Materialism

Couples who rank money and things as important might be worse off in their relationships than those who aren't as materialistic, a study finds. Researchers discovered that it may be true what they say: Money can't buy happiness. They surveyed 1,734 married couples across the U.S. about their attitudes toward relationship values and issues such as materialism, compassion, communication and the importance of marriage. Among the participants, 58.7% had either high or low levels of materialism.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's overwhelming victory in weekend parliamentary elections returns to power a seasoned politician who historically has had rocky ties with Pakistan's powerful military and is viewed by many as soft on militants and extremist groups. The expected showdown between Sharif, 63, and former cricket-star-turned-politician Imran Khan never really materialized. Sharif's party swept the elections, putting him in a position to lead the next government and become prime minister for an unprecedented third time.

Ever since Bush, post 9/11, told us all to "go shopping," I've wondered how on Earth our president could respond to national tragedy with so little sensitivity. ("Crisis may cure our materialism, shift priorities," Oct. 26.) Dumbfounding. As the story suggests, he apparently thought such behavior would translate to, "Take that, Osama!" Indeed, David Colander, quoted in the story, is profoundly right: "Nobody is asking the big question: How much of a consumer society do we really want to be?"

UC Berkeley is making its vast library collections and course textbooks more readily available to students with visual and other impairments under an agreement reached Tuesday that could set a precedent for universities nationwide. The settlement with the nonprofit legal group Disability Rights Advocates was reached after more than a year of negotiations and will provide students with physical, developmental, learning and visual disabilities more timely access to printed materials in alternative formats such as Braille, large print and audio.

The incoming chairman of the New York Stock Exchange took to the pulpit at a Manhattan cathedral Sunday to denounce the materialism of the 1980s and the gap between rich and poor. During his 25-minute sermon, William H. Donaldson, who will take office in January, called the 1980s a decade in which "it was easy to see how good things were for some people and even easier to not see how bad things had become for others."

Pope John Paul II issued the fifth encyclical of his seven-year pontificate Friday, sharply condemning atheism and materialism in all their forms, especially Marxism. In the 141-page document, the pontiff refers to what he called "the signs and symptoms of death" in modern civilization. He cited abortion, euthanasia, international terrorism, famine, poverty and nuclear self-destruction as "darker signs of death."

Pope John Paul II, speaking to a crowd of 1 million on the last day of a Latin American trip, appealed to Venezuelans to reject materialism, selfishness and the corruption they cause. An exuberant crowd--by far the largest of his weeklong tour--turned out for the pope's last Mass of the trip, filling the runway and fields of Caracas' La Carlota airport.

A better name for "L.A.: The Mecca of Materialism" (airing Sunday at 8 p.m. on KHJ-TV Channel 9) might be "Lifestyles of the Rich and Stupid." But instead of Robin Leach drooling over the wealth of the famous, "Mecca's" writer/producer/reporter Jim Murphy sort of spits down at the everyday clod for his selfish pursuit of life's material goodies. America's a materialistic society! Why, some people spend $19,000 for one hunk of Cartier jewelry! Or blow $100 in one night at a disco!

If "A Touch of the Poet" stands a notch below Eugene O'Neill's masterworks, the penetrating production at A Noise Within redresses the balance. This florid study of Irish immigrant pride run amok in 1828 Boston receives a rigorous, engrossing revival that favors strengths over inequities. Posthumously produced on Broadway in 1958, "A Touch of the Poet" is one of two surviving plays in O'Neill's 11-play cycle on the corrupting perils of American materialism ("More Stately Mansions" is the other).

Whether they're naughty or nice, most children growing up on the affluent side of Orange County can expect a bountiful Christmas. And they know it. The letters sent to the North Pole from some children are so long they require extra postage--and the lists just get longer when the writers learn where the goods really come from. It takes a special effort from parents to make sure Christmas doesn't become a conspicuous consumption marathon, say local family counselors.

When the upcoming comedy "The Hangover Part III" wrapped production in January, Warner Bros. was left with tons of used plywood, joists, furniture, faux brick and other materials from the film set. But instead of hauling the leftovers to the landfill, the studio donated the items - enough to fill 10 truckloads - to the charitable organization Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles, to be sold in Habitat's stores in Gardena and Norwalk....

