Archive for thereader
what we’re reading
The Smithsonian explores the march towards absolute zero – while NOVA asks if an absolute maximum temperature exists. / The Wall Street Journal on expecting families who are giving their first baby (read: dog) sensitivity training. / Theyrule offers an interactive guide to the networks that connect the directors of the world’s largest corporations.
what we’re reading
Newsweek released their 2008 rankings of the best high schools in America. Huntingtown slipped to 568th, 144 positions below last year’s rank of 424th (which was a marked improvement on 2006’s 891st ranking). Jay Mathews explains the methodology behind the rankings here.
* * *
We’re also following the Washington Post’s weeklong series on chidlhood obesity: poor diets and sedentary lifestyles have pushed more than one third of all children into the ranks of the overweight or obese, triple what they had been a generation ago. Elementary school children, the Post writes, are now subject to high blood pressure, cholesterol, and Type 2 diabetes – creating the very real possibility that our generation will live far shorter than our parents. Read the reports on PE classes, school lunches, and a ‘fat school‘ where tuition costs upwards of $6000 per month to help students lose weight.
* * *
And, TechCrunch reports on Facebook’s upcoming changes to profile designs. The company, TechCrunch writes, wishes to make profiles more refined and easier to manage.
what we’re reading
and occasionally watching too. Frontline reports on how the Internet is changing 
childhood in the first generation to grow up with the Internet – the entire program is available online. Elsewhere, Anne Trubek, a college professor, freelance writer, and parent writes on the increasing irrelevancy of handwriting. “Boys and girls, it’s time to put down your pencils.” And from The Washington Post, Eli Saslow’s story on Pittsburgh’s 28-year old mayor – the youngest in modern US history. (Photo from pghgov.com.)
what we’re reading
what we’re reading
In one of my favorite episodes of The Office (which returns April 10th), Michael, played by Steve Carell, blindly follows his GPS system into Lake Scranton. Jennifer Saranow reports in The Wall Street Journal that he is not alone: the dramatic fall in price of navigation systems (halved to $225 last Christmas) means that some 49 million devices – in cars or mobiles – are now in use. The “all-knowing boxes” have sent their users into oncoming traffic, and random houses mistaken as restaurants or government buildings. TeleAtlas has some 5.5 million streets in its U.S. database – to which it makes some 3 million changes per month; apparently, not enough to keep some drivers from naming their boxes after Stephen King’s “Christine.”
* * *
Slate has an excellent Explainer column on “What are mortgage backed securities, anyway?” offers insight on the financial instruments at the heart of the financial maelstrom that is still, in David Leonhardt’s piece in The New York Times, beyond our grasp.
pariah!
(photo credit: the new yorker)
Ah, the acrimony! As you all know, Eliot Spitzer’s well-documented escapades in downtown DC with “Kristen” have duly left him unemployed, for the time being, and perhaps quite awhile.
The New Yorker offers an interesting perspective on the scandal, juxtaposing the draconian ramifications for America’s libidinous politicians against those of their European counterparts, who find no reason (in the case of Nicolas Sarkozy for example) for punitive action towards their dissolute leaders. Another New Yorker correspondent laments that Spitzer has hoodwinked us all with his Barack Obama-esque rhetoric and promises. Remarkably, those New Yorker pieces are only one page – most I’ve encountered are an incredibly thorough 6+ pages.
We’re off on spring break. Watch this space.
what we’re reading
“A Full Kid Press” | Amy Orndorff
The KidsPost isn’t the first place I look for stories for the Reader – but this week’s article on the kid reporters who are covering the presidential election for Scholastic News caught my eye as a former member on the Scholastic Kids Council back in fifth grade.
=
Do check out NPR Music’s coverage of SXSW 2008 – including their downloads and streams from the concerts.
what we’re reading
Time has an exceptional 46-page feature on love: the science of it (with enough ventral tegmentals to keep AP Psych students occupied) to the art of flirting. Two pages worth of ordinary love letters (the better to learn from) and a story on the perils of crazy love (featuring King Kong) make an appearance too. Plenty to think about if you find yourself stuck watching The Notebook tonight instead of the SI Swimsuit Edition.
what we’re reading
Department of deprivation research
The Wall Street Journal reports on Burger King’s Whopper hoax, in which two Nevada stores claimed that the company had discontinued the signature burger, causing fierce reactions from customers who were caught on camera. The commercial is a rarity for the otherwise quiet use of “deprivation research” by companies to see how loyal consumers are to a company’s product. Dunkin’ Donuts has used deprivation research two years ago, forcing some customers to drink Starbucks coffee. In other cases, Burger King has given customers who have ordered the Whopper burgers from McDonald’s or Wendy’s. The planning of the Freakout commercial is rather interesting: Burger King used actors and eight hidden cameras, but settled on filming the commercial in Nevada because of California’s laws on hidden filming. All the while, the customer’s exasperated one-liners (“What are you going to put on the logo now – home of the ‘Whatever we got’”) have caused Whopper sales to jump by double-digits.
what we’re reading
The Super Ad Bowl | The New York Times
The New York Times highlights SuperBowl commercials from 1984 to 2007, analyzing everything from the number of ads that used humor (72% last year versus 36% in 1984) to the types of companies they were for. After the game, YouTube will present all of this year’s ads for viewers to vote on, that is, if you even survive the game. Suzanne Staline at the Wall Street Journal reports on the relationship between sports and heart attacks – during the 2006 World Cup, German man had heart attacks or cardiac arrhythmia 3.26 as frequently on days that Germany played.
Chewable Ice | The Wall Street Journal
The Journal’s famous page-one A-heds range “from the silly to the serious, and from the quirky to the downright bizarre.” We’re not quite sure where Wednesday’s article on chewable ice as “snacks” selling like “hot cakes” and compulsive ice eaters fits.
Shaj Mathew
kahutzler
