Random selections from the archives |
‘For all that private schools uphold the privileges of money and class,’ reflects Ian Jack, contrasting the modern U.K. experience (which is more or less the experience everywhere) with the time of Henry VIII, ‘to dismantle them would need the strength of will that dissolved the monasteries.’ (Note that the comparison is particularly apt in the context of the recent release of Hilary Mantel’s ‘Bring up the Bodies’, sequel to the Booker Prize-winning ‘Wolf Hall’.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/18/abolishing-private-schools-wont-happen
The 64-page manifesto — ‘a wonderful example of King’s close reading of American politics, as well as his understanding of the role that moral leadership’ can play — failed to extract a second Emancipation Proclamation from John F. Kennedy’s White House. Interestingly, King’s lawyers ‘now included members of the Gandhi Society for Human Rights’, attesting to the moral influence of Mahatma Gandhi on the U.S. civil rights movement of the period. President Kennedy failed to seize the moment, for opportunistic reasons, although he initiated some progress in the civil rights field. It was left to President Lyndon B. Johnson to meet the demands of the second Emancipation Proclamation by shepherding the Civil Rights Act through Congress and signing it into force in 1964.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/opinion/kings-forgotten-manifesto.html?src=rechp
Here’s a noteworthy study that tries out ‘a novel method of analysis’ to capture ‘how teams occupy sub-areas of the field as the ball changes location’. It uses the method to ‘analyze a game of association football (soccer) based upon a hypothesis that local player numerical dominance is key to defensive stability and offensive opportunity’. The authors claim that ‘by applying this complex system analysis to association football, we can understand how players’ and teams’ strategies result in successful and unsuccessful relationships between teammates and opponents in the area of play’ and also that their study is ‘a first step toward understanding the pattern-forming dynamics that emerge from collective offensive and defensive behavior in team sports’.
http://necsi.edu/research/social/soccer/
 Science of Winning Soccer.pdf
President Francois Hollande calls her ‘the love of my life’. His companion, journalist Valérie Trierweiler, says: ‘In France, a first lady has no status, and therefore she isn’t supposed to do anything else. My perception of life is not to ask François Hollande, who isn’t the father of my children, to support me financially.’
‘First Lady Without a Portfolio (or a Ring) Seeks Her Own Path’, NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/world/europe/frances-first-lady-valerie-trierweiler-seeks-her-own-path.html?hp&pagewanted=all
‘Meet France’s new power couple’, Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/14/meet-frances-new-power-couple
Here’s a joint statement by civil society organisations for the UN CSTD meeting on ‘Enhanced Cooperation on Public Policy Issues Pertaining to the Internet’ to take place in Geneva on May 18th, 2012. Endorse it if you agree with it.
1. CS statement on democratic Internet.pdf
2. Background information.pdf
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission was ‘a distinctive product of the Roberts Court…[reflecting] aggressive conservative judicial activism…The Roberts Court, it appears, will guarantee moneyed interests the freedom to raise and spend any amount, from any source, at any time, in order to win elections’.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/05/21/120521fa_fact_toobin?currentPage=all
While there can be nothing morally right or just about capital punishment, a commendable Columbia law school investigation exposes the horrific series of flaws that led to the execution of the wrong Carlos in 1989:
The wrong Carlos: how Texas sent an innocent man to his death, The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/15/carlos-texas-innocent-man-death
10 Shocking Bits From Book About How Texas Executed an Innocent Man, The Daily Beast:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/16/10-shocking-bits-from-book-about-how-texas-executed-an-innocent-man.html
You can read Los Tocayos Carlos: An Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution online in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review (HRLR):
Editors’ Note: http://www3.law.columbia.edu/hrlr/ltc/chapter/editors-note/1.html
Contents (the book online, with footnotes): http://www3.law.columbia.edu/hrlr/ltc/toc.html
In a highly original meditation, a great historian reflects on why reporting competently on historical subjects is ‘something of an intellectual challenge’ for journalism, which more often than not falls short:
Text of the Lawrence Dana Pinkham Memorial Lecture at the 13th Convocation of the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, May 3, 2012:
http://www.interestingreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Romila_Thapar_LDPML2012_Reporting_History__1077328a-11.pdf
http://www.thehindu.com/news/resources/article3397888.ece
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3381463.ece
For further reading: ‘Perceptions of the Past in Early India’, Library of Congress webcast & transcript, December 5, 2009:
http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4612
UC Berkeley economics professor Bradford DeLong teams up with journalism professor Susan Rasky to offer ‘a quick guide for journalists who talk to economists and want to be in the information — rather than disinformation — business’; they also have a guide for ‘economists who talk to journalists and want to help, rather than hurt’.
1. Twelve things journalists need to remember to be good economic reporters:
http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view&backgroundid=0093
2. Twelve things economists need to remember to be helpful to journalistic sources* * http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view&backgroundid=0094
3. How not to cover the economy, January 23, 2006 ‘A fed-up Berkeley economics professor joins up with the J-school to teach journalists and would-be journalists how to cover – and even more emphatically, how not to cover – economic news.’
http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=showcase.view&showcaseid=32
Here is a report on some interesting reflections by Richard Gingras, head of News Products at Google:
http://civic.mit.edu/blog/mstem/the-head-of-google-news-on-the-future-of-news
What the possibly US$100 billion public offering could mean for Facebook and how Marc Zuckerberg, 28, got here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/technology/facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-at-a-turning-point.html?hp&pagewanted=all
Facebook builds network of friends in Washington, NYT, May 18, 2012:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/technology/facebook-builds-network-of-friends-in-washington.html?hpw&pagewanted=all
Facebook raises $16 billion in I.P.O., NYT, May 17, 2012:
The giant social network raises $16 billion in an initial public offering that values it at $104 billion.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/facebook-raises-16-billion-in-i-p-o/?hp
Global and Social: Facebook’s rise around the world, Nielsen Wire:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/global/global-and-social-facebooks-rise-around-the-world/
“But I always remember Ernest Hemingway’s advice to writers: always quit for the day when you know what the next sentence is. ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/nyregion/on-sundays-robert-a-caro-writes-always-dressed-up.html
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