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POPSThe Sad State Of Online Comments "Sweetie," "dear," and "zionist stooge liar." Virginia Heffernan, writing about foreign affairs columnist Ann Applebaum, sums up the quality of discourse going on in the reader comment sections of most news sites.
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POPSRe-Coral-Ification Scientists think redeveloping dead and dying coral reefs may one day be as routine as planting sapplings.
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POPSAmazon Titles De-Ranked Meta-Writer is compiling a list of books for which Amazon has removed sales rank figures. This means, among other things, that in the product details for the book, no "Amazon Sales Rank" appears. The company (or, it claims, a wayward algorithm) is apparently targeting gay erotica. Even literary novels by Annie Proulx and Jeanette Winterson have gotten the ax. What next? Portnoy's Complaint? Tropic of Cancer? Lolita? Or must the smut be particularly homosexual in nature? Inquiring minds want to know.
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POPSTolstoy+Twitter Multimedia books on the way. Hope they're more fun than choose-your-own-adventure novels.
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POPSBooks About Columbine Two have been released in the last two weeks, "Columbine," and "Columbine: A True Crime Story," timed to coincide with the 10 year anniversary of the Colorado high school massacre. Janet Maslin reviews the former, with evident disdain for author Dave Cullen's self-promotional efforts. I get where she's coming from but it's hard to tell if the book is really bad or she's just appalled at his macabre media-chase.
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POPSThe Rise Of A Conspiracy Theorist In an excellent piece in the Weekly Standard, Cathy Young does the important leg work of debunking Naomi Klein, mother of the "shock doctrine" doctrine, which purports that every catastrophic event of the last three decades, economic or natural, was part of a vast right-wing conspiracy. I think the comparison of Klein to Chomsky is a bit unfair to Chomsky, since he was at least a ground-breaking linguistics professor early in his career. Nothing I've ever read by or about Klein suggests that she's much of a critical thinker.
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POPSIndia May Sign Test Ban Treaty India's nuclear envoy has indicated that the country might sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, Rediff reports -- a potential boon for U.S.-Indian relations.
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POPSThe Semantics Of 'Nationalization' Everyone's talking about nationalization -- but few can agree on precisely what the word even means. How about we define the terms of the debate before we have it?
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POPSFree Roxana Saberi Iran jails more journalists than almost any other nation. When reporters are not free, the light dims for all of us.
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POPSAmazon Cheats Book Authors First it was Google, which proposed a few years ago to scan every book in existence without compensating the copyright holders. (A proposal that was amended after an outcry from publishers and authors.) Now Amazon has found a new way to rip off authors, who sell audio rights to their books to supplement generally meager incomes. The Kindle II now delivers books via voice - without compensating authors. Here the head of the Author's Guild explains his position. Time for me to find another online book purveyor.
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POPSThe Paradox Of Thrift The paradox -- of spending to stimulate the economy AND saving to stimulate the economy -- is real, but perhaps not as contradictory as we thought. Ron Wilcox wrote a piece for Forbes on the subject: http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2009/02/16/spending-saving-stimulus-opinions-contributors_0217_ron_wilcox.html
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POPSKenya Limits Press Freedoms President Kibaki came to power in Kenya in part because of a vibrant press. What does he want to hide from freely operating newsrooms?
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POPSHelen Suzman, 1917-2009 She visited Mandela in prison. She stood up against apartheid. She showed her patriotism by challenging her government.
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POPSCertify Congo Tin? Lydia Polgreen's story on a Congolese mine is a fantastic piece of reporting that deserves to be read in its entirety. Towards the end she raises an interesting question: U.S. politicians have suggested certifying the source of minerals from Congo, in an effort to avoid funding conflicts. I'm not totally sold on such labeling programs -- diamond-certifying schemes have been another popular one. Money being money, won't military groups cut off from one resource just move on to another? Are there strong examples of commodity certification schemes that have actually stopped a conflict? If so I'd love to hear about it.
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POPSCommunal Vs. Solo Fasting This op-ed from the Guardian is about fasting for Ramadan, which ended last week, but it's applicable to Yom Kippur, which is on Thursday. Which do you prefer -- fasting alone or fasting communally? When I fast, individual reflection and self-discipline are important...but more than anything, I like to feel like I'm a part of something bigger.
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POPSEconomists On The Bailout I enjoyed this straightforward presentation of the arguments about the bailout. This pro-con display in the Charlotte Observer really boils down the issues and makes them understandable and palatable to the average reader.
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POPSRon Paul On Oil Prices And Free Trade
The Council on Foreign Relations caught up with former presidential nominee Ron Paul last week, who attributed high oil prices to misguided foreign policy and inflation. He also passionately affirmed his pro-free trade stance. The interview is a lively read!
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POPSI Dream Of Sarah Apparently, people have been dreaming about Sarah Palin. Or maybe it's just Slate writers?
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POPSGreg Mankiw On Freddie And Fannie The Harvard economist weighs in. He called for reform in 2003, but he's not bragging. He's just expressing regret that bailouts aren't the answer to the financial crisis.
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POPSWhat's Up With The Period? What editorial genius do you suppose came up with the idea to call the new WSJ magazine "WSJ-dot"? What's the period for? Is it supposed to be youthful? Are they trying to cater to the illiterate market? Ambiguous punctuation makes me uneasy.
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