlantic Monthly Press, 560 pages, $25) as a first novel -- the saga's complexity and the faultless grace of Jeffrey Lent's language bespeak a seasoned writer. From mysterious prologue to searing ending, this epic tale of interracial relationships spanning Civil War through Depression startles, engages and compels.

Time was when a student didn't graduate from college without studying Plato's "Republic," Shakespeare's "Hamlet," Milton's "Paradise Lost." The texts were read lovingly with sharp attention to detail, to beauty, to allusion.That time is long past.Now, argues Yale University professor Harold Bloom, few students receive a bachelor's degree without reading the novels of Alice Walker. Shakespeare, if studied at all, is examined for evidence of class warfare; Plato is reviled as fascist and "Paradise Lost" as sexist.

Peiter Mudge Zatko is giving up. Zatko is the legendary computer cracker who cofounded Lopht Heavy Industries, a Boston hacker collective that proudly shattered computer security systems and then announced its achievements to the world. Long ago, Zatko went straight, using his skills to build digital moats and barricades around corporate and government computer systems. The work is interesting, and the pay is good. And yet Zatko's efforts have achieved little: No matter how good the defenses he builds are, the bad guys find a way in. That's why Intrusic Inc., the Waltham, Mass.

I missed my garden this year. I missed picking beans while the butterflies flitted among the herbs. I missed the aroma of basil as I brushed along the paths, sipping wine amid the nicotiana, and watching the setting sun splash gold over the broad-leafed squash plants. I missed seeing the evening primroses open while my husband, Gary, and I weeded together, and I missed picking tomatoes, peppers and herbs to make spaghetti sauce.But mostly, I missed the emotional sustenance the garden gives me.The sad thing is: I was home.

The Orpheum, Baltimore's premiere revival cinema in Fells Point, will pay tribute to the late, great Akira Kurosawa starting Monday with a weeklong double feature of two of the director's classic films: "Ikiru" (1952), about a dying man's last splendid gesture, and "Rashomon" (1951), the film Kurosawa is best-known for, about a murder in 12th-century Japan and the differing perceptions of its witnesses.He loves 'true crime'Director Joe Berlinger, who with Bruce Sinofsky created the award-winning documentaries "Brother's Keeper" and "Paradise Lost," was in Baltimore this week observing the production of "Homicide" in anticipation of landing a directing gig on the series later in the season.