opinion | CARLO ROTELLA

The rise and fall of an idealist

Anh “Joseph” Cao, center, listens to President Obama speak before the signing the Dodd-Frank act in 2010.

associated press

How former US Representative Anh “Joseph” Cao ran afoul of the basic political facts of life.

Helen Hunt plays a sex surrogate and John Hawkes the disabled man she helps in “The Sessions.”

friday preview | Movie Review

‘The Sessions’ connects with honest approach

It sounds like a bad joke: A man in an iron lung hires a sex surrogate to help him lose his virginity. But this intensely moving drama clearly portrays a good soul in an inert body.

Jules Sitruk (left) and Mehdi Dehbi as young men switched at birth in their Israeli and Palestinian families.

Movie review

‘The Other Son’ is a switch from usual Mideast melodrama

An Israeli-Palestinian switched-at-birth story is almost too obvious. The movie, however, is solemnly optimistic.

Poornima Kirby played Rose in the serial theatrical “Blood Rose Rising.’’

Critic’s Notebook

Ambitious ‘Blood Rose Rising’ canceled

On the eve of the third installment, the show closed. It’s too bad, because the project had a lot of promise.

Rashid Johnson’s “Electric Universe” of black soap, wax, vinyl, wood, book, brass, incense, shea butter, and space rocks.

Art Review

Artists experiment with science in the ‘Holocene’

The List Visual Arts Center at MIT is a great, and in some ways a provocative, place to show art that aspires to the status of science.

Tierney, Tisei clash on housing market

In a second televised debate, US Representative John F. Tierney and challenger Richard Tisei argued over whether 2006 was a good year for the housing market.

Patrick appoints interim head of health agency

The governor tapped a new interim commissioner to oversee the state Department of Public Health, which has been rocked by the drug lab and meningitis scandals.

Romney vouched for low price on Staples stock

Mitt Romney testified in 1991 that the ex-wife of Staples founder Tom Stemberg got a fair deal in the couple’s 1988 divorce.

“What you’ve seen and heard should leave no doubt that Windows 8 shatters perceptions of what a PC is now,” said Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.

Microsoft charts new course with Windows 8

With Thursday’s launch of Windows 8, Microsoft Corp. showed the new course it has set for itself. But it is an open question whether consumers and businesses will follow.

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2012/10/25/BostonGlobe.com/Foreign/Images/NOAA%20CARIBBEAN.JPEG-01f83-291--90x90.jpg Hurricane Sandy hits Bahamas

The storm barreled into the Bahamas after raging through the Caribbean, where it caused at least 21 deaths.