You Are What You Read

Seeded on Mon Oct 27, 2008 12:01 AM EDT (The New York Times)

I've been doing a lot of reading about reading, lately, for my article in November's issues.

media, study, reading, new-york-times, nea, decline, national-endowment-for-the-arts, leah-price

All the news that's fit to text

Seeded on Tue Oct 14, 2008 3:57 AM EDT (The San Francisco Chronicle)

Fascinating article on the relevancy of technology in the news distribution sector, primarily its impact on politics. Chris Colin goes in-depth with 4INFO, a texting service that condenses news events into 84 character-messages to send to paying subscribers.

technology, election, text, cell-phone, john-mccain, barack-obama, texting, 4info

After years of teachers piling it on, there's a new movement to ... Abolish homework

Seeded on Tue Oct 14, 2008 3:23 AM EDT (The San Francisco Chronicle)

This article takes a look at a generally-accepted academic doctrine (homework) and pits it against new research that questions its validity.

study, student, education, school, teacher, class, statistics, classroom, homework, workload

Village Idiocy

Seeded on Fri Sep 26, 2008 1:53 AM EDT (TNR's The Worst Political Sex Writing The New Republic)

An interesting, well-developed article on the the politics and political implications of the "American Small Town" and how it is perceived in urban outlets.

alaska, politics, presidential-election, urban, rural, small-town, small-towns, sarah-palin

Supreme Court issues stay of execution for Davis

Seeded on Fri Sep 26, 2008 1:47 AM EDT (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

A current hot-button issue that brings up many tensions, both surrounding racial issues as well as the legitimacy of the death penalty itself.

human-rights, politics, death-penalty, law, supreme-court, racism, justice-system, troy-davis

The Death of a Genius

Seeded on Mon Sep 22, 2008 12:16 AM EDT (TIME)

This article is a hybrid half-news, half-opinion article discussing the work of acclaimed author David Foster Wallace and his recent suicide at the age of 46. The article takes an appreciative slant toward Wallace and his contribution to literature.

death, suicide, author, arts, david-foster-wallace, infinite-jest

Reality shows we'd like to see

Seeded on Fri Sep 5, 2008 2:03 AM EDT (Salon.com)

For all of you fed up with the horrid pile of steaming garbage jettisoned into our laps by mass media, this article is a genius bit of satire. Behind the obvious humor of the article, there is a lot of truth to what Hepola is saying.

entertainment, media, television, bad, shows, reality-tv

Meet the Charlatans

Seeded on Fri Sep 5, 2008 1:58 AM EDT (Slate)

This article explores something that I believe Emilio was writing about for our first issue--the problem with modern-day spoof movies and the utter fraud which audiences seemingly allow themselves to be suckered into.

entertainment, film, movie, movies, bad, cinema, meet-the-spartans, spoof-movies

College presidents seek drinking age debate

Seeded on Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:52 AM EDT (msnbc.com)

This article explores an interesting proposition by the presidents of some major colleges. The issue is an all-too-common one: underage and binge drinking. Some are proposing the drinking age be lowered to 18 to better monitor the use of alcohol and thus control it.

college, abuse, ohio-state, duke-university, us-news, alcohol, underage-drinking, binge-drinking

Science close to unveiling invisible man

Seeded on Wed Aug 20, 2008 5:20 PM EDT (The Times)

This article's beginning is striking, bold, and immediately draws the reader into the following paragraphs. The nut graf is in the third paragraph: UC Berkeley researchers are finding ways to bend light around objects, hoping one day to be able to simulate 'invisibility'.

science, uc-berkeley, invisible, timesonline, xiang-zhang