Reza Aslan is a Los Angeles-based writer, commentator and Islamic scholar. His new book is, “How to Win A Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and The End of Terror.”

Ronnie Brust’s vision for a self-sufficient desert camp includes a kitchen, a living room and a giant projector screen hanging between scaffolding towers. At the center of the camp will be a 32-foot geodesic dome, the frame of which Brust spent Wednesday building in his mother’s yard at Sixth and Miller streets. He will transport the structure to Burning Man, the annual arts festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, later this summer.

Weekly family rail, with a review of the new “Transformers” movie, tips on volunteering and more.

For two years, Larry Tye pored through thousands of research pages and wrote hundreds of pages about an often-overlooked American icon: baseball great Leroy “Satchel” Paige. Satchel’s story, said Tye, is about overcoming “every obstacle any human being could ever imagine.”

When consumers toss unused household chemicals and other hazardous items into the garbage, they wind up in municipal landfills, which often are not equipped to handle this kind of waste. But keeping cleaning solutions, insecticides and other items around the house has its dangers. Many household cleaning products, pest-control chemicals and lawn-care chemicals can be replaced with more natural, less toxic methods.

An unusual chance to see a close pairing of Jupiter and Neptune awaits the next clear night. Due to its magnificence, brilliant Jupiter is easy to pick out and probably most people have seen it without even knowing it. Neptune, however, although it is a giant planet as well, is so far away very few people have ever seen it. This is a chance to find Neptune with a pair of binoculars or a small telescope with little trouble, since it is close by the King of Planets, Jupiter.

When I was a teenager, there was a summer when I survived on Oreo cookies, Carnation Instant Breakfast and the occasional Dairy Queen Blizzard. Today, I have a teen of my own who has to fend for himself most days during the summer. Like most parents, I'm not a nutritionist, but I know better than to let him con me into filling the house with junk food. What's harder is finding easy, healthy food that he'll take the time to fix and won't be bored of after a week or two.

In the early 1980s, you couldn’t turn on MTV without seeing a Huey Lewis and the News video. That was a time when peppy pop music dominated the airwaves and when music videos actually played 24-7 on the venerable music channel.

This week’s suggestions: Check out the “Transformers” sequel, watch world-class tennis and soccer, celebrate National Chocolate Pudding Day, watch the BET Awards and camp out in your backyard.

Weekly family rail, with staycation tips, a review of “Year One” and more.

Excessive heat and humidity has driven many locals to the Marion pool this week. (With photo gallery)

I’m a Mickey Mouse mom and was hell-bent on creating Disney memories with my son. Certainly I was discouraged against bringing a 2-year-old to Disney World – the cost, the travel, limited age-appropriate activities and attractions, and so on. Could I really make Disney happen for a 2-year-old and simultaneously keep my marriage intact over four days?

Mercy, a miniature horse from East Bloomfield, learned how to paint from a master: the horse that played Seabiscuit in the movie by the same title.

They say turning 40 is no big deal. Well, for me, it was. Three months after reaching the milestone birthday, I received news no one wants to hear. Cancer. Stage 2 testicular cancer.

There is a new recipe for homemade bread sweeping the Internet. The recipe turns up in varying forms. Some of the recipes have “artisan” in the title and some have “five minutes,” but they all have one thing in common: a method for preparing no-fail homemade bread that doesn’t require any kneading or waiting around for hours of rising time.