Hi. I'm Newley Purnell. I cover technology and business for The Wall Street Journal, based in Hong Kong. I use this site to share my stories and often blog about the books I'm reading, tech trends, sports, travel, and our dog Ginger. For updates, get my weekly email newsletter.
Frontline’s “The Merchants of Cool” is a documentary about the creation and marketing of teen pop culture. I haven’t seen it, but I want to. On the show’s site, Robert McChesney, a media critic, discusses an argument I’d love to read more about: teenagers in non-commercial societies are happier than those in hyper-commercial ones, like ours.
Did “a race of long and narrow-headed humans”–Asians–populate the Americas before Native Americans?
What a brilliant idea. The Varieties of the Balloon Hat Experience Web site: two guys travel around the world taking pictures of people laughing and wearing silly balloon hats.
My friend Christina, who was in the group I motorcycled through Vietnam with last Spring, has posted some beautiful photos of her recent trip to Egypt.
Project Dole: two crazy Swedish guys decorate their buddy Sverker’s apartment with banana box furniture.
“The Changing ‘Times’: A hard-charging editor’s crusading style is coloring the Gray Lady’s reputation.” Interesting look at how The New York Times, under the leadership of Howell Raines, is becoming edgier–and, some say, more liberally activist, pushing a left-wing policy agenda.
Maureen Dowd weighs in on Kissinger leading the September 11th investigation: “If you want to get to the bottom of something, you don’t appoint Henry Kissinger. If you want to keep others from getting to the bottom of something, you appoint Henry Kissinger.” (New York Times; free registration required.)
Stephen Moore says we should stop whining and start giving thanks: Americans living today have it better than ever before.
Slate provides some good, concise analysis of what President Lucio Gutierrez’s rise to power means for Ecuador.