There are a number of problems with science journalism today, and they tend to feed on each other. Decades ago, when the newspaper industry had advertising-driven profit margins in the 10-25% range, newspaper companies were bought by conglomerates that wanted those sky-high profits. Advertising revenues have since plummeted largely as a result of web advertising, especially sites like Craig’s List. But those same conglomerates continue to expect sky high margins even though revenues have fallen. Because the conglomerates are unwilling to accept lower short-term profits, corporate managers instead force editors to lay off journalists.

In every business, the first people laid off are those who just plain suck at their job, cost the most, and are the least flexible. In the case of newspapers, the most expensive and least flexible people tend to be the oldest journalists and editors with the highest salaries, the specialists who produce little day-to-day volume but cost a lot, and those who are unwilling or unable to transition from one beat to another. Full story »

The new Batwoman is gay. Really. I don’t have an opinion about that, since I don’t read comic books anymore. Still, I can remember when she carried her crime fighting equipment in a purse.

When I was a kid, video games were called comic books. They were great because they were filled with superheroes who didn’t require an emotional investment, they were very cheap and they were full of advertisements. The ads were the second best part of the comic book. We all wanted some X-ray glasses, or free chameleons, or a Charles Atlas guide to beating the crap out of beach sand-kickers. Every guy in my neighborhood wanted to win the huge chest of plastic army men, over 288 pieces, that could be yours if you only sold a few Grit magazines or packs of seeds or boxes of Christmas cards. And when it came right down to it, who didn’t need magazines and seeds and Christmas cards?

But the best thing about comic books was the dream, intoxicating almost to madness, of being a superhero. I was hooked as were we all. More than that, we believed superpowers were attainable, and already enjoyed by a lucky few of us. Full story »

In recent years YouTube has become the videographer of record for the sum total of human craziness. And brilliance. And stupidity. And WTFedness. And creativity. And … well, you get the idea. Several times a day, it seems, somebody e-mails or links or embeds a vid from YouTube that has us laughing, cringing, crying, throwing things, and most of all, e-mailing, linking or embedding the video along to our friends.

So let’s have some open thread fun. Tell us what you think is the greatest thing you’ve seen on YouTube. Or the worst, or the most appalling, whatever.

I’ll go first, and I’ll offer up this, Full story »

Film and stage director Arthur Penn has died, age 88. Penn was one of the most important, if least prolific, film directors of the past half century, and if his only movie had been Bonnie and Clyde, his place in film and cultural history would be assured. That wasn’t all–his other film credits included gems such as Alice’s Restaurant, Penn and Teller Get Killed, and Night Moves, and some interesting messes like Little Big Man (which still contained an astonishing performance from Dustin Hoffman) and The Missouri Breaks (one of Marlon Brando’s most entertaining performances). But it was as a television and stage director that Penn initially made his mark, with The Miracle Worker, followed by a raft of others. Penn himself was responsible for all three versions of The Miracle Worker–television, Broadway, and the film version, which won Oscars for both Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke. Full story »

A former professor of mine, Paul Schoemaker, co-wrote a book on decision making. In it he tells a story about calling a friend in Australia. The friend unloaded on him, “My job sucks. My marriage sucks. My life sucks.”

He sounded so despondent that Paul called him back a few days later. To his surprise, his friend was downright cheery.  When Paul reminded him of his mood the previous week, the friend said, “Oh yeah. Last week was bad, but then I bought the Harley.”  Schoemaker’s point was that we all try to compartmentalize decisions, but that’s not the way our brains work. One thing flows into another.

When one thing sucks, everything sucks. And when one thing is great, life is great.

But I think there’s another point to that story. Small changes can have big effects. Full story »

It’s high political season in the UK, with the Lib Dem and Labour party conferences going on over the past week. The big news, of course, is that the Labour party has a new leader. Ed Miliband, who has had virtually no life outside of politics since leaving university, managed to eke out a victory over his brother David, who was considered the front-runner up to a few days prior to the conference. Lord knows what sort of psychodrama accounts for Ed, the younger brother, deciding to run against his older brother for the leadership of the Labour party. Whether David’s wife, who is urging David to leave the politics or something, will ever again speak to Ed and his not-quite-married partner remains to be seen, and we don’t imagine the family get-togethers for the holidays will be particularly lively. Especially since Ed only won on the fourth ballot, and only won because of the votes from the Labour unions—he didn’t carry the MPs, and he didn’t carry the Labour party members, both of whom preferred David. (It’s a weird voting system, one that I imagine will be facing some calls for change after this result.)
Full story »

What the hell is up with 2010? And will it ever end?

This has been the worst year of my life. I guess those who were there to see the trainwreck that was 1988 might argue that it was marginally worse, but the point is that this year has sucked from the outset. It began with the collapse of my marriage. Which led, as you might expect, to extraordinary amounts of depression, self-recrimination, loneliness, etc. Then it kind of kept getting worse.

But it’s not just me. I look at the lives of the people close to me, and extreme stress is an all-too-dominant theme. For instance:

• A close friend who happens to be one of the brightest guys I know got fired from his job last year. Full story »

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Here’s another in our occasional unsolicited shout-outs to people and groups we like.

