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Why Your Plane is Always Full
I learned long ago the cruel but true principle: other people's travel problems are not interesting.* Corollaries: other people's traffic problems, and other people's weather ("you won't believe how...
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On Rupert Murdoch's 'Times' Paywall
It's a radical approach. You go to the home page of the Times of London, and you see something like this (click for larger): But if you then click on any headline or story, this is what you see:You get...
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"Vi are From Svee-den!": More on Language Mismatches
I mentioned last week the oddly charming effect of seeing someone raised in India speaking English with a distinct German accent -- because he'd been working for a German car company for decades....
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Dick Cheney's Heart
News about former VP Cheney's latest heart problems is not on the front page at the moment, so I figure it is a good time to make this point. On general John Donne principles I hope every person has as...
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Why Your Plane is Always Full, Cont.
In response to this item two days ago, on the substantial shrinkage in total capacity on U.S. domestic air carriers -- fewer flights, smaller planes, -- Amy Cohn, of the College of Engineering at U...
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'On the Media' Show about Future of News
NPR's On The Media had a great show this weekend about the pros, cons, and unknowns of the future of the news business. I am "biased" because one part of the show was Brooke Gladstone's interview with...
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Security Theater at its Purest: TSA and BDOs
This is old news -- the GAO report I'm about to mention came out two months ago and in some circles has already been discussed. But I had missed it until I saw a recent mention by Robert Poole, of...
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More on Language/Ethnicity Mismatch
In previous entries, here and here, I noted the charm of unexpected combinations of ethnicity and spoken language. A man from Hyderabad who spoke with a German accent, young women of African background...
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On Today's Hot Media Stories: Sherrod, 'Journolist'
I go out of reach of internet-land for 48 hours, and the place blows up! Let me be the last person in the Official Media to weigh in on two topics:1) Shirley Sherrod. I agree with my colleagues Coates,...
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On LISTSERVs (tm)
Yet again, I stand corrected. I mentioned last night that the momentarily controversial Journolist email list was "just another listserv."It turns out that this is like saying "please use another...
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While I Am In the "I Stand Corrected" Mode: Flying Cars!
Early this month, I mentioned the comments of an aviation guy from "a large aircraft company based in Seattle," who was skeptical about the basic sensibility of some models of flying cars. Including...
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More on Language Mismatch: Jackie Mason in Beijing
For the record, I have received one grumpy note about previous items (here, here, and originally here) on language/ethnicity mismatches. That response is as follows: Strongly disliking your misplaced...
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A Weather Anomaly I Love
What is it with those Canadians? We in the US have normal weather systems, with irregular shapes and often sprawling over hundreds of miles. But the Canadians, so much less extreme in all ways, have...
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The Language-Mismatch Chronicles Go On
I am catching up with the influx of marvelous stories on this topic. (Most recently here; previously here.) Several samples below and after the jump. But first of all, a time-sensitive item, since it...
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Those Wacky Canadians and Their Oddball Weather
I mentioned recently the odd pattern of Canadian thunderstorms. Here in the US, thunderstorms look the way they should -- blob-like, extending in odd directions across state boundaries -- while those...
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On the AfPak / Wikileaks Documents
I have just started to look at some of these documents; more on the substance later. The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder and Alexis Madrigal have immediate reactions on the military and the media-ecology...
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Pomplamoose --> My Terrible Friend
Fans of the YouTube-based indie duet Pomplamoose, to whom I had a previous homage here, will want to know that its singer, Nataly Dawn, has teamed up with another singer-guitarist, Lauren O'Connell, to...
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WikiLeaks and AfPak: What "Everyone" Knows
I lack the background knowledge about Afghanistan and Pakistan to put the new information in full perspective, not to mention lacking the time to read more than a little of the vast data dump....
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Last Word on New Music
I am getting a fair amount of pushback/mockery from The Young People in internet-land for having said that I like the group Pomplamoose. The tone is pretty much how I would have sounded back in the day...
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Now This is a Strange Headline (Pandas + Poison Gas Dept)
From China's (government-guided) Global Times today. Actually, tomorrow: Details here. If the headline seems strange, here is a sample from the story: There is also speculation that the zoo was only...
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