Kobe Bryant has started putting together his bulletin-board material for his recovery as he works his way back from Saturday's surgery to repair a torn Achilles' tendon. On Sunday morning, Bryant tweeted an Instagram of the front page of The Times, showing the headline "Injury clouds the future for Bryant, Lakers. " Bryant's response: "I'm keeping track of all the doubters and haters. "   This is what my friend/agent sends me this am. Shiesh! #kobe #motivationsunday I'm keeping track of… instagram.com/p/YF9wLsxNua/ - Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant)

I have been in love with Howlin' Pelle Almqvist from the Hives since 2004, when I first caught sight of him strutting onstage one hot Texas afternoon at South by Southwest. So when I found out that the hard rocking band from Sweden was going to play the main stage at Coachella last year, I made it my mission to meet him. Stalking a rock star at one of the world's largest concerts is no easy feat, and I didn't have the right equipment, meaning a backstage pass. However, last year was the first year that Coachella was staged for two weekends in a row, so there was twice the opportunity and twice the angst.

Like the NHL season, the annual deadline-day trading frenzy was late in starting. But a flurry of deals in the hour before Wednesday's noon Pacific time cutoff changed the complexion of several teams and added depth to others hoping for long playoff runs. The Ducks, seeking strength up the middle, acquired veteran center Matthew Lombardi from the Phoenix Coyotes for left wing Brandon McMillan. They also traded goalie Jeff Deslauriers to the Minnesota Wild for future considerations.

The man accused of killing Colorado's prisons chief had bomb-making materials in his trunk when he got into a highway shootout in Texas, according to court documents released Tuesday. The gun that killed Colorado prisons director Tom Clements last week was found in the possession of recently paroled inmate Evan Spencer Ebel, 28, officials have said. Ebel died of wounds sustained in the shootout. Texas court documents say Ebel's 1991 Cadillac Seville also contained apparent bomb-making materials and bloody clothes that have been sent to Colorado investigators.

Like every other form of art, operas can be inspired by just about anything - historical events, myths, epic poems, plays, even movies. Often, such operas go on to eclipse their inspiration. Puccini's "Tosca," derived from a play by Victorien Sardou, is a good example; so is Verdi's "Rigoletto," based on a tragedy by Victor Hugo. But not all make that leap. Some remain in the shadow of their progenitors. How that affects an opera's appeal varies. But it's a topic worth raising as several such works are soon to be featured on Southern California stages, beginning Saturday with a production at San Diego Opera of Ildebrando Pizzetti's "Murder in the Cathedral," based on T.S. Eliot's verse play.

Instead of the love of her children, Hannah Nash has a condominium. It's a very nice condominium, worth maybe a million, more or less, depending on the real estate market. The condo and some other choice property are probably the closest she has to family after her self-declared Byzantine struggle with her two sons over the family's multimillion-dollar real-estate holdings. From all indications, the sons would agree. Located on the 14th floor in one of those West L. A.

For Richard Eng's summer school students at Beacon College, it's time for a makeup quiz. Examining his visage on a giant video wall that projects his image to a packed classroom, his students wonder: Is that face powder he's wearing? And lipstick? The correct answer is: Yes. "I want to be brighter! Sharper!" says Eng, who has learned that, on camera, a shiny face doesn't make the grade.

Opening a new frontier for solving cold cases, California prosecutors are hunting for DNA from killers, rapists and other prison inmates who died before authorities obtained their genetic profiles. Prosecutors from Sacramento, Los Angeles and Orange counties are sifting through old court exhibits and examining long-since forgotten crime-scene evidence in search of blood, saliva and other material that can be tested for DNA. Once obtained, the DNA is compared with the genetic profiles from unsolved cases that have DNA from unidentified perpetrators.

FT. MEADE, Md. - Army Pfc. Bradley Manning pleaded guilty Thursday to sending huge digital archives of secret U.S. military and diplomatic records to the WikiLeaks website, saying he was motivated by a U.S. foreign policy "obsessed with killing and capturing people. " Manning, 25, sat erect in dress blues beside his lawyers in a military courtroom and read aloud for more than an hour - slowly but sometimes stumbling over his words - from a 35-page, handwritten statement that described his personal angst over America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.