Cmonnnn do itttttt, because it’s Friday and it’s almost 6PM and on Monday morning at 10AM you’ll be delighted you made a good decision last week!
Not an endorsement of this opinion about Newsweek, but one I enjoyed nevertheless.
Writes Charles Pierce, journalist, on a guest post for Eric Alterman’s blog at The Nation:
I have been fortunate enough to spend most of my career writing for magazines. I like to think I’ve got a pretty good bead on what the various critters who edit them are going for at any one time. But, for the life of me, I can’t figure out what Parson Meacham is trying to put together at Newsweek. (Once again, as always, Dahlia Lithwick can leave the room while I discuss this.).
Is it some kind of print version of Arianna’s joint? Is it pure link-whoring of the most ungainly kind? Is Baby Jesus screwing with the Parson’s mind? Newsweek used to be the kind of quasi-hip little brother to Mr. Luce’s Time, which I believe was once written with pens dipped in Metamucil. Now, it has all the essential coherence and identity of one of those lamp-posts near Harvard Square on which the Spartacists, the Earth Firsters, the YAF, and various dyspeptic punk bands all staple their flyers.
“I am, to be blunt and concise, in love only with myself, my puny being with its small inadequate breasts and meager, thin talents. I am capable of affection for those who reflect my own world.”
— Sylvia Plath, The Journals of Sylvia Plath
This blog continues to amaze.
In which Brit brilliantly articulates our contemporary inability to articulate.
from britticismsThe Aughts: Trying to Say The Things I Can’t Say
We talk about nothing, except for when we talk about Something, in which case our conversations only graze the surface. I don’t know if this is because we are uninformed, or that the subjects are too upsetting and complicated to warrant even an attempt at a thorough conversation.
Maybe not we; perhaps just me.
I think about all of the things that took place during this decade – the multiple wars, September 11th, school shootings, economic collapse, Hurricane Katrina – and realize that although they affected our collective livelihood, I was unable to talk about them in any thorough or enriching context. I still can’t.
Ugh, getting academic extensions is proving to be as challenging as I always assumed getting hair extensions might be.
Just grant them to yourself. In that scenario, one is much much easier than the other!
from dpdspringsThe AP Gets Into Social Media With Climate Change Conference Coverage
Awesome:
The AP and other news orgs are joining forces next week, when Copenhagen will play host to the United Nations’ climate conference. Not only will this information conglomerate — which includes news agencies like the Netherlands’ ANP, the Canadian Press, APcom of Italy, Germany’s dpa, RIA from Russia and Agence France-Presse — have a name, The Climate Pool, but it also has a Facebook page and a Twitter account.
The pro-life propaganda is coming from inside the internet.
Yes, I also have better things to do than Tumbl about it. Now I feel dirty.
ALSO
(Unless I removed it from the tumblr “re-blog” chain, the attribution is still there, as far as I’m concerned. All one did was type two words into google. It was a fascinating result. But do we have to assault someone’s personality and attack their outlook on the world and the ways in which they’re failing themselves?! Couldn’t it just have been a friendly reminder to credit a source instead of a personal dig? As a writer, AHEM WHATEVER, I can safely say that, as I wrote in my response, when an idea/thought I write is put out there, it doesn’t really belong to me anymore, and I would be sufficiently happy that people were sharing it, even if they had casually forgotten to link back to my blog—especially if I could nevertheless track that dissemination through a handy Tumblr tool!)
"I'd expect, from a writer like yourself...that you wouldn't be the kind to strip my attribution link out of that reblog."
I understand the motivation, but do people still really send emails like this?
