Today is Bloomsday, the annual celebration of James Joyce's novel Ulysses. The book details an epic day in the life of Leopold Bloom, in the 24-hour span of June 16, 1904.

For decades, Joyce-lovers have been commemorating Bloomsday by eating liver for breakfast and drinking pints of Guinness, as Bloom does. They also hold marathon readings of the novel.

After three months of demonstrations in Syria, it is a daily struggle to get an accurate picture of events. The Syrian government has banned most international media, and Syria's state TV presents an official version contradicted by an anti-regime protest movement that bolsters its narrative with video clips and Facebook postings.

In neighboring Lebanon, even news editors supportive of President Bashar Assad's regime say Syria is losing credibility in the media war.

A Lebanese Paper, Close To Syria

A lot of companies try to instill loyalty in their employees. But it's safe to say few of them took it as far as IBM.

For years IBM employees had to learn company songs. Journalist Kevin Maney, who was commissioned by IBM to co-author Making the World Work Better, a history of the company, says it was part of the effort to build a corporate culture. That was something IBM founder Thomas Watson Sr. took very seriously.

Former Saturday Night Live cast member Ana Gasteyer started a delicious rumor in an interview with cable news channel NY1 over the weekend. Gasteyer said Ben & Jerry's is coming out with a new ice cream flavor inspired by a popular skit Gasteyer starred in alongside Shannon Molly and Alec Baldwin.

The new flavor? "Schweddy Balls."

Here's what's at the core of all the chaos today in Greece: The country is on track to run out of money next month.

European leaders will probably come through in the end and lend Greece more money.

But for now, at least, Europe can't agree on whether to admit defeat – to finally accept that Greece can't repay its massive debt on time – or to keep looking for ways for Greece to muddle along a while longer.

TIRR Memorial Hermann's chief medical officer said in a statement that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has been given the OK to return home and continue her therapy as an outpatient. Giffords has spent five months at the hospital, rehabilitating after she was shot in the head in January.

In its press release, the hospital writes:

Here's today's feel-good story: Two months shy of his 100 birthday, Leo Plass of Oregon received his associates degree from Eastern Oregon University in La Grande. Plass had dropped out of college in 1932.

The AP reports:

Plass says he was less than one semester away from graduating from what was then called Eastern Oregon Normal School and starting a career as a teacher.

English / Spanish

For the last 16 years, Ozomatli has been modestly proving that a band can mix music and politics and still sell records.

I say modestly because they don't draw attention to themselves for that. To do so would dilute their message. Instead their method has been to lead by musical example.

Here's an inconvenient truth for Mitt Romney — Al Gore is praising him for accepting the scientific evidence pointing to global warming and the human role in it.

The following is from the ex-vice president's blog:

Good for Mitt Romney — though we've long passed the point where weak lip-service is enough on the Climate Crisis.

On Wednesday, the National Trust for Historic Preservation released its latest list of places the trust considers the most endangered in the country. The list of 11 includes a Chicago hospital; a jazz musician's home; and a plant in Minneapolis that was once the world's most advanced flour mill.