Reality

Philly is a reality-show nexus and all, but what were the chances of Tuesday's on-the-street meetup of Reid Rosenthal , the Rittenhouse Square Realtor who was booted off The Bachelorette a year ago, and Ashley Hebert , the University of Pennsylvania dental student who was shown the door Monday night on The Bachelor ? No sparks flew in what Rosenthal described as a random encounter outside the 10 Rittenhouse high-rise on 18th Street near Walnut, where he was showing a condo.

AS A 42-YEAR-OLD male whose belly is fattening while his hair is thinning, I wanted to tell you that your article purporting to show a link between middle-age weight gain and dementia is a load of bunk. And if you don't believe me, just ask my cat Abraham Lincoln, who read the article to me while we played No Limit Hold-'em with the Martians from next door. Mike Ginsberg, Philadelphia

I'M SICK of people griping and moaning about how the police are so unfair and crying racism when there are police shootings, or they've arrested their poor little Johnny. But what are police supposed to do when Johnny is shooting at them, robbing an elderly person for some weed, or victimizing a law-abiding citizen? Get real. Bhoke S. Lumumba Philadelphia

Larry Kane is a veteran anchor and author This is a time for memories, mostly the individual flashbacks of the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 11: where we were, what we were thinking, the visual recollections. Rushing in to work, headed south on I-95 in the direction of Independence Mall, I was stunned at the traffic headed north. A rush-hour traffic jam, with people heading home at 9:30 in the morning? It was an attempt to escape, caused by fear - fear of what might come next.

THE OBSERVER effect, in science, describes circumstances under which the behavior of an object under observation changes as the result of being observed. A thermometer inserted into a glass of water, for example, doesn't merely measure the temperature, but alters it slightly. That, in a nutshell, explains why the term "reality TV" is such an absurd misnomer. But the Italian film "Reality" takes it one step further: Does being watched make you a better or worse person? And what if you're not being watched but only think you are?

On Feb. 28 Ellen Goodman never spoke truer words than when she stated "a woman can take RU 486 (an abortifacient) without knowing whether she is pregnant . . . the moral questions would be easy . . . to avoid. " It has always been that way, Ms. Goodman. The rich can live selfish, opulent lives and never have to face the moral question of their responsibilities to humanity as long as they never see the ghetto. But that doesn't change the reality of the existence of poverty. You're right, not being able to see unborn humans makes it easy for some to avoid the moral question of their destruction.

CONGRATULATIONS to the editorial board on recognizing the importance of comprehensive immigration reform for the U.S. Opponents think they have good reasons for being opposed to immigration reform, but they are not facing reality: immigrants (legal or otherwise) are here, they make our country great, and the only reasonable thing to do is bring the undocumented ones out of the shadows. This isn't amnesty - it's common sense. Unfortunately, opponents are so often acting out of bias rather than a sense of fairness.

NEW ORLEANS - Alligator hunters, raccoon wranglers, and crawfish catchers in Louisiana's critter-filled swamps and bayous are increasingly common on television. Since the introduction of the History Channel's wildly popular Swamp People in 2010, roughly a dozen other Louisiana-based reality shows have made their television debuts, among them the Travel Channel's Girls, Guns and Gators , CMT's Crawfish Cowboys , and the Discovery Channel's Ragin' Cajuns . The reason for the boom in Louisiana-based reality TV is twofold, said the state's lieutenant governor, Jay Dardenne.

RE "Stem Cells: The Inconvenient Truth," the op-ed by Christine Flowers, I have one thing to say: Ring, ring, this is reality calling . . . Ms. Flowers says that "after years of research and unrealistic expectations, the results are still disappointing. " But if researchers had government funding and support, more substantive results may occur. We simply can't throw away promising scientific research just because it isn't yielding immediate results, especially when greater government funding is likely to enhance those results considerably.

The Underlying Logic of the Office By Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan Twelve. 320 pp. $26.99 Reviewed by Jane Von Bergen Delta Air Lines president Edward H. Bastian had good news for analysts gathered for a recent industry conference sponsored by JPMorgan. The airline, he told them, had a profitable quarter, the first in a decade. Why? In part because of savings from an oil refinery in Delaware County it bought from Conoco Phillips in 2012. An oil refinery? What's an airline doing running an oil refinery?

