First, some follow-ups:
Three recent articles help contextualize and expand my recent post about the mass-folding of newspapers in the current climate. Two, from Slate, make arguments against the alleged essential link between newspapers and democracy and for the return of yellow journalism. To dovetail with a return of yellow journalism - to increase readership and make newspapers less sterile and, therefore, more interesting (like blogs, no?) - HuffPo had an article describing Google CEO Eric Schmidt's speech to the Newspaper Association of America where he basically argued for consumer-centric journalism (yellow journalism by another name?) and Google's possible role in helping the newspaper industry return to profitability (and making more money for himself, his stockholders, Sergey, and Larry in the process).
So, let me get this straight: newspapers should drop their ethical anality and actually be interesting, and that might mean they can make money? It seems as if people are no longer interested in print versions of the Congressional Record.
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On a follow-up to my post about EW's review of the Jonas Brothers movie, check out the South Park version, in Season 13's episode "The Ring." Watch here (it's near the end of the episode). (Thanks to b-i-l Ace for the tip.)
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In the latest development in the coming debate over which is more damaging to civilization, our current (and future) fights over fossil fuels or the looming water crisis, Slate's Jack Shafer reports on an essay in Nature (which is only available, unfortunately, for a price) that argues that, in a predictable left-y interpretation (which doesn't mean that it's wrong), though we start (needless) wars over (bad) oil, diplomacy and discussion have solved the world's past problems with (good) water.
I haven't gotten there in my Encounter reporting (last check, I hadn't really gotten anywhere, actually), but the building of the so-called "security fence" in the West Bank may prove a counter-example here, as the Israeli government's over-reaching for water resources in parched Israel has only helped to foment an already dicey age-old cultural hatred. And, as we all know, had either the Jews or the Arabs found oil in the Holy Land, some of us would be a lot richer (or deader; or both).
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Newsweek has an excellent profile on Paul Krugman, NY Times columnist, Princeton professor, and Nobel Laureate - focusing on his critiques of the Obama administration's economic policies but also shining a light on who Krugman is, what makes him tick.
I think I have a crush on him.
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The New York Times reported on an important theoretical study (as opposed to a theoretically important one) that helps begin to explain why we have itches and why they (usually) feel better after we scratch them. The study itself does not actually provide new information about itching and scratching - scratch around the itch, not on it, for maximal impact - but instead helps explain the whole origin of itching in the first place (it's the spinal chord, stupid) which should help open up research avenues for certain diseases (HIV, kidney disease, and something called "atopic eczema") that cause terrible itching symptoms.
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HuffPo has "6 Things You Didn't Know About Passover," which includes these doozies:
[M]any Jews were in synagogue for the holiday when news of Lincoln's assassination broke. Altars in temples "were quickly draped in black and, instead of Passover melodies, the congregations chanted Yom Kippur hymns. Rabbis set aside their sermons and wept openly at their pulpits, as did their congregants."
Solomon Henry Jackson, an English-born American Jew, published the first American edition of the Haggadah in 1837 in New York. Jackson had moved to the city in the 1820s to establish the first Hebrew printing press, and The Jew, a monthly newspaper and the first Jewish periodical in the United States. One could say Jackson was the original member of the Jewish media elite.____________________________________________________________________________________
TVWorthWatching.com places Scrubs in the pantheon of sublime thirty-minute television shows (with M*A*S*H and Brooklyn Bridge). The piece is written by one of David Bianculli's guest bloggers, all of whom will, shortly, become part of a larger staff at the site that's about to undergo a major makeover. I can't wait.
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And now for some items that have been sitting in my browser for far too long:
Masterful piece on Slate from the most recent war in Gaza on how to take pictures during a war. Very much in the noble and awesome tradition of the late genius Susan Sontag, whose Regarding the Pain of Others was part of the reading list we read in anticipation of her visit to Penn's Kelly Writers House in the Spring of 2003. Sontag's keen mind could not the irony of the homonymic relationship between "shooting people" and "shooting pictures." Not sure if I've blogged about this yet, but the first edition of Sontag's journals, edited by her son, man-of-arts-and-letters David Reiff, have been published to great acclaim here.
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Awesomely exuberant article on Slate about a pair of ants-versus-humans books (here and here) that analyze ant civilization and its comparisons to human civilization. Books look great; article is sure fun.
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Slate also examined the phenomenon of translating the Qur'an (and its importance in democratizing Islam for both its adherents and outsiders) and reviewed a recent new translation.
Maybe we can begin accounting for Islam's impact on globalized civilization by learning its classic text well enough to utilize it in cultural referents (like "turn the other cheek;" "water into wine;"and "walk on water" from the New Testament and the Ten Commandments; prohibition against homosexuality; seven days of creation; and more from the Hebrew Bible).
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Every year, Slate's "Explainer" column publishes the (most absurd) questions they were asked during the last year but they chose not to answer.
I tried selecting highlights but they're all just too funny. Laugh-out-loud in a room by yourself funny.
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Possibly the best T-shirt ever.
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Sporcle has a new quiz about the world's chicken population. (Seriously.)
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A lovely live gaffe on The Weather Channel. Cubs fans must have loved it.
And my browser's empty. Ah.
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