2008

David Simon asks, in The Washington Post: What I don’t understand is this: Isn’t the news itself still valuable to anyone? In any format, through any medium — isn’t an understanding of the events of the day still a salable commodity? Or were we kidding ourselves? Was a newspaper a viable entity only so long as it had classifieds, comics and the latest sports scores? It’s hard to say that, even harder to think it. By that premise, what all…

The New Yorker: The alternatives facing Democratic voters have been characterized variously as a choice between experience and change, between an insider and an outsider, and between two firsts—a woman and a black man. But perhaps the most important difference between these two politicians—whose policy views, after all, are almost indistinguishable—lies in their rival conceptions of the Presidency. Obama offers himself as a catalyst by which disenchanted Americans can overcome two decades of vicious partisanship, energize our democracy, and restore…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece about the addition of some Library of Congress photos to Flickr will air on Morning Edition today! It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams). New York – 5 am to 9 am Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 5 am to 10 am Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 2 am to 9 am Pacific…

Big ups to Brianne, for introducing me and Becky to Flight of the Conchords, my new favorite band/thing on TV. It’s been making the rounds amongst my circle of friends.

So last week The World’s Tech Podcast sent me to Vegas to cover one session at CES. The result can be found here (Facebook), or here (MP3).

As much as I love Oakland Airport, I do think that this airport security fast-track is bad for one basic reason: it’s easily defeated. All you have to do is be a terrorist who has a clean record and then register for this service. Then you get to bypass the line, and boom — you’ve just infiltrated the the system. Still, I think that it’s a bad idea to have tiered-service at a public place like an airport. Everyone should…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on Estonia’s arrival in Silicon Valley, will be airing today on The World. It will be followed by an interview of Skype’s Sten Tamkivi, conducted by our senior producer, Marco Werman. Will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams): New York – 3 pm Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 8 pm Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles…

NYT: In Mauritania, lobsters vanished years ago. The catch of octopus — now the most valuable species — is four-fifths of what it should be if it were not overexploited. A 2002 report by the European Commission found that the most marketable fish species off the coast of Senegal were close to collapse — essentially sliding toward extinction. “The sea is being emptied,” said Moctar Ba, a consultant who once led scientific research programs for Mauritania and West Africa. In…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece previewing Macworld Expo will air on Morning Edition tomorrow (Jan. 14)! It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams). New York – 5 am to 9 am Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 5 am to 10 am Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 2 am to 9 am Pacific – KPCC – 89.3 FM –…