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Taylor Branch on King, LBJ, Obama, and College Sports
Taylor Branch is known to the world as author of the monumental "America in the King Years" trilogy. He's additionally known to Atlantic readers for his definitive cover story "The Shame of College...
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Help for the Jet-Lagged
From a friend visiting China, this brilliant idea in the Kerry Hotel in Beijing. Only if you have made the date-scrambling long-haul back and forth across the Pacific will you truly appreciate this...
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Two Reasons to Watch 'She's Out of My League'
Which the critics and reviewers, with their fancy emphasis on "plot" and "casting," might not encourage you to do. But this is what my wife and I unexpectedly ended up doing last night after trawling...
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A Reader on Stanley Karnow
A reader with experience in Asia writes, in a note with the subject line "Karnow in the Harvard journalism pantheon":I don't believe you can understand the period [Vietnam and the Sixties] without...
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China's Pollution: The Birth Defect Angle
Last week I mentioned the effects that China's latest pollution emergency was having on Chinese citizens and foreigners living there. Here's a picture posted on Twitter just now from a friend in...
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How Pilots Talk About Safety
I mentioned last month that the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, "my" NRA, was like the real NRA in some of its intransigent lobbying -- but different in its near-obsessive focus on identifying...
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How Bad Are the Dreamliner's Problems? Elon Musk Weighs In
1) What's wrong with the 787 Dreamliner? No one knows for sure, now that the simplest and most easily correctable problem -- some production defect in the specific batch of batteries involved in two...
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Chen Guangcheng in Washington Tonight
If you're in Washington DC this evening, January 30, you have a chance to hear Chen Guangcheng speak about the "Search for China's Soul." Here is a picture of Chen from our "Brave Thinkers" issue last...
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Chen Guangcheng Tonight
I think most members of the (very large) crowd that came (through thunderstorms) to the Washington National Cathedral to hear Chen Guangcheng tonight had the sense of witnessing a moment they will...
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More on the Chen Guangcheng Speech
1) Here is a beautiful photo by Patrick Yuen, used with his permission, that captures the mood and drama of Chen Guangcheng's presentation at the National Cathedral last night.The picture is from more...
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Three Points on the Hagel Hearings
1) Whoever helped former Senator Chuck Hagel (AP photo) prepare for today's hearings should retire from the hearing-preparation business. It is hard to imagine how Hagel could have walked into that...
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The Hagel Follies: 'Even My Low Expectations Went Unmet'
For decades Winslow Wheeler was an influential congressional staffer on matters of budget, strategy, and policy involving the military. Back in 2008 I mentioned the excellent book he had overseen,...
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Today's Glimpse Into the World of Software Writing
Two years ago, Mark Bernstein was part of the stellar guest-blogger team in this space, when I was holed up in China in a fever of book-writing. In his day job, Mark Bernstein is the head of Eastgate...
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More on the Unfortunate Hagel Encounter
1) Earlier today I mentioned several valuable, and in all cases downbeat, after-action reports on the dustup between former Senator Chuck Hagel and the current members of the Senate Armed Services...
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The Hagel Hearings: What the Word Cloud Shows
OK, I know, we get the point that Chuck Hagel's appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee displayed neither the nominee nor his inquisitors in a flattering light. But there's another reason...
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False Equivalence Watch: CNN Edition
Just now on CNN, the estimable* Candy Crowley asked a panel about the endless partisan standoffs and battles between the Obama administration and the Republican opposition.The panel was set up as two...
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Would a Cessna Fly on Uranus? What About a Cirrus?
In gratitude to the many readers who have sent in pointers to this item, and in ongoing appreciation of the living national treasure that is Randall Munroe of xkcd, and as a little pre-Superbowl...
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Today's Inspiring Aerospace News: Hello Kitty Touches the Face of God
You might already have seen this. I hadn't until just now, thanks to reader RJ of California (and in his case via The Register; also, NY Daily News). It's an absolutely charming video and set of photos...
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'The French Tongue Isn't Only Famous for Kissing'
For the "glamorous life of a journalist" chronicles, an item from the morning's mail bag, verbatim:Hi James,Here's a fun talker for you right in time for Valentine's Day. Want to make the opposite sex...
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Is App-Era Pricing Making Software Better, or Worse?
Last week I mentioned Mark Bernstein's essay on the surprisingly complex sequence of decisions, trade-offs, and design choices that went into creating even the most routine-seeming aspects of the...
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