LET IT BE

The ending was painful, but their art was amazing

It was 40 years ago this past Saturday that the Beatles released their last album, and a week later, a film documentary by the same name: “;Let It Be.”; Both were recorded during the band's last days as one of the world's most creative musical forces ever, cranking out enduring musical hits for almost a decade.

A fascinating article at wired.com dissects how “;the breakup of The Beatles, as well as the twin iterations of 'Let It Be,' hallmarked tectonic shifts in media culture, using the album's song titles as points of departure.”;

Those nine songs on the album, for those of you who don't remember, were “;Dig It,”; “;The Long and Winding Road,”; “;Let It Be,”; I've Got a Feeling,”; “;Two of Us,”; “;I Me Mine,”; “;Dig a Pony,”; “;Get Back”; and “;Across the Universe.”;

It seems like ages ago, but the fantastic music lives on.

HARD REALITY

Child labor still prominent worldwide

Some 215 million children around the world work, with more than half toiling in hazardous jobs, according to the International Labor Organization. The United Nations-affiliated agency compiled 2008 data from more than 50 countries, and released it ahead of a two-day conference on child labor that starts today. The total number of child laborers fell 3 percent from 2004, but the number of boys working increased. Conditions were worst in sub-Saharan Africa, where one in four children work, many in farm jobs that provide food (not cash) but deprive the young workers the chance for an education that could vault them out of poverty.