You’re probably hooked into a variety of social networks, but Rock & Roll Tribe is a little different. It is, as the tag line suggests, a “community for kickass grown-ups.” Music is at the center of most conversations, but it’s more than that. It’s a social net that’s by, of and for those of us whose spirits are younger than our knees. That’s how I see it, anyway. In addition to the online activities, RnRT is also pushing local get-togethers and inviting meaningful contributions from folks like you.

One of the founders is the eminent Bruce Brodeen, he of Not Lame renown. And that alone makes it cool.

Drop in. Sign up. Rock out. Full story »

by John Cavanaugh

What a gorgeous bit of nostalgia from Chevrolet! Or whatever this is trying to be. Especially in tough economic times like these, I like to think about the possible target audiences. Even for a poster, which is not technically advertising. And since it begs the question, here are some possible responses:

1. Hell yes! Those were the days. Full story »

At his website, New Paradigms Forum, Christopher Ford recently hosted an email colloquy on the subject of nuclear deterrence between staunch disarmament advocate Steven Leeper, chair of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, and himself. The position of Ford, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and chief negotiator of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons for the Bush administration, can perhaps best be described as counseling extreme caution in disarming while other states still seek to develop nuclear weapons programs.

Leeper, who writes, “I have very little contact with people who think the way you do, so I am genuinely interested in what you have to say,” sprays questions at Ford like a machine gun. But one evokes an elemental issue that seldom sees the light of day in dialogues about nuclear weapons. Breaking down his question into two parts, Leeper asks:

. . . which would be worse, for the whole world to be dominated by Russians, Chinese, communists, Muslims, Arabs and/or eco terrorists [not sure how that got in there -- RW] or for all human beings on Earth to die as a result of nuclear winter, radiation and/or environmental catastrophe? In this connection, have you ever believed it would be better to be dead than red? Full story »

On May 6, 2010, Christopher Monckton, Viscount of Brenchley, was invited by the Republican members of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming to present testimony that contradicted over 100 years of established chemistry, physics, and climatology. Monckton, a non-scientist who has a long history of making erroneous claims, was seated as and equal beside four scientists with PhDs in their respective climate-related fields.

Earlier this month, a group of climate scientists submitted a detailed rebuttal of Monckton’s testimony to the House. Full story »

Edgar Allan Poe’s grave marker sits immediately inside the front gate of the Westminster Hall cemetery in downtown Baltimore. It’s not quite the location you’d expect for a cemetery—at the corner of Fayette and Greene streets in the downtown’s west side—at least not until you walk through the wrought-iron gate and you realize just how old and gothic the cemetery is and how it had laid claim to this space long before the city ever thought of growing so big, long before it ever would have dared to encroach upon the dead.

At least Westminster Hall, all weathered brick and moss, still looks like a church even though its days of serving a Presbyterian congregation are long gone. The building, now owned by the University of Maryland Law School, serves as a private space-for-rent banquet hall and meeting place. Full story »

“An authentic life.”

For some reason, this phrase, neither new nor newly trendy, has been popping up more and more in reading, conversations, casual messages and in-depth debates in my field of awareness lately. For some reason, although I often care very deeply about the people involved in the discussion, the words themselves leave me cold – or perhaps that’s too harsh. Less than cold, then, but also less than moved. I don’t roll my eyes, as at “That’s not fair.” I don’t despise the speaker. I don’t even mind that it’s a cliché whose meaning is entirely dependent upon its user; most human experience fits into well-worn phrases when viewed from the outside. And I understand, once the explanations begin, what different people mean by it: searching for your true work, maybe, or living closer to the land, or connecting more with people than with things. I simply don’t like the descriptor itself nor the way it tends to be used.

What bothers me, I think, is this: the implication that life itself can be inauthentic. Full story »

Every story needs a villain.  We still haven’t made up our mind who we will make the official villain for the recent financial meltdown—will it be the Ivy League elites who manipulated the markets from their glass and steel towers, craven bureaucrats at the Fed who knew they were creating false prosperity or the grubby mortgage specialists operating out of bucket shops in down-at-the-heels strip malls? History is still counting the votes.

So, since the voting is still open, is it too late to nominate someone else?

How about cynical university presidents and their lazy academic posses, who have sold millions of kids worthless degrees at inflated rates, and convinced them to take on crippling debt loads to finance them?

Whoa, Sambo. That seems a little harsh (and perhaps a little foolhardy, since many readers of this blog are academicians.) Full story »

News that President Obama’s Chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, will be leaving at year end gave a number of commentators the opportunity to suggest replacement candidates. Many of these suggestions take the form of bringing in someone from the business community, on the mistaken assumption that Obama is anti-business. He’s not, but you can’t stop a good meme, apparently, even if it’s wrong. There’s a broader point, though. Summers, though undoubtedly a very smart guy, does represent the consensus economic view that globalization is a good thing. Now, “globalization” is a pretty loaded term, but we all know the general story—eliminate trade barriers, and everyone benefits. And it’s time for the Democrats to re-think their commitment to this policy. Full story »