NPR Gets An Upgrade

NPR has unveiled a new website, designed to enhance it's overall news service delivery instead of just supporting the radio.

The NYT has the inside scoop, head on over and poke around for yourself.

So Long Sara!

Just wow, have a look...



(thanks Pop)

Read This Now - George Will Still Can't Handle The Truth

George Will has leaped right back into that climate change denier La-z-boy lounger that he finds so comfortable, this time not even bothering to mis-read and represent scientific data but just choosing to cite other climate change denial op-ed writers.

CJR walks you through the mess, again.

Bat Tricks

Seen this around in a couple of different formats as well but this video shows off a ton of the different tricks that minor leaguer Josh Womack has up his sleeve...

Read This Now - Can We Stop The Race To Empty The Ocean?

Seed Magazine has an interesting roundtable style piece up on the global fisheries crisis in conjunction with the film The End of the Line.

The most common refrain is that on a global level we simply have too much fishing effort to maintain fish stocks at sustainable levels (for harvesting or otherwise). Scarily one of the main drivers of this excess capacity is government subsidies to the tune of $30-35 billion annually (at a global level).

Let's Play Ball!

Or at least feast on some kicking baseball info graphics courtesy of Craig Robinson over at Flip Flop Fly Ball.

Here's a teaser, it's still pretty tricky to get into the Hall of Fame:


Be careful, it's a time sink...

Goodbye Walter

Walter Cronkite was known as the most trusted man in America for years, I'm too young to have seen him read the news but everyone who does remember him sitting behind that desk and those of us who have only heard tell were saddened to learn of his death on Friday at the age of 92.

There is more than enough coverage out there, but you should probably start at CBS.

Go. Fast.

Kottke has a pretty cool collection up of online videos people have made of themselves going fast, very very fast; and doing so in occasionally quite creative ways.

Here is the first video in the string, be sure to follow the link for more cars, bikes, trains, boards, and people jumping out or off of things, as well as the story behind this video...

Read This Now - Mr. Franken Goes To Washington

Even though I haven't read it yet, you should head over to the New Yorker's website to read John Colapinto's profile of the newest US Senator from Minnesota.

If words aren't you're thing, or you're just a visual learner, Colapinto has put together an online companion piece with a video time line of sorts chronicling Franken's journey. The first video is a comedic apperance with Letterman from 1987 in which Franken freehands an incredible map of the US in about two minutes...

Newspapers Saw Their Future Online in 1981

This fascinating San Francisco TV report shows that at least some folks in the newspaper industry saw where things were headed even before the internet as we know it existed.



A few great tidbits;
- 2-3,000 people had home computers in the San Fran Bay area in 1981
- giving one guy's credentials as "Owns home computer"
- predicting that hardcopy newspapers didn't need to wory just yet about online competition since it cost about $10 to download the paper and 20 cents to buy it on the news stand

(sent along by EH)

You're Eating That Banana Backwards

This guy will set you straight though...



Whoa.

(via Eat Me Daily)

Read This Now - The Women of SCOTUS

Fascinating interview with Justice Ginsburg, centered on her experiences as a woman and often the only woman on the Supreme Court, from last weekend's NYT Magazine.

After swiftly returning to the Court from a cancer related surgery Ginsburg has been feistier than ever, recently reading several of her dissents from the bench.

Dan Froomkin Resurfaces

Froomkin, late of the WaPo, will be running the DC section of HuffPo.

Details at Salon, via Bloggasm.

Nice how he's going from one Po to another, really helps tie things together.

Your Lyin' Eyes

This was apparently all over the place (I'm getting caught up) last week.

The thing of it is, the blue and green are actually the same color. Visit Discover Mag's website for an explanation.

(originally displayed here, with lots of info on color based illusions)

Update

No I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, thanks for asking. I've only gone to Beaufort (North not South Carolina).

The bottom line is that things will be slow for the next month and a half while I teeter through limited internet access, moving, and starting grad school. By late August / early September things should be back on track.

What this actually means is that there will be more of Read This Now and short pieces will dominate the scene (wait they already do, I'm not writing really long in depth stuff unless someone pays me) also expect to see much more on the environmental issues of the day (it's what I'm going back to school for) and less on politics in general (I am after all, moving back outside the beltway).

That said, the economy still looks pretty bad...



(via CR)

And when I say environmental issues, expect them to often involve the water and things that swim in it, so check out this NPR piece on Community Supported Fisheries, one should be coming to Durham this fall.

MJ Tribute

Hey subtle is classy...

Read This Now - Straight From The Horse's Mouth

Well Sarah Palin announced her resignation as Governor of Alaska today (man does she have some top notch advisers or what?) and, well you should just see for yourself.

If you manage to wade through her statement on her website (good luck) a friend posed the interesting question of what grade you'd give as a writing assignment is say middle or high school?

(It's a figure of speech people)