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"How Crap It Is To Be English"
Previously on the deliciously masochistic self-loathing of English sports fans here. I thought I had some vague appreciation of the phenomenon -- and it turns out that "vague" is the crucial term. From...
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In-House Links: Byrd, Coates & Goldberg
1) The Atlantic has just scanned and digitized an excellent 1975 profile of Sen. Robert Byrd, who of course died early this morning. The article is here; it was by Sanford Ungar, my immediate...
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Wimbledon Reading
I mentioned several days ago how completely different it is to see pro tennis players in person, versus watching them on TV. A reader writes to remind me that the late David Foster Wallace insisted on...
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"Avatar" Life in the Digital Age
I mentioned recently, in light of the turmoil over the WaPo reporter fired because of leaked emails, that this could be the end of innocence for a generation accustomed to living in public. It turns...
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Excellent Interactive Oil-Spill Map
Via the federal government's Environmental Response Management Application, from NOAA, a powerful interactive map that lets you add and subtract layers to show areas closed to fisheries, beaches where...
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Google and China: the Two Big Unknowns
How will the latest round of the Google-Chinese government showdown end? (Google's announcement from last night here; other Atlantic interpretations here and here.)Honestly, it is impossible to know....
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Who Says America Is In Decline? (Flying Car Dept)
Several times over the years -- mainly here and here -- I've argued that the clinching evidence that America is great is the long-sought development of a flying car. And it's not just me! Lane Wallace...
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Lessons From Nader: How Not to be a Bully-Coward
Two days ago my colleague Ta-Nehisi Coates mentioned a lesson-of-the-ages I had passed along when he and I talked recently. Short version: don't write things about people you'd be afraid to tell them...
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If You're Going to Read Only One Thing About the Kagan Hearings...
... well, as the old joke goes, you really should be reading more.But if you wanted just one place to turn for a combination of legal insight, narrative drama, political savvy, and yuks, that place...
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The Heartbreaking Truth About Flying Cars
I mentioned yesterday that the Terrafugia Transition has gotten FAA approval and can go on sale. Perhaps I should have been a little bit more obvious in indicating that I don't really think this is the...
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Google, China, and the First Amendment: A Strange Coincidence
American users who log onto Google.com today will see an unusual ad-promo line beneath the normal search box. It talks about the First Amendment and steers users to a site called "1 for All."...
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A Thought Experiment: Technology Meets the Great Wall
A reader in Australia writes with a problem: So, supposedly, the Great Wall of China is visible from space. But apparently it's not. Recently, I've discovered that both sides claim credibility (rather...
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More on Privacy in the "Everything Is Public" Age
Previously here and here. Context is whether and how the conceptions of privacy will change when all email and social media can be archived and retrieved at will. Two reader replies. First, on the...
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How Did I Miss This? (Competition for China Daily Dept)
If you have felt shortchanged on news with an Official Chinese Government perspective, relief is at hand! Yesterday Xinhua ("New China") News Agency launched its worldwide English TV network. We lose...
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The Case for McChrystal: An Insider Speaks
I was early among those arguing that, after the Rolling Stone article, General Stanley McChrystal really had to go. This, I argued, was a matter of civilian-military relations, rather than necessarily...
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Last Words (for now) on Flying Cars
Most recently here and here. The all-purpose dispositive statement on the subject from reader RJ: Of course the Terrafugia isn't the answer - how can it be if it is not also a boat!There is some...
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Remember Little "Butterstick" ?
Five years ago, Tai Shan the infant panda was the cuteness king of Washington. Now he's all grown up, back home in China, and looking like this:This picture, and many more on this Facebook page, come...
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Great Wall from Space: The Answer
Original question posed here: Is it really true, as we've heard a million times, that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made structure you can see from space? Can you see the Great Wall from...
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Yet More on 长城 -- Plus Why the Energy Crisis is Not Like Sputnik
Earlier today, I put up what I thought would be the all-purpose conclusive roundup on the crucial question of whether you can see the Great Wall of China, 长城, from space. But the company spam filter...
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Anonymity in the Age of the Panopticon, Cont.
Previously here, here, and here. In this installment, two readers on how -- and whether -- life will be different when everything is on the "permanent record," all the time. First, someone who says...
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