apologies for august meant can the charles dickens -- augments the charles dickens novel a tale of twoities but it is in fact the best of times for the oakland a's. they've done it again. they have the starter early. and they have to start early against this guy. brandon plos to the right corner. it will create a play at the plate for josh donaldson and he just gets under the throw. look at the replay. a super-man like dive, for the first and only run of the game. and the a's bats went into deep freeze after that. the culprit, seven innings, 10 strike-outs there. and then we go to the 6th inning. josh donaldson, it looked like a routine single up the middle but somebody said something. perhaps it was jarvis. we don't know. but the a's took offense. especially coco crisp. he had to be restrained. bartolo colon for the a's unleashed the pain. got an e.r.a. of just over one since coming off the d. l. search strike- outs. 95 miles an hour. 9th inning. time for the bellfour. grant bellfour, strike three call on david murphy. and that is it. the a's win it 1-0. they're 5 1/2 games up in the

when charles dickens visited us in 1840, he was truly blown away by high water pressure on the fourth floor of the hotel he was staying in. nowhere in europe had he experienced that. this technology was doing something to support the life and the growth of the city. philadelphia, throughout the 19th century, was the major industrial city of the united states. all of these industries used water from this system. and it served as a prototype for many american cities, including pittsburgh and new york. man: new york city went to philadelphia and said, "you know, we're thinking of developing a hudson river water supply -- what do you suggest we do?" and they said, "we've had "a lot of problems on the schuylkill. "don't go to the hudson river. go to the upland and work by gravity." and that's what new york city did. they first went to the hudson highlands, but 150 years later, it went to the delaware highlands. and really diverted the water that normally went to philadelphia to new york city. i don't think they anticipated that. narrator: the majority of new york city's drinking water come

narrator: touring herculaneum and pompeii in the mid 19th century, novelist charles dickens found thetone cities of the dead alive with the power of art. reader: "paintings on the walls in the roofless chambers of both cities are as fresh as if they had been executed yesterday. -here are the subjects of still life, familiar classical stories or mythological fables, poets reading their productions to their friends... all restore the ancient cities in the fancy of their wandering visitor." narrator: the fascination with pompeii emerged in an 1825 opera by giovanni pacini called the last day of pompeii and more famously sir edward bulwer lytton's novel the last days of pompeii , published in 1834. in lytton's heavily romanticized account fictional characters experienced the last hours of the city's terror. nydia, the blind girl whose keen hearing led her companions to the sea and safety, was carved in marble by randolph rogers in 1860. it was followed by more than a hundred copies as pompeii fever spread throughout europe. lytton's stoic centurion who steadfastly refused to leave his pos

i heard it is like a novel of charles dickens, but to be honest, i prefer reading him than playing this kind of game. >> what is your review? >> we had this argument about my sons spending too much time doing these things, playing these games, but that is what he tells me, dad, they are a little violent, they may look uninteresting, they may look very one level, if you like, but there are various layers and strategies, which i cannot attest to, but that is his argument. >> that issue, by the way, has already cropped up with the deputy prime minister of britain saying that it can have a detrimental effect, but in some cases a corrosive effect on someone's behavior. on twitter, instead of a brainless, passive mankind because of video games, we have a brainless active mankind. anna says, how many shootings will there be till we stop the same stupid debate about videogames versus guns? a bit of an analogy, perhaps, to the shooting that took place at the washington navy yard earlier this week. a lot of people make the connection every time there is one of the shooting sprees to videogames. >

read charles dickens if you want at ow what it looked like this time. smumently -- simultaneously there was something that had not yet existed -- a new middle class. lawyers, doctors, businessmen. ople who earned their living by overseeing production, contracting production, and caring for the ill in society in forward manner. a society of industrialists and businessmen over the aristocracy. a shift of who, in a sense, had power. a shift which was replicated on the continent as frangs and italy and germany underwent an industrial revolution. initially there were health problems. .yphus, t.b., cholera as time went on, more well springs produced. sanitation improved. and there were conscious events, conscious movements to increase and improve sanitation. factories emerged. cotton spinning was mechanized. production soared. manchester became known at the time as "cottonopolis" the center for the production of otton goods. but not everyone celebrated, as we tend to now. there was pain, a lot of it at the time. and it was felt. in 1817, a group that called u

charles dickens is one of the most prolific writers of that time. bank -- of that time. 500 pieces of inlaid wood. they would play games. it sits up and rolls up. it looks like a regular table. the craftsmanship is incredibly remarkable. another piece that goes back to them is actually the food container. it was against from the children of philadelphia when they were in the white house. eliza brought that back home with her when they return. >> after falling her husband from one military outpost to another, julia grant was given a home. >> it was purchased to give to the grand family during his -- for his service during the war. it was furnished with everything good taste could offer. the parlor was being entertaining part of the home. julia was an avid entertainer and loved it. the family spent a lot of time in the parlor. mr. grant and their daughter played the piano. imagine the family sitting here, the general in his favorite chair, the boys listening to their sister and their mother playing songs. julia and ellen played songs for the guests. h

but one word inspired by charles dickens seems fitting these days -- bleak. he wrote the book "bleak house" about the dismal failures of the british judicial system. it refers to the main courthouse which reads the warning. suffer any wrong that can be done you rather than come here. given the recent inaction and perhaps dysfunction, i feel a similar moniker may need to be placed above our own door. this body has reached a point where our inaction is no longer harmless. our inability to act and to govern is having real and harmful effects. we are on the verge of causing really great suffering. take, for example, health care. we passed health care reform three years ago, and while everyone does not like all of its provisions, the fact is it's the law of the land, it's not going away. but rather than working together to improve the bill, as has been done with every other major piece of legislation such as medicare part d, many in this house are not only refusing to make adjustments, they are trying to stop its implementation altogether. there are efforts under

when charles dickens visited us in 1840, he was truly blown away by high water pressure on the fourth floor of the hotel he was staying in. nowhere in europe had he experienced that. this technology was doing something to support the life and the growth of the city. philadelphia, throughout the 19th century, was the major industrial city of the united states.