Nanobot parses a Mercury News article on nanotechnology — in this case a company that uses nanotech for mundane but essential tasks like cleaning potties. I’m working on a piece right now that discusses whether nanotech creates new markets or…
Author: tom
Winkie in Tokyo, contd.
The moral of the past two nights is that when visiting Tokyo, make sure you carry some AC/DC with you at all times. If you’re ever in trouble with the law, just crank up “Highway To Hell” and kick back.…
Get your tweaks on
The good folks at FACSNET post “tweaks” — fun quotes about the news biz — on the SPJ listserv. I bookmarked the tweaks page ages ago, and this morning I finally remembered to check back in. Here’s one of the…
How to keep a terrorist happy
When something gets blown up, change your vote. And blame your elected leaders instead of the bombers.
Blogging for credit
This is pretty cool: NYU’s digital journalism class has the students blogging. Scroll down the right rail and you’ll see a list of all the students’ blogs. It’s definitely an innovation: it’s not like you can turn in any old…
Confession: a nun slapped me once
I was in the first grade and a bunch of us boys — you know, 6-year-olds — were noisily goofing off in the boys’ bathroom. Then this big ol’ nun comes barging through the door and slaps me right across…
Swatting the sultans of snark
Soon-to-be slivered Jack Shafer of Slate.com on the excesses of Wonkette and Gawker. If you’ve yet to visit these blogs, imagine them as the twin offspring of a date-rape incident between Drudge Report and the original Spy magazine. Ouch. Another…
A coup for Claire
Claire Zulkey interviews Dave Barry. An excerpt: Who are some of your favorite humor writers? Steve Martin, Carl Hiaasen, Roy Blount Jr., Gene Weingarten, the late great Robert Benchley, the Onion people, and a bunch more whose names escape me…
What’s out there, anyway?
Sheila Lennon points to a wonderful slide show of pictures taken by the Hubble telescope. Seeing pictures of galaxies colliding and suns exploding really makes me wonder, what is that stuff, and what’s happening there? What can I say? I…
Covering sports in Spain
Newsdesigner shows the front pages of Spanish sports dailies in response to the train bombings. I hope I never get to the point where I understand what makes people think it’s OK to blow up other people.