Newley Purnell

CJR: “How ‘Balanced’ Coverage Lets the Scientific Fringe Hijack Reality.”

Jordan L. sends word that Ecuador prez Lucio Gutierrez will not be impeached (for now).

–Here’s a sneak peek at Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, “Blink.”

–Don’t miss “The Physics of Gluttony: The obesity epidemic has a simple solution. If you want to lose weight, either eat less, or breathe more.”

…you really need to check out Mozilla Firefox, a far superior alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Exploder (er, Explorer). It’s exceptionally good. I got hooked on it a year ago and it’s fabulous. You can get the newest version here. Two words: tabbed browsing.

Reuters: “Seconds, anyone? After the startling success of its turkey and gravy-flavored soda during last year’s U.S. holiday season, a Seattle soda company will be serving up green beans and casserole, mashed potatoes, fruitcake and cranberry flavors.”

Jordan M. alerts me to the news of Ecuadorian prez Lucio Gutierrez’s latest flirtation with danger:

BBC: “Deputies in Ecuador have presented a petition to Congress, triggering proceedings to try to sack President Lucio Gutierrez.”

UPI says: “A group of Ecuadorian lawmakers is seeking to impeach President Lucio Gutierrez on corruption charges, Ecuador’s Hoy newspaper reported Friday.”

AFP: “Ecuador’s legislature launched a bid to impeach President Lucio Gutierrez for alleged misappropriation of funds.”

Reuters’s dispatch is more cautionary: “Opposition parties today started congressional proceedings to try to sack President Lucio Gutierrez, raising fears for Ecuador’s stability even though the former army colonel was likely to stay in office.”

Related: previous Newley.com analysis of Lucio’s fate.

Only in Taiwan: “A man was attacked and injured after jumping into a lion’s den at the Taipei Zoo and trying to convert the lions to Christianity.”

“From cells to bells, 10 things the Chinese do far better than we do.”

Here’re some new-to-me Weblogs I’ve been enjoying; I’ll be adding them to the left side of this page soon:

Peruvia: “A Synthesis of English Language News on Peru”

Michael Stein: a writer and Web strategist who works with non profits.

Micro Persuasion: “Steve Rubel on how blogs and participatory journalism are impacting the practice of public relations.”

FunctionalAmbivalent: a funny Weblog written by a guy with the best bio ever.

The Taipei Kid: a fellow foreigner living in Taiwan.

extension 337: a Weblog about nonprofits and technology.

Screenhead: lots of links to amusing stuff.

Steven Berlin Johnson: the acclaimed author who writes about technology and culture.

BBC: “Scientists have discovered a new and tiny species of human that lived in Indonesia at the same time our own ancestors were colonising the world.

The three-foot (one-metre) tall species – dubbed “the Hobbit” – lived on Flores island until at least 12,000 years ago.”

The typhoon’s gone. The weather’s beautiful. What a letdown.

In other news, file this under the space elevator-esque ridiculously-ambitious-engineering-projects category: a trans-Atlantic tunnel through which a mag-lev train would take passengers, at a speed of 5,000 mph, from New York to London in under an hour. Is it an urban legend? Or could such a thing really work? I don’t know.