Archive for November, 2002
Another great link from my friend Colin: plans are under way to build a space elevator.
My holiday season will simply be incomplete unless I’m somehow able to sample the turducken (New York Times; free registration required). God bless American ingenuity. (Thanks to Colin R. for this exceptional find.)
The Business of News
Today, CNN.com is featuring a shark attack story on the front page of their site. This despite the fact that falling coconuts kill fifteen times as many people per year as the finned beasts.
This is an object lesson in the business of news: the news media is ultimately motivated by profits. CNN.com, like the TV networks and newspapers and magazines, is, in the end, most concerned with producing material that’s desireable to consumers–and, in turn, attracts eyeballs and advertisers. What makes the headlines, then, is not necessarily what’s important, but what’s compelling.
For more info, see FAIR’s “What’s Wrong with the News?”
Float pens are cool.
Dalton Ghetti, a carpenter who lives in Connecticut, carves tiny sculptures out of pencil lead.
Did Mickey Mouse first appear in a 14th-century Austrian church fresco? This sure looks a hell of a lot like the little guy.
The motocycle cops in Sao Paulo, Brazil, have demanding jobs–the traffic’s awful and they don’t make much money. But they get to ride really cool Harleys and have their photos taken with celebrities (New York Times; free registration required).
Looking for some fancy headphones to add to your holiday wish list? Take a gander at Shure’s E2c model.
Check out the Mad Magazine Onion parody.
Damn. I wish I’d heard about the Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism in time to attend. This year’s confab just ended. And the roster of speakers was impressive. Maybe I can go next year.