Archive for 2018
February 10, 2018
THIS WEEKEND IT WILL HAVE BEEN DOWN LONGER THAN IT WAS UP: Freedom marks a milestone since the downfall of the Berlin Wall.
February 9, 2018
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: “American Spies Gave $100,000 to Russian Who Wanted to Sell Material on Trump.”
AT AMAZON, shop the Valentine’s Day Gift Shop.
COIN FLIPS ARE NOW RACIST: Jesse Jackson objects to ‘unfair’ coin flip that decided tie vote for Team USA flag bearer.
To paraphrase Jon Gabriel’s classic tweet about the Obama era, my favorite part about the Olympics is all the racial healing.
MICHAEL STOPA: Same-Sex Weddings, Cake Artists, and Ozymandias’ Sculptor.
ANOTHER NARRATIVE BITES THE DUST: ‘Sinking’ Pacific nation is getting bigger: study. “The Pacific nation of Tuvalu—long seen as a prime candidate to disappear as climate change forces up sea levels—is actually growing in size, new research shows. A University of Auckland study examined changes in the geography of Tuvalu’s nine atolls and 101 reef islands between 1971 and 2014, using aerial photographs and satellite imagery. It found eight of the atolls and almost three-quarters of the islands grew during the study period, lifting Tuvalu’s total land area by 2.9 percent, even though sea levels in the country rose at twice the global average.”
OPEN THREAD: Cavort in the comments with joyous abandon.
THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN AWESOME: “Mattis is going to tell WH press that military parade will consist of only himself walking down 5 miles stretch of hot coals.” Also, buried lede: Mattis has a girlfriend?
#METOO FALLOUT: Almost Half of Male Managers ‘Uncomfortable’ in a Work Activity With a Woman.
Unexpectedly.
EVERGREEN HEADLINE: Newsweek Editors Blast Exec to His Face: ‘What You’re Doing Is Bulls**t. You Don’t Understand Journalism.’
It’s a nice echo of the quote then-editor Jon Meacham gave to then-Post media columnist Howard Kurtz in 2008, when the Washington Post first decided to radicalize the publication and shrink its subscriber base, at the beginning of the magazine’s journey to its now-cadaverous state:
Jon Meacham admits it is hard to explain, even to his own people, why chopping Newsweek’s circulation in half is a good thing.
“It’s hugely counterintuitive,” the magazine’s editor says. “The staff doesn’t understand it.”
Some things never change.
IF SO, THEY CHOSE POORLY: Did NASA pass up SpaceX offer for Falcon Heavy payload? Former NASA official raises questions. But honestly, it was worth it for the flying space car.
AT AMAZON, deals in Arts, Crafts, and Sewing.
RICK MORAN: The Tea Party is Dead. Long Live the Tea Party.
Read the whole thing.
FASTER, PLEASE: Two drugs offer new hope against tough-to-treat prostate cancer.
YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Jeff Sessions to Pain Sufferers: Take Two Aspirin and Stop Whining.
INEZ FELTSCHER STEPMAN: How Uber’s Pay Gap Disproves The Pay Discrimination Myth. “It turns out that female Uber drivers work shorter hours, are less likely to work during peak times, and drive more slowly. Because the compensation structure is automatic, Stanford researchers were able to pin down the three factors that caused the gap: experience on the platform, willingness to work at peak times and in busy areas, and driving speed preferences.”
Nonsense. Unshakable feminist media science demonstrates irrefutably that when men are doing better than women it’s because of discrimination, and when women are doing better than men it’s because men are stupid and incompetent and should be more like women.
RASMUSSEN TRACKING POLL: Trump Favorables Near 50%.
FALLEN ANGELS IS JUST A SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL, RIGHT GUYS? RIGHT? GUYS? The sun is going to be really cool in 2050, scientists say. “Based on 20 years of data collection and observations, a research team led by physicist Dan Lubin calculated that the sun will be 7% cooler — and dimmer — by the mid-century.”
KYLE SMITH: The Idolatry of Journalism.
Gaze upon the colossal edifice at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue in the national capital and you might get the impression that something really important is happening, or at least being recreated, inside. Pass through the Newseum’s doors, however, and your excitement may quickly be doused: It’s essentially a building full of stories you could easily find on the Internet, dull games, and large corporate displays of self-celebration. There’s a Bancroft Family Ethics Center (“kiosks allow you to tackle real-life reporting dilemmas and see how journalists and other visitors responded”), an NBC News Interactive Newsroom (“gives visitors a chance to play the role of a reporter or photographer”), and a New York Times Great Hall (“a continuous flow of news and free speech. Instant, breaking, historic news that is uncensored, diverse and free”). The privilege of strolling amid such gimmickry will cost you dearly — $25, in a city heaving with museums that cost nothing. The ticket price is higher than the Baseball Hall of Fame ($23) and the same as the (suggested) entry fee of America’s foremost repository of great painting and sculpture, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Attractions such as these, and the slippers once worn by Wonkette (I couldn’t remember her name either; upon investigation, it’s Ana Marie Cox) haven’t exactly delivered the throngs. The Newseum is mainly an event space, colorful background for canape-chewers and champagne-sippers whose custom earned the place twice as much ($18 million) last year as did admissions ($7.8 million). Overall, it lost more than $8 million last year and won’t last much longer. Its proprietors are looking for a way to sell off the building and move its contents to environs more suited to their importance — say, a fruit stand out in Gaithersburg.
Ouch.