NEW YORK - There's no business like small business. Mix the high stakes of running a small business with a dash of family drama and throw in a camera crew and you get hit reality television shows such as Pawn Stars, Welcome to Sweetie Pie's , and Duck Dynasty . Turning small-business owners into stars has become a winning formula for television producers, but some businesses featured in them are cashing in, too. Sales explode after just...

After the Boston Marathon bombings, who wouldn't want an iNose? Imagine an affordable pocket-size sniffer that could detect all sorts of smells, especially bombs. If the crowd near the finish line had its own mini-robo-bloodhounds April 15, tragedy might have been prevented. The bombers might not have dared to even try. That future isn't here yet, but it's getting closer. Bomb-sniffing technology is already portable, already in use at airports and athletic events, and already has some advantages over bomb-sniffing dogs, according to several manufacturers.

With taquerías and other conspicuously non-Italian businesses proliferating in South Philadelphia's Italian Market, should the neighborhood be renamed for the sake of anthropological accuracy? The answer is the same whether you're a Sicilian or a Sinaloan: No . The Daily News' Helen Ubiñas raised the question in a recent column, arguing that these days, the neighborhood's name "just doesn't reflect the reality of the street. " As she pointed out, the collection of businesses occupying the historic curb market along South Ninth Street has steadily become less Italian and more Asian and Latino, particularly Mexican.

NEW YORK - An independent review of the U.S. government's antiterrorism response after the Sept. 11 attacks reported Tuesday that it was "indisputable" the United States engaged in torture and the Bush administration bears responsibility. The report by the Constitution Project, a nonpartisan Washington-based think tank, is an ambitious review of the Bush administration's approach to the problems of holding and interrogating detainees after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

By Ann Connor Parkinson's is a chronic, progressive neurological disease. It is hard to live with, yet there are far worse diseases to have. Nevertheless, since April is Parkinson's Awareness Month, let's, for a few paragraphs, shine a bright light on the dark, sobering realities of this disease. Some of the questions your neurologist asks while Parkinson's is in its early stages pull the curtain back on what's ahead: Can you dress yourself? Do you drool excessively? Only at night or during the day?

As hundreds of tearful friends and fans filed past two closed coffins Sunday in Charleston, W. Va., a slideshow of family photos showed the simple country life that Buckwild reality TV star Shain Gandee lived long before the cameras started rolling. Set to country music were snapshots of the 21-year-old before his 15 minutes of TV fame: as a uniformed pee wee football player, in a tuxedo for prom, kissing a bride. In some, he wore hunting camouflage, holding a slain buck by its antlers and displaying a batch of gray squirrels.

THE OBSERVER effect, in science, describes circumstances under which the behavior of an object under observation changes as the result of being observed. A thermometer inserted into a glass of water, for example, doesn't merely measure the temperature, but alters it slightly. That, in a nutshell, explains why the term "reality TV" is such an absurd misnomer. But the Italian film "Reality" takes it one step further: Does being watched make you a better or worse person? And what if you're not being watched but only think you are?

THE DAYS foreshadowed in Paddy Chayefsky 's "Network" are upon us. In that 1976 movie, network bosses hire a terrorist group to kill an aging anchorman on air to goose ratings. Is what TV is doing (and causing) today - outing fame-starved people in a pressure cooker - that much different? Five people who've appeared on Dr. Drew 's "Celebrity Rehab" have died since being on the show. Wesley Durden Jr. , a contestant on "Cake Boss: The Next Great Baker," shot himself.

THE STORM CLOUDS gathered early last March. Ryan Howard was fielding ground balls on a stool. Chase Utley was conspicuously absent from Grapefruit League games. Roy Halladay's velocity was down. The Phillies had no obvious leftfielder, no veteran setup man, and an aging third baseman who had struggled to stay on the field the previous season. The fan base was understandably nervous. My answer to all who asked: It wouldn't surprise me if this team won 100 games, and it wouldn't surprise me if it lost 80. This year, the answer is the same, minus the 100 wins part.