#2011mar

CERTIFIED COPY | William Shimell is a find as the would-be husband

...and Juliette Binoche shines in this movie about two people who act out the possibilities of a marriage that may or may not have existed. The Tuscan settings make for eye-candy at every turn. The ending is perfect: Sopranos-like in leaving you open to all the possibilities of the situation the lead couple find themselves in, without precluding any of the intriguing options.

In 2000, researchers began an ambitious effort to document the academic outcomes of study abroad across the 35-institution University System of Georgia. Ten years later, they’ve found that students who study abroad have improved academic performance upon returning to their home campus, higher graduation rates, and improved knowledge of cultural practices and context compared to students in control groups. They’ve also found that studying abroad helps, rather than hinders, academic performance of at-risk students.

America is an increasingly conservative nation, by ideology and by political affiliation, according to polling results from the Gallup Organization. While conservatives have long outnumbered liberals and moderates across the U.S., the study sheds new light on state-by-state patterns. The map above shows the pattern for the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

1 of 10 John Paul DeWitt of CensusScope.org and the University of Michigan's Social Science Data Analysis Network

No. 10: Los Angeles

Main city population: 3,792,62

Metropolitan population: 12,828,837

Segregation level (dissimilarity): 67.84

Los Angeles is spectacularly diverse, and profoundly segregated. Though black and Latino Angelenos are increasingly likely to live near one another, their separation from white neighborhoods persists. Indeed, L.A. is one of just a few metro areas with such high segregation of Latinos. It is also the only metro area on this list west of the Great Lakes.

Melina Mara / THE WASHINGTON POST

Politics and Prose, D.C.’s iconic independent bookstore, has found a buyer.

By Michael S. Rosenwald, Monday, March 28, 9:45 PM

For nearly 30 years, Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade were the Cal Ripkens of bookselling, seemingly never leaving their perch at Politics and Prose. They were so in sync in their stewardship that they often showed up for work wearing the same color.

REUTERS Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Polish opposition leader, laid a wreath in front of the presidential palace in Warsaw on March 10. He commemorates his brother's death every month.

Some Poles are tired of never-ending gestures of remembrance for Lech Kaczynski, the president who died in a plane crash last year. Protesters suspect his brother Jaroslaw is exploiting the tragedy for political gain, and have started to mock his monthly wreath-laying by simultaneously celebrating the birthdays of US action movie stars.

Ever since Polish President Lech Kaczynski died in a plane crash on April 10 last year, his brother Jaroslaw, the current opposition leader, has commemorated the tragedy each month on the 10th by placing a wreath in front of the presidential palace in Warsaw. Kaczynski's opponents have accused him of exploiting his brother's death for political purposes and have repeatedly mounted a peculiar stunt to draw attention to their criticism of the monthly ceremonies.

On March 10, hundreds of people took to the streets of Warsaw to celebrate the birthday of schlocky US action film star Chuck Norris. On April 10, they will celebrate the birthday of another hero of US action movies, Steven Seagal, said the organizer of the protests, Dominik Taras, who had already led demonstrations against a wooden cross that had been placed in front of the presidential palace to commemorate Kazynski.