Science, journalism and politics – fact-based media should disavow make-believe
The politicization of science has always confounded me. It is common, from the catholic church telling us that the sun wasn’t in the center of the solar system or creationists telling us that human evolution didn’t happen from a common primate ancestor, or the fossil fuel industry telling us that climate change is not happening. [...]
Cut-Cap-Bait-Switch: Stealing from the elderly to pay for rich tax cuts
This graph from Sunday’s New York Times is making the rounds, even showing up at the competition like the Washington Post. This is good. Because it shows very clearly what’s going on. Because of the charged atmosphere of what constitutes opinion and what is observation in today’s journalism culture, it is hard to get [...]
social media is a big deal to people who haven’t been socializing online
my kids are watching saturday morning cartoons, i’m in my office next to them and they keep asking why i’m laughing. i say it is because i am chatting with a friend of mine and he’s funny and makes me laugh. he’s also in europe. we’ve known each other for about 20 years and we [...]
osama bin laden was not hitler and other talking point and tweeting tips
ok. so i’m hearing a lot of things today from tv pundits and pipers on twitter after u.s. special forces and intelligence agencies were successful in targeting and killing osama bin laden yesterday. there’s a lot of homer simpson like USA chanting, patriotic chest thumping, deposing despot, toppling tyrant, and all that kind of talk. [...]
How the journalist prom got out of control – The Washington Post
Dana Milbank: I don’t fault any one host for throwing a party, or any journalist for attending. Many of them are friends. There’s nothing inherently wrong with savoring Johnnie Walker Blue with the politicians we cover.But the cumulative effect is icky. With the proliferation of A-list parties and the infusion of corporate and lobbyist cash, [...]
Earth Day is about saving your time on Earth, not saving Earth itself.
Geologic time scale – Fossil Wiki, the paleontology wiki. Today is the 41st Earth Day. When it started in 1970, April 22nd wasn’t really a day dedicated to saving the Earth, it was more a day of protest about a lot of things that were happening on Earth. There has been an Earth Day every [...]
I like high gas prices. And so should you, if you are really conservative..
I read this and threw up in mouth a little. There is a ‘magic’ formula for lower gas prices | Examiner Editorial | Opinion | Washington Examiner. Since the effects of the deepwater horizon spill are still very much with us, and there’s pretty decent consensus that we are at or very near global peak [...]
The Civil War wasn’t civil. Discuss.
150 years ago, the United States broke apart and entered a brutal civil war. Today there is a debate about what the war was really about, slavery or states’ rights, but let’s be clear about that states’ rights thing…. it wasn’t about states’ rights other than the central right that those states would kill for [...]
National Geographic Expedition Week game sponsored by artifact sales
I saw the tweet about click through and take pictures and NG would mail you artifacts if you played their game Mission Expedition | Expedition Week- National Geographic Channel. But I didn’t think they’d be real, actual artifacts. And then I saw the sponsor banner link for Ancient Resource. Ancient Resource is the name [...]
Is the NYT paywall really the biz plan of the New York Times Syndicate
With the paywall going into wide effect on March 28, the Times’ own scribes Nate Silver and David Carr have both chimed added their voices to multitudes of opinion on the subject. Yes, it costs money to produce the news. People need to get paid for their work when they dedicate themselves to it. That’s